Original title: Mo Yan and Yu Hewei’s live dialogue about the new drama book “Crocodile” was released on Douyin e-commerce
“You are me, I am you, we are all slaves of desire.” Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan may have never thought that one day he would play the role of “Crocodile” in his new book “Crocodile” on stage, and “Playing on the same stage” with Yu Hewei, the actor in his heart “YYDS”. At 3 pm on November 20, a live broadcast with the theme “Drama of Our Times” started on time in @moyan’s Douyin live broadcast room. During the conversation, Mo Yan and Yu Hewei not only performed excerpts from the book, but also chatted about many topics such as performance, creation, drama, etc., attracting a total of more than 5.5 million viewers. Mo Yan’s new book “Crocodile” was also simultaneously released on Douyin e-commerce release.
Mo Yan, Yu Hewei live conversation
The tone of all characters is “human”
Mo Yan is a contemporary Chinese writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Mao Dun Prize for Literature; Yu Hewei is a national first-class actor. The reason why the two were paired together was because the role of Chen Duxiu played by Yu Hewei in the TV series “The Age of Awakening” impressed Mo Yan so much that when asked in an interview to make a sentence using “YYDS” (Eternal God), Mo Yan blurted out: Yu Hewei is my “YYDS”.
The live broadcast on November 20 was the first time the two met in public. Yu Hewei said that he was like “a primary school student who was called by his teacher”, and the topic “Yu Hewei successfully chased the star Mo Yan” also became a trending topic on Douyin. Mo Yan once again “confessed” to Yu Hewei: “A good performing artist never relies on appearance. I rarely watch a TV series from beginning to end, but Chen Duxiu, played by Yu Hewei in “The Awakening Age”, made me feel like he was possessed by the soul. ‘First-class performing arts.”
In the subsequent live broadcast, the two had a chat about the book “Crocodile”, script creation, drama performances and other topics. It is reported that “Crocodile” is a new drama script launched by Mo Yan this year. It mainly tells the story of Shan Wuxian, a corrupt official who fled the United States, and what happened around the gift “crocodile” at his four birthday parties from 2005 to 2015. In the book, Mo Yan vividly depicts the complexity of Shan Wuzang and the profit-seeking beings surrounding him through wonderful Shakespearean dialogue and imaginative dramatic conflict design.
Mo Yan and Yu Hewei started a conversation in the live broadcast room of @Mo Yan on Douyin
“I hope that Yu Hewei can play the protagonist Shan Wuxian in the book.” When talking about the characters in the book, Mo Yan believes that the most suitable role for Yu Hewei is the “Mayor” – because this character has the most lines, the richest inner world, and the most interesting characters. Complex and the most embarrassing identity, “so it takes an actor with great tension to bring such a character to life.”
Regarding Mo Yan’s praise, Yu Hewei responded modestly: “The tone of all characters is ‘human’.” In his view, people are divided into types, so after getting the script, he will first classify the historical figures and see See which people this type is similar to that you meet in life, and then expand on it bit by bit. When playing the role of Chen Duxiu, Yu Hewei observed Chen Duxiu’s little posture of crossing his feet when taking pictures from old photos. He felt that Chen Duxiu “in addition to being wild and arrogant, also has a lively and uneasy temperament”, thus he won the role. inspiration.
Writing scripts can satisfy the “desire to speak”
Although readers are more familiar with Mo Yan as a novelist, Mo Yan has always had deep feelings for dialogue dramas. In fact, long before “Crocodile”, he had written scripts such as “Divorce” and “Farewell My Concubine”, and won many domestic and foreign awards. In “The Crocodile”, Mo Yan comprehensively draws on some dramatic expression techniques from Sartre and Brecht. He said: “A good novelist may not be able to write a good drama, but a playwright with a good script can definitely write a good novel.”
When talking about his fascination with drama, Mo Yan responded that he grew up watching folk operas, which gave him profound nourishment. Yu Hewei added that when Mo Yan received the Nobel Prize for Literature, he shared an article called “The Storyteller”. The story he told about throwing a straw hat at the end was “I heard it from my mother when I was a child.” Yu Hewei’s mother is from Jining, Shandong. , a fellow Shandong native with Mo Yan, “Actually, many stories exist among the people, so the art of drama itself is rooted in the earth.”
In addition, compared to novelists who cannot directly see readers’ reactions, playwrights can better satisfy the sense of accomplishment and happiness in creation. “When you are writing a script, all the laughter and tears you expected will come true. When you realize it, you feel that you have understood people’s hearts.” Mo Yan further pointed out that writing scripts can “satisfy one’s desire to speak.” Novels describe the scenery through narration to portray the characters’ hearts, while writing scripts mainly relies on lines to tell the story. Story and character creation, “This is a great test of the writer’s skills.”
During the live broadcast, Mo Yan also bluntly stated that some writers write scripts to “make quick money.” In his opinion, if you want to truly write a good script, you must treat it as an art. Even though it is a 20-episode TV series, every line needs to be polished and every detail needs to be considered repeatedly. “To achieve a literary purpose, one must treat scripts as art. This is a principle I have firmly believed in for decades.”
During the conversation, Mo Yan used “good acting skills”, “beautiful soul” and “relatively ordinary appearance” to evaluate Yu Hewei. He explained that being relatively ordinary means “not relying on appearance”, and “truly great performing artists never Rely on appearance.” Yu Hewei commented that Mo Yan is “Mo Yan”, “invisible” and “naughty”. Mo Yan believes that “naughty” is the highest praise. “For literary artists, it is necessary to have a childlike innocence. Only by keeping the childlike innocence alive can one maintain artistic youth.”
It is reported that this live dialogue was sponsored by the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of East China Normal University and the Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences of East China Normal University. It was specially launched on Douyin by Douyin “Da You Weue” and Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House. In addition to Mo Yan, in the past year, Douyin’s “Great Knowledge”, “Famous New Book Project” and “Douyin National Good Book Project” have also joined hands with writers such as Yu Hua and Bi Shumin to sell new and good books through live broadcasts. The relevant person in charge of Douyin e-commerce said that in the future, the platform will continue to invite experts and knowledge creators in different fields to share professional knowledge, help users discover more new and good books, promote the development of the book industry, and promote the spread of knowledge and culture.
