| Li Jing
"Sister, I don't care about human beings tonight, I just want you."
The golden sentence in Haizi's "Diary" actually perfectly describes "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves" (hereinafter referred to as "Sister" 》) eye-catching degree. This reality show launched by mangoTV has not only stirred up major social platforms, but also has a huge number of views. To be more precise, it was already a hit before it was aired.
Stills from the program "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves".
became popular before it was broadcast, which shows that "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves" is first of all a successful product idea - it is novel, interesting, inspirational, and good at teasing and catering to the needs of the audience. With the age of 30 as the boundary, 30 female celebrities aged between 30 and 52 have all transformed into "sisters" and gathered in the hot girl group show. This in itself is a natural topic "rich mine". The audience can not only "archaeologically" understand the life stories of the sisters, but also interpret the chemical reactions between them frame by frame. It can also extend serious topics such as age anxiety, gender order, power and capital, freedom and potential without any violation. In the public opinion arena, in the barrage, and in the comment area, "all the talented people have arrived, and all the young and old have gathered together."
The creativity of the audience is unlimited - "Youth Is Yours", "The Aunts Making Trouble", "The Adventures of Xiao Ming", "Du Hua's Car Rollover Live" - just like the Monkey King pulling out his hair and blowing his breath, the story is ready Seventy-two changes. This story-telling party has brought about the sisters’ soaring popularity, double-line red ratings and positive reviews, the rising share price of Mango Super Media, and the unstoppable “hahahaha” in front of the screen.
It can be said that the storytelling and happiness make "Sister" more suitable for this summer when we still need to stay at home. Here, we might as well stop and think about what makes us so happy? In the process of legitimate exercise of "entertainment rights", can we break the shackles of the "equation" and get rid of the fate of being "routine"? Can the "source of happiness" only be the fuel for flow and capital, but cannot be integrated into our own life journey?
Exquisite narrative of a large-scale "Shuang Drama":
Rebellion and difference
"At thirty, you stand, when you are thirty, you are vigorous, and when you are thirty, you are strong." The thirty-year-old woman is the backbone and soul of the entire show. "Li", which originally means "dark black horse", takes on the style of a perfect composition in the opening line - "Li-colored horse, flying on the clouds and treading the sea" - sublimated into a "Li-colored horse, flying on the clouds and riding on the sea" - sublimated into a "Li-colored horse" full of infinite possibilities and capable of reversing destiny at any time. Dark horse" image. Li, Li, Li, these words are like cascading waves, making people convinced again that "eternal women guide us upward."
As the audience said, we expect mature women to "bloom aggressively" and shatter ubiquitous and deep-rooted prejudices and constraints. Rebellion constitutes the narrative tone of the program: threaded off-screen monologues, using gorgeous and delicate rhetoric to express the central idea of "hanging directly on the clouds and riding the wind and waves"; "in-depth interviews with 30 sisters" that are broadcast simultaneously with the program "Definition" uses a dialogue method of collision of ideas to tear away the "definition"; the theme song "Priceless Sister" released on June 18, is dressed in a disco retro coat, but has a playful and ironic avant-garde attitude, which is highly praised. The priceless “I” that is true and free. Poetic, conversational, and avant-garde, no matter what style of expression is adopted, it all points to the real situation of contemporary women.
"Sister Riding the Wind and Waves" released the theme song "Priceless Sister".
The first thing to rebel against is age anxiety. As the book "Why We Worship Youth" puts it, each of us has a "complex age." In addition to biological age, "A person's experience of age is of course relative to his race, class, gender, culture, country, and education. "Thirty-year-old" is a cultural phenomenon spanning ancient and modern China and the West: Balzac wrote the classic "The Thirty-Year-Old Woman", and Mariko Hayashi wrote the best-selling novel "The Thirty-Year-Old Woman", Zhao Lei also performed the controversial ballad "Thirty Years Old Woman".Even in the leisurely and casual works of Feng Zikai, there are caricatures of "Thirty Old Men". Even Yu Pingbo, a descendant of an aristocratic family, can't escape the feeling of aging he wrote in his article "Middle Age"... Every generation is relaying on. Write an understanding of this topic.
Returning to contemporary popular culture, "youthiness" and "girliness" have always been highly praised. In recent years, a large number of idol development, girl group audition programs, and even virtual idols have mostly focused on "youth". selling point”. Although youth is worthy of praise, it is often portrayed as a suspended, ungrounded chicken soup utopia. At the same time, with the increasing awareness of women’s gender consciousness and the substantial increase in their need for expression, “middle-aged women” who have the most practical problems have quietly become a highly productive topic area. "Sister" came out at the right time. It gives abstract emotions, indescribable situations, and overly complicated topics a concrete form that everyone can get, and connects them to the various attitudes of middle-aged people who are "acquainted with them on the screen." Compared with youth narratives that tend to be empty and sentimental, the stories of the sisters are based on life experiences and naturally have a concrete quality of "realism".
"Why We Worship Youth" Written by Robert Pogue Harrison, translated by Liang Yong'an, Life·Reading·New Knowledge Sanlian Bookstore In January 2018
Under the leadership of "screen acquaintances", the war of rebellion officially began. The "30+ women" who were originally disadvantaged in the social and cultural order took the initiative in the program. The male group represented by Huang Xiaoming, the "social order" represented by the program team, and the "evaluation standards" represented by the judges all seemed to be suppressed by them. The audience finally no longer needs to be tortured and cry with the little sisters. Instead, they straighten their waists and follow the sisters to explode everywhere. The order is subverted, the carnival whistle blows, and the audience's imagination begins to race -
The audience likes to see Xiaoming suppressed. The master of Mingxue was reduced to a street artist. "I don't want you to think, I want me to feel" turned into a "mental breakwater" to deliberately protect the sisters. In the second issue, this secret was redistributed to those who failed to control the field. leader jingle. His repeater-like "This is a bonus" and his frequent glances at the judges showed his full desire to win. Some people questioned that this was the decline of the overlord, while others hurriedly revised it and said that this was the theory of relativity of Mingxue.
Audiences like to see the program crew being criticized. The program team, which has always been the "arranger", finally came to the point where it was weak, helpless and pitiful. At the beginning of the second episode, there was a negotiation between my sister and the program team. The "Humble" program team "carefully" asked my sister to get up at 0.5 times speed, which became a hot search. The social beasts who have been reincarnated in the jungle of society, seeing this scene, how can they not clap their hands and cheer.
Huang Xiaoming in "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves".
Audiences like to see sisters "confronting" the judges and questioning the rules of the competition and the concept of group formation with confidence. The assembly line theory is certainly reasonable, but "has it always been this way?" The judges need to be eliminated, students need to be taught online, and the program team needs to be carefully cut off from them. This is really the first time in the domestic entertainment industry.
These all release strong happiness factors. Compared with female growth stories such as "Tokyo/Beijing/Shanghai Women's Illustrated Book", "Sister" does not have to grovel to cater to the patriarchal society and follow the rules of the game to climb up. Instead, it has already earned the capital to let itself go. Once you can let yourself go, "women's group portraits" will really no longer look the same and speak the same language. The screenwriters do not need to reveal their "personality" (what Benjamin calls "the shell of personality"). The sisters bring their own "personality" to the stage. Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend. The final right of interpretation belongs to them. The sisters' disparate life stories, the excitement among the diverse characters, and the audience's self-introduction and imaginative interpretation all helped the program team to easily build a stage for the party, a destination for traffic and capital opened up by laughter.
Three happy "routines"
and the unclear "X"
The most "weak" program team in history is actually very clever. After digging into this natural story rich mine, the story production is also very sophisticated, forming many The vocal narrative includes Huang Xiaoming's narration, screen editing and post-production flourishes, each of which has its own emphasis. Especially in the later stage, the flowery character kills three birds with one stone, which not only enhances the interactivity of the content, but also creates the intimacy of "speaking for the audience", expressing everyone's voice at the right time, and at the same time avoiding the risk of being accused of "malicious editing" . In this way, the program team worked hard to stir up the audience's nerves and desires.
Of course, there are many ways for audiences to get happiness from stories, but it has to be said that the girl group reality show is really an excellent story "mold". Take "Sister" as an example. Groups of 3, 5, and 7 people each have their own characteristics, such as deep sisterly love, bursting of group souls, exaggerated comedy, tit-for-tat... There are all kinds of story types; Buddhist and wolfish, social animals and academic masters. , drama queen and narcissist... various personality types come to life. Generally speaking, the ways for audiences to obtain happiness can be divided into the following three types:
One is to seek truth and become one's self. In reality shows, the distance between stars and audiences is infinitely narrowed, and the separation between the front and backstage is also eliminated. In other words, the audience can not only see the stars performing on the stage, but also see them in a state that is very close to us ordinary people off the stage. For example, the sisters communicated about their preparations before going on stage, which was very much like us before the exam. And the embarrassing situation in social situations and groups makes social novices seem to see themselves. The sisters' reaction to the stage was also highly synchronized with the audience's, they complained about our complaints and rejoiced in our joy. Another example is that some comments said that Zhang Yuqi's first performance of "Pink Memories" had a contrasting feeling like a gangster doing a square dance. Coupled with his straightforward temperament, his image becomes particularly arresting. Together, these bring about empathic happiness based on a “sense of reality.”
Zhang Yuqi performs "Pink Memories".
The paradox is that on the one hand, we have long been accustomed to story reversals, flag collapse and character collapse, claiming that the "post-truth era" has arrived, but on the other hand, we are extremely thirsty for truth, and are even keen to find it in variety shows clues. Postmodern theorist Jean Baudrillard once used the term "hyper-reality" to describe this phenomenon. In the absence of reality, the simulation of reality may be more realistic than reality itself. In his important work "Symbolic Exchange and Death", he accurately predicted that "objects and information are both already the result of a choice, an editing, and a framing." He first decomposes reality into several elements, Then "it's like a photographer imposing contrast, light, and angles on his subject." The editor and the audience adapt to each other and jointly generate "routines" for interpreting reality. The more "original" the style is, the more attractive it will be. Reality, not authenticity, is the more important psychological need at the moment.
"Symbolic Exchange and Death", author: [France] Jean Baudrillard, translator: Che Jinshan, version: Yilin Publishing House, June 2012
The second way to obtain happiness can be collectively called "microscope" "You will have more joy", or "invent" intimate relationships by taking CP, or interpret the mysteries of human nature with the thinking model of "The Legend of Zhen Huan". It can be seen that the program team wants to get rid of the single mode of tearing each other up, and strives to show the mutual support, solidarity and friendship between same-sex people. For example, during the performance of "Push the Door to the World", the camera took the trouble to show many scenes where sisters were moved to tears, trying to convey the tacit understanding and understanding between same-sex people. The individual shots showing Yi Nengjing adopt a slight upward perspective, which naturally adds a touch of gold to her image. And when they have a common "opponent" (the judging teacher), they can indeed "form a team" instantly. As the program unfolds, new CPs will continue to be invented based on the detailed "materials" that continue to appear.
However, when watching this program that flaunts the independence and freedom of modern women, many people still view women in extremely traditional ways, which is of course not surprising.Hidden in the barrage are countless masters of psychoanalysis, experts in micro-expression interpretation, and experts in character identification. People who eat melons cannot allow themselves to miss the moment when quiet transforms into the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, nor can they miss the subconscious in body movements, nor can they ignore the mystery in the exchange of words. The drama in the training room and dormitory has long been secretly anticipated by many viewers. Epicurus predicted such a state of mind: “There is no greater joy than this: standing on a quiet, sublime holy place, feeling strong due to the teachings of wisdom, overlooking all the living beings going astray, running around, desperately Looking for a way in life..." Watching the sisters on the other side lining up and sweating profusely, the audience in the air-conditioned room couldn't help but be happy. During the stage performance of
at the beginning of the first period, Ning Jing expressed his love for several sisters and wanted to form a group with them. There are many close-ups of Jing Jing's face in the camera, with the flowery characters "Jing Xuan's Daughter", and the audience also named it "Jing Jing's Selection of a Concubine" with great cooperation. This is not to elaborate on the joke, but to explain the basic fact that we still lack imagination and description of the relationship between women, and always unconsciously reproduce the patriarchal discourse. .
Tranquility is in "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves".
The third enjoyable way to watch is the trial of values. Interestingly, variety shows seem to have the privilege of "exemption from inspection" of values due to their entertainment nature. Once the issue of values is involved, some viewers will jump out and say, it’s just for entertainment, why bother being serious, and why bother pretending that “everyone is drunk but you are alone”? The problem is that variety shows often have strong value settings, otherwise they will not be able to establish a good sense of connection with the audience. Needless to say, "Sister" has extremely clear values.
As Han Bingzhe pointed out in "What is Entertainment?", "Ethical entertainment media not only brings simple happiness, but also realizes social functions in subtle ways that cannot be underestimated." Compared with moral preaching, consumption stories can establish moral standards more efficiently and internalize them into people's hearts, establishing certain preferences and habits. "Entertainment is narrative. It has a sense of narrative tension. Telling stories and making them gripping are more effective than coercion and obligations." Therefore, the audience assigns right and wrong to the protagonist in the story, enjoys it endlessly, and establishes their own identity from it. Value proposition. Therefore, it is easy to understand that everyone in the "Erebadi" group in the second issue has received a lot of scrutiny.
The above three methods can exist alone, and they are often combined together to form a "routine" for creating happiness. So, what needs to be asked is, since happiness has its own "equation", what does the "X" in the equation mean?
Like the popular variety show " Youth with You 2" that just ended, "Youth with You" (a joking name for "Sister") also has an "X" element. On the surface, X means possibility, constantly subverting and adjusting inherent boundaries. But in fact, due to numerous tricks, X was in a very embarrassing situation. There was a hilarious "public case" in the first issue. Zhang Yuqi received the X card issued by the judges after the preliminary rating, which she thought meant extremely excellent. Later, as more and more people came to sit in area Genius Danmu commented that this is "Bima Wen's joy". The gap between the strong self-appreciation and the actual situation is like a human comedy. Of course, such a comedy effect is inseparable from the evaluation standards of what is strong, what is correct, and what is normal. Is
X just a gimmick? Can our understanding and cultural concepts really break out of the fixed mold and "save" X from comedy? Shouldn’t the X we are looking forward to be specific and diverse (rather than overly general and hollow with attitude, cool, handsome, sassy...), serious and lively?
Violence with happiness
and what is "riding the wind and waves"?
Regarding the value judgment mentioned above, "Sister" provides an exaggerated example.Because Lehua Entertainment CEO Du Hua held the traditional (18+) selection criteria for a girl group - uniformity, youthfulness, beauty, and tall figure - she had a conflict of ideas with several sisters such as Aduo and Ding Dang. Especially because she gave some low scores, which caused great controversy. However, controversies on the Internet often do not bring about "broader debates and clearer opinions". Instead, the tone of emotions becomes higher and higher - there are overwhelming scoldings on the Internet, and there are even people scolding Du Hua on his behalf. business. This violent mood quickly (partially) reversed after the second episode was broadcast, because the performance of some sisters was unsatisfactory, which instead highlighted Du Hua's rationality. As a result, Du Hua began to be "whitewashed" again.
Du Hua (first from right), judge of "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves".
In his "The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism", Jameson once summarized that one of the symptoms of postmodern culture is "hysterical sublime", which is used to describe the "ecstatic joy" and other strong emotions unique to contemporary people. The intensity of this emotion often exceeds our expectations. For example, the rhetoric used in criticism of Du Hua, regardless of the point of view, is mostly hysterical. "We suddenly found ourselves in a sensory world that was both bizarre, dreamy, and unrestrained." The audience was happy and angry while enjoying the "spring breeze" of the sisters, just like the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves. Eliminate disharmonious factors. And this powerful emotion, I don’t know at what point, will accidentally, suddenly, and violently turn elsewhere.
"The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism", author: Zhan Mingxin, translator: Chen Qingqiao, etc., version: Life·Reading·New Knowledge Sanlian Bookstore, January 2013
The violence of walking with happiness is actually inflicted on groups that have never appeared . For example, the "sister" who has always been a potential frame of reference. The "sisters" do not have dazzling resumes, nor do they have the capital to subvert the order. The potential comparison between "elder sister" and "younger sister" is tantamount to a war within the same sex, and it still follows the logic of Mu Qiang. The worship of sisters is generally inseparable from the focus on face, figure, gossip, career success, and commercial value. Baudrillard pointed out cruelly, "Women can only be freed and liberated as 'happy power' and 'fashion power'" ("Symbolic Exchange and Death", page 132). From this, we can conclude that women's liberation The conclusion is probably just a radical illusion.
For another example, we hate that in the past female narratives, women were only described as "mothers", "wives", "daughters" and "daughter-in-law", and we hope that the female individuals themselves can be directly shown from the front. "Sister" focuses on female individuals, which has its own value. However, we still need to be vigilant. The life world of mature women is diverse. They are also "mothers", "wives" and "daughters". They take on important responsibilities and face challenges in different fields. And if we want to show such "complexity", we naturally cannot do without facing up to and thinking about multiple "relationships". In "Sister", only Yi Nengjing has shown some identity diversity, which is still far from enough. We cannot rely on deleting "sister", eliminating "brother-in-law", and omitting the "branches" of society to imagine riding the wind and waves. Otherwise, isn't the so-called wind and waves just illusory rhetoric?
scholar Jiang Tao once recalled the joke he made in class in the article "Tonight, How Should We Care About Humanity - Rereading Haizi's Diary": "Please note, 'Tonight' Haizi is in Delingha. I don’t care about human beings, I only think of my sister. Why I don’t think of my father, my mother, my brother, my brother, let alone my uncle, aunt and others? This may be a problem.” In modern poetry, “the rich and intricate order of the living world”. The array of mundane things composed of food, rice, oil and salt has been erased by the powerful lyrical subject; and in the modern entertainment industry, the living world has been edited into another appearance. In this regard, at the end of the book "What is Entertainment", the "Entertainment Ontology" is invented:
Entertainment is sublimated into a new paradigm, a new world and a new form of existence. In order to exist, in order to be a part of this world, it has to be entertaining.Only things that entertain are real or realistic...reality itself seems to be the result of entertainment. (171 pages)
"What is Entertainment", Author: [Germany] Han Bingzhe, Translator: Guan Yuhong, Version: CITIC Publishing Group June 2019
In other words, only entertaining content will be seen and told, We have reached a moment when we are extremely short of "relational" wisdom. It is easy to argue with each other and become self-absorbed in opposing values, while the folds of the living world are infinitely flattened until they are extremely barren. We may know the stories of "screen acquaintances" very well, but we don't know the stories of ordinary people around us. The stories that are ignored and have no entertainment value include even our own stories.
Maybe it’s time to talk about the eternal life phenomenon of “riding the wind and waves”. In the third year of Tianbao (744), when Li Bai was frustrated in his official career, he wrote: "The road is difficult, the road is difficult, and the road is divergent, but now I am safe! There will be strong winds and waves, and I will hang my sails to help the sea." He did not indulge in "I It’s too difficult.” Even if he encounters criticism, he remains positive. This is romanticism in trouble, this is the will to life when leaving the C position ( Changan ), this is the wind and waves in history, and it is also performed in every ordinary day.
In a world of abundant life like the sea, we are heading towards happiness, but we have to tie up our round wooden barrels and jump from a wave like the crew in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Rise and Fall of Mosken's Whirlpool". To the other one, try your best and vow not to sink. Although the happiness brought by "Sister" is a moment of tranquility between the whirlpools, it also reminds us that it is the wind and waves we have experienced that broaden the channel of life with dominance and resilience.
author | Li Jing
editor | Zhang Ting
proofreader | Liu Jun
