Red cultural works must move with the times

The Communist Party of China celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding on Thursday. As part of the commemorations of the Party’s 100-year-long history, many songs and other cultural works featuring the revolutionary years have been gaining popularity once again.

In the century-long struggle of the CPC, there are so many stories worth telling, and so many heroes worthy of remembering and honoring. It is in these “red” stories and tales of the heroes that the history of the CPC is recorded.

Yet the cultural works made from these red stories and tales of CPC heroes have not formed a unified system yet. It is the job of this generation of cultural practitioners to complete that system, and exploit this intellectual property to a greater extent.

For that purpose, the first thing to do is to better coordinate so as to achieve better results. For example, the Long March of the Party and the Red Army is a super IP, from which has emerged numerous novels, non-fiction tales, Peking opera plays, movies and TV series. However, there are few, or even no, systemic series of cultural works. There was the film Long March in 1996, but nothing afterwards; Not a Long March series.

In comparison, in the Fast and Furious movies, number from 1 to 9, which made it a big IP. We are improving — There was Wolf Warriors in 2015 and Wolf Warriors II in 2017, which means the producers are trying to capitalize on the success of the original movie.

Second, although the stories are the same, the way of telling them must improve together with the times. Taking Tiger Mountain was a Peking Opera play in the 1960s that told the story of a war hero. Yet for a long time it has only appealed to audiences who experienced that period. Until a film based on that event came out and showed the world how an old story could be told again in the form of a modern spy film. That sets a glorious example of improving the form while keeping the content.

Of course, while injecting fresh vitality into old stories, it is necessary to keep high standards. The audiences have more than once complained about how some films telling stories about the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) are so absurd that they distort history. But by setting high standards and well regulating the industry the resources of red stories can be well used. The reason why some red classics have been repeatedly adapted and become vital IPs is fundamentally because of the patriotism, heroism and idealism they portray.