What is hometown
It was where your mother bled to give birth to you
It was where your ancestors were buried. It’s in your blood
My name is Zhang Tongdao and I’m the director of Literary Hometowns
I wanted to film authors from rural areas
I could find the start point of his or her literature by visiting his or her hometown
The shooting lasted for over two years
We recorded not only the authors’ images, but also the scenes where literature happened
You know, Chinese literature felt inferior in the world in the 2000s
Could books written in folk language become classics
In 2012 Mo Yan was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature
Which was approval to the new literature
It was a significant moment
I was intended to film Mo Yan
Later I changed my mind
I decided to film a group of authors, because Mo was not the only one
So we started from Chi Zijian from the north
His hometown Great Khingan is represented by high altitude and cold
Then we moved down to Mo Yan’s hometown Shandong to explore Qilu Culture
Liu Zhenyun represents Yellow River Culture and Zhongyuan Culture
Then we went westwards to Qinling
Jia Pingwa comes from Shangluo where the Qin Culture and Chu Culture meet
Going further to the west we looked at Alai who’s a Tibetan
The southernmost destination is Bi Feiyu’s hometown and he represents the Yangtze River Culture
So the six authors represent six cultural zones
To me
The biggest challenge is how to present literature through a documentary
I insisted the authors return to their hometowns for once
For example in the part of Jia Pingwa
I found several villagers which some characters in his novels were based on
Liu Gaoxing showed up in Qin Qiang
Shangshan is Li Baishan in real life
Li Baishan held a book
Which was densely filled with notes written by him
Shangshan in Qin Qiang by Jia Pingwa
The accountant was created based on me
The bridge in Red Sorghum by Mo Yan is still there
Right on that bridge
A group of armed local farmers in Gaomi destroyed a Japanese platoon
With his imagination
Mo Yan turned the story into the soul-stirring novel Red Sorghum
Liu Zhenming represents the Yellow River culture
Numerous disasters were resulted from floods
There were often people starving in Henan and the locals suffered a lot from famine
Juts like he wrote in his novel 1942
I said to my grandmother
“Tell me about 1942”
And she asked, “Which year”
I said, “The year when many people starved to death”
She answered, “There were so many years when people starved to death”
“Which year on earth are you talking about”
Through these two examples
You know that they’re internally connected to their hometowns
Although it was tiring
But I enjoyed the process
Only the script of Mo Yan’s interview had 100,000 characters
What they talked about was their life and art experience in the past decades
When Mo Yan looked back on his childhood, all he thought of were hunger and loneliness
He was publically criticized for stealing a carrot
And hardly beaten by his father after he went back home
Qiqicai was a kind of thorny vegetable
How to eat it? You mash it and stew into a paste
“But there were still many thorns remaining”
“It was dreadful and prickly”
“Even a pig wouldn’t want to eat it nowadays”
Mo Yan was so hungry and there was nothing to eat
He walked around the table while crying
Mo Yan’s big brother who was over 70 even shed tears when he told me about that
He has a unique life experience among the authors
Mo Yan made a sensation in the literary world
But Mr. Mo said he would be reluctant to have such a hard childhood again
Even if that meant he would not become an author later
There’re various talents in the rural areas of China
That day we ran into a man named Old Bu
When he saw Liu Zhenyun
He said, ‘You gave a good speech at the Beijing University”
“It has a nice structure”
“You started with food and you got back to dumplings in the end”
“Nice ending”
A man who raised chickens had such a passion for literature
It indicated the land possessed rich cultural heritages
I think behind the literature there’s a great age
Which raises the great authors
No matter how many people a nation has, as long as it boasts several great authors
Its culture could be spread wider and longer
We don’t have any video of Lu Xun
We can’t miss those outstanding contemporary writers anymore
I also have a little wish with Literary Hometowns
Literature was once the best form of art in China
In an article by Bai Juyi
It was clearly written that even the less advantaged in the society read poems
If a nation is so restless that its people don’t even read
We binge-watch all kinds of jokes and tricks on our phone
Just to gain cheap happiness
The nation could end up in a slaughter house
After watching Literary Homes
If you can calm down and read a book or a novel
We all work hard to buy a bigger house
100 m2, 200 m2, 300 m2
But does anyone ever think that his or her soul needs a house too
Where does your soul live