04-17-2013, 08:20 AM
This is a collection of short stories I picked up at the library a couple of weeks ago while trying to write a proposal for that Beijing International Screenwriting Contest. My hope was that it would give me some ideas for writing a proposal set in contemporary Beijing.
The problem is the nature of the stories. [Some spoilers will follow.] The first story serves as an example. A young couple moves into a new house and decide to tear down a wall to give them an L-shaped room. In the wall they find a box containing photos and knickknacks of a bourgeois sort. Because it has some value, they feel compelled to track down the rightful owner. This turns out to be an elderly woman who is almost comatose; but upon being shown the contents of the box, she becomes extremely agitated, denying it's hers, and then she's fighting her way to her feet to sing Chinese propaganda songs. Thereafter the young couple make more attempts to return the box to her, misinterpreting her rejections as attempts to extort money from them. They end up viewing her as a nasty scheming biddy.
The other stories have a similar valence, of an oppressed people robbed of opportunity and freedom of choice, where conformity is perfection. I can't argue much with that take, and Tel is a solid writer. But as grist for ideas for the contest, hell no. It's like everything else I was finding in the library about contemporary China -- all showing the dark side of life there.
Anyway, as noted elsewhere, I did write a proposal for the contest. And it's a positive take on Beijing, though I did have to go back several hundred years to 1297 AD.
Gosh, I sound negative about China. I don't mean to. It's like most other countries, a mixed bag, with leaders who don't want to admit it's a mixed bag.
The problem is the nature of the stories. [Some spoilers will follow.] The first story serves as an example. A young couple moves into a new house and decide to tear down a wall to give them an L-shaped room. In the wall they find a box containing photos and knickknacks of a bourgeois sort. Because it has some value, they feel compelled to track down the rightful owner. This turns out to be an elderly woman who is almost comatose; but upon being shown the contents of the box, she becomes extremely agitated, denying it's hers, and then she's fighting her way to her feet to sing Chinese propaganda songs. Thereafter the young couple make more attempts to return the box to her, misinterpreting her rejections as attempts to extort money from them. They end up viewing her as a nasty scheming biddy.
The other stories have a similar valence, of an oppressed people robbed of opportunity and freedom of choice, where conformity is perfection. I can't argue much with that take, and Tel is a solid writer. But as grist for ideas for the contest, hell no. It's like everything else I was finding in the library about contemporary China -- all showing the dark side of life there.
Anyway, as noted elsewhere, I did write a proposal for the contest. And it's a positive take on Beijing, though I did have to go back several hundred years to 1297 AD.
Gosh, I sound negative about China. I don't mean to. It's like most other countries, a mixed bag, with leaders who don't want to admit it's a mixed bag.
I'm nobody's pony.
