Press

8 Questions for Scriptwriter, Producer LIANG ZHENHUA (梁振华)
SD Original, November 30. 1999
Zhenhua, what have you been busy working on lately?
Writing, teaching, thinking; having the occasional hot pot when I find the time.
What courses do you teach at the Beijing Normal University's School of Chinese Language and Literature?
Contemporary literature, film and television literature and creative writing.
The Beijing Normal University International Writing Center is very famous, particularly its Chairman, Mo Yan. Can you give us a brief introduction of the content of your work at this center?
This is a public service organisation with literary education and the international dissemination of literature as its primary function, which includes inviting world class authors or poets to the Center for exchanges, to create and conduct lectures; inviting renowned authors or poets to serve as writers-in-residence; organise the launching of various China-foreign literary exchanges as well as other related activities.
You began holding script writing since 2000. How many scripts have been written in total? Have they all been made into television dramas?
I was "electrocuted" in 2000. Initially, my creative works were mainly documentaries, with about 20 or so having been broadcast. I was primarily engaged in the writing of film and television scripts from 2006. I can't remember how many I have written, but many are residing in the computer hard disk today. Every screenwriter has his or her own "drawer" works unknown to others. There are many compositions and exercises that are poor in quality and are unbearable to read, and there will also be treasures. To date, a total of 10 television dramas and five films have been filmed.
Which is your personal favourite? Why?
Each is special; they're unique in their own way, but the one into which I have devoted the most emotions is Song of Phoenix, which has just completed filming. It's because it's about Qu Yuan. It's an ethnic cultural totem, the spiritual standard of Chinese intellectuals for thousands of years.
Who are some of the playwrights you most admire, both Chinese and foreign?
Playwrights that stand behind every masterpiece are people I pay homage to and are objects of learning. If I have to choose, then I have to say that I most admire China's master Liu Heping and master Liu Heng, Ian McEwan of the UK, and Beau Willimon, the screenwriter of House of Cards.
IP is so hot these days, how is it you still have the time and mood to teach?
It is precisely because IP is so hot that adequate pondering and studying are all the more required so as to read the mystery or "conspiracy" within.
How long can the current IP fever in China last? What are the risks?
IP fever is a capitalist concept and bears little relation to creative behaviour. As a phenomenon or a type of text, there is a rationality to the existence of IPs. However, the current trend is IP'ism and IP-only; it even appears to want to completely crowd out the room for survival of original works. This is a kind of subversion of the television and film industry ecology. It is destroying many classic value standards. Everything is directed toward market behaviour that can be controlled and materialized by available capital and "big data". There are boundaries in culture and the arts that cannot be trespassed. Artistic creation and creators cannot descend to the state of becoming puppets on a stage for competing capital. This is the fundamental reason behind outcries of injustice and firm rejection of the IP storm by many creators. Any trend that appears to be very strong will eventually be as transient as a passing cloud.
LIANG ZHENHUA (梁振华) will be speaking at the StoryDrive Conference in Beijing (29 -30 May 2016).
Translation: Cheang Yee