When it comes to revolutionary spirit, the most interesting thing is the college students in South Korea. Several of my friends introduced the taste of various tear gas bombs to me with great interest, but I, a guy who calls myself an "old revolutionary", was listening to a foreign language. The college students in South Korea can really be said to be "voicing when they are not satisfied". Their resistance is experienced, well-organized, and has both explosive power and persistence. This year, due to the tuition issue, colleges and universities across the country launched a protracted student movement. College students occupied important office areas, set up tents and camps, marched and demonstrated, and gave speeches in series, with a spirit of not giving up until they achieve their goals. Yonsei University has taken the lead in winning. I went to Yonsei University to watch their school anniversary performance, which was simply a rehearsal for the revolution. In the open-air theater built on the mountain, tens of thousands of young men and women were excited, shouting in unison with the conductor on the stage, singing and dancing, and everyone threw themselves into that huge collective. We, the bystanders, felt that it was not tens of thousands of people, but one person, a huge life roaring. There is a song in China that sings: "Love once with all your heart and forget yourself." However, the reality is that we pay too much attention to ourselves. We have given up too much truth for our own humble existence.
If excessive passion in the revolutionary era easily leads to extreme leftism, then passion in this "reform" era can be said to be an extremely valuable "conservatism". Without the revolutionary spirit, freedom, democracy, and economic development are impossible to achieve smoothly. The professors of Chosun University in Gwangju drove away the consortium that controlled the school and realized true professorial governance. Yonsei University and Korea University have been unwilling to give in to each other for decades, and they hold a big competition between the two schools every year, which makes each other's revolutionary "level" rise steadily. Even Ewha Womans University, where I am, which is ridiculed by Yonsei University as a "women's makeup school" and specializes in producing noble ladies, is "a group of women" all day long. Their student leaders shave their heads almost bald, which is quite like Liu Hezhen and Yang Dequn in the past. These specific student movements certainly have their own background in South Korea, and they don't necessarily need to "imitate others blindly". But this revolutionary spirit is a guiding light for the vast 21st century. While most Koreans still blindly worship the United States, sober Korean intellectuals continue to expose the United States' killing of Korean civilians, plunder of Korean resources, control of Korean politics, and obstruction and destruction of the great cause of North-South reunification. The revolutionary spirit of the Korean people is a shining sword against the vicious United States and the ill-intentioned Japan, and will surely have a positive impact on world peace in the 21st century. Recognizing this, this revolutionary spirit should become the common wealth of the Asian people.
(After this article was published, the right wing in South Korea was very dissatisfied, while the left wing felt a little ashamed.)
The real dragon cannot hide
I was a wanderer, and this year I was blown to Seoul by the sandstorm in Beijing. I thought it was good, even if I was forced to live in seclusion, I could "take shelter in the tiger's den". --- China respects dragons, and South Korea respects tigers, so they can be described as a pair of "neighbors of dragon and tiger". When I was lonely and bored, the three Korean knights Cui Rongwan and Li Zhengxun suddenly invited me to watch Ang Lee's new film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". This film has not been released in mainland China, so I grinned and said: "I am the first person in China to watch this film!"
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a masterpiece by Mr. Wang Dulu, a master of Chinese martial arts novels in the 1940s. Wang Dulu's representative works "Crane Iron" series include 5 works: Crane Shocks Kunlun, Sword and Golden Hairpin, Sword Qi and Pearl Light, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Iron Cavalry and Silver Bottle. These 5 works are both coherent and independent. Their biggest feature is that they do not win by magical martial arts and intense fighting, but by looking into life and questioning fate through the love tragedy of martial arts characters. Wang Dulu's status in the history of martial arts novels is recognized as the creation of the "tragic chivalrous love" model, which had a very profound influence on Liang Yusheng and Jin Yong later.
However, the better the novel, the more afraid it is to be adapted for the screen. Especially martial arts novels, which have been destroyed beyond recognition by Hong Kong's incompetent directors and mentally retarded movie stars. Mr. Jin Yong bluntly said that after seeing his novels made into movies by the Hong Kong and Taiwan film and television industry, "it was like seeing my own child being beaten." The reason is that those martial arts movies and TV series have emptied the humanistic spirit that martial arts culture should have, leaving only bloody fights that satisfy their own morbid psychology and Hong Kong and Taiwan-style corny jokes that try to forget their slave status. It is natural that such works are criticized, despised, and forgotten.
In comparison, Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon can be said to be a breakthrough in the history of martial arts movies. The film captures the issue of "fate" and the issue of "how people should live". Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian are in love for life, but they do not turn their love into reality. Li Mubai said: "The tighter you clench your fist, the less you have in your palm; loosen your hand and you feel that you have everything." Li Mubai taught Yu Jiaolong this truth with his life. Yu Jiaolong and her lover Luo Xiaohu did not "end up together", and they continued to wander in the boundless rivers and lakes to find their dreams.
Once this "key point" is grasped, other problems will naturally be solved. The whole film is shrouded in a lyrical tone and a faint silver sadness. The martial arts design has both thrilling on-site effects and a beautiful artistic conception like a dream or a song. The actors' performances are inherent and implicit. For the first time, Chow Yun-fat learned to perform without "acting", reflecting the charm of a real man. Zhang Ziyi fully demonstrated the combination of tenderness and fierceness of Yu Jiaolong. Even those funny parts are in line with the development logic of the story itself, without the problem of unnecessary branches and onions. The focus on "humanity" rather than "fighting" determines that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" will definitely be a big hit in the history of martial arts movies.
Few people know Wang Dulu, but I have long believed that his name will shine brightly one day. Ang Lee, Chow Yun-fat, Zhang Ziyi, as well as composer Tan Dun and cello player Yo-Yo Ma, they are all like the heroes in the film, true dragons that cannot be hidden. Yes, in this world, where can you hide?
(At the time, I told my Korean friends and students that this film would most likely win an Oscar. As expected, the students were all amazed by my prediction. One of them even translated the article from the Internet and used it as a model article in a class.)
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