Is Chen Chih-jen and Pu Shu Sentimental?
01. Shortly before, Chen Chih-jen posted a Weibo, and she felt a bit overwhelmed afterward.
First, let's take a look at what Chen Chih-jen said:
A few lines of handwritten sentences, and someone replied with two words: 'Maudlin'.
Yeah, me too.
But when it's really what you feel inside, you don't need to care what others think. Because you want to think, you like to write, you want to live in this way, only you know best.
Some people turn bananas into fruit by exposing them to the scorching sun, while others boil banana peels to drink hot water at night. Comedians use bananas as a curse word.
Sometimes, when we detach from the mundane records of life, these fleeting moments of brilliance are recorded, with all the details, but not all of them. Occasionally, we have to risk breaking the rules – some are beautiful, and some are quite dull, often completely inexplicable. To precisely point out the core, we often need vague instructions.
I remember going to Tokyo to eat sashimi, and a friend said their refrigerators don't use electricity, their tables don't have lacquer, and a huge fish is only taken from an disproportionately small part, the restaurant has no music, and only eight guests are served a day. The poet said that after a whole day of thinking, he only decided to move a punctuation mark.
Musicians use a samurai sword to cut the Buick car symmetrically. Filmmakers fantasize about destroying film negatives by violently developing them, presenting previously unseen black and white works. Fashion designers wrap the models' faces during the show. A pianist only sits on the chair brought from home when performing, and never shakes hands with anyone.
From the perspective of those in the industry, these people are all weird, don't they? Do they have to do this to work properly? They are all so different, and they have to be labeled, showing that they may have a purpose, isn't that just a way to mask mediocrity? Wouldn't it be better to just be normal?
Maudlin is a process, not a guarantee of a good work. But sometimes we should thank those who dare to be maudlin.
Among these people, some are just another kind of mediocrity, but they may also inspire others, and eventually, they will transform the seemingly inexplicable behaviors into art, become classics, become trends, and high standards. They know that anything is just a tool, what to shape it into, where to shape it, and it becomes a whole from a part, a moment from a lifetime, a stroke from an interpretation. It will gradually become clear.
02.
Chen Chih-jen's expression is very simple, about three layers of meaning:
<1> Her stream of consciousness records are accused of being maudlin.
<2> Everyone has their own way of living.
<3> Maudlin is a process, not a guarantee of a good work. Maudlin is useful, it can inspire people.
Let's look up the meaning of 'maudlin', which Chen Chih-jen is referring to, it's basically:
Exaggerated pose, whining.Let's review Chen Chih-jen and her works, when general folk songs were not yet prevalent, Chen Chih-jen had already played with them all, and later she was called a folk song goddess, which is not without reason.
It's precisely because of this rather talented creator that she was called maudlin. Of course, it's regrettable.
If 'maudlin' is directed at Chen Chih-jen's work, then we can just let it go, don't talk about past achievements, just talk about this year's Golden Melody Award, and Chen Chih-jen's 'Injury' is shortlisted for the Best Composer Award.
In fact, the broad category of popular music is all about maudlin.
Even if the public impression of 'cold' and 'high-profile' Queen Wang Fei is popular, her works twenty years ago were ‘Memory is a strange thing’ in ‘I Will’ in the twenty years, and in ‘The Year in Question’ in the twenty years, it's also ‘If we can meet again, we won’t blush’, which is not without reason.
Just look, twenty years have passed, what people like, is still maudlin things.
03.
After talking about Chen Chih-jen, let's talk about Pu Shu.
In the last episode of ‘The Band’s Summer’, with the theme of ‘Music Party’, it was considered the highest comfort level of the whole show, announced the final ranking of the Hot5, and then the guests and bands went wild together, and the specific ranking was announced, and then the guests and bands went wild together, and the specific ranking was announced.
Pu Shu was recording the show when he suddenly said:
I'm getting old, I'm going home to sleep.Afterwards, on the social media platform, about Pu Shu's recording half the show and going home to sleep, discussions emerged. The main viewpoints are divided into two camps, some praised Pu Shu's sincerity, and some said Pu Shu was disrespectful and irresponsible.
The opinion of the latter was that Pu Shu publicly violated the contract:
Pu Shu goes home to sleep, you're so moved, if your colleagues leave early, what's the problem?It's actually just that the master of this party, Ma Dong, reacted with a smile:
Applause.
The master of the party just tacitly allowed it, others don't need to say anything.
Some people complained, because it was Pu Shu, it's not good to say.I want to say, it's like this, Pu Shu can, no problem, this is not only because Pu Shu is Pu Shu, but also because in each era, there is a favorite son.
The meaning of ‘favorite son’ is that in no carefully packaged way, a person recognized as genuine and with character by a majority of people in that era.
It's normal for rock fans to look down on folk singers, but Pu Shu is an exception.
It's possible to be favored by the rock circle, favored by top music producers such as Zhang Ya Dong, and even favored by Xiao Hong, and even favored by the older generation, which is not without reason.
These reasons include the tacit approval of Pu Shu can be an exception, can leave at any time.
04.
Chen Chih-jen is considered maudlin in writing, and Pu Shu is considered maudlin in behavior.
Essentially, this is prejudice.
The origin of these prejudices comes from the momentary thought of those prejudiced against them.
Chen Chih-jen, in a moment of thought, wrote those thoughts that popped into her mind, these sentences, are real; Pu Shu, in a moment of thought, felt sleepy and said, 'I'm going home to sleep'.
These real, unburdened by too much consideration of ‘whether or not it’s necessary,’ things are deconstructed by prejudiced people.
This deconstruction also comes from the momentary thought of prejudiced people. There are only three words: ‘dislike’.
‘Dislike’, ‘don't understand’, ‘don’t want to understand’, and then think, ‘It’s maudlin’.
'Dislike' and 'don't understand' lead to a lack of empathy in prejudiced people.
To give a down-to-earth example, recently popular drama ‘Little Joy’ has a scene where Fang Run heard the news of Jin Yong’s death, and he cried. If you don't know that a middle-aged man heard the news of Jin Yong’s death and wept, you’ll be prejudiced.
If you only know that a middle-aged man heard Jin Yong’s death and cried, you’ll be prejudiced.
However, the background story is that Fang Run, a middle-aged man in the drama, was influenced by Jin Yong’s plays when he was young, and he longed to become a hero who goes out to slay the dragon and save the princess. But in fact, as a middle-aged man, he was unemployed, fat, and unsuccessful. After hearing the news of Jin Yong’s death, he cried because of the gap between dreams and reality.
Seeing Jin Yong’s death, he also remembered the difference between dreams and reality, so he cried.
See, if you understand the background story, you won’t think it’s maudlin.
TV dramas give us background information, so we can empathize, but real life often only lets us see the results:
Chen Chih-jen wrote sad sentences, and Pu Shu recorded the show and went home to sleep.
Some people dislike, don't understand or don't want to understand, then say ‘maudlin’.
When we hate ‘maudlin’, we’re hating our own ‘maudlin rights’.
During adolescence, we all have ‘maudlin rights’. Whether it’s early blogs or later QQ spaces and Weibo, we write maudlin, sad sentences here, record our inner sadness, which is real and void.
When you grow up, you really understand that adults are tired. It's okay to post things on your friends, but you filter out the maudlin feelings.
Just, many people don't post on WeChat anymore.
Filtering out maudlin also means filtering out some emotions.
05.
Let’s talk about ‘The Band’s Summer’ again, this time it’s about ‘The Band’s Summer 2’ – to put it simply, we were asked to help out with the promotion, but this time, the director said that we were free to take any action. In other words, we were allowed to play a prank on the host, let’s say, we could do anything we wanted to do. But we have to let the director know at least one thing, that we don’t want to be completely insane, we can do it, but we also want to make sure that our actions don’t ruin the show and the viewers. It's actually the same as when the director first asked us to participate in the show, the director said: ‘I’m not saying you can’t be crazy, I just don’t want you to be too crazy.’”
No Fear In My Heart“”
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