Global Lords: I Have Information System

Jin Yukuang began learning piano in elementary school but never found any joy in it. It was only after joining the choir that he realized music could be something played together with a group of people.

Like most piano students, he learned piano primarily to fulfill his parents’ wishes. After being admitted to the affiliated middle school of the Shanghai Music Academy, his passion for music was suddenly ignited. His routine during middle school involved waking up before 6 a.m. to practice piano and studying until 10 p.m. before returning to the dormitory.

Born in the internet age, they can connect to the world with just a smartphone. To listen to a Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra concert, there’s no need to travel; it can be done online. Whether it’s videos or texts, there are extremely detailed research materials available in both Chinese and English on any conductor or composer.

The internet gives this group of young people a broader vision and opportunities than their predecessors. For Jin Yukuang, being born in China during a time when the classical music market is unprecedentedly prosperous is akin to a golden era of opportunity. For these young people, performances by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra have become offline gathering places where discussing and analyzing music is part of daily life.

Because his teacher Zhang Guoyong is a music director of domestic symphony orchestras, Jin had opportunities to conduct professional ensembles like the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra and Guiyang Symphony Orchestra while still a student, a chance nearly impossible for conductors raised abroad.

After the first performance of the New Classical Chamber Orchestra, Jin Yukuang made a simple orchestra introduction booklet and directly approached Yu Long, the artistic director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, to introduce himself. This led to the frequent appearances of this ”post-2000s” orchestra at music festivals in Shanghai and Beijing.

Yu Long once said, they received the torch from older generations of musicians like Li Delun and now aim to pass it on to younger faces, ”We evolve from inheritors to transmitters and facilitators, laying paths and bridges for young people just like our predecessors, so that the cycle and heritage continue, allowing China’s music career to flourish.”

In 1959, the conducting master Sir Neville Marriner gathered a group of London musicians to form the Saint Martin’s Chamber Orchestra. This group of excellent musicians with a love for music gave classical music a refreshing new look and became a top-level chamber orchestra, leaving behind over 500 classic records worldwide.

Gathering due to love is also the initial intention for this group of Generation Z youths to have a fun orchestra. This July, they joined the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra’s ”Blue Bird Plan 2.0” and began planning their performance season, with all aspects from creativity, planning, arrangement, to collaborating artists led by the orchestra themselves. Currently, their performance plans are scheduled until next July.

”Love of the City” flopped, not because of Ma Sichun and Peng Yuyan.

Entertainment Critic 11 hours ago

It wasn’t just the actors who extinguished ”Love of the First Incense.”

This wasn’t the first time Ann Hui directed a Zhang Ailing work.

”Love in a Fallen City” in 1984, ”Half a Lifetime’s Fate” in 1997, and the theatrical version of ”Golden Cuff” in 2009. Twelve years later, she again directed Zhang Ailing’s novel ”Love of the First Incense.”

Throughout the Chinese film industry, Ann Hui is well-known as an ardent admirer of Zhang Ailing and has directed the most adaptations of her novels.

In her autobiography ”Ann Hui Talks About Ann Hui,” she says, ”I can’t explain why Zhang Ailing became such a phenomenon among our generation of directors. This is a cultural phenomenon. If you feel a particular work is appealing, you should film it because that certainly means your own views resonate with the work. Filming it is like shooting your own experiences, which is very worthwhile.”

Regrettably, as of October 25, ”Love of the First Incense” has a Douban score of only 5.6. Among Ann Hui’s works, this film has the lowest rating.

From its announcement in 2019, its casting, to its completion, and the release of the first trailer in September 2020, ”Love of the First Incense” has been mired in controversy.

The biggest controversy was the casting. Readers of the original might find the broad-shouldered ”Ge Weilong” and the robust ”Qiaoqi” to be awkward.

Some netizens joked that watching Peng Yuyan and Ma Sichun act is like seeing Camel Xiangzi and Hu Niu together—one with dark skin, the other with full features. The scene from the trailer where they sit on a tree trunk and talk was compared to a ”fitness coach selling a gym membership to a college girl” rather than ”the pale-lipped Qiaoqi” and ”the powder-puff-faced Ge Weilong.”

Image source: Douban Movies

Yet, the ”failure” of this movie cannot be crudely defined by ”casting errors” alone.

Do the actors deserve to bear the brunt of the blame?

In an interview with ”One,” Ann Hui said she chose Ma Sichun because of her performance in ”June and Ansheng.”

”She was stunned when she saw a boy—that’s the genuine feeling of love.” Similar to Lin Qiuyue falling into love, Ge Weilong in ”Love of the First Incense” also fell hopelessly for a man, the playboy Qiaoqi.

In the original work, Ge Weilong is a very complex person with a character arc that twists and turns and a personality that oscillates between clarity and confusion.

On one hand, in front of a wardrobe of gorgeous clothes, she realizes ”how is this any different from a brothel.” On the other hand, she indulges in worldly pleasures, waltzing in beautiful clothing.

Ge Weilong has her pride, desires too much, and looks down on her aunt’s methods of courtship. Yet in love, her one-sidedness appears all too undignified.