1978: Female educated youth, don’t want an illiterate husband

Just as Cheng Xuemin was getting ready to set off for Bolin!
On that day, the People's Daily also prominently featured the news that the film "Romance on Lushan Mountain" would soon represent China at the Bolin Film Festival.

The front-page photo shows Ding Daming of China Film Group and Gong Xue, the female lead of "Romance on Lushan Mountain," holding up the film poster and smiling broadly. The subtitle reads "A Breakthrough Journey for Chinese Cinema to Go Global."

Ding Daming looked at the newspaper and took a satisfied sip of tea.

Hu Jian knocked on the door and came in, holding a list of delegation members in his hand. He said, "President Ding, the reason why former Factory Director Wang Yang went to Haizi with Cheng Xuemin before was probably for this purpose."

"The higher authorities also issued instructions that Lushan Romance would represent Chinese films in the competition, and that Tai Chi from Yan Film Studio would be responsible for its promotion!"

"He certainly has a good idea!" Ding Daming sneered, then pursed his lips and said, "Let him go!"

"Let him see for himself that without the support of China Film Group, his 'Tai Chi' is nothing!"

What Ding Daming didn't say was that he felt a vague unease in his heart.

Cheng Xuemin never does anything he's not confident about. Since he's promoting Tai Chi through publicity, it's probably not that simple.

But it's not simple for the time being.

Anyway, I'm not optimistic about it. Yan Film Studio's "Tai Chi" is just a martial arts film that only involves fighting and slapping. What kind of waves can it make?
It's not like Hong Kong hasn't produced martial arts films like this before, but how many of them have truly shone on the international stage?
Yanying Film Studio!
Huang Jianzhong was directing workers to load the film "Tai Chi" into a truck. The box had a prominent label on it: "Bolin Film Festival Market Section Screening".

The passing employees all gathered around to watch the spectacle, and one of them asked curiously, "Xiao Huang, are you going to Bolin with 'Romance on Lushan Mountain'?"

“Let’s each go our own way.” Huang Jianzhong smiled and patted the box. “This is a people-to-people exchange. We don’t have any mission. We just want to show foreigners that Chinese Kung Fu is not only good for fighting, but also has knowledge.”

In the evening, Cheng Xuemin went to China Film Group, saying he wanted to "meet with the delegation."

In Ding Daming's office, Xie Jin and their Deputy Factory Director Zhao were checking the details of the itinerary when they saw Cheng Xuemin enter. They quickly stood up and greeted him.
"Xuemin, you're finally here! Our flight is scheduled for tomorrow morning. We'll go to Shanghai first, then transfer to Hong Kong, and then take a detour to Bolin from Hong Kong."

"I might have to stay in Hong Kong for a couple more days!"

Actually, Lao Xie was having a headache looking at this itinerary because there are no direct flights from Beijing to Bolin; one has to go through Hong Kong to fly directly to Bolin.

However, there are no direct flights from Beijing to Hong Kong either!
There are currently only two ways for people in mainland China to go to Hong Kong: one is to take a train to Guangzhou and then cross the border there to Hong Kong!

But that would mean the journey to Guangzhou would take four or five days, which would be too time-consuming!

So China Film Group's arrangement was to first fly from Yanjing to Shanghai, then fly from Shanghai to Hong Kong, arriving in Hong Kong the next day.

As a result, Lao Xie and his deputy factory director Zhao made a special trip by train from Shanghai to come here, which was quite a hassle.

They could have just waited in Shanghai; they wouldn't have needed to make the trip to Beijing at all.

"Director Xie, you guys are pretty quick!" Cheng Xuemin greeted Xie Jin happily, took the schedule, and glanced at the "Activity Schedule" section.

Apart from the opening ceremony and screenings of the main competition, there was almost no time allocated for market exchanges.

Cheng Xuemin saw this but didn't say anything, deciding to ask Lao Xie about it privately later.

"Thank goodness! We came north immediately after receiving Mr. Ding's call!" Xie Jin chuckled sheepishly. In fact, after calling Cheng Xuemin, he boarded the train directly.

Little did they know, they would still have to go back to Shanghai, but procedurally they did have to report to Yanjing first.

It was already dark when I left China Film Group.

The night before his departure, Cheng Xuemin was packing his luggage at home. His wife, Feng Jiayou, was holding a small squirrel and watching him put Tai Chi brochures into his suitcase when she suddenly asked:

"What if... what if 'Romance on Lushan Mountain' wins an award, and nobody watches 'Tai Chi'?"

That would be a joke, especially for Cheng Xuemin!
In fact, his family knew that Lushan Love in Shanghai was being promoted by China Film Group to the Bolin Film Festival, and Cheng Xuemin's Tai Chi was merely accompanying the film, not being the main character.

My family has always had this worry!

What if Shanghai's "Romance on Lushan Mountain" wins an award, but Cheng Xuemin's "Tai Chi" is ignored and fails to win any awards?
To know!
Lushan Lian had no mental burden at all, and went into the competition with a light heart. Of course, it would be best if she could win an award, but even if she didn't, it wouldn't matter, since it was her first time.

But Cheng Xuemin's "Tai Chi" is different; he made a pledge to the lake for ten million US dollars in foreign exchange!

If Tai Chi fails to earn this much US dollar foreign exchange during its trip to Bolin, will it be held accountable?
If no one is interested and no foreigners even look at it, you won't even make back tens of thousands of US dollars, and you'll lose money!
What will Cheng Xuemin face next?
Therefore, everything should be avoided when compared!
If it had been Cheng Xuemin's "Tai Chi" that went global from the very beginning, things would have been fine!

Earning US dollars is a win!
Whether you earn a lot or a little, that's another matter.

But now that there's a comparison, Shanghai Film Studio's "Romance on Lushan Mountain" is also going to Bolin, and "Romance on Lushan Mountain" is an entry film, while Tai Chi is just an external promotional film, so it lags far behind in terms of resources.

Therefore, everyone guessed that the success of "Romance on Lushan Mountain" would definitely be better than that of "Tai Chi".

If we had known it was like this beforehand, we should have let Cheng Xuemin direct "Romance on Lushan Mountain" in the first place, or we shouldn't have let my aunt pull strings and proactively alerted the Bolin Film Festival in advance.

"Silly wife, if 'Romance on Lushan Mountain' wins an award, it will be a great joy. I would be more than happy if 'Romance on Lushan Mountain' won an award, after all, I am the screenwriter!"

Cheng Xuemin wasn't so worried. He flicked the woman's nose and reassured her, "As for Tai Chi, you can rest assured, you can be completely at ease!"

"When has your man ever fought a battle unprepared?"

"Can it really succeed?" Feng Jiayou's face was still very worried. After all, this was a foreign exchange earning task worth ten million US dollars. It was no joke, and just talking about it wasn't enough!
"We'll definitely succeed, honey, just wait for our triumphant return!"

Cheng Xuemin's confidence was not blind, because his previous life's "Shaolin Temple" was already very successful.

Moreover, that was China Film Group, which doesn't understand marketing and operations at all. They only know how to sell at half price or give away, or even give it away for free, and they still manage to achieve such good foreign exchange earnings.

This time, with the same thing run by Cheng Xuemin, a genius in operations, the results will only be better.

Aside from this factor, what I'm most concerned about is that the popularity of Chinese martial arts abroad has reached a point where there's a lack of new talent!

The Chinese martial arts craze that Li Xiaolong previously sparked internationally has propelled him to the pinnacle of international fame.

Almost all the movies he starred in were box office hits.

Unfortunately, he died young at the peak of his career, leaving behind too many regrets. At the same time, the craze for Chinese martial arts he created also subsided considerably.

Although martial arts star Cheng Long took over during this period, Cheng Long almost exclusively followed the path of a martial arts comedian, which was inherently much weaker than real martial arts.

Therefore, the international film market is currently devoid of genuine Chinese martial arts. However, thanks to Bruce Lee's influence, Chinese martial arts have almost entered the streets and alleys of Europe and America, and there is indeed a large market potential for the popularity of Chinese martial arts.

Unfortunately, after Li Xiaolong, no one has lived up to his legacy.

It wasn't until Li Lianjie's sudden emergence in "Shaolin Temple" that moviegoers around the world were once again amazed. They were surprised to find that Chinese martial arts could be fought in such a way. The fight was indeed very exciting and received widespread acclaim.

The sudden emergence of Shaolin Temple sparked a nationwide craze for martial arts, particularly Chinese martial arts, in the United States. Foreigners who have visited Shaolin Temple invariably make it a must-see when traveling to China.

This is the charm that Chinese martial arts bring to foreigners, so Cheng Xuemin is not worried at all that his film "Tai Chi" will flop!

"Old Huang, why don't you exchange a couple more?"

The next morning, Cheng Xuemin first went to Yan Film Studio to meet up with Huang Jianzhong, Li Lianjie, Zhu Lin and others, and then they went to the airport to meet up with Xie Jin and others from China Film Group.

Before even setting off, Huang Jianzhong secretly approached Cheng Xuemin, hoping to exchange some US dollars in cash with him.

After all, everyone knows that if you want to go to Bolin, your RMB won't be very useful; you'll need US dollars in cash.

But where would they normally get those things?

If you try to exchange it at the post office, you won't get much according to regulations. In the current situation in China, the money is basically going in but not out, so it's very difficult to exchange for US dollar cash.

They could get some on the black market, but the terrifying exchange rate scared Huang Jianzhong and his group so much that they could only shake their heads.

Therefore, the only option was to approach Cheng Xuemin, a big spender. He had earned tens of thousands of US dollars in foreign currency before!

Moreover, Cheng Xuemin was also very generous; he had told them in advance that if they wanted to exchange some US dollars, they could contact him.

We'll use the bank's exchange rate of 1 to 2.5.

Huang Jianzhong and his team were overjoyed, since the exchange rate on the black market was at least 1 to 3.5, or even 1 to 4 or 1 to 5.

"No, no, it should be enough, it should be enough!"

"If it's really not enough, we can ask Xuemin to exchange some more later!"

Huang Jianzhong's family wasn't very wealthy to begin with, so being arranged to participate in the exhibition at Bolin made his whole family extremely happy.

His wife, in particular, gave him a special allowance of 500 yuan to take with him and bring back some nice things for the family.

So he managed to exchange two hundred-dollar bills from Cheng Xuemin.

As for hearing Cheng Xuemin say that we should exchange for two more tickets?
No money, no money. Five hundred yuan is the most my family can give me, that's all they can give me, no more than that.

Li Lianjie (Little Li) had even less, because he had several younger siblings who needed to be fed, and he was the only one who could support them.

Moreover, he used to have opportunities to perform martial arts abroad from time to time while he was in the martial arts team, so this opportunity to go to Bolin was not too rare. His family did not have much cash for him, so they gave him three hundred yuan and exchanged it for a hundred-dollar bill from Cheng Xuemin.

However, Zhu Lin, the Queen of the Women's Kingdom, did not show off at all, but she managed to exchange a full six hundred-dollar bills and 1,500 yuan in RMB from Cheng Xuemin in one go!

Goodness, did they take advantage of this rare opportunity to go abroad and bring out all their dowry?
With an extra two thousand yuan, it wasn't very convenient to carry around, so Cheng Xuemin simply handed it over to his brother-in-law, Feng Jiazhao, to take back to his wife.

When I met up with Lao Xie and the others at the airport, I heard another piece of news from Gong Xue.

It is said that the Pacific Music Company from Guangzhou came to Yanjing to find the leaders of their General Political Department, hoping to get the General Political Department's approval to let their music company release an album for Gong Xue!
That is, to record "The Moon on the Fifteenth", "The Bloodstained Glory", and the recently popular "Night at the Military Port" and release them as a cassette tape.

However, the General Political Department has not yet agreed, because Gong Xue is going abroad to Bolin, and given Gong Xue's own wishes, releasing the tapes will definitely require consulting Cheng Xuemin first.

So they agreed to talk about it after they returned from Bolin.

To this!

Cheng Xuemin was naturally pleased to hear this; it was certainly a good thing that Gong Xue could produce a cassette tape for her.

As for the sales volume of the released cassette tapes?
It has absolutely nothing to do with Gong Xue, the lead singer, nor with Cheng Xuemin, the original creator.

Pacific Music is incredibly powerful these days, which means it's extremely domineering.

The fact that they allowed the original singer to go to Guangzhou to record the song is already an unprecedented honor for you. It's only because Gong Xue, the original singer, is from the General Political Department that they can't directly pirate the song there.

Otherwise, if it were another music creator or original singer, they wouldn't even bother to ask beforehand; they would usually just ask their own singers to cover the song right there in the recording studio.

Once it's done, it will be distributed nationwide, making it even more powerful than pirated goods.

So the fact that they were able to give us advance notice and coordinate with the General Political Department is already quite polite.

Of course, they must have their own reasons.

Didn't you say you were going to release an album right away?

This is not like just a popular song that you can simply change the singer and go to the recording studio to cover.

They're going to release an album, recording a whole cassette tape of songs. Relying solely on Gong Xue's renditions of "The Moon on the Fifteenth," "The Bloodstained Glory," and "Night at the Military Port" is definitely not enough!

The message from across the Pacific to the General Political Department suggests there's more to come.

as predicted!

Gong Xue then added, "Their intention is to include all the new songs you wrote, Xuemin, in the recording!"

"And that foreign pop song that earned hundreds of thousands of US dollars in foreign exchange, if you have time to go to Guangzhou with me, they hope to put all your new songs together, release an album, and distribute it nationwide to promote you!"

“Great, that’s wonderful!” Cheng Xuemin nodded and added, “Then when we return from Bolin this time and pass through Guangzhou, we can go and take a look!”

If it were the old Cheng Xuemin, he would definitely ask in return, "How much are they paying for his album?"
But after the incident with the story magazine, Cheng Xuemin became more careful about his words and actions and wasn't too enthusiastic about royalties.

Otherwise, if someone were to ask in return, "How much can Pacific Company pay for the manuscript?", it would only give others ammunition to criticize them.

As everyone knows, Pacific Records Records almost free, just like reprinting articles.

Those with a better conscience might give some royalties for reprinting, and Pacific Company would give some royalties for lyrics and composition, but there would be no distribution share. Does Cheng Xuemin care about those few dollars in royalties for his creations?

So it's better to go with the flow and give Pacific Company some face, otherwise they'll just use brute force to pirate it, and you can't do anything about it if they do it secretly.

By informing them beforehand, at least Cheng Xuemin and the others, the original singers of this album, can't escape responsibility!
Then we'll go to the Pacific Ocean and record all of Cheng Xuemin's previous new songs onto a cassette tape. That would be a kind of achievement for Cheng Xuemin.

After all, Pacific Music Company is still directly under Haizili, and almost all of its profits are handed over to the national treasury. So the more money Cheng Xuemin's albums earn, the more the leaders of Haizili see it. In fact, it is more of a soft power than the royalties in cash!
……

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