12.13.09
Halfway through 《奋斗》
Well, I’m just over halfway finished with 《奋斗》 and wanted to check in with a few updates and observations. So far, I still agree with everything I previously wrote as to watching the show being an extremely efficient acquisition method. I’ve been spending about two hours a day to watching the show (time I probably should be devoting to grad school essays), and have already noticed improvements in my speaking ability, listening, and vocabulary.
As for the show itself, it’s entertaining…for me. If I were an educated Chinese person, I probably would have given up watching at about the fifth or sixth episode. First of all, the plot, while never dull, repeatedly rests on a series of ridiculously coincidental events. The main character, 陆涛, is an aspiring architectural student and just after he graduates college, discovers that his biological father 徐志森, whom he had been told was dead, was actually alive in the US, and moving back to China. 徐志森 just happens to be a millionaire real estate developer, and offers 陆涛 a job working for his company. After working for 徐志森 for several months, 陆涛 receives an offer to work for one of the top architectural firms in China. He leaves his 徐志森’s company to take the job. However, soon after he starts the new job, he is informed of an impending project with a new client. Who is this new client? Yup, it’s 徐志森’s company. So 陆涛 starts cooperating with 徐志森 on the new project, but soon faces a new nemesis. His stepfather, 陆亚迅, just happens to work for the 规划局 (Planning Bureau) and attempts to thwart 陆涛 and 徐志森’s real estate venture. The situation further complicated when 陆涛’s ex-girlfriend, 米莱, whom he had dumped in favor of her best friend 夏琳, goes into the real estate business (her father is also a millionaire real estate kingpin), solely as an chance to win back 陆涛.
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| Clockwise from the top left, 陆涛, 夏琳, 向南, 华子, 杨晓芸, and 米莱 |
In another unrelated scene, 杨晓芸 and 夏琳,who are close friends, run into each other at the abortion clinic (not entirely unbelievable based on the prevalence of abortion in the Middle Kingdom). However, neither of them is aware the other is pregnant, even though they talk every day. They both just happen to be waiting in the same line to get their abortions, on the same day, at the same abortion clinic. Now I guess this would all be somewhat plausible, if the story happened in some small village where everybody knows each other. But 《奋斗》 takes place in Beijing.
My other criticism of the show is its underlying message: essentially that the key to happiness is to make as much money is possible so you can buy a nicer house and car than your peers. In Chinese, this is called 瞎攀比, a phrase which is evoked frequently throughout the show. This is especially depicted by a character named 杨晓芸, who marries 陆涛’s friend 向南, shortly after their first date. 杨晓芸 is the prototypical 80s generation materialistic bitch, and constantly scolds 向南 because he doesn’t make as much money as 陆涛, and he drives an ugly old station wagon, as opposed to 陆涛’s Audi (陆涛 became a millionnaire just over a year out of college, so he’s not exactly an easy act to follow). 向南 for his part, is unsuave, whiney, oblivious to the needs of women, and convinced his wife regards their marriage as “heaven.” The couple are constantly at ends with one other, and 杨晓芸 refers to her marriage as the worst decision of her life. In one scene, while shopping in a mall, 向南 makes a comment about 杨晓芸’s mother. 杨晓芸 starts hitting and slapping him in public, as 向南 yells back, and a crowd gathers. The scene ends with 向南 crouched on the floor, surrounded by bystanders snapping photos with cell phones, crying, and yelling “She stole my heart. She stole my heart.” The two are painful to watch and I am eagerly awaiting the episode where they finally get divorced and vow never speak to one another again.
All that being said, the show does have its bright spots. My favorite character is the third lead male role, 华子. Unlike 陆涛 and 向南, 华子 did not go to college, and therefore has to take the blue collar struggle through life. He gets fired from his job as a used car salesman, and decides to open a barbershop, and then a cake store, with his girlfriend Lu Lu. Lu Lu is sweet, caring, not materialistic, and unlike the others, is not from Beijing (coincidence???). She appreciates 华子 for his character, (not his bank account), and the two have the healthiest relationship in the show. 华子 for his part is a joker, and provides most of the show’s comic relief, often in a self-deprecating fashion, as he is the only one who is not 白领 (white collar). He’s also by far and away the best actor of the cast.
《奋斗》 is entertaining enough that I’m going to continue watching the entire series, but from an artistic perspective, I’m starting to comprehend why my Chinese friends always tell me that Chinese shows are so lacking in quality. The cinematography is fair, the acting for the most part is sub-par, and the plot could have been concocted by a high school screenwriting class. Multiple Chinese friends have recommended that I watch the show 《蜗居》 which they say is both artistically worthwhile, and extremely controversial right now. So I think that’s going to be the plan once I finish with 《奋斗》 . In the meantime, I plan to watch 《奋斗》 in its entirety, and would be interested to hear comments from anybody else who might be watching.
realmayo
said,
December 13, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Ｉ started watching this after reading the comments about it on chinese-forums http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?t=23805 , and friends in China said it would teach me some modern, useful vocab & expresssions.
I agree it’s fairly watchable, and although my Chinese isn’t good enough to follow everything, I think it is helping my Chinese. I’m about 10 episodes in. I transcribed one of the episodes, which took ages and ages but was actually very useful, so I’m doing another episode now.
Best thing about 奋斗 is that it’s mainly non-stop modern dialogue, plus the characters are done well enough that you care enough to like/dislike them.
shan
said,
December 13, 2009 at 10:26 pm
i couldn’t really make it through all of the episodes and skipped around a lot. the conversations were nauseating and grated on my nerves, plot super slow to unfold, and i couldn’t stand 陆涛 or 夏琳. I watched episodes 1, 2, half of 3, and then 10, 20, 25-30 to get the gist of the plot. nothing happened in the middle episodes that they don’t reference later on, so i really didn’t miss much. the last 5 eps are relatively good in terms of plot advancement.
i was pretty disgusted in general with the materialistic focus of the show, particularly the lucrative real estate industry. the tone does change a little in the later episodes …
i’m curious to know your thoughts as you watch more episodes, so keep posting!
michael
said,
December 14, 2009 at 11:13 am
Have you watched 我的青春,我做主… translated loosely as “It’s my Youth, I’ll Do What I Want!”? I though that was a pretty good one. Well, at least it was the best show we got to watch in “the joint”. But I’d definitely have to agree that the plot hinges on all sorts of totally ridiculous twists and coincidences.
Then again, anything seems awesome when it’s not the latest 50-part series on Mao helping Shaanxi farmers free their donkey carts from the mud while smoking and smiling. There are waaaaay too many shows like that.
Bruce
said,
December 20, 2009 at 6:00 am
When you are fully finish it, you will find out that Lulu & 华子 are quite different with what you thought, which somewhat makes me feel pathetic about reality.
Uln
said,
December 20, 2009 at 6:19 am
Hi, I found this blog by chance and I am surprised to see you are doing (and writing) very similar things to me. I also got to the conclusion that watching Chinese serials is (together with reading books) the 2 best ways to get up there in Chinese when you find yourself stuck in the upper-intermediate.
Last month I watchd the full “冷箭“ show, it is the latest of those liberation army serials. It was extremely bad, from what you write here I am guessing it was MUCH worse than the “struggle” . I wrote about it here. The only advantage I see in those terrible army serials is that scripts are so stilted it’s like a carousel of chengyus, great for students if you are patient enough.
However now I am watching 蜗居 and I find it much more useful. Because the story is actually adictive so you dont really need to force yourself to watch everyday, I find myself eager to watch the next chapter.
Also, one thing more: from what you say it sounds like you get the shows on DVD and watch it on your TV. I find it much more convenient to just get them on youku and stream directly on my laptop. I have found that if you are fast enough and watch closely, you dont need to rewind at all. Just every time that you didnt catch what they saying you pause immediately and most of the times the subtitles are still there for you to read and check dictionary. I find it better not to rewind/rewatch because it wastes too much time which you cant afford if you have a dayjob and a life in the same time.
I will be watching your new writings on Chinese TV. Keep it up.
Uln
said,
December 20, 2009 at 10:01 am
Wow. I have just been reading your old posts on the barber shop experience. Amazing. I dont know how I missed that at the time, its up there among the top classics of China blogging. Lots of peifus from Sh, I am a fan!
MF
said,
December 20, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Hi –
As you mentioned in your earlier post, the big problem w/ studying Chinese through TV dramas is how boring they can be. I totally agree, and one thing I do is try to find Japanese dramas that have a Chinese language track. Those dramas are just so much more interesting than the Chinese ones — the characters are older, the acting is less melodramatic, and the storylines are more realistic.
I’d really recommend 白色巨塔， the medical drama, because it’s well-written and has some really great acting (good jobs by the voiceover actors too). I learned a lot of vocab from that show. Another good program is “Die Sternthaler,” that starred the (recently disgraced) Noriko Sakai. There was another show that I saw on Phoenix TV that starred Shinji Takeda as a man married to a deaf woman — unfortunately, I only caught part of that and don’t know what it was called.
intotherain
said,
December 20, 2009 at 9:30 pm
hi, this is intotherain.
我之前读过你的很多文章，我记得你曾在福建生活和工作，不知道现在在哪里，回美国了吗？
至于《奋斗》，它是一部很受欢迎的电视剧，首先是其演员阵容强大，有很多明星参与；其次是这个故事寄托着众多当今中国青年人的梦想——成功的梦想。
当然，金无足赤，人无完人。这部剧有它成功的地方，也有一些瑕疵。譬如你说的怎么有那么多的巧事，太假了。但是无论如何，很高兴你能如此执着地看一部中国电视连续剧。
ps:你对华子的印象最深，是不是因为他想开理发店，而你也曾在理发店工作过？你们之间产生共鸣了? hehe, just joking.
echo yan
said,
January 18, 2010 at 3:15 am
蜗居 最好不要看。头疼！
The Kippies
said,
February 24, 2010 at 2:02 am
I discovered 奋斗 about 3 years ago from the recommendation of a DVD seller in Shanghai. He said it was an interesting series, and because it was set in Beijing, their Mandarin was good and I could learn I lot of slang. I watched the whole series in like a week and loved it because i felt it did capture the feel of what a life is like in Beijing. All of the Chinese friends from Beijing who I discussed this series with loved it too. I think its because all of the scenes were filmed in places that hold lots of memories for people who have spent any fair amount of time in Beijing, especially as a student. (I studied in Beijing for my junior year of university). For example – their school they was filmed on the Tsinghua campus, and the apartments that 陆涛 and 杨晓芸 live, 后现代城， is a very popular place for young people to live. Some of my friends in Beijing live there.
FYI, 华子 did graduate from the same University as the rest of the gang (remember, he was wearing a cap and gown too at the beginning), but just chose another path than the rest. and actually the script was based on the book 奋斗。
@Shan – I think you probably didn\’t watch enough. I thought the theme of the series actually was against materialism.