China News Service, Beijing, September 25. Title: Exclusive interview with Wang Xiaoqiang: "Confrontation" is not a remake of a major or important case.
China News Service reporters Li Baijia, Lang Jiahui, Zhang Xiaoxi
The contemporary national security-themed drama "Confrontation", written by Wang Xiaoqiang, will be a hit in September. In an exclusive interview with China News Service, he introduced that the play is not a biography of a character, nor is it a remake of a major or important case.
In the 1990s, the situation in the Taiwan Strait was in turmoil. Taiwanese leader Lee Teng-hui made divisive remarks, and the People's Liberation Army held a joint military exercise in the Taiwan Strait...Wang Xiaoqiang, who was still in junior high school at the time, was deeply impressed by this. Years later, this childhood memory became the starting point of his creation, prompting him to write the first word of the script for "Confrontation".
On September 22, Wang Xiaoqiang, the screenwriter of the contemporary national security drama "Confrontation", accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Service at his studio in Beijing. Photo by China News Service reporter Lang Jiahui
The historical changes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait naturally give weight to the story and bring new possibilities to creation. Over the course of three years, Wang Xiaoqiang wrote a 600,000-word script that told the story of a twenty-year battle between national security police officers and Taiwanese spies lurking in the mainland, among 53 main characters.
"I create in the gaps of history." Wang Xiaoqiang said that the rich elements of the times provide fertile ground. Based on this, how to make fictional characters take root in the times and show real texture is a question he has repeatedly thought about.
During the creative process, Wang Xiaoqiang had close contact with professionals.
The picture shows a still from the contemporary national security drama "Confrontation". (Photo courtesy of the film producer)
"I have a lot of questions to ask. But some questions, he won't answer, some he will talk around, and some will just smile and then become silent." With no contact information, no name, and no way to confirm the authenticity of what the other person said, he had an intuitive feeling about the specialness and mystery of this profession.
The play also talks about the boring, nameless and selfless nature of counterintelligence work. Among them, young police officer He Chunxiao recalled seeing a couple flying kites when he got off work. "This is the first time I felt the sense of honor brought by work. It turns out that life can still be lived like this. This is what we have earned with our boring life day after day."
"The greatness we often understand is extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, the highlight moments of high-profile people. The other kind of greatness is ordinary people doing ordinary but not easy things in their lives." Wang Xiaoqiang said that he was proud to show the "other kind of greatness" that Guoan silently persisted in.
"Confrontation" won the national ratings title when it premiered. Now that the finale has been released, its influence has spread beyond the film and television entertainment circles, triggering discussions in all walks of life on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In this regard, Wang Xiaoqiang "did not make any presets." He believes that this may be because cross-strait relations and changes in the times have become the background for the changing fate of the characters in the drama, which is "very new" to the audience.
The picture shows a still from the contemporary national security drama "Confrontation". (Photo courtesy of the film producer)
"If the audience can watch "Confrontation", it will feel as if it really happened. Receiving such a review is a compliment to me."
Looking back on the creative trajectory, from "The Secret Envoy", "The Chaser", "The Mask", "The Opponent" to "Harbin 1944", "Confrontation" is Wang Xiaoqiang's sixth time writing about a spy war and his second time writing about the hidden frontline on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
"Perhaps the next creation will return to this coordinate and continue to search for stories from the gaps in history that have not been told yet," he said.
