Material boy makes his big-screen debut
June 30, 2013, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
JUNE was an exciting month for controversial writer Guo Jingming. He celebrated his 30th birthday earlier this month and premiered his debut as a movie director, an adaptation of his hit novel "Tiny Times," on Thursday.
"Tiny Times" was inspired by Guo's young adult novel of the same name that sold over 24 million copies. It is a coming-of-age story about a tight-knit circle of four friends, "who come from different family backgrounds, different environments, with different characters and faces," Guo said.
"Some of them are rich, some poor, some ordinary, some weird, which means they are a sampling of our generation," said Guo.
In fact, the movie is partly a reflection of Guo's life. By combining elements of his own life with the lives of others, he hoped to convey the heart and soul of China's teens and young adults to audiences.
The novel "Tiny Times" has been called a "guide to luxury goods," due to its vivid descriptions of expensive things and high-end brands, and controversy has swirled about whether the materialistic content is appropriate for impressionable young readers.
Guo said he is "unperturbed" by this controversy. "It is normal for people to pursue a better life and there is nothing wrong with enjoying it."
"The movie is slightly different from the novel. The novel is more direct. Descriptions of money and luxuries are more straightforward, and triggered more arguments," said Guo, the founder and CEO of Shanghai's World Cultural Development Co Ltd, a publishing company focused on producing young adult novels and magazines.
"The novel touches upon compromises and struggles in a materialistic world, conveying a sense of helplessness," he said.
However, Guo said he believes that movies are a "dream machine," so he played down the sense of the harshness of reality while strengthening the concept of the "power of dreams," specifically, the type of "dreaming and spirit that belongs to youth."
He said he felt the movie should "hit the softest spot in people's hearts," which meant he would need to demonstrate "the confrontation against materials" and "the confrontation against loneliness."
Guo who topped the Chinese Writers Rich List in 2007, 2008 and 2011, is from "an ordinary family from a small city in Sichuan Province."
When he first arrived at Shanghai University in 2002 as a "student with nothing," the visual arts engineering major found it difficult to pay for tuition and also buy equipment like a computer and a camera.
To fit in with people in the metropolis, Guo said he was "forced" to earn money through writing, though his first recognition came in 2001, when he won the New Concept Competition, a national writing contest.
If he only relied on his parents, he said, he felt he would never be able to live a better life.
"The confusion about materials is the special characteristic of our generation, because our parents' generation had no concept of materials. On the contrary, we are surrounded by materials from birth and grow up with all kinds of materials," he said, using the word "materials" as a kind of catch-all for luxury goods and the other "things" a consumerist culture pushes people to acquire.
"'Rich kids can buy the latest games console and rich girls can dress in beautiful dresses every day. People ask, why can't I?' This generation faces a disparity in materials and is always struggling," he said.
While "Tiny Times," the novel, emphasizes the roles luxury goods and consumerism play in the lives of Chinese people born in the 1980s and 1990s, the film adaptation focuses on friendship.
Guo, himself, has stirred controversy and grappled with unfavorable public opinion as a writer and being sued for plagiarism, but he always had loyal readers who were there for him. The words to the theme song for "Tiny Times" were written by Guo and his friend and colleague Zhao Jiarong, who used "Luoluo" as a pen name.
Luoluo said that when Guo asked her to write the lyrics to the song, she didn't hesitate.
"I enjoy helping others succeed, because I believe a person's value also lies in helping," Guo said.
"Tiny Times" was inspired by Guo's young adult novel of the same name that sold over 24 million copies. It is a coming-of-age story about a tight-knit circle of four friends, "who come from different family backgrounds, different environments, with different characters and faces," Guo said.
"Some of them are rich, some poor, some ordinary, some weird, which means they are a sampling of our generation," said Guo.
In fact, the movie is partly a reflection of Guo's life. By combining elements of his own life with the lives of others, he hoped to convey the heart and soul of China's teens and young adults to audiences.
The novel "Tiny Times" has been called a "guide to luxury goods," due to its vivid descriptions of expensive things and high-end brands, and controversy has swirled about whether the materialistic content is appropriate for impressionable young readers.
Guo said he is "unperturbed" by this controversy. "It is normal for people to pursue a better life and there is nothing wrong with enjoying it."
"The movie is slightly different from the novel. The novel is more direct. Descriptions of money and luxuries are more straightforward, and triggered more arguments," said Guo, the founder and CEO of Shanghai's World Cultural Development Co Ltd, a publishing company focused on producing young adult novels and magazines.
"The novel touches upon compromises and struggles in a materialistic world, conveying a sense of helplessness," he said.
However, Guo said he believes that movies are a "dream machine," so he played down the sense of the harshness of reality while strengthening the concept of the "power of dreams," specifically, the type of "dreaming and spirit that belongs to youth."
He said he felt the movie should "hit the softest spot in people's hearts," which meant he would need to demonstrate "the confrontation against materials" and "the confrontation against loneliness."
Guo who topped the Chinese Writers Rich List in 2007, 2008 and 2011, is from "an ordinary family from a small city in Sichuan Province."
When he first arrived at Shanghai University in 2002 as a "student with nothing," the visual arts engineering major found it difficult to pay for tuition and also buy equipment like a computer and a camera.
To fit in with people in the metropolis, Guo said he was "forced" to earn money through writing, though his first recognition came in 2001, when he won the New Concept Competition, a national writing contest.
If he only relied on his parents, he said, he felt he would never be able to live a better life.
"The confusion about materials is the special characteristic of our generation, because our parents' generation had no concept of materials. On the contrary, we are surrounded by materials from birth and grow up with all kinds of materials," he said, using the word "materials" as a kind of catch-all for luxury goods and the other "things" a consumerist culture pushes people to acquire.
"'Rich kids can buy the latest games console and rich girls can dress in beautiful dresses every day. People ask, why can't I?' This generation faces a disparity in materials and is always struggling," he said.
While "Tiny Times," the novel, emphasizes the roles luxury goods and consumerism play in the lives of Chinese people born in the 1980s and 1990s, the film adaptation focuses on friendship.
Guo, himself, has stirred controversy and grappled with unfavorable public opinion as a writer and being sued for plagiarism, but he always had loyal readers who were there for him. The words to the theme song for "Tiny Times" were written by Guo and his friend and colleague Zhao Jiarong, who used "Luoluo" as a pen name.
Luoluo said that when Guo asked her to write the lyrics to the song, she didn't hesitate.
"I enjoy helping others succeed, because I believe a person's value also lies in helping," Guo said.
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