Meet Mr.Bai, the headmaster of a one-room school in an impoverished, experimental farming community in China’s vast Gobi Desert.  His school needs many material improvements but he’s a devoted teacher, so he makes do with what little they’ve got. One thing he’d love to see is a new playground. He keeps applying for funds from the local district government, but his requests go ignored. 

白校长生活在中国戈壁沙滩的贫困的实验性农业社区里，他的学校只有一间教室。学校物资贫乏，他力所能及的利用有限资源勉强维持着。他想建一个新的操场，于是向当地区政府申请资金，但他的申请迟迟没有回复。

Impassioned and frustrated, he finally takes the drastic step of going over the local politicians’ heads and complaining in person to the regional government. Before he knows it, he’s thrown into the shark tank of local politics. How much is he willing to compromise his ideals just to get a playground?

义愤填膺、无奈之下，他决定越过当地政府，直接向上级政府申请。在不知不觉中，他卷进了一场纷争中。为了得到一个操场，他愿意在多大程度上妥协呢？

Yikes. All of this drama for a village playground could be the comedic makings of a wry satire a la Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People, but this story is set a lot further east, and treats its subject matter with a dignity and respect I found refreshing in our age of cynicism.

建操场这个情节可能是向弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基的讽刺喜剧《人民的仆人》致敬，但《山海情》的故事背景更具中国特色，所以在这个玩世不恭的时代，我们要以严肃和尊重的态度看待这部剧的主题。

Mr. Bai’s passion for a playground is but one subplot among many in the 2021 Chinese TV series Minning (a close pronunciation in English would be Ming-Ning) Town, produced by Daylight Entertainment (Nirvana in Fire, Ode to Joy, Like a Flowing River, The Story of Ming Lan). The trials of the beleaguered Mr. Bai (played by Zu Feng) brought to mind one of my favorite overlooked 19th century US novels, Edward Eggleston’s The Hoosier Schoolmaster, which has twice been adapted to film. Other times, this heartwarming saga delving into frontier life reminded me of cherished classic American series like Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons. But Minning Town isn’t about a bygone era. It covers a roughly 15-year period from 1991 to 2016, and its setting is the Gobi Desert.

白校长对操场的执著是电视剧《山海情》的众多情节中，制作团队是《琅琊榜》、《欢乐颂》、《大江大何》、《知否知否应是绿肥红瘦》等电视剧的班底。陷入困境的白校长（祖峰饰）让我想起了我最喜欢的一部被忽视的 19 世纪美国小说，爱德华·埃格尔斯顿的《印第安纳大学校长》，它曾两次被改编成电影，同时，这部探索边疆生活的电视剧让我想起了美国经典剧集，《草原上的小屋》和《沃尔顿一家》，但《山海情》的时代背景并不是一个过去的时代， 这部剧横跨1991年到2016年大约15年的时间，而发生地则是戈壁滩。

Inspired by real events and the lives of ordinary farmers, the setup is that China’s Central Government has launched a poverty alleviation program in which economically disadvantaged villagers living hardscrabble lives in remote mountains are cajoled into relocating to the vast desert to try and make it bloom. Hey, if the US can build sprawling cities like Las Vegas and Los Angeles on top of a desert, why can’t they?

取材于真实事件和普通农民的生活，《山海情》设定在中国政府启动了一项扶贫计划，在该计划中，在偏远山区经济困难村民被招募到广袤的沙漠中，试图让沙漠变绿洲。如果美国可以在沙漠上建造像拉斯维加斯和洛杉矶这样的庞大城市，中国为什么不能呢？

But there is literally nothing there for the villagers. All they have to go on is faith that the Central Government will follow through on its promises to irrigate the land for crops while they build homes, or rather shacks, with no electricity and no indoor plumbing. But if they just hang tough, things will gradually improve, or so they are promised. Permanent homes will be built. And a hospital. And a bus line to the city.

但对于支边的村民来说，这里一穷二白，凭借信念和政府的支持，他们在没有电和厕所的房屋，准确的说是棚屋里居住，灌溉土地以种植农作物，他们相信只要坚持不懈，一切都会好转，房子会有的，医院会有的，通往市区的公交线路，也会有的。

Should they trust the government?  Would you trust your government? Some of the villagers do and some don’t. Some consider making this leap of faith an act of patriotism while others are more cynical and set in their ways. Indeed, there are many deserters along the way who make a break for it at the first sign of a sandstorm and run back to their harsh but familiar home villages.

他们应该相信政府吗？你会相信你的政府吗？ 有的村民有，有的没有。 一些人认为这种信仰是爱国主义的飞跃，而另一些人则更加愤世嫉俗并固执己见。 的确，过程中有许多逃兵，一有风沙征兆就逃之夭夭，跑回他们贫穷但熟悉的家乡。

But ultimately, this isn’t a show about deserters. It’s a show about the pioneers who stuck it out and continue thriving there to this day. Some characters are narrow minded villagers who find honor in sticking with tradition.

但《山海情》并不是关于放弃的电视剧，这是一部关于先驱者们坚持下去并在那里继续蓬勃发展的故事。有些角色就是一根筋，他们以坚持传统为荣。

I was particularly struck when the young woman Shuihua (Rayza) runs away from home to escape a marriage her father has arranged with a young man from a neighboring village in exchange for a donkey (yes, that is value placed on her), only to be overcome by family guilt and trudge home to fulfil her father’s wishes and honor tradition. At first, I was troubled by the filmmakers’ apparent messaging here about the need for women to be dutiful to men as their primary purpose in life, but then I thought, like it or not this is probably true for a woman in a rural farming village.

当年轻的李水花离家出走时，我特别震惊，因为她父亲安排她嫁给邻村的一个年轻人，以换取一头驴，为了维护家庭的传统和父亲的愿望，她只有跋涉回家。起初，我对导演在这里传达的信息感到困扰，女性需要对男性绝对服从，这是她们生存的目的，但后来我想通了，不管你喜不喜欢，这就是当时的现状。

I had nothing to fear. Shuihua’s is but one storyline in the series. We meet an array of women on the show who follow a variety of paths and have their own ideologies and who pursue their own dreams for their futures. And as for Shuihua, we keep following her on her marital and professional journey through the end of the series. She’s a complex character struggling to find her footing in a new world as the old ways crumble beneath her feet.

但我没有什么好担心的，李水花的故事只是一个情节，我们在故事中遇到了一系列女性，她们走不同的道路，拥有自己的思想，追求自己的梦想。至于李水花，我们会一直关注她的婚姻和职业生涯，直到剧集结束。她是一个复杂的角色，努力在新世界中找到自己的立足点，因为旧世界正在她的脚下分崩离析。

Every episode put a lump in my throat at least once, and I can’t wait to watch it with my son because the stories are universal to the human condition. They just happen to be set in China. All of us have somewhere in our family and national histories stories of immigrants arriving in a harsh new place and having a go of it. For some of us, this happened generations ago. For others, it’s happening right now somewhere in the world, as anyone following the news knows.

每一集至少让我的喉咙有一次哽咽，我迫不及待地想和我儿子一起看，因为这些故事是普遍的，只是中国将它们拍出来了。在我们的家庭和国家历史中，我们的祖先都有移民开荒的故事。对于一些人来说，这发生在几代人之前，对于其他人来说，正如新闻报道，它仍在世界某个地方发生着。

Either way, you will surely find yourself rooting for the characters. I was engrossed, waiting to see what would happen with lead character Defu (Huang Xuan), a young man in his early 20’s on whom the government thrusts the title of village spokesman. He has no political aspirations but he’s favored in his community because he holds a two-year college degree in agriculture. Many of his community’s daily problems with the desert relocation program will fall on his shoulders.

无论哪种方式，你肯定会发现自己支持角色。我全神贯注，等着看主角马得福（黄轩饰）会发生什么事儿，他是一个 20 岁出头的年轻人，政府授予他代理村主任头衔。他没有政治抱负，但他在社区中受到青睐，因为他拥有两年制农业大学学位。他的村子在沙漠搬迁计划中遇到的许多日常问题都将落在他的肩上。

He must learn diplomacy and politicking in a hurry, while worried sick about his own family and friends. For instance, in one storyline a group of early teens, including his kid brother Debao (Bai Yufan) and headmaster Mr. Bai’s daughter Maimiao (Huang Yao), run away from home, sending the community into a frenzy.

他必须赶紧学习外交和政治，同时关注自己的家人和朋友。例如，在一个故事情节中，包括他的弟弟马得宝（白宇帆饰）和白校长的女儿白麦苗（黄尧饰）在内的一群十几岁的孩子离家出走，让整个村子陷入了疯狂。

Along with the seriousness, there are moments of homespun humor peppered throughout that made me laugh out loud. When an official arrives from the faraway city of Fujian, a southeast coastal province designated by the Central government to help them out of poverty, and in his Fujian dialect lays out a vision for the future in which the community will grow mushrooms and sell them in the nearest city, thus “building a bridge” for their survival, the villagers scratch their heads wondering why the hell anyone would want to build a bridge in the desert when there’s no water.

除了严肃之外，还有一些朴素的幽默感贯穿始终，让我大笑起来。当一位官员从遥远的福建省来帮助他们摆脱贫困时，用他的福建方言描绘了一个未来的愿景，村子将种植蘑菇并出售到最近的城市里，为他们的致富“建造起一座桥梁”，村民们挠头想知道为什么在没有水的情况下会有人想在沙漠中建造一座桥梁。

He realizes with some embarrassment that his bridge metaphor in his Fujian dialect went over their heads and tries again in simpler terms: they will sell their produce at farmers markets in the city. This is met with lots of smiles and nods of approval; that is, if it’s for real. Can they trust the government, or will this desert experiment be abandoned, leaving them to wither and die? This uncertainty about their future is a specter that hangs over them throughout the series. 

他有些尴尬地意识到，他桥梁的比喻村民们根本听不懂，并再次尝试用更简单的语言解释，他们将帮助村民在城市的农贸市场出售蘑菇，这个解释得到了村民的微笑和赞同的点头。也就是说，能否出售出去，决定了他们是坚持还是放弃，这种关于他们未来的不确定性贯穿整个故事。

And don’t get me started on the humor, heartbreak and heroism of the great mushroom caper. An esteemed agriculture expert, Prof. Ling (Huang Jue) settles nearby, temporarily so he believes, to conduct experiments to learn what grasses can be grown to control desert erosion. As a side project, he tries growing mushrooms in small amounts to test whether they might be commercially viable for the farmers.

把幽默、心碎和英雄主义放一边。一位受人尊敬的农业专家凌教授（黄觉饰）暂居在村里，实验种植哪种植物可以有效的控制沙漠侵蚀，作为一个附带项目，他尝试少量种植蘑菇，以测试它们对农民是否具有商业可行性。

The possibility of a cash crop is good enough for the villagers who, when they get wind of his experiments, are raring to take the gamble. He’s reluctant to take the risk at this early stage of his research, but after getting to know the farmers and seeing their dire circumstances first-hand, he’s convinced to use their entire community for his experiment.

对于村民们来说，种植经济作物已经能解决基本温饱了，都不愿冒险种植蘑菇，其实开始的时候凌教授自己也不愿意，但随着时间流逝，他亲眼目睹了村民们的悲惨境遇后，他决定要用他的实验证明种植蘑菇致富的可能性。

Minning Town’s glaring problem is a recurring, i.e., predictable, five-part deus ex machina cycle in several subplots, as follows: local or low-level authority figures are not to be trusted; an impoverished major character has no choice but to be subservient to them; the authority figure callously refuses to address their concerns; in a last-ditch effort, the character in question goes over the authority figure’s head to a more powerful authority figure who turns out to be an avuncular benefactor who almost magically solves their problem while chastising the lower level authority figure; and lastly, our major character learns that authority figures are to be trusted after all so it’s best to work within the system, so they express tremendous gratitude to their savior.

《山海情》中的突出问题在情节中反复出现，这是可预测的，符合故事发展的定律，就是开始时地方政府或职权低的人物不被信任；一个穷困潦倒的主角别无选择，只能等待；但他们不作为；于是，主角越级，找到了一个更有权力的人物，结果证明这是对的举动，他解决了问题，同时惩罚了职权低的人物；最后，人们对主角表达了感谢。

The benevolent authority figure is often a representative of the government, so this repetitive, thematic messaging to always work within the system comes to feel heavy-handed and propagandistic. I’m not sure whether it’s the result of China’s notoriously strict censorship laws (CNN, 7/8/22) which require that TV shows not in any way harm the government or social stability (Time, 3/4/16), or a lack of inventiveness from the writers, but it’s a palpable part of the series.

权威人士通常是政府的代表，所以这种重复的、主题性的情节让人感觉很严厉和具有宣传性。我不确定这是否是审查制度要求影视剧不得以任何方式损害政府或社会稳定的结果，或者是编剧缺乏创造力，但这是本剧故事的重要组成。

For instance, later in the series, Maimiao, now 16, becomes eligible to work in an electronics factory in Fujian. For a village girl this is an opportunity to send money home to her family, and it’s a glamorous change that offers her newfound freedom. When she and her coworkers are being harshly treated by their immediate supervisor Ms. Yang (Zhou Fang), I could already guess how Maimiao would solve the crisis. I turned out to be right.

例如，在本剧的后半部分，现年 16 岁的麦苗有资格在福建的一家电子厂工作。对于一个乡村女孩来说，这是一个向家人寄钱回家的机会，这是一个迷人的变化，为她提供了新的自由。当她和同事受到直属上司杨女士（周放）的严厉对待时，我已经猜到麦苗会如何解决危机。事实证明我是对的。

Despite this mild thematic shortcoming, the show is always dramatically engaging, professionally produced with a big-budget feel, beautifully shot, and its cast is as good as any you’ll find on US broadcast or streaming television. As a lover of international cinema and streaming series, I’m especially excited by it, as the US is in the midst of a surprising international content boom.

除了剧情套路以外，本剧总体是引人入胜的，制作精良，高额投资，拍摄精美，阵容强大。作为国际影视和流媒体的爱好者，我对能看到这部作品感到特别兴奋，说明美国正处于国际内容热潮的席卷之中。

Streaming content from around the world is increasingly available at our fingertips. 10 years ago—heck, even five years ago—I simply could not have imagined Americans, actual Americans, flocking to their TVs and mobile screens to watch anything with subtitles, whereas it’s been the norm in other countries for decades. I’m thrilled to see this window on global entertainment finally opening here.

来自世界各地的影视内容越来越触手可及。10 年前——可能是 5 年前——我根本无法想象美国人，会抱着他们的电视和手机屏幕观看带英文字幕的内容，而这在其他国家已经成为常态。我很高兴看到这个关于全球娱乐的窗口终于在这里打开了。

Netflix is the leader of this phenomenon (RRR and Squid Game come to mind as recent examples) but Amazon Prime is not far behind (Mirzapur, The Deep House, et al) in normalizing international content for US audiences.  “[A]ll COVID did was accelerate an already emerging trend,” explains writer Jeff Kotuby for The Streamable (“U.S. Appetite for Foreign Streaming Content Surges to New Highs,” 3/19/21). He pinpoints 2019 as the year of Americans’ paradigm shift toward embracing global entertainment.

Netflix 是这一现象的领导者，但亚马逊在为美国观众提供标准化国际内容方面也不甘落后。“新冠病毒在加速这个趋势，”作家杰夫·科图比在《 The Streamable》杂志里这么说（摘自《美国对外国流媒体内容的胃口飙升至新高》，21 年 3 月 19 日），他指出 2019 年是美国人拥抱全球娱乐的一年。

Prof. Paolo Sismondi of USC coined the term “glocalization” to describe this uniquely 21st century sensation a decade ago in his book The Digital Glocalization of Entertainment:New Paradigms in the 21st Century Global Mediascape (Springer, 2012).  He elaborated on his term last year in an article he wrote for The Conversation (“Netflix’s big bet on foreign content and international viewers could upend the global mediascape – and change how people see the world,” 4/7/21), enhancing the term to include “a company operating globally, adapting its content to meet the expectations of locally situated audiences across the world.”

十年前，南加州大学的保罗·西斯蒙第教授在他的著作《娱乐的数字全球本地化：21 世纪全球媒体景观中的新范式》（Springer，2012 年出版）中创造了“全球本地化”一词来描述这种独特效应。去年，他在为 The Conversation 撰写的一篇文章中详细阐述了他的观点，“一家在全球运营的公司，调整其内容以满足世界各地观众的期望。”（《Netflix 对外国内容和国际观众的赌注可能会颠覆全球媒体格局——并改变人们看待世界的方式》”21 年 4 月 7 日出版）

Does Minning Town romanticize poverty?  Of course it does, it’s a TV show. So did Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, The Hoosier Schoolmaster, and every Hollywood screwball comedy made during the Great Depression. And they’re all awesome. As Sisismondi writes:

TV and movies are one way that people, as we go through life, make sense of the world…often it is media that exposes people to other cultures, above and beyond our own . . .But media portrayals may well be inaccurate. Certainly, they are incomplete. That’s because movies and TV series aren’t necessarily meant to depict reality; they are designed for entertainment. As a result, they can be misleading, if not biased, based on and perpetuating stereotypes. But the way people are exposed to media entertainment is changing. Today streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ and Disney+ collectively have 1 billion subscribers globally.

《山海情》把贫穷浪漫化了吗？当然，这是电视剧。《草原上的小屋》和《沃尔顿一家》、《印第安纳大学校长》以及大萧条时期制作的每一部好莱坞怪诞喜剧都是如此，他们都很棒。正如西斯蒙第在上述文章中所写：

电视和电影是人们在生活中理解世界的一种方式……通常是媒体让人们接触到其他文化，超越自己的文化。

电视和电影用强有力的图像和故事来填补知识空白，这些图像和故事告诉我们思考不同文化的方式……但媒体的描述很可能是不准确的。当然，它们是不完整的，那是因为电影和电视剧不一定要描绘现实，它们是为娱乐而诞生的，因此，如果没有偏见的话，它们会基于和延续刻板印象而产生误导，但人们接触媒体娱乐的方式正在发生变化。如今，Netflix、Amazon Prime、Apple TV+ 和 Disney+ 等流媒体平台在全球共有 10 亿用户。

You’re probably in that number, but you don’t need to subscribe to any of those platforms to see Minning Town. You can catch all 23 episodes on Youtube for free, and yes, you can turn on the English subtitles. Why not start with trailer?

您可能就是那些没有订阅这些平台的人，但您无需订阅即可观看《山海情》，比如在 Youtube 上就可免费观看。

Enjoy.

祝您观影愉快！