On The Lead • 25 days ago
Title The Lead
Pretty good acting from beginning to end about history of qinqiang opera which is in shaanxi province. Background is the cultural revolution (1966 to 1976) used by the founding father of china to destroy chinese culture and replace it with pro communism culture (universities were closed and students sent to farming communes, taoist temples and buddhist temples were closed, Qinqiang opera was banned and replaced with pro communist model operas (rewritten or new). Drama covers 1976 to around 2003. Early episodes cover the death of the founding father of china which finally ended the cultural revolution and allowed the revival of the dead qinqiang opera. China had food rationing of meat, oil, refined wheat flour, etc. up to the 1970s (when there was no obesity epidemic) until it was slowly phased out from the improved economy after the switch to state capitalism. I learned a lot about shaanxi foods from the staple food steamed hei (black) mo (steamed whole wheat buns similar to steamed whole wheat mantou), to jiangsui noodles, meigui jinggao (steamed sticky rice), saozi noodles, rou jia mo (pork sandwich using baked mo), liang pi (cold wheat/rice noodles), yangrou paomo (lamb soup with crumbled baked mo), suan dang mian (sour soup noodles), guo kui (stuffed flatbread), laozao tang (fermented sticky rice soup). Popular drink is bingfeng (ice peak) soda. The makjang in the 2nd half of the drama I interpret as a metaphor for the ups and downs of the revived qinqiang opera as it competes with modern forms of entertainment. I am not sure if qinqiang opera will survive AI bec AI can now easily make operas and dramas.
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