Source: CCTV.com
11-08-2008 12:22
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The color green is often regarded as representing youth and hope and the imperishable instinct for life. It’s certainly a colour that always brings new things into our lives.
The moments when we feel touched by the color green are worth remembering, as they are moments in which something inside of us is awakened. We began searching for Zhou Lin when we started work on this program, but we didn’t find him until near the end of production.
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In order to make it possible for us to interview him he had to take the overnight train from Taiyuan, where he had gone to participate in a press conference for sstill Life, a film that had just won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice International Film Festival. He was one of the lead actors.
In order to bring back memories of the way he was living in the past, we showed Zhou Lin a little of what we filmed 9 years ago.
For nine years, Zhou Lin lived the life of a typical “Beijing wanderer”. He polished shoes, sold flowers, and ran between different film sets. Even today he is still a shoe polisher in Wenzhou.
Zhou Lin’s father died when he was just two years old, and then in 1999 his mother died also. He has no brother or sister. Since then this 24-year-old has been in Wenzhou working as a shoe polisher, and in Beijing pursuing his dream.
Some stay in the shade of green, while others get warmth from green. We see the back of Zhou Lin disappear as he goes on his way in pursuit of his dream. On this road, some stop in the middle, others continue without looking back. But whatever the decisions one makes, life goes on. How many choices do we make in our lives? Dreams are just dreams, but life is always more than life itself.
The man in the photo is Bai Huimin, a member of the staff of a university in Beijing. In the summer of 1994, out of blue a child appeared in his life. Perhaps it was because he was famous for being a warm-hearted man, or perhaps it was predestined, but, whatever the reason, immediately after he was found the child was brought to his home. As a result, Bai Huimin became a temporary dad, and the child was named Bai Jian, meaning “found child”.
After it is reported in the television program Sheng Huo Kong Jian, the child’s birth father and auntie came to find the boy.
Bai Huimin’s job as contemporary dad was over, but his smile was imprinted in our memories. It seemed this was just a passing incident in his life, until 12 years later…
Twelve years later, Bai Huimin’s life seems much the same. He still works in the same university and there the only difference seems to be that he is now known as Old Bai. But during the twelve years since we saw him last he divorced and remarried, and now he’s living with his new wife and their child.
While we can’t be sure whether the child was the only reason for the break-up of Bai Huimin’s marriage, as Old Bai says, the child was definitely one reason for the divorce, because the boy’s presence undermined the feeling of trust between Bai and his first wife.
Soon after the child left the care of Bai Huimin, he and his wife divorced and their daughter went to Singapore to further her education and, while there, got married. Three years later, Bai remarried, and in 1998, the couple had a baby.
And so the seasons change in the voice of a child. At the request of Old Bai, we finished shooting earlier than planned as he didn’t feel inclined to look back to what had taken place 12 years ago. Perhaps it was simply that he didn’t want anyone to interrupt his peaceful life. Time flows like water, and life finally brings us answers for all the questions.
Editor:Zhang Ning
