On The Adaptation Of Zhang Ailing's Novel Into TV Series And Films

The literature is a form of art created in the process of man's discovery of the civilization. It is more than 2000 years old, never ceasing to record and influence man's history. Meantime, as another form of art, movie was born by the development of modern techniques. After that, movie and television and literature are mutually closely bonded. That is to say, the literature is the source of tele-dramas with adaptation the main method. The novels of Zhang Ailing are famous for a nickname of "movies on the paper". She herself was sensitive to colours and music technically, and was capable of expressing her feelings and imaginations by simile and symbolization. The figures in her works are always fine and lively, which is good for television. Since the time when she was famous in Shanghai in 1930s, her works has been in the high rank of television, which is also very challenging. So far, none of the adoptions are satisfactory. The author will provide some valuable suggestions by analyses of the television and movie works adapted from Zhang's novels.In Chapter One, the movie method will be analyzed. Zhang herself was a film fan. She entered the literature arena by issuing film commentary. She also wrote plays for films, and adapted her own novels into plays. This had a great influence on her writing, in which the montage method was often used and the dialogues and plots were just created for plays. Movie and television, which was unknown in that time, are twins. Movie enriched her writing, and set the stage for her novels to be adapted to TV series.Movie adaptation of Zhang's novels will be discussed in Chapter Two. In the 1980s, there was a fad that Zhang's novels were adapted to movie and tele-dramas. Hong Kong directors like Xu Anhua and Guan Jinpeng, both fans of Zhang, successfully televised "Love in a Fallen City", "Half Life Fate" and "Red Rose White Rose"; Dan Hanzhang, a Taiwanese director, had "Rouge of the North " on the screen. In 2007, the famous director, Ang Lee, made the movie of "Lust,Caution ", which won him the honour of the Gold Lion of Venice. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. The main theme of Chapter Three is the television of her works. After all, movie is different from television, which is a popular medium and with different artistic pursuit. Compared with movie, TV series are longer and more containing, which make it suitable for adaptation of long novels. But regarding the adaptation of Zhang's novels, commercialization and vulgarization have deprived them of Zhang's unique flanvour, just in order that the public would like them.The most important function of both literal works and TV or movie artifacts is to abound the spiritual life of people, and to improve the aesthetic taste of readers or spectators. In fact, the literature and the television are mutually affected. And if this relationship is virtuous, literature can provide plenty of materials, so the televised works may get more acceptance. The author tries to discover the inner laws of television by researching the television of Zhang Ailing's novels.