In a previous article “Television Person Chen Meng”, Chen Meng was briefly introduced. Below are some excerpts from the book “Don’t Forget Why You Started Because You’ve Come So Far,” which show what kind of person he is and his thoughts on making programs.
◆ There are three types of program formats that support a television station: one is news, which signifies the political stance of a station; the second is entertainment programs, which signify the economic operation level of a station; the third is documentaries, which signify the cultural and artistic level of a station.
◆ I don’t care which school you graduated from, I don’t care what diploma you have, but I care about how quickly you accept new things, and how long it takes you to grasp the core of things. In other words, I care more about your ability to accept new information and the methods you use to accept new information. (Note: These abilities are the most important in any industry.)
◆ Chen Meng: When I review programs, I have two basic requirements for myself: First, I cannot say something is bad; I can only say how it can be better; second, I do not tell you how to change, but rather inspire your desire to modify it yourself. (Note: The wisdom of guidance.)
◆ Of course, the most important thing in changing the foolish audio-visual news is changing the political worship of promotional text.
◆ We believe in a principle of pedagogy: The effects of self-education surpass the dull preaching of others.
◆ When you overcome pain, pain becomes wealth. When you are in pain, pain is just pain itself. (Note: The reflections on pain are excellent. What does it mean to overcome? It means experiencing pain, reflecting on it, and changing; that is where the value lies.)
◆ Chen Meng said: I meet many university graduates who come for interviews or job seekers, and I always ask them: If you had a chance, what would you want to film? They would tell me about some things they observed, which are very touching and rich. Then I would ask them, why do you want to make this film? They often fall back into narrating that story. Did they not understand my meaning? No, they just cannot immediately establish a way to engage in deep thinking about the issue; they do not have the habit of thinking regularly, or they lack a ready-made framework for understanding problems, or a knowledge structure. (Note: Do you have a coordinate system for viewing things?)
◆ Chen Meng: I have always believed that the speed of updating television programs in China is too fast. Today there is this program, and in a few days it’s gone, then a new program comes out, and in a few days it’s gone again. The speed of updates is actually a lazy approach.
◆ We lack brand awareness. Creating a new program is easy, but maintaining it is difficult.
◆ Chen Meng: I believe that innovation in program formats can only make the audience feel fresh for three days; content is always the most critical. What we need to do is not constantly change the format, but rather add the most effective content within a format. Therefore, I always believe that quality is our life.
◆ Chen Meng has always had a hidden worry: as the grassroots stance, micro-narratives, and alternative expressions of “Social Records” grow and mature, how to resolve the conflict between it and the original context of CCTV? On the platform of mainstream ideology like CCTV, how much “discourse space” is there? With the adjustment and revision of the news channel in 2007, this issue became even more severe. A director of “Social Records,” Peng Yuanwen, described the situation of the program at that time: to advance is to be assimilated by the system; to retreat is to be marginalized by the system. In this dilemma, on January 31, 2008, “Social Records” was canceled. (Note: Eleven months later, Chen Meng passed away from stomach cancer.)