On a normal day, I would never watch this kind of drama about rural revitalization, especially with this sort of cast. To be honest, when I watch TV I mainly watch for the actors. By coincidence, a few days ago I watched Meritorious · Versatile Hero Li Yannian and grew quite fond of the actor Wang Lei, and that’s the only reason I started following this show. The overall production quality is decent, but in the later episodes many of the policy-related lines were changed in post-production, which no longer match the actors’ lip movements and affects the viewing experience.
Let me first sort out the rough outline of the plot. In a certain village where the Party organization is lax and scattered, the young and strong village director has sidelined the old Party branch secretary. Under the benefit transfers from a well-known county-level enterprise, he sells out the village’s collective interests, while his relative, serving as the village security director, behaves like a local bully. The former leader of the village work team died of illness while in office, and he had recorded some of the village director’s violations; the notebook was only turned over by the old Party secretary later on. The First Secretary, selected from a central-level organ and with a military background, comes to the village and first “rebuilds” the village Party organization. Then, by clearly explaining the pros and cons to the villagers, he unifies their thinking around the “Two Mountains Theory” and lawfully retrieves the village’s collective interests that had been sold off. After that comes the hard, pioneering work of developing various industries. As for the illegal mining, I personally think it functions entirely as a side plot, so I won’t go into it here.
To summarize what I consider valuable about this show:
The First Secretary refers to a Party member selected from outstanding young cadres and reserve cadres at all levels of government organs; outstanding personnel from state-owned enterprises and public institutions; and cadres who have been adjusted from leadership positions due to age but have not yet retired. They are sent to villages (generally villages with weak and lax Party organizations or impoverished villages) to serve as the leaders of the Party organization.
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It shows the necessity of the First Secretary.
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It shows the importance of grassroots Party organizations.
Since it’s still just a TV drama, for dramatic effect, the male lead played by Wang Lei is somewhat deified. For example, at every stage he can rely on personal connections and extraordinary abilities to turn danger into safety. This is highlighted in episodes where he serves as a lawyer to seek justice for village laborers who died in a landslide, or when he brings in investment by using a comrade-in-arms to pull off some gray-area maneuvering to get into an investment promotion event.
On the one hand, such extremely difficult grassroots work does require highly capable cadres. But looking at it the other way round, if all this difficult work can only be carried out by cadres with “super” abilities like the male lead, it can’t help but make people worry about grassroots Party building and poverty alleviation work.
I am deeply grateful to the real-life First Secretaries who, like the male lead, quietly dedicate themselves. On the road to national rejuvenation and rural revitalization, they are the ones bearing the heavy burden on behalf of all Party members and cadres.
I look forward to more TV dramas that do not stereotype cadres and the masses.