McDull, as the vanguard of Chinese culture and the embodiment of the grass-roots spirit of Hong Kong, at least his existence will never be forgotten, and will always shine as a star of Hong Kong culture.
Year 2009,
“McDull Rings”
It became the first McDull movie to be released in the mainland, and it received a double harvest of word-of-mouth box office.
For many adults and children, this has also become the first year of their McDull: a chubby and silly little pig, who went north from Hong Kong to Wuhan to learn martial arts, and comprehends “the way of nature” in the stories full of childishness , no one will hate it.
Although it has been fourteen years since the birth of McDull, and his first film
The McDull Story
It has also been a full eight years.
Move forward 30 years and narrow the perspective back to Hong Kong. McDull was born at the end of the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, became popular at the time of the handover, and moved to the whole of China after the millennium.
In 2001, the film “McDull Story” won the Best Animated Feature Film Award at the Annecy International Animation Festival in France. This is the first time for Hong Kong and Chinese animation to win this honor, and it is also the last time.
2009 “McDull Rings Dangdang”, tells the story of the mother Mai Tai taking McDull to Wudang Mountain for training after archaeologists excavated the relic of Maizi (named dou, the word Zhongfei) in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.
2001 “McDull Story”, the story covers McDull’s birth, going to kindergarten, eager to travel abroad, learning a sport, celebrating Christmas, striving for the revival of traditions, etc., all reflecting the portrayal of typical Hong Kong people’s growth
McDull created the myth of Hong Kong, which has gradually changed over time and is loved by more Chinese friends and children; but in recent years, McDull seems to have gone silent again.
While scholars are busy analyzing how McDull’s IP has declined, let’s take a look at how McDull has become a representative of Hong Kong’s spirit on the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland, and how it connects the identity between Chinese dolls and Hong Kong citizens.
01
McDull and McMark
At the beginning of creation, the original protagonist was not ours
McDull
, but his cousin
McMark
– A pig who is not so stupid, can even talk to Shakespeare sometimes, and has no birthmarks on his eyes, yes, the little guy on the left in the picture.
Around 1990, this little pig named Mai Mark appeared in
“Ming Pao Weekly”
His appearance seems to be incompatible with this intellectual fan’s elite magazine status, but it also foreshadows that this little pig and his goofy cousins will one day become symbolic incarnations of the Hong Kong spirit.
When it was first serialized in the supplement “Xiao Ming Zhou” of “Ming Pao Weekly”, in order to take into account the readers mainly children and children, the comics were simple and popular, until it was photographed by the magazine’s boss and was able to be published in the main issue,
Xie Liwen
and
Mak Kabi
Only then did I let go and start talking about death, love, grief, life and financial stress, etc.
This kind of “low childhood” in Mak’s mouth has continued to children’s magazines
“Yellow Bus”
The founding of the magazine made this magazine the first base of McMahon McDull.
On the other hand, the serialization of the McMark series in this magazine has not been interrupted. This “adult” atmosphere continued from “Ming Pao Weekly” to “Sunday Weekly”, and finally to “Hong Kong Economic Times” until 1996. Xie Mai and his wife took over “Yellow Bus” completely, and the story of Mai Mai and McDull began to slowly move in another direction.
It was in such an atmosphere that Maimai gradually grew up. From the beginning as a pet country pig who could not even speak, it gradually integrated into the city, into the human being, into the society, and finally replaced the human as the story. the protagonist.
But soon, the story no longer takes the city as the big stage, and turns into a
Chuntian Huahua Kindergarten
a side of the world. Coincidentally, the story began to be published in the children’s magazine “Yellow Bus”, and a larger world view – Mai Mark’s friends and teachers also appeared one by one, the principal and Mr. Chen, the cat Deba, the big goose mushroom, the turtle Ahui, May the calf, June the hippo—and his cousin, the future protagonist, McDull.
Mak Kabi admitted that at first she just wanted to draw a little pig who entered the city from the countryside, just like the beginning of all Hong Kong comedy stories, the adventures of rural people in the city. But gradually, McDull and her mother McDull’s nonsensical, silly and philosophical temperament made him more and more popular, and the wild fantasy and funny memes are more people than McMark. Impressed, in the end, the McMark was washed away in time.
In the early picture book “Mai Mark Spring Field Flowers”, Mai Mark
Decided to write a book called
“Mike’s Art of Thinking”
, this book is actually a tribute to spoof
“Li Tianming’s Thinking Art”
This book,
From the famous point of view of Hong Kong philosopher Li Tianming
constant angle
Judging from the fact that McMahon predicted his own future: McMao has changed from the original protagonist to an obscure supporting role, but he is undoubtedly the real creator of McDull and more characters in the story. Both Xie Liwen’s elitist thinking and Mak Jiabi’s juvenile concept have portrayed their initial core concept of this fairy tale, which is not a fairy tale.
02
not just fairy tales
In fact, neither Xie Liwen, who wrote the article, nor Mak Kabi, who painted, never told McDull’s story for the purpose of telling a fairy tale. Mak Kabi admits that she is very obsessed
Love
Edward Lear
works especially
“A Book of Nonsense”
(absurd book)
. so his
Although nonsense literature seems to be young and stupid, in fact, it achieves absurdity with clever and clever rhetoric. This is also the wisdom throughout McDull’s works, so we can see the classics in McDull:
Shouldn’t you clean the fish eggs?
No fish balls.
What about gan noodles?
No rough noodles.
Xie Liwen, who once studied in Australia, was deeply loved by the famous local Zino-style caricaturist.
Michael Leunig
Therefore, in the expression of society and ideas, Xie Liwen has an absolute “adult” perspective. There is no doubt about this. The single works in “Ming Pao Weekly” and “Hong Kong Economic Times” are dominated by him, using children’s perspectives. Joking and nonsensical language look at various social and political issues.
In 1998, after co-creating McDull with his wife, he collaborated with one of the illustrators of “Yellow Bus” in 1998.
Leung Chi Tim
Created more grassroots and cynical adult fairy tales
“Shit Man”
.
“Shit Fishing Man” is about to end the serialization of “Yellow Bus”,
Movie
“McDull Story” has also entered the end of production. In fact, in 1998, Xie Liwen cooperated with iTV to try to create a 100% “Made in Hong Kong” local TV animation
“Mike’s Story”
, this ambitious animation consists of 13 episodes of 30 minutes each and contains many short stories, although the only media reports that can be found today is a report from the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s school magazine “Varsity” in February 1998, but it is not difficult From this, we can see that McDull has become the most popular cartoon character in Hong Kong.
Varsity reports
The VCD version of the entire work was also launched in 2002. The movie version of “McDull’s Story” was made by merging several chapters from the VCD works, including the Christmas chapter, the Maldives chapter, the Ligan and Bao Baoshan chapters.
Xie Liwen’s ambition is not without reason, and in the end “McDull Story” won in one fell swoop
Best Animated Feature Film Award at Annecy International Animation Film Festival
, becoming the first and only award-winning work in Hong Kong and even China.
It can be said that this set of V
The CD version of “Mike’s Story” succinctly expresses all that Xie Liwen and Mak Jiabi want to express.
Whether it’s the stinky pig hand that can’t be caught by a lottery number in “McDull Me and My Mom”, or the super slow and useless clock invented by Mai Zizhongfei in “McDull Ring Dangdang”, they have all been experienced as short stories in the VCD animation. advance rehearsal.
In one of the short stories, there is a very slow and extremely slow clock, so slow that the second hand jumps one frame every hundred years, and the minute hand jumps one frame every six thousand years. It takes 360,000 years before there will be a cuckoo. When it comes out to tell the time, time is beyond the scale of human measurement and perception, so that it is difficult to detect and has no “practical” use.
But McDull seems to have an epiphany from it. These beliefs are often comparable to eternity, which is exactly what the professor of the music project in the movie “McDull Rings” gave him.
“He’s not imbecile, he’s just kind.”
Echoing each other, it constitutes a core of McDull’s story——
Eternal Heart and Faith
.
03
From Made in Hong Kong to Chinese Dolls
In 2006, Hong Kong TV and McDull launched the first outsourcing
(ie outsourcing)
animated documentary
“Spring Flowers Chinese Doll Museum”
, there are 4 episodes of McDull animation, each episode is 20 minutes, this is the first time McDull has cooperated with a media organization, and the core of cultural propaganda is also the first time that this 100% Hong Kong-made pig has been promoted to the Chinese nation. level.
This work can be seen as a preview for “McDull’s Dangdang” three years later. Mai Zizhong’s fat and nonsensical inventions are full of nonsense literature and childish and philosophical words, all for the future of McDull’s “” Daddy’s Daddy’s Daddy’s Daddy’ has laid the groundwork.
The whole article is titled “Clean. Qingming. Love” “Garden. moon. Reunion” “He. and taste. Neutralization” and “Self-reliance. dragon. Duanyang” as the title, Qingming Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Yuan Festival as the core, draws out the cultural content of Chinese family, architecture, diet, writing, spirit, kung fu, funeral, etc., and uses popular, lovely and simple words to move out to China Cultural thinking, a glimpse of the changes and core ideas of Chinese culture in a seemingly cynical background:
endlessly
.
However, even in this work entirely aimed at children, the chief writer Xie Liwen still uses his “adult” perspective to show children the truth of death, sadness and impossibility.
The story “The Garden. moon. In Reunion, Xie Liwen talked about the building to the courtyard, and then from the appearance of the courtyard to the moon. Finally, he used two ancient poems “Shui Tiao Song Head, When Will the Moon Come” and “Quiet Night Thoughts” to sublimate the relationship between “moon” and Chinese culture. relationship and meaning.
In another story, during Qingming Festival, accompanied by ethereal music, McDull and Mrs. McDull worship their ancestors and go out for a walk; but in the blink of an eye, McDull, an adult, is standing on the top of the mountain again, but at this time he is alone, and there is one more side on the top of the hill. small grave.
Not shy about death has actually always existed in McDull’s story, as Mak Kabi said:
“Children have less contact, haven’t experienced some life pressures, and don’t know much about love, sex, and death, but if his little animal dies, he will also know death and loss. For example, maternal love, children and Mom feels the same way.”
From “China Doll Museum” to “McDull Ring Dangdang”, through the grafting of traditional culture and fairy tales, the mainland has become a place that is not abstract but has its own meaning in both cultural and geographical senses. . Mak Kabi admitted that it took three years for “McDull Ring Dangdang” to collect styles and design backgrounds in mainland China, and the time was precisely when “China Doll Museum” was launched.
As the story progresses, McDull’s story no longer has the grass roots in the earliest “McDull Story”, and no longer has the sense of dissociation and abstraction in “McDull Prince of Pineapple Oil” – McDull is growing up, while The adaptation at the technical and audience level also forced Mak Kabi and her team to make corresponding changes. “McDull Ring Dangdang” is just the beginning of everything.
04
McDull in Hong Kong, McDull in Hong Kong
In 1997, McDull’s series “Spring Flower Kindergarten” confronted the issue of Hong Kong’s return, McDull deconstructed it into a cold joke with his stupid mind.
“Hong Kong has returned, what about Kowloon?”
(Hong Kong is divided into three parts: Kowloon, New Territories, and Hong Kong Island. McDull mistakenly thought that the return of Hong Kong refers to the return of Hong Kong Island)
.
This can be seen as a hint that the location of Hong Kong and Kowloon is not important. Everyone is Chinese, and McDull and McDull are all Chinese pigs. At the same time, it also indicates McDull’s determination to go north and advance to the mainland.
“McDull Dangdang” became an instant hit in the mainland, with a box office of 33 million in the first week, followed by “McDull Dangdang With My Heart” and “McDull Me and My Mom” also continued miracles again and again, and McDull appeared on the Avenue of Stars. Madame Tussauds Wax Museum has placed the wax figures of McDull and Mai Tai in the tea restaurant.
But slowly, people began to say that McDull is not good-looking, and McDull seems to be less and less the same McDull it used to be.
At the beginning of the release of McDull’s last film, “McDull: The Fantastic Soldier”, the Hong Kong media interviewed Mak Kabi and asked her why McDull’s story is getting bigger and bigger now. Instead, Mak Kabi believes that what she is creating now are very simple stories.”
Mom loves you, you love mom, superman fights monsters to save the earth, it’s something every child has encountered
”, but she believes that in the early days, Xie Liwen’s leadership was aimed at facing adults and children at the same time, and the current works are more childish, which will naturally attract children’s interest.
At the end of the interview, Mai Jiabi admitted that when McDull grows up, his old friends and teachers will appear less and less. The next episode may be a love story of McDull, and it is even more impossible for them to appear. This may be the most direct and clear response of Mak Ka Bi to “Mc Duo has changed”.
Fortunately, McDull is still active in Hong Kong. In 2020, McDull cooperated with the Hong Kong public sector to launch two short films in succession, with the theme of coping with the new crown virus, one for families with children, explaining home learning, and one for To the general public, publicize the correct protection and self-cleaning methods.
From this point of view, McDull has never given up his own responsibility to Hong Kong while being touted as a symbol of Hong Kong. In the early years, Mr. and Mrs. Xie Mai founded a public welfare organization while taking over “Yellow Bus”.
Springfield Huahua Education Fund
, to focus on children’s mental health and art education. Just last year, Springfield Huahua Foundation released a series of short films under the impact of the new crown to call attention to the communication between parents and children.
-
At the beginning of the year, McDull Studio and Sotheby’s held the first auction of McDull’s works. Nearly 100 works were auctioned and the estimated value was nearly one million Hong Kong dollars. The Xie Mai couple admitted that this would be a new beginning for McDull. -
In March, Mr. Xie Yuemei, the voice actor of Mrs. McDull in the first generation of the McDull series, passed away, and Mr. McDull also drew a McDull illustration to commemorate it. -
And just a month ago, McDull’s bronze statue on the Avenue of Stars in Victoria Bay was maliciously graffitied, and the destruction of this optimistic and famous image of Hong Kong also caused heated discussions.
But in the end, the myth of McDull in the mainland has inevitably ended. This 100% Hong Kong-made pig has returned to the small world of Hong Kong.
The word-of-mouth fiasco of 2016’s “Fantastic Soldier” has left the future of McDull’s film franchise uncertain. On the other hand, for mainland Chinese audiences, the real “McDull era” may end on one day in October 2019, the morning news program that has been broadcast on CCTV2 since 2003.
“first timing”
A major revision, the ending song that has been used for 16 years
“Fresh Sunshine”
There is no reservation. In this ending song, the producer edited “McDull Story” as an MV clip to accompany the children from morning to morning.
In this way, McDull’s era ended, and after all, it was as far from the sight of many people as McDull, but as Li Tianming said:
“Things can be destroyed, but the process is not destroyed; objects are impermanent, events are permanent”
, McDull, as the vanguard of Chinese culture and the embodiment of the grass-roots spirit of Hong Kong, at least his existence will never be forgotten, and will always shine as a star of Hong Kong culture.
Author / Poor_Land Editor / Pel
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