Time-travel TV Series Wins Fans

穿越剧大受欢迎

随着《宫》和《步步惊心》的热播，穿越剧越来越受欢迎。如今在满眼皆是谍战剧、苦情戏的电视荧屏上，穿越剧占有着举足轻重的一席之地。细数这些大红特红的穿越剧，究竟其背后有哪些特质能令观众如此着迷呢？

Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s smartest physicists, once said, “I’m obsessed by time. Many of us are, and the popularity of time?鄄travel TV series has just proved that.”

After Palace and Hammer House of Horror achieved startling ratings last year, Palace 2 aired on January 20, attracting time travel fans back to TV.

“It’s fun to watch characters travel back in time and deal with the conflicts between modern and ancient times,” Xia Xiaoyan, who works for a foreignowned enterprise in Shanghai, told China Daily.

Time?鄄travel series connect both today and the past, which can offer unlimited imagination, said Cai Yinong, the producer of Hammer House of Horror. Imagination creates chances for the young to fulfill a dream that’s hard to achieve in reality.

Taiwan novelist Xi Juan is a pioneer of time?鄄travel stories in China. In 1993 she published a love story about a young woman who travelled back to ancient times by accident. The protagonist’s modern personality and perception of love helps her win the heart of a cool, handsome martial art master. Such a plot satisfies female fans’ love fantasy.

Starting from the late 1990s, novels about men traveling back to the past prevailed, with A Step Into the Past as the most popular example.

In these stories, the male protagonists accomplish great things with their modern skills and wisdom. It’s usually a “dream of heroism come true”, along with enviable romances.

The big success of the TV series adapting from A Step Into the Past in 2001 has inspired TV production companies to buy up similar time travel stories.

Besides the plot, beautiful actresses and handsome actors are also very important. “I’m hooked by the shows because of their dramatic and poetic love and the eye?鄄pleasing actors,” Xia explained her love for time?鄄travel TV series.

Her comment echoes a survey by Great Marketing Research Co Ltd in China. When asked about what time?鄄travel TV series so appeal to them, 21 percent of responders answered, “Those attractive characters.”

A bigger reason behind the popularity of time travel stories, is the relaxation they offer, according to the survey.

Cai Yinong agrees. “Many people are facing tremendous pressures in their fast?鄄paced lives, so this genre is more relaxing than other shows as it provides people with a terrific outlet to escape from reality.”

Cultural recollection is another factor. “Which dynasty would you like to live in if you could travel to the past？” asked by a survey jointly launched by Shanghai University and Shanghai Social Sciences Association last December. About 60 percent of the 2,543 responders chose Tang Dynasty, while Qing Dynasty, and the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods were the other two top destinations.

Ouyang Guangming, a professor at Shanghai University, said at the press release, “The survey result reflects people’s definition of the good days: prosperous economy and culture, steady society, fair and uncorrupted politics, and opening up to the outside world.”

The love for time traveling is universal.

Maybe affected by the fairy tales in the childhood, many people have the love for time?鄄travelling wishes. Woody Allen’s latest movie Midnight in Paris, which has been nominated for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Art Direction for the 2012 Academy Awards, features modernity versus cultural nostalgia.

“The past seems so much more vivid, more substantial, than the present... The good old days are so alluring because we were not around, no matter how much we wish we were,” The New York Times commented.