The Ordinary World: Homeland and Love in the Changes of Times

Abstract

The TV series "The Ordinary World" is adapted from the writer Lu Yao's novel with the same name, which depicts the historic changes of urban and rural life in northern Shaanxi from 1970s to 1980s. The characters in the story are living in the changing times, and both their lives and thoughts are varying along the times. The first part of this paper discusses the narrative of male growth in the conflict between urban and rural areas in the works, focusing on three male characters with different personalities and different experiences: Sun Shao An, Sun Shao Ping and Tian Run Sheng. By analyzing their situation, it reflects the influence of the changing era on them. The second part discusses the female images labeled by class in the works, mainly about 4 females characters Tian Runye, He Xiulian, Tian Xiaoxia and Hao Hongmei, and analyzes their portrayal, which leads to the following discussion on the imagination of rural love depicted by the writer in the changing era. The third part discusses three groups of love relationships across classes in the works and discusses the love imagination of the play from the realistic perspective of rural transformation.