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A script co-written by a teacher and an alumna of SCNU won the excellent script award in the national theme film collection on the occasion of the 33rd Golden Rooster Award, held annually in the coastal city of Xiamen, in Fujian province.
Being one of the most three important awards in the film field, the Golden Rooster Award saw only five works across the country winning the script award. Among them, the script made by Gan Xiaoer, an associate professor from the School of Fine Arts of SCNU and Li Jing, an excellent alumna from the School of Law stood out among 200 entries and won the award.
The Silent Minority won the 33rd China Film Golden Rooster Award.
Materials based on reality
The script, entitled The Silent Minority, features the theme of legal aid, telling a story of a legal aid volunteer from southern China’s Guangdong province, who pleaded not guilty for a driver of the Yi minority group with fake license.“We use the real experience of many lawyers before we finally settle the characteristics of each case, so almost every person in this script has an original image to refer to,” said Gan as he elaborated on the characters.
To find some inspiration for this play, the other scriptwriter Li Jing visited some places in Yunnan province in the south of China, and Tibet (an autonomous region in the southwest of China). After she worked there for some time, she developed the core motive of this drama－the fake driver license.
According to the introduction to the script, the main characters of this story are the illiterate workers from rural areas. They are in urgent need to obtain a driver’s license to provide their for work and livelihood. However, they cannot pass the driver’s test due to illiteracy. Unable to get the driver license in a proper way, they have no choice but to buy a fake driver license.Gan and Li focus on the driving test system, which reflects the life difficulties of illiterate individuals, so as to talk about "the spirit of law". Gan stressed: "For the film, what is more important is whether it touches the social reality, whether it directly faces some people's difficulties, whether it presents some people's living conditions, and whether it forms real care for some people."
Li Jing, a professional lawyer and alumna of SCNU, was collecting materials for the script in Tibet.
Realism and resonance of lawyers
In producing a law-themed story, the lack of legal knowledge was a main shortcoming for Gan. Thanks to his partner Li Jing, a professional lawyer with 15 years of working experience, this problem was solved. In contrast with legal soap operas often shown on TV, lawyers weren’t allowed to wander when they debated and seldom used fancy gestures to convey their thoughts in reality, said Li, who illustrated the court scenes in a realistic way in the script.
Apart from the real reflections of legal practice, there are many volunteering lawyers in Tibet who provided their own experience to complete the script writing. By incorporating their cases into the script, the script became more vivid and detailed, striking chords in lawyers’ hearts, some of whom said they recognised themselves in the story. 
Gan Xiaoer, a teacher from the School of Fine Arts in SCNU.
Incubated at the SCNU Film Center
The wining of the national award not only represents a recognition to the script’s quality and script writing ability, but also will largely contribute to the subsequent filming project of the script and add more possibilities on the selection of actors and locations, said Gan.
From the budding of the beginning ideas to the completion of the finished product, it took two years to write The Silent Minority. At the moment, the film is in the process of filming preparation. In the near future, the script will be transformed into a screen play by the SCNU Film Center, according to the school’s official WeChat account.
The SCNU Film Center is a university-level scientific research institution, which is affiliated with the School of Fine Arts. Since its establishment, the center has incubated many film projects which have been formally approved by the Radio and Television Administration of Guangdong province. With its care for reality and its strong humanistic atmosphere, The Silent Minority reflects the overall creating style of the Center.“The Silent Minority is a warm and realistic movie. I hope that the movie will be screened in Xiamen in future and everyone’s time spent on watching the future movie will be worthwhile.” Li said.
Source from SCNU News Agency
Translated by Cen Jingxian, Lu Yiman
Proofread by Edwin Baak
Edited by Li Jianru
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