Audiences drawn to changing times

Music praised

The Long Season has also been praised for its music, which is seamlessly woven into the narrative. Xin, who was guitarist for the band Joyside, teamed up with composer Ding Ke again after their work on The Bad Kids to fit more than 10 highly energetic pieces of music into the series.

The songs that feature in the closing credits are mostly from independent and rock music bands, but classical music was also chosen, including The Blue Danube, which is used at the end of the tenth episode to give viewers a sense of novelty and contrast.

The opening part of a poem penned by Wang Yang in the series, which was written in real life by Ban Yu, a writer from Shenyang, Liaoning province, contains these lines:

Snap your fingers, he said,

Let's create a resonant snap.

Distant things will be shattered,

People in front of us are still unaware.

Xin feels that the poem explains the relationship between the story's timelines, with each affecting the others.

The murder case in the series serves as an "entry point" for audiences to examine the life values and beliefs of those living in the times the show is set in, Xin said, adding that this is the most important aspect of the series, as it gives people an insight into the society and culture of years gone by.

In the past two years, more young writers from the northeast have emerged, offering popular literary works mostly set at the end of the 20th century. Many of their contributions have been adapted into TV series and films.

Liang Hong, professor at Renmin University of China's School of Liberal Arts, has long paid attention to the new generation of writers from the northeast.

"The cultural and social landscape of the 1990s undoubtedly had a profound impact on literature. Social transformations always bring about new societal statuses and human developments," Liang said in an interview with Lifeweek Magazine.

She thinks the writers' works showcase a certain resilience and self-deprecating spirit of survival, and that they excel at portraying the interconnectedness of daily life and the inner workings of the human psyche.