Recently, the TV series "Flowers" directed by Wong Kar-Wai has been broadcast all over the Internet, arousing widespread attention and discussion among the audience. Xiao Zaojun rarely has time to watch dramas. While my family was watching it, I took a second look and found that it looked pretty good. So, I finished all 30 episodes in one go.
I personally think that this drama has beautiful visual effects, excellent acting skills, and many good lines. It is a good work. Although the core plot is a little weak, it is still worth watching (current Douban score is 8.5).
The play tells the story of a business war that took place in Shanghai in the 1990s. The protagonist "Mr. Bao" (played by Hu Ge) and his friends seized opportunities and faced challenges in the fierce changes of the times, and finally achieved their own transformation.
Regarding plot details, Xiao Zaojun will not spoil much. The theme of today’s article is that I want to talk to you about the many communication technologies that appear in the drama from the perspective of a communicator.
These technologies are full of characteristics of the times, and now they have basically disappeared. Through this drama and these technologies, we can travel through time and space and return to that magnificent era.
First of all, the first technology to be introduced is this——
Yes, the legendary Big Brother.
In the drama "Flowers", we can see many scenes about Big Brother.
In fierce business wars and stock market games, the protagonists and supporting characters make extensive use of Big Brother to exchange information and issue instructions. Big Brother plays an important role in promoting the development of the plot.
Xiao Zaojun, like most Chinese, first saw Big Brother in early Hong Kong film and television productions.
The big boss inside, or the gangster brother, always carries such a huge "brick" and says "Hey" when he has nothing to do, which is very cool and popular.
Big Brother is actually an early mobile phone. In 1973, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper invented the world's first mobile phone, DynaTAC, the originator of Big Brother.
This thing is called a mobile phone abroad. Why is it called Big Brother in China?
It is said that the martial arts star Sammo Hung was one of the first people in Hong Kong to have a mobile phone. He often uses a mobile phone on the set. Every time the Hong Kong media photograph him, he is holding a mobile phone.
Sammo Hung is the eldest brother of Jackie Chan, so the Hong Kong media simply called this mobile phone "Big Brother". Later, this name spread to the mainland. Because the users were often either rich or noble, people gradually recognized this name.
So, in 1993, was it reasonable for bosses in Shanghai to use Mobile Phone?
Of course it is reasonable. Mobile phone is a typical 1G (first generation mobile communications) technology. In the early 1980s, developed countries in the world had already adopted the 1G standard and built a large number of 1G networks.
In 1987, Guangzhou held the Sixth National Games. Under the urging of the then mayor Ye Xuanping, Guangzhou built China's first 1G network, creating a historical precedent. The first call was successfully made at the West Desheng base station in Guangzhou on November 18, 1987.
At that time, this 1G network used British TACS technology, and the equipment provider was Ericsson. The entire network has 1 switching office and 3 base stations, which can accommodate 1,200 users.
China's first mobile communication base station
The first domestic Big Brother user was businessman Xu Feng. On November 21, 1987, he opened a mobile phone account in Guangzhou, and the number was 901088 (9010 was the Guangzhou area code at the time, and 88 was an auspicious number chosen by Xu Feng).
Xu Feng recalled: "At that time, the people at the post and telecommunications office didn't know how much the phone should be sold for, so they asked me to deposit a check for 20,000 yuan and take the phone away first."
It was an analog mobile phone produced by Japan's NEC company. The import price was US$1,350 and the selling price was 12,000 yuan. At that time, the Internet access fee was 6,000 yuan, the call fee was 0.6 yuan per minute, and the monthly rent was 150 yuan.
After Guangzhou built its first 1G base station, it created a huge response nationwide. Subsequently, Chongqing, Beijing, Liaoning and other provinces and cities also rushed to open 1G networks. In Shanghai in 1993, there must have been a 1G network.
In 1993, a man using Big Brother on the streets of Shanghai
In fact, 1993 was also an important turning year for China's mobile communications industry. On September 19 of this year, my country's first digital mobile phone GSM network was opened in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province. Since then, 2G has begun to take root in the Chinese market.
In other words, starting in 1994, the big phones in the hands of bosses will gradually disappear and become smaller functional phones with better signals.
In 1994, Wu Jichuan, the former Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, was making a GSM call.
In 1994, there were two major events in China's communications industry, namely the establishment of China Jitong and China Unicom. This paved the way for the subsequent major restructuring of China's telecommunications industry.
What were ZTE and Huawei doing in 1993-94?
Haha, at that time, ZTE and Huawei were still busy trying to survive.
When everyone is watching the show, they will definitely be deeply impressed by the landline phone on the table of "Uncle Grandpa".
Uncle Grandpa’s telephone (lower right corner), frequently featured in the play
Mr. Bao is very handsome and uses Big Brother. As for my uncle, he is relatively low-key and mainly uses landline phones. Many important messages are delivered through this phone call.
This fixed telephone service belongs to PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). In the 1980s, at the early stage of reform and opening up, the key domestic construction direction was not mobile phones, but landline phones, in order to meet the most basic communication needs of the people.
At that time, we had no independent technology, and large-capacity program-controlled switches were basically imported from abroad. Each province introduced different manufacturers, so there was "seven countries and eight systems" (eight systems from seven countries), which was very confusing.
In the 1990s, domestically produced Wanmen program-controlled switches began to rise.
In 1991, Wu Jiangxing, the 38-year-old dean of the Information Engineering College of the People's Liberation Army, presided over the development of the HJD04 (referred to as 04 machine) 10,000-door digital program-controlled switch, breaking the monopoly of foreign manufacturers in one fell swoop.
HJD04
At that time, ZTE and Huawei, who were in Shenzhen, had just made a little money from the "three to one supplement" business and were preparing to engage in independent research and development of low-end switches. (Ms. Wang goes to Shekou, Shenzhen, maybe she can meet her.
They simply cannot compete with foreign-funded enterprises in the urban market, so they focus on the rural market.
Their decision was right. With the ZXJ10 series and C&C08 series, the two companies successfully made their first pot of gold, and later achieved a counterattack and became the world's communications giants. This is something to talk about later.
In addition to mobile phones and landline phones, there is another communication technology in "Flowers" that is easily overlooked, and that is the BP machine.
What Miss Wang is looking at is the BP machine.
A BP machine is a pager, also called a BB machine or a pager.
Its birth time is earlier than mobile phones. The world's first BP machine was born in 1948 from Bell Laboratories and was named BellBoy. In the 1950s and 1960s, driven by Motorola, BP machines gradually became popular.
The BP machine entered China in 1983. That year, Shanghai held the Fifth National Games, and Shanghai Post and Telecommunications Development Service Company created the first paging station in China to serve the 30 National Games staff.
In the 1980s and 1990s, pagers were a very popular communication tool. Compared to landline, it is mobile. And compared to mobile phones, it is cheaper. Therefore, it is very popular among users.
At that time, paging stations such as Posts and Telecommunications (later Telecom), China Travel Service, Wansheng, Guoxin, Asia Pacific, Xinhua, Yuanwang, Runxun, and Xingda (it seems to have been sold to China Unicom later) were established one after another to provide pager services to the public.
Early BP machines did not have a display function. After receiving the signal, the owner needs to find a public phone and call the paging station to know who is looking for him and what the problem is.
Later, with digital display and Chinese display BP machines that could receive text messages, the BP machine became a one-way communication SMS receiver and had a greater use.
In "Flowers", check the stock price through the BP machine
At the end of the 1990s, after 2G mobile phones and SMS services gradually became popular, the value of BP machines gradually weakened and the business scale began to shrink.
Entering the 21st century, around 2005, almost all BP base stations in mainland my country were closed. It was also from that time that the BP machine withdrew from the stage of history.
Mobile phone, landline phone, and BP machine were the three most representative communication technologies in 1993. In "Flowers", there is another technical detail that deserves attention. This detail vaguely reveals the development direction of the entire communications industry.
What is this detail? It is the emergence of data communication networks.
In the climax of the second half of "Flowers", Mr. Bao and Mr. Qiang started a stock market war. At that time, when trading stocks, most investors filled orders over the counter and then synchronized them to the floor, where traders placed orders.
Mr. Bao also built a computer in Xiao Lehui's "United Fleet" in order to improve transaction efficiency.
There is a question - can this computer be connected to the securities trading center at that time?
Personally, I think it shouldn't have been possible at that time, and it was probably a gangster thing.
China introduced computers and early TCP/IP technology in the 1980s.
On September 20, 1987, Professor Qian Tianbai of the China Ordnance Industry Computer Application Research Institute in Beijing sent my country’s first email, which read:
"Across the Great Wall we can reach every corner in the world."
(“Crossing the Great Wall, we can reach every corner of the world.”)
This email had extremely far-reaching significance at the time. It was regarded as China's first "intimate contact" with the Internet. Professor Qian Tianbai is also known as the "Father of the Chinese Internet".
Qian Tianbai
In fact, the network Qian Tianbai was using at that time was not the real Internet, but the China Academic Network (CANET), an international networking project jointly built by Chinese and German academia.
The country has actively built several similar academic networks and is also trying to establish connections with international networks. However, these connections can only be regarded as "indirect connections" or "single-function (mail) connections" and are not true "complete Internet direct connections."
By the time we were actually connected to the Internet, it was already 1994. On April 20 of that year, NCFC (Zhongguancun Regional Education and Scientific Research Demonstration Network)'s 64K international satellite line connected to the Internet was officially opened, realizing a full-featured connection between China and the Internet for the first time. China has officially entered the Internet.
One year later, on May 17, 1995, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications set up a business acceptance point at the Xidan E-Commerce Building in Beijing, allowing ordinary users to handle Internet access services. China's first batch of Internet users were officially born.
"Flowers" took place in late 1993 and early 1994. Logically speaking, "United Fleet" does not have Internet access capabilities. The PC can only be run as a stand-alone machine and cannot connect to the exchange for transactions. I don’t think the possibility of running a dedicated line alone is high.
However, the way they use computers to trade is indeed a trend.
During that period, there was an informatization boom in China, and many units began to introduce PCs to improve work efficiency. This laid the foundation for subsequent networking and digitalization, and also opened the curtain for our country to integrate with international standards in information and communication technology.
█last words
I like the drama "Flowers" very much. As a person who has experienced the era and is also an entrepreneur, the characters’ experiences and lines can resonate with me.
In 1993, I was exactly 10 years old. At that time, China's reform entered a critical period and encountered many unimaginable difficulties. The times are developing in violent turmoil. People's material living standards have just improved a little, but they are still not high. The impact of the external environment has left many people confused. Some people choose to linger in place, some choose to go with the flow, and some choose to advance bravely.
Thirty years passed quickly, as if it were a dream. The vicissitudes of this period have changed many things and many people.
As I enter my forties, I have witnessed with my own eyes the earth-shaking changes that have taken place in the entire society, the rapid changes in communication technology (which I am fortunate to participate in), and the great improvement in people's living standards.
It seems that we have not gone wrong in the past 30 years.
What will happen in the next 30 years? What changes will come to each of us in our lives, our country, our society, and our industry? Will the new difficulties we are encountering now be solved again?
Only time can tell us the answer.