the forerunner, a tv series commemorating the 130th birthday of mao zedong, achieved its highest rating of 10.84 percent, surpassing all other chinese dramas broadcast during the same time slot, according to cvb, a television show statistics collector affiliated with the national radio and television administration.

spanning from 1921 to 1927, the tv series follows mao's transformative journey from a young participant in the first congress of the communist party of china to a pioneering leader of the chinese revolution. the drama started to run on cctv-1 on dec 12.

actor wang renju revealed that this marks his fifth time playing the role of mao. "when the tale goes back to 1921, mao was a young man with a passion for revolution. to accurately capture the historical figure's state of being, i insisted on daily long-distance running to shape my physique, aiming to embody mao's enthusiastic state," he said during a recent seminar in beijing.

the script is co-written by chen jin, the former deputy director of the party literature research center of the central committee of the communist party of china, and liang zhenhua, a veteran scriptwriter known for the revolutionary epic faith makes great.

zhang junfeng, from the party literature research center, said that the show has filled a gap in party history-themed television dramas while also presenting a fresh artistic image of mao.

he added that the popularity of the forerunner, similar to the age of awakening, a phenomenal hit in 2021 scripted by party history expert long pingping, shows that inviting experts to write the scripts ensures historical authenticity.

source: china daily