"Happy Canal" takes Qilu Canal as the main story line and ancient times as the prototype. It tells the personal stories of Huang Zirong and other "three outstanding men in Jining" and the ups and downs of family fate in the early years of the Republic of China, which restores the humanistic life and clan concept along the canal.
One hundred years ago, people in Jining grain transportation area relied on canals to maintain traffic and economic prosperity. A canal originally carried the survival of thousands of people in Qian Qian, but under the turbulent background in the early years of the Republic of China, people living on the canal were miserable because of factors such as war, bandits and monopoly.
Actor Gong is playing Huang Zirong, one of the "Three Heroes of Jining" in Happy Canal. Huang Zirong is the traditional image of a modest gentleman. Huang Zirong, who had just made his debut, resigned and returned to his hometown because he didn't agree with the concept of supervision. On the way, his wife was robbed by water bandits, and he was found to be pregnant. He just got home and found his father dead. One by one, he had to be the head of the Huang family.
Huang Zirong can see the calmness of the eldest son of a traditional family. Take on the rise and fall of the family, make him an unhappy person, but silently take on the family and everything in the family, a typical "doer".
At the same time, Huang Zirong, who has a good reputation, is an honest official with the Confucian character of "benevolence and righteousness". He has been a magistrate of Texas for many years, but he is clean. He is a good official who is determined to do things for the people. When the people needed help, he resigned and went back to his hometown to plead for the people again. He volunteered to go to Feiyu Island alone to repay the disaster relief bank. He is soft-hearted and kind-hearted, but he is also brave, resourceful, humble and upright.
"Happy Canal" perfectly combines grand narrative with feelings of home and country. With the deepening of the plot, Huang Zirong will plead for the government and people again. He worked as a magistrate in Texas for many years, but he was penniless. On the way back to Jining City with his pregnant wife Ma (Liang Linlin), he met the Hercules of Feiyu Island who robbed money, but nothing of value was found in the boxes of the two ships. In order to build the canal, families sent him silver tickets in different ways, and he didn't take any money.
Huang Zirong also dared to say no to the mistakes in traditional family rules and family instructions. Huang Jiazu taught that "officials and businessmen can't get through", but when Song Lusheng's fur business was in trouble, Huang Zirong actively tried to find a way. He knows that "officials and businessmen are blocked" means that they can't take the money of the merchants to seek benefits for the merchants, rather than being ruined.
After Huang Zirong came back from the bandits' nest in Feiyu Island, Huang Mu cut it off with scissors, which was a "soul-chopping" to cut off the bad luck of being contaminated; I want to eat noodles, too, because "jiaozi who goes out, noodles who go home", I hope the people who come back will be smooth and profitable. These are the cultural customs handed down from generation to generation in China.
The Grand Canal culture is presented to the audience with family style and family instruction as the breakthrough point, changing time as the vertical axis and the contrast of class and group image as the horizontal axis.