'Ever Night': Standing between light and darkness

History teaches us valuable lessons. When we watch historical movies and dramas, we can look back upon the past, realize what went wrong at that time, and learn not to repeat the same mistakes our ancestors made. In that sense, history reflects the present and illuminates the right path to the future.

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The 2018 Chinese television series "Ever Night" enables us to perceive the nature of problems we are now facing by reference to historical events. Set in the Tang Dynasty, this award-winning drama powerfully indicts contemporary society by portraying a world where everything is divided by light and darkness, right and wrong, or strict opposites of true and false. In such a society, self-righteousness is prevalent, vengeance is rampant, and the elimination of those who are different is a matter of daily occurrence.

In the drama, people believe that they are orthodox and civilized, and others are heretics, barbarians or demons. In ancient times, the Chinese people thought of their country as the center of the world, and their neighboring countries as peripherals. Indeed, they called mainland China "Central Plain" and other countries "Barbarian Sectors."