“A Single Sentence Worth Ten Thousand”: From the “Dilemma of Expression” in Text to the Visual Representation of “The Group's Silence”

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_139How to use a DOI?

Keywords

“One Sentence Worth Ten Thousand”; The Dilemma of Expression; Group Aphasia; Cross-media Adaptation; Visual Narrative

Abstract

Liu Zhenyun’s Mao Dun Literature Prize-winning novel *One Sentence Weighs Ten Thousand* and its film adaptation directed by his daughter Liu Yulin both center on the theme of the “dilemma of speech.” As two distinctly different media forms, the novel and the film exhibit notable differences in their exploration of this subject. The novel employs the inherent tension of its language to meticulously delve into the individual’s “dilemma of speech” and its profound philosophical implications. In contrast, the film adopts a unique “subtraction-based” adaptation approach, skillfully utilizing visual imagery, sound effects, and performance to materialize the novel’s subtle textual predicament into a more impactful and universal manifestation of “collective aphasia.” This study analyzes the similarities and differences between the novel and the film regarding the dimension of “speaking,” examining the underlying media-driven motivations and focusing on how the film elevates individual communication barriers into a critique of the pervasive phenomenon of aphasia in modern society through strategic narrative and visual storytelling.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Dan Yang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/07
TI  - “A Single Sentence Worth Ten Thousand”: From the “Dilemma of Expression” in Text to the Visual Representation of “The Group's Silence”
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 12th International Conference on Digital Humanities and Frontiers in Social Sciences (DHFSS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1302
EP  - 1309
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_139
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_139
ID  - Yang2026
ER  -