Abstract: Compared with the original work and the 1983 film adaptation, The Life Path , a TV drama, adds “road” as a spatial imagery to the title, making it core imagery in the image narrative. The repeated appearance of the road imagery becomes a symbol of specific emotions and ideas, and through interaction with characters, the imagery constructs a deep emotional network of the narrative. Directors and screenwriters grasp the creative spirit of the author, pursue the integration of the original work's spirit with contemporary culture, delve into the themes of the era, and endow it with core elements such as connecting social structures, injecting the voice of struggle, highlighting emotional choices, and a sense of national and family community in a specific historical context. Through the road imagery, Chinese youth continuously exert their personal strength in the realization of subjective values, make choices and strive in the journey of finding their “path”, and construct their own path of personal growth. Therefore, the narrative connotation of the road as a spatial imagery is reflected in three aspects. Firstly, through the repeated appearance of the spatially concrete road in terms of film and television aesthetics, the imagery brings an aesthetic lyrical effect of repeated emphasis, embodying the authors' and screenwriters' lingering intoxication with the primitive and stunning beauty of the Loess Plateau, as well as their longing for the urban life at the end of the road. Secondly, against the background of the urban-rural dual structure at that time, the road as a spatial imagery is also the path for rural youth to strive toward the city. Thirdly, from a moral perspective, the road also symbolizes the path of choosing between good and evil for the characters in the drama.

Key words: road, spatial imagery, TV drama, The Life Path, image narrative