Near the Spring Festival, the Luoyang Tianxin Cultural Industrial Park is full of lights. From Tanggong Road into the park, to the east is a row of old-fashioned red brick factories, which look some years old, and when you enter the factory gate, there is no hole in the sky.
Only to see a magnificent wooden Chinese door head, hanging two large red lanterns, next to the red brick wall of a cartoon about cross-talk is very trendy, "cross-talk new forces" several big characters catch people's attention.
Performing Arts Hall
The person in charge, Qi Dongxiang, and the store manager Zhao Jinlong were already waiting at the door, one wearing Tang costumes, one wearing a tweed coat, one traditional, one trendy. "Just like our 'new cross-talk forces', traditional culture and modern trends are organically combined." Zhao Jinlong said.
Come to the second floor of the auditorium, oh! In the 500-square-meter performing arts hall, more than 30 Chinese tables and chairs are lined up, and there are nearly 200 seats. Standing on the stage and looking up, there are small private rooms and card seats on the second floor. Sitting here and serving a cup of tea, you really have the feeling of playing in the ancient garden.
"We want to create a traditional Chinese drama garden, so that the audience can immerse themselves in the charm of traditional cultural crosstalk." The 28-year-old Qi Dongxiang studied in Germany, majoring in classical guitar, but has a special love for traditional culture.
In 2014, Qi Dongxiang, who was attending university in Tianjin, heard offline crosstalk for the first time, and the interactive effect of the scene made him completely fall in love with crosstalk. Since then, I've listened to a passage every day before going to bed. "The charm of traditional culture has always been there, but it lacks a platform for more people to discover its charm." The regret in his heart has become the driving force for him to choose to return to China in 2020: to return to his hometown and do a career.
Like Qi Dongxiang, 40-year-old Zhao Jinlong is also a cross-talk fan. In May last year, by chance, Zhao Jinlong and his friend Qi Dongxiang mentioned the idea of opening a cross-talk hall, and the two hit it off and began to act.
Zhao Jinlong is debugging the sound
Is the full occupancy rate of the cross-talk hall high? What are the price points in different cities? Who's the audience... Qi Dongxiang and Zhao Jinlong traveled back and forth between Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Tianjin and other places, and did one thing - listening to cross-talk, "listening to an average of 6 hours a day, sometimes driving to Xi'an at night to listen." To their delight, the content of crosstalk is colorful and up-to-date, and there are more young people who like crosstalk than they expected.
What makes Qi Dongxiang and Zhao Jinlong more determined is that in the second half of last year, Luoyang's measures to build a youth-friendly city have been introduced one after another, a large number of immersive cultural tourism projects have begun to land, and high-quality cultural tourism IP such as "Wind Rises Luoyang", "Tang Palace Night Banquet", "Luoshen Water Endowment", "Dragon Gate King Kong" and so on continue to emerge. "I believe that our xiangsheng garden can also blossom and bear fruit in Luoyang, which has a long history and is full of vitality." They said firmly.
Determine the direction of investment, choose the site, start the renovation... Since September last year, Qi Dongxiang and Zhao Jinlong have been preoccupied with the cross-talk garden, from building brick walls to buying tea sets. The strong support of the old city government and the Tianxin Cultural Industrial Park has also put the progress of the park on the "fast track".
"Luoyang is building a national immersive cultural tourism destination, and more young entrepreneurs can inject more vitality into the park." The relevant person in charge of Tianxin Cultural Industrial Park said that at present, more than 80% of the entrepreneurs in the park are "post-80s" and "post-90s", focusing on the characteristics of youth consumption and creating a multi-dimensional combination of immersive experiences. The park attracts young entrepreneurs with ideas and motivation through various support methods such as formulating preferential policies and helping publicity and promotion.
Qi Dongxiang is debugging the microphone
"We are now doing the final equipment commissioning and staff training, entering the countdown to opening. It is necessary to build this place into a gathering place for young people who like cross-talk, and attract more young people to understand Luoyang and fall in love with Luoyang..." Speaking of excitement, Qi Dongxiang jumped onto the stage with an arrow step and sang loudly with a microphone in his hand. (Luo Bao Rong Media Luoyang Network reporter Wang Yu text/photo/video correspondent Wang Pei)