Spring Festival, commonly known as "New Year's Festival",
The traditional names New Year, Big Year, New Year,
It is the most grand and distinctive in the mainland
Traditional festivals.
Spring Festival is not just a festival,
It is also the precipitation of Chinese culture.
And the taste of the year is the most precious taste in memory,
It is also the taste of home in the minds of all Chinese.
This Spring Festival, we are for you
Present a set of "fragrant new year" stories.
The lights come on, accompanied by an impassioned red melody, and a story of blood and fire begins to play out. "I am the daughter of the party, and it is the responsibility of the women's powder gun team to protect the villagers." Behind the white curtain, the shadow puppet actor skillfully fiddled with the shadow man, and in the change of light and shadow, brilliantly interpreted the story of the hailufeng women's powder gun team, the earliest women's armed force led by the Communist Party of China. This red shadow puppet play, called "Hailufeng Women's Pink Gun Team", is a red boutique play performed by the Lufeng Shadow Puppet Theater Heritage and Protection Center.
The partition accounts tell the story of the ages, and the drums are played under the lamp. In the theater of the Shadow Puppet Building in Lufeng City, at the beginning of the New Year, the red shadow puppet play with local characteristics attracted many citizens to punch in the scene. In addition to the appreciation, the theater also arranged an interactive experience, where the audience can experience the traditional cultural technique of shadow puppetry.
Using shadow puppetry to innovate the story of red, this ancient art is being revitalized.
Southern shadow puppet, a century-old heritage
Shadow puppetry, also known as "shadow play" or "light shadow play", is a silhouette of a character made of animal skins or cardboard to perform stories, and is one of the dramas widely circulated in mainland china. Lufeng shadow puppetry can be traced back to the middle of the Ming Dynasty and has a history of hundreds of years. Chinese shadow puppetry is known as the North Road and the South Road, and Lufeng Shadow Puppet Theatre, as the only surviving one of the South Road Shadow Plays, is the only remnant of One of the three major shadow puppet families in mainland China - Chaozhou Shadow.
Behind the scenes and in front of the stage of the shadow puppet show
The artistic tradition of Lu Feng shadow puppetry is excellent and simple, keeping up with the trend of the times, and applying various forms of ethnic painting such as ink painting, flower paper cutting, and single-line flat painting to stage art. Its shadow puppet shape is exquisitely carved, the colors are bright, the performance is delicate and vivid, and the image is realistic. At the same time, the singing voice is mainly based on orthographic opera cards, integrating Lu Fengyu song minor key and white character opera cards, which is a style of its own.
In 1957, the Lu feng shadow puppet theater troupe was officially established. However, due to various historical reasons, the shadow puppet performance market has been sluggish, and there are fewer and fewer artists, and Lu Feng Shadow Puppet Theater Troupe once stopped performing. Jiang Haibin, director of the Lufeng Shadow Puppet Heritage and Protection Center, introduced that Lufeng City subsequently increased its support and increased relevant funding investment, and Lufeng shadow puppetry slowly came out of the downturn.
As the only state-owned professional shadow puppet troupe in Guangdong Province, Lufeng Shadow Puppet Theater was renamed "Lufeng Shadow Puppet Heritage and Protection Center" in 2012. Since its establishment, the troupe has created a number of excellent shadow puppet plays, won many awards, and was invited to Japan, Germany and other countries for cultural exchanges, which was well received by experts and audiences.
In 2006, Lu Feng Shadow Puppet was selected into the list of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects. In 2007, lu feng shadow puppet troupe resumed performances and continued to join the new forces. In 2011, Chinese shadow puppet plays (including Lu Feng shadow puppet plays) participated in the world heritage and were announced by UNESCO to be included in the list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, and Lu Feng shadow puppet plays are the first and only projects in Shanwei city that have been rated as "world heritage".
So far, There are 40 members of Lufeng Shadow Puppet Theater Troupe, with a clear division of tasks, and special personnel are responsible for shadow puppet design and carving, development of cultural and creative products, media operations, etc., and constantly expand the inheritance position of Southern Shadow Puppet Theatre.
The red story in a shadow puppet play
The inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, represented by shadow puppetry, must not only undertake the context, but also face the future. In recent years, on the basis of traditional plays, the Lufeng Shadow Puppet Theater Heritage and Protection Center has launched a number of plays such as "A Star Travels", "Rats Steal Eggs", "Monkey Fishing Moon", "Tears" and so on, which has greatly enriched the content of shadow puppet performances. At the same time, the newly compiled red shadow puppet new play "Hailufeng Women's Pink Gun Team" is an innovative artistic expression of traditional shadow puppetry.
Shadow puppet play "Bihai Dan Heart"
In 1927, the heroic people of Hailufeng held high the banner of armed struggle and, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, established China's first Soviet power. At The same time, China's first women's armed "Women's Powder Gun Team" was also active in Hailufeng. "Hailufeng Women's Powder Gun Team" is a play based on the leader of the Chihang Nantu Women's Powder Gun Team, Ah Yue (Lai Yuechan). The plot tells the story of Ah Yue, the 25-year-old captain of the powder gun team who is six months pregnant, in order to protect the people of the village, regardless of personal safety, stepped forward, generously and righteously, and heroically sacrificed. This play combines tradition and modern art, and integrates various forms of performances such as puppets, fluorescent shadow puppets, and dances, with a strong sea and land style.
"It's easy to make the shadow puppet move, but the acting of the gods must achieve the unity of the shadow." In the rehearsal hall of the Shadow Puppet Building in Lufeng City, Lin Xueping, who has been acting in shadow puppetry for more than 30 years, taught skills to young actors. Shake, twist, knead, drag, flip... This is the basic skill of shadow puppetry, and it takes practice over and over again to master the trick. In addition to knowing the technique, it is also necessary to understand the content of the play, which paragraph talks about what content, which character is what character, and what action should be used. Nowadays, in a scene like "Hailufeng Women's Powder Gun Team" for more than an hour, the characters in it are all danced to life by Lin Xueping.
According to Jiang Haibin, the play is Lufeng Shadow Puppet Play Shouzheng's innovative masterpiece, on May 21, 2021, the play was premiered at the Lufeng Cultural Center as a high-quality play of "Gifting the Centenary of the Founding of the Party and Inheriting the Red Gene", and was successfully selected as a grassroots stage art boutique project in Guangdong Province in July 2021. So far, "Hailufeng Women's Powder Gun Team" has entered the campus and community for many performances, and is deeply loved by the audience.
The inspiration of shadow puppetry and red stories collides more than that. As early as 2019, lufeng shadow puppet troupe created "Bihai Danxin", which recreates the true story of Zhou Enlai, Ye Ting and Nie Rongzhen crossing the sea from Lufeng by fishing boat after the Nanchang uprising was frustrated, under the cover of local party organizations and the masses, and traveling from Hong Kong to Shanghai to carry out underground work. As a classic drama with red theme, it is widely loved by the audience.
Red heritage, rejuvenated intangible cultural heritage
Walking into the Lufeng Shadow Museum, a series of exquisite shadow puppet crafts with different shapes are presented in front of the eyes, showing the cultural charm of the history, production process, performance props and performance technology of Lufeng shadow puppetry.
Lu Feng shadow puppetry, the "shadow man" in the play is made of cowhide, and the production of a shadow puppet character often requires multiple steps such as skin selection, skin making, painting, engraving, coloring, ironing, and knotting. Delicate and transparent, durable, this is one of the distinctive features of Lu Feng shadow puppetry that distinguishes it from other places. The production process of Lu Feng shadow puppets is exquisite, with fine patterns, rounded and stretched, and vivid and vivid character shapes, forming a unique artistic style.
The shadow puppetry is a complex production process
Zhang Sixi, 28, is a shadow puppet producer and actor at the Lufeng Shadow Puppet Theatre Heritage and Preservation Center. In order to make more people love to pursue shadow puppetry and shadow puppet cultural creations, Zhang Sixi constantly learns to try to develop and design shadow puppet works with lufeng's local historical and cultural elements. Starting from the selection of materials, processing, painting, engraving, color, etc., she innovates the design of the craft, adopts the local hero story, combines the theme of the red story, and develops modern cultural and creative products, which injects new vitality into this ancient craft.
"We also let more people know about Lufeng shadow puppetry through online short videos, tourism promotion and other models, and hope to better pass on this art." Zhang Sixi said.
In recent years, the Lufeng Shadow Opera Heritage and Protection Center has moved the shadow puppet stage into the scenic spot to realize the model of "intangible cultural heritage + tourism", boost rural revitalization, and let traditional culture generate momentum and add vitality in the construction of tourism cities. At the same time, we carried out activities to send operas to the countryside, traditional culture into the campus, and into the community, and held hundreds of public welfare performances to tell red stories and spread red culture.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "The vast number of literary and art workers should enhance their cultural consciousness, strengthen cultural self-confidence, actively participate in the construction of a socialist cultural power with a strong historical initiative, and adhere to the direction of serving the people and serving socialism." "To carry forward the spirit of historical initiative is to become a powerful driving force for history to advance, and to guide, condense, and promote the people to create history with works full of spiritual strength."
"As an art that is deeply welcomed by the people, shadow puppetry should seize the opportunity and give full play to our advantages, create more excellent red puppet shadow puppet dramas, carry forward the great spirit of party building, and sing the main theme of the times." Jiang Haibin said.
"Horizons: Guangdong We Live in" column group
Planner of this issue: Lu Zhike
This issue is filmed by: Tang Yongjun, Lu Zhike, Mo Liting
Later in this issue: Mo Liting
Copywriter of this issue: Lu Zhike
Column Producer: Lu Xiaofeng
Column packaging: Chen Chunlin
Column coordinator: Chen Haiyan
Supporting unit of this issue: Publicity Department of Lufeng Municipal Party Committee
Lufeng Shadow Puppet Heritage Protection Center
Vision Team: Chen Haiyan Lu Zhike Lu Xiaofeng Tang Yongjun Li Ran Mo Liting
Editor-in-charge: Liu Shuqiang
Co-ordinator 丨 Li Yanxin Zhang Beilei
Editor丨Chen Haiyan Lu Zhike LinLin
Proofreading 丨 Hua Chengmin
Source 丨Nanfang Magazine WeChat public account