Jiang Xiaobin, a reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network
The Spring Festival is coming, the Winter Olympics are approaching, and Kunqu opera actor Yu Jiulin has just returned to Suzhou from Beijing. At the recently concluded "Meet in Beijing" Olympic Cultural Festival, he once again performed the youth version of "Peony Pavilion", and he told the good news to Taiwanese writer Bai Xianyong through video. On January 29, three days after receiving Yu Jiulin's video of the New Year's visit, Bai Xianyong also "returned to worship" through video.
"I heard that your tickets sold out the next day after the ticket was issued, and at the request of the audience, there was an additional one in the afternoon. I'm very happy to hear this. Bai Xianyong said, "This year is the Year of the Tiger, I sincerely wish you a safe and auspicious Year of the Tiger, and I hope that your 'Little Orchid Class' actors will go to a higher level and your art (level) will be further improved!" ”
Yu Jiulin, who is now the vice president of Suzhou Kun Theatre, was selected by Bai Xianyong that year to become the actor of Liu Mengmei in the youth version of "Peony Pavilion". It has been 18 years since the premiere, and he still remembers Bai Xianyong taking himself to perform and give lectures on the university campus, "and I told him to make more efforts in the script, let me act for a while and then carefully study the original work, kung fu outside the play..."
Bai Xianyong also remembers the premiere of the youth version of "Peony Pavilion", the first time he went to Beijing, and the media reported that it "made the audience of Kunqu opera drop by 30 years." Today, the youth version of "Peony Pavilion" has been performed nearly 400 times, and it is still difficult to find a ticket.
Chinese culture has accumulated the deepest spiritual pursuit of the Chinese nation and is the rich nourishment for the endless development and growth of the Chinese nation. Bai Xianyong is like a lamplighter with a 600-year-old history of Kunqu opera, allowing young students to gradually learn Kunqu opera from watching Kunqu opera, and letting Kunqu opera go from Suzhou to Beijing and to more land in China.
Stills from the campus heritage version of "Peony Pavilion And Dreams"
"Peony Pavilion" is not only the youth version, but also the campus heritage version of "Peony Pavilion" from Beijing to Hong Kong and Taiwan. In 2017, led by Peking University, students from 17 universities in Beijing jointly completed the "Campus Heritage Edition of Peony Pavilion". From July 2017 to June 2019, the campus heritage version of "Peony Pavilion" completed the rehearsal of the whole play and toured the country. Among them, he performed at the University of Chinese in Hong Kong in December 2018 and kaohsiung in Taiwan on June 2, 2019.
The campus heritage version of "Peony Pavilion" was performed in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Campus heritage version of "Peony Pavilion" Beijing-Hong Kong joint performance of Hong Kong Chinese University performance group photo. Photo by Xu Peihong
In 2009, five years after the youth version of "Peony Pavilion" came out, Bai Xianyong and Ye Lang, a professor at Peking University, jointly launched the Peking University Kunqu Inheritance Program - opening a "Classic Kunqu Appreciation Class". In the following 10 years, this course gradually became a star course of Peking University, with a maximum of 400 people needing to fight for luck, and there were auditors standing and listening to the class. And every time it was Bai Xianyong's turn to teach in person, students had to intercept and restrict the flow when they went to the door of the classroom.
Classical Kunqu opera appreciation class is overcrowded. Courtesy of Hou Junmei
Hou Junmei, as the project executive of the campus inheritance version of "Peony Pavilion", witnessed the inheritance of "Peony Pavilion" among college students. "In 15 years, Bai Xianyong has taken Kunqu opera into countless campuses, he understands young people, his speech is always so infectious, and when young students listen to him, their faces are glowing." Hou Junmei said.
Wang Jingzhi, a doctoral student in the Department of Chinese of Peking University, played Du Liniang in the campus heritage version of "Peony Pavilion Youmi". "Every time I really see Teacher Bai, I feel touched and encouraged, and then I feel that I should also do something for what he calls 'China's cultural rejuvenation', and this idea still pops up from time to time to this day."
Wang Xiaoyu, who played Chunxiang, was an undergraduate student in journalism at the Beijing Second Foreign Chinese College. "I believe what Teacher Bai called 'Kunqu revival', behind Kunqu opera is Chinese culture. Although culture is constantly innovating and influenced by foreign cultures, it is like a big tree, and the power to grow comes from the huge and intertwined root system at the bottom. ”
During the campus heritage version of "Peony Pavilion" Beijing-Hong Kong performance, Bai Xianyong took a group photo with some students. Photo by Xu Peihong
"Teacher Bai, it will soon be the Lunar New Year, and I am here to pay you a New Year's greeting." I wish you a Happy New Year, all the best, and eternal youth! At the end of the video, Yu Jiulin said "Happy New Year" in Suzhou dialect.
Bai Xianyong's expectation for young people at the end of the video is, "I hope to pass on our Kunqu art, which is the treasure of our Chinese culture, like your teachers, and let Kunqu art continue to shine on the stage of the 21st century."