The head of the Suzhou regiment, Pang, sang for a lifetime.
At the age of 64, Pang Zhihao became the head of the Pang regiment from Mr. Pang, who was a storyteller. That year, Pang Zhihao set up the Su Yun Critics Troupe in Suzhou, with the original intention of serving those individual critics who, like himself, were active in major bookstores. At that time, Su Yun was the only private evaluation group in Suzhou, and he himself was the only non-hereditary inheritor of the evaluation of bomb art outside the system in Suzhou. Pang Zhihao is 72 years old this year. Su Yun's evaluation troupe has developed steadily along the way, and now it has more than 60 actors and actresses, which has become an important performance force in the evaluation industry. But after 8 years of establishment, they are still the only private evaluation group in Suzhou.
The head of the Ye regiment in Hangzhou can't sing commentaries, and if there are no subtitles, he can't even understand it.
In 2017, cross-talk actor Ye Mingzhu contracted the Dahua Bookstore on Hangzhou Youth Road, and the old audience who came to listen to the comments also began to call him "Ye Tuanchang". Dahua Bookstore was founded in 1952, and when Ye Mingzhu took over, the operation of the old bookstore was struggling. Nowadays, Dahua Bookstore not only turns a profit, but also becomes a daily punching point for old book fans in Hangzhou. After all, this is the only professional music and art bookstore in Hangzhou.
Suzhou Pingtan is one of the representatives of traditional music and art in the Yangtze River Delta region, and it is also a national intangible cultural heritage. However, the continuous loss of audiences and the serious aging of the audience's age structure have made the once popular Pingtan in Jiangnan increasingly lose its vitality, and the epidemic has made the already dismal Pingtan performance market worse. In recent years, local governments have spared no effort in the protection and inheritance of the bomb. However, traditional qu art belongs to the "jianghu" after all, and the revival of pingtan needs not only the support of the government, but also the power of the market.
Pang Zhihao felt that what his father had said to himself at that time was particularly appropriate today: "The old man said that the appraisal bomb is a ham bone, there is no big meat, but it has a fragrance, it is still worth a bite." In Suzhou and Hangzhou, the two leaders of the regiment outside the system each pulled the only private evaluation group in Suzhou and the only private professional quyi book field in Hangzhou, hoping that through the power of the market, the "ham bone" of the evaluation bomb would be fragrant again.
The office of the Su Yun Critics Bomb Troupe is in Pang Zhihao's home
Regimental Commander Pang and his regiment
"Zero all!" "It's always been peaceful"... Pang Zhihao's WeChat circle of friends is updating the epidemic situation in the Yangtze River Delta almost every day. "I'm just telling everyone not to be discouraged! The future is bright, although the road is a bit tortuous. In the office of Su Yun's bomb critics, that is, Pang Zhihao's home, he clenched his fists and cheered on the actors.
In November last year, due to the impact of the epidemic, almost all of the local pingtan performance venues in Suzhou were closed, and they were not opened until January this year. Previously, some bookstores were even closed from 2020 to the present because of the impact of the epidemic. The bookstore is not open, which directly affects the performance plans and income of the actors.
Actors in the system also have a guaranteed salary, while those outside the system have to face the threat of no income for two or three months. For a private group outside the system such as the Su Yun Critics and Bomb Troupe, it has been really difficult to survive in the more than two years since the epidemic.
Pang Zhihao used to record performance information on a whiteboard in his office. When the reporter interviewed him, it was just before the Spring Festival. On the whiteboard, there were only five or six performance schedules in November and December last year, and the information for January was blank. Pang Zhihao said that in the past, before the Spring Festival, it was the busiest time of the year for the actors to evaluate the bombs.
Pang Zhihao was looking at the small white board
Pang Zhihao was born in the pingtan family, his father Pang Xueqing was the eldest disciple of Xue Xiaoqing, the founder of "Xue Tuning", a famous artist who said "Pearl Tower", and was once the leader of the Changzhou Pingtan Regiment. The son inherited his father's business, and in Pang Zhihao's generation, the four brothers in the family, without exception, also became Mr. Storyteller. The last word of the four people's names is connected together, which is exactly "Hero Haojie". In the Suzhou bomb industry that year, the popularity of the Pang brothers was indistinguishable for a while.
Relying on Pang Zhihao's contacts accumulated over the years in bookstores around the Yangtze River Delta, Su Yun's evaluation group has achieved considerable success after its establishment. Before the epidemic, he had business dealings with more than 40 bookstores. "Every day, the phone calls are constant, and I arrange a performance for everyone, and sometimes I can't take care of it at all." Pang Zhihao recalled the scene before the outbreak and used the word "prosperity" to describe it.
However, the so-called "prosperity" is only relative. The decline of the bomb rating began as early as the 1980s.
Pang Zhihao witnessed the rise and fall of the bomb evaluation community along the way. In the 1960s, when the state-run bomb evaluation group had just been established, the monthly wages of ordinary workers were only a few tens of yuan, while his father's monthly salary had reached 151 yuan. In the 1980s, the demand for spiritual and cultural life of the Chinese people grew vigorously, and the evaluation industry was revived, and various parts of Suzhou and Shanghai set up bomb evaluation groups, and almost every county had a bomb evaluation group. Under the boom, a large number of bookstores were also spawned, and more than 140 bookstores were opened at that time, all of which were hot business: "As long as you go on stage, you will be full." The listener has no seat, and he must listen when he stands in the back. At that time, Pang Zhihao was happy to be a "self-employed person", working flexibly and earning more than in the system.
With the popularity of television sets, the auditors in the bookstore fell off a cliff, and soon only a group of elderly people remained. By the end of the 1980s, only a dozen of the more than 140 bookstores remained. Pang Zhihao realized that the bomb evaluation was already the "ham bone" in his father's mouth at that time.
Pang Zhihao performed
Ye Regiment Leader and his land
The boom period of the bomb evaluation has also been witnessed by the Dahua Bookstore in Hangzhou. In 1952, Dahua Bookstore opened in Jishanfang Lane, and at the same time there were many old bookstores in Hangzhou, such as Sanyuan, West Garden, and Wushan. At its peak, Dahua Bookstore was full of famous artists, book fans needed to queue up overnight to grab tickets, and Peking Opera masters Gai Mingtian was also a frequent visitor to Dahua, coming almost every day.
The good times did not last long, the bookstores in Hangzhou have closed down one after another, and the Dahua Bookstore, which is the "only seedling", has also changed its location several times. In the mid-1990s, Dahua faced relocation again, but the new site was delayed. A number of veteran comrades of the Zhejiang Qu Artists Association jointly wrote to the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, and finally saved Dahua.
In 2001, Dahua Bookstore moved to its current Youth Road. At that time, Ye Mingzhu had just come to Hangzhou for two years and was still doing hardware valve business. He would never have imagined that he would intersect with this bookstore in the future.
Ye Mingzhu is a native of Hebei. In his early years, he also studied art from a teacher, and after completing his studies, he spoke cross-talk in a literary troupe. In the cultural and labor troupe, Ye Mingzhu, who wanted to become "within the system", never got the establishment. For several years, Ye Mingzhu was disheartened. In 1999, he came to Hangzhou to do business in the sea.
But Ye Mingzhu still loves crosstalk and wants to take the stage to talk about crosstalk. In 2008, when the Deyun Society, which was guo de's program, was on fire all over the country. Ye Mingzhu was moved, wondering whether he could take advantage of this trend to set up a cross-talk group in Hangzhou. He began to look for partners, the method is simple and clumsy: "At that time, I searched for a few keywords on QQ, Hangzhou, crosstalk, sketch, I did not expect to find a Hangzhou cross-talk group for me, the members plus me, a total of 3 people." I added friends from the group owner and the group manager to have a good chat with them. Finally the group leader said to me, 'Brother, don't talk!' That admin is actually my trumpet! ’”
Kung Fu paid off, and Ye Mingzhu really found a few people in the same way. They communicate online, rehearse offline, and go around selling themselves for performance opportunities, but in the end they all fail to return. Because there was no food to eat, Ye Mingzhu's partner broke up several. Until 2010, Ye Mingzhu and the last people who insisted on it jointly established the current Laughing Sea Xiangsheng Association.
Traditional quyi pays attention to "leaning on the ground", which means that a fixed performance venue is needed. Ye Mingzhu searched for a venue in Hangzhou and finally met Dahua Bookstore. Although the operating conditions of the bookstore at that time were not very optimistic, it was the only professional bookstore in Hangzhou after all, and Ye Mingzhu believed that this was the most ideal place. In 2010, Xiaohai signed a contract and officially took the stage at Dahua Bookstore.
In the years since, Dahua Bookstore has deteriorated, and has undergone many transfers during this period. Ye Mingzhu remembered that at the most bleak time, Dahua Bookstore could hardly invite commentators to perform, and Mr. Storyteller was reluctant to come to the door, and the operator could only play the video of the commentary in the bookstore to cope with the listeners. At the end of December 2016, Dahua Bookstore was once again closed.
On the contrary, Ye Mingzhu's Laughing Sea Xiangsheng Hall has gradually improved. Remembering the saying of "leaning on the ground" in the industry, Ye Mingzhu did not want to see the bookstore really fall. He decided to take over Dahua.
Ye Mingzhu was interviewed
Keep the old listeners
Pang Zhihao admitted that the evaluation bomb has become thinner and thinner, but if someone says that the evaluation bomb will perish, he will definitely have to argue with people. In the late 1980s, when he opened a restaurant in Tiger Hill, he had already argued with people about it: "I calculated for them, 1,000 retired elderly people, 500 stayed at home, 300 went to the mahjong hall, 100 had other hobbies, even if only one or two people entered the bookstore, according to this ratio, the evaluation bomb would not perish, or someone would enter the bookstore." ”
More than 30 years have passed, and Pang Zhihao's view has never wavered. Some time ago, he met a retired engineer in the bookstore in Shanghai's Xuhui District, who told Pang Zhihao that when he was young, he was busy working, never listened to the commentary, and now after retirement, he can't play mahjong or dance. Now, he still has to pull his wife to listen together, and the husband and wife must listen to a commentary every afternoon, and the thunder will not move.
"When I was in my 30s, I saw that the audience was elderly people in their sixties and seventies, and now that I am in my 70s, there are a new group of elderly people offstage, and there is always an audience." Pang Zhihao firmly believes in this law. Even if these elderly people did not listen to the comments before, Pang Zhihao believes that at a certain age, there will naturally be a switch on the body that "snaps" on and begins to like to listen to the comments.
In order to convince the reporter, Pang Zhihao gave an example: he had previously told a book in a newly opened community bookstore in a certain place, most of the local elderly people had not heard of the commentary, and some old women were peeling edamame offstage. But half a month later, the old lady who was peeling the edamame at the beginning also listened to it with taste, and the bookstore was affected by the epidemic and closed its doors, and they also went to the community to give advice. Pang Zhihao's confidence in Pingtan is also reflected in his family: last year, his granddaughter graduated from Suzhou Pingtan School and began to "run the dock" just like she did in that year.
Also having confidence in the evaluation was Ye Mingzhu. In 2017, Dahua Bookstore re-recruited contractors. Ye Mingzhu took out almost all of her family's savings, borrowed a part of it, and finally put together 400,000 yuan to participate in the bidding. Ye Mingzhu's bidding opponent is only one, another cross-talk group in Hangzhou. Ye Mingzhu finally won the management right of Dahua Bookstore as he wished. The contract made it clear that the daily performance of pingtan at Dahua Bookstore must be guaranteed during the operation period. Therefore, this northern Hanzi, who knew almost nothing about Jiangnan qu art, thus provoked the burden of reviving the evaluation in Hangzhou.
The responsibility lies on his shoulders, and Ye Mingzhu does not dare to slack off at all. While renovating the hardware of the bookstore, he found Yan Xiaofang, who was then the head of the Zhejiang Bomb Critics Regiment. The leader of the regiment helped the leader of the group, the bookstore reopened, and the first task was to find Mr. Storyteller. The first performance after the reopening of the bookstore is called "Kai Qinglong" in the jargon. On September 1, 2017, Dahua Bookstore invited Mao Xinlin and Zhou Hui, the famous horns of the Shanghai Bomb Critics Troupe, to "Open Qinglong".
"Mr. Mao is good at tension and is skilled. And we listeners in Hangzhou just like Zhang Tone the most. Although it is only understood by the subtitles, Ye Mingzhu has heard about it for many years, and Ye Mingzhu now has a deep understanding of the evaluation bomb. He told reporters that under the control of Yan Xiaofang, Mr. Storyteller finally began to return, and various local bomb critics have performed, including many famous artists. For example, Pang Zhihao and his brother, Pang Zhiying in "Hero Haojie", have also appeared on stage in Dahua.
After the reopening of the bookstore, the old listeners in Hangzhou city quickly gathered, and although the grand situation of the full seats was difficult to reproduce, it was always guaranteed that sixty or seventy spectators could be seated under the daily performance stage. Ye Mingzhu said that the influence of pingtan in Hangzhou is naturally not as good as that in southern Jiangsu, but the ears of the listeners are also very "sharp", and they cannot be fooled casually.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic struck suddenly. Due to the requirements of epidemic prevention and control, Dahua Bookstore also had to suspend business. On March 27, the bookstore was allowed to reopen, and the Laughing Sea Cross-Talk Association took the lead in opening the box. At that time, many public entertainment venues in Hangzhou had not yet resumed business, and the Dahua Bookstore, which was one step ahead, had actually eaten dividends, and the box office of cross-talk performances was gratifying.
Ye Mingzhu naturally will not forget his basic disk, and on April 16, the evaluation performance opened the book again. At that time, the health code had just come out, and many elderly people in the audience could not play with smart phones, and they could not help but complain. However, the epidemic prevention and control can not be relaxed in the slightest, Ye Mingzhu specially purchased the equipment for online inspection of identity cards, so that the old listeners can brush the card to enter: "All the old listeners, always have to find a way to take care of it." ”
"It is our task to stabilize the basic disk of Hangzhou Pingtan Listeners, and at this point, we have never wavered." Ye Mingzhu said.
Ye Mingzhu performance photo
Let new listeners in
However, can the evaluation really only be a form of music art exclusive to the elderly? Pang Zhihao was not reconciled.
10 years ago, Pang Zhihao once launched 6 night shows of "Those Things of Qianlong Ye" in Shanghai Xiangyin Bookstore. From this name, we can see Pang Zhihao's determination, and his best skill is the traditional book "Qianlong Under jiangnan". Elderly people, most of them may be familiar with the story of "Qianlong Under jiangnan", but young people may not be cold to this name, when the popular "×× those things", Pang Zhihao named the performance "Qianlong Ye those things".
In terms of content, popular memes on Weibo and forums have also become sources of material. When it comes to the Qianlong Emperor's private visits, Pang Zhihao will ridicule individual officials for using arranged "actors" to cope with the inspection of superior leaders, and the traditional books also highlight the practical significance of the shortcomings of acupuncture.
In order to keep up with the young people, Pang Zhihao spends a long time online every year, which also allows him to change the way tickets are sold for the show - he launched group buying on several well-known group buying websites and held lottery events on the spot.
With the efforts of Ye Mingzhu, Dahua Bookstore finally achieved an operating income of more than 200,000 yuan in 2019, and fully realized a turnaround. However, the profit mainly depends on Ye Mingzhu's cross-talk, not the evaluation.
After years of deep cultivation, Ye Mingzhu's own Xiaohai Xiangsheng Hall has further opened its fame in Hangzhou, and the box office is quite impressive among its peers in the Yangtze River Delta. On the other hand, the basic plate is certainly stable, but the attendance of sixty or seventy people and the ticket price of 10 yuan and 15 yuan per game are obviously far from self-sufficiency. Ye Mingzhu calculated an account for the reporter, and the performance fee of the book store to Mr. Storyteller who ran the dock was about 650 yuan on average, while the box office of a single show was usually only about 500 yuan. If you include the rent of the accommodation provided for Mr. Storyteller and the corresponding water, electricity and manpower expenses in the bookstore, the hole is between 150,000 and 200,000 yuan per year.
Ye Mingzhu admitted that he was now using crosstalk to "raise" the bomb. Different from the performance venues with state-run backgrounds in various places, Dahua Bookstore, which was handed over to Ye Mingzhu, was self-financing and did not enjoy any subsidies: "If there is only a commentary, a private bookstore like ours may collapse." ”
However, relying on cross-talk drainage, Dahua Bookstore has gained popularity on the Internet and has become a punch card for foreign tourists to come to Hangzhou. At the same time, some young people with a cultural curiosity mentality also began to walk into the bookstore to listen to the commentaries. "In the early years, if young people came in, the whole audience would definitely have to pay attention to the ceremony, and now the old listeners are not surprised." In the first two years, the TV series "All Is Good" brought the evaluation bomb to fire. From time to time, some people here will come to sit down and listen to the last paragraph. ”
"These accidental bumpers in, although it is difficult to keep, but after all, they have sat down." As long as you sit down, you may become a loyal listener to the bomb in the future. Ye Mingzhu said.
The old audience of Dahua Bookstore discussed the performance of Su Yun's commentary troupe
Those 6 night shows 10 years ago gave Pang Zhihao a taste of innovation: "I can definitely make money." Pang Zhihao said that at that time, the field rental fee was 2,000 yuan a time, even if each time 100 people came, 50 yuan a ticket, the income of each game was 5,000 yuan, deducting various costs, and earning heads. However, after those 6 night shows, Pang Zhihao did not continue on this innovative road.
"I don't have the energy to do it." Pang Zhihao shook his head, no longer explaining, but turned his head and began to talk about the cross-talk industry that Ye Mingzhu was engaged in, "I admire them quite much, I often change paragraphs, we have not changed for decades." ”
Pang Zhihao often watches cross-talk and pays attention to the popular talk shows. 10 years ago, he used to discuss with other lyricist actors, and he could learn from Haipai Qingkou's performance method and try to perform in a new form. Now, does he still have that ambition?
"To be innovative, wait until the beginning of spring." Pang Zhihao looked down and thought about it, and made up his mind.