How do you say long bullet words today?

——Led by Sheng Xiaoyun, "Na" Thing Xin Said" talked about it

Stills from the long bullet "Na" Thing Xin Said

Text/Pan Xun

If you take stock of the performing arts events in the Yangtze River Delta evaluation industry last year, you cannot fail to mention the "Na" Thing Xin Said, which was led by Sheng Xiaoyun, a leading figure in Suzhou. Last year's golden autumn premiere on the Shanghai Tiantou Yifu Stage, this year's first tour in Suzhou and Wuxi, three rounds of performances in Jiangnan caused a phenomenon-level viewing boom in Jiangnan listeners.

Why does "Na" Thing Xin Say fire? There are at least three reasons: One is the charm of the original. "Na" Shi Xin Said" is based on Zhang Hexhui's novel "Laughing Cause", which is a classic of the Mandarin Duck Butterfly School of the Republic of China, and ranks 27th in the expert-reviewed "Asia Weekly" "Top 100 Chinese Novels of the 20th Century". The novel was serialized in the Shanghai News Daily from March to November 1930, and the following year it was published by the Shanghai Sanyou Book Society, and for a time "Zhang Hate Shui and "Laughing Karma" became the most popular social topic. In 1935, there was an adaptation of the bullet, and after more than 80 years of efforts by several generations of artists, the long story "The Cause of Laughter", which came out late, has been able to rank among the classic books of the bomb. The second is Sheng Xiaoyun's appeal. Sheng Xiaoyun is an outstanding contemporary bomb critic, she inherits Jiang Yunxian, Xing Yanzhi and other famous lyricists, her voice is clear and graceful, her performance is delicate and evocative, and she has formed her own performance style after 30 years of rapping "Laughing Karma". Sheng Xiaoyun's performance team is also a temporary choice, Gao Bowen, Wu Xinbo, Shi Bin, Wu Weidong, etc., are all first-line actors with profound skills and innovative ability, and the performance lineup can be described as a strong combination of artists in Suzhou and Shanghai. The third is the attractiveness of the new form of choreography. The editor took out the love line between Fan Jiashu and He Lina from the original version of "Laughing Karma" and rearranged 9 books into 3 performances. This performance form and split design is not a traditional long-form performance form, but also different from the general novella performance, and the three performances can be both connected and independent, similar to the "continuous stage play" of opera. This is the active debugging of the theater performance, and this choreographic innovation broadens the performance form of the contemporary commentary long-form book, attracting more audiences to enter the theater to enjoy the performance.

Behind the entry of long stories into the theater is the anxiety and breakthrough of critics about the survival status of contemporary long-form bibliographies. In recent decades, the main editorial forces in the field of criticism have been devoted to the creation of short and medium stories. The long-form performances that were once the survival method and existence form of Suzhou Pingtan are in continuous decline, not only the traditional bibliography is lost, the performance books are shrinking, and the new bibliography is even more lackluster. The actors have no books to say, the audience has no books to listen to, and the survival of the long-form bibliography is in embarrassment. There is no shortage of good actors in contemporary commentary, what is missing is good books — excellent long-form books. The performance level of Sheng Xiaoyun, Wu Xinbo, Gao Bowen, Shi Bin and other actors, especially the level of playing and singing, has long been recognized, but an important reason why they have not yet reached the level of their predecessors in terms of overall artistic achievements is that they all lack a long bibliography that promotes and supports artistic growth. This long "fulcrum" may come from a newly compiled bibliography, but it is more likely to come from the adaptation and innovation of the bibliography of the inheritance, that is, the so-called "often said and constantly new" in the commentary. Out of a clear understanding of the development symptoms of contemporary pingtan and a profound grasp of the law of pingtan inheritance, Sheng Xiaoyun led her editing team to spend 8 years to create this "Na" Thing Xin Theory, which gave Suzhou Bullet "Laughing Cause" a new look.

The classicity of the long bullet "The Cause of Laughter" comes from the enduring value of the original novel. As a popular novel text, the charm of "The Cause of Laughter" lies in the combination of romance and martial arts, and tells a romantic tragicomedy through a twisting and moving plot; It is to use the new era concept of the 1930s to examine the civic world, to express the confrontation and conflict between money and love, and the unity and separation of body and soul. However, the text of the novel cannot be directly adapted to the performance of bullet words. As a popular rap art in the city, the playword script has undergone a process of "repopulation" on the basis of the novel, and the commentators have recast this romantic tragicomedy with folk morality and civic ethics. The recasting of "repossession" involves the transfer of plot elements, the adjustment of narrative rhythm, the reshaping of character images, the reconstruction of aesthetic styles, etc., which is the collision and integration of popular literature classics and pingtan performing arts, and the intersection of the evolution of pingtan art and the aesthetic psychology of the times. Tradition is not simply preserved and re-established, living tradition is a reconstruction on the basis of the present. Today, to create a "theatrical version" of "The Cause of Laughter" is to make a new recast of this long bullet with today's acceptance vision and cultural concepts.

The editorial team of "Na" Shi Xin Said is composed of Xu Mengdan, Fu Jurong, and Hu Leilei, who are composed of three generations of old, middle and young writers, who have actively explored the "reconstruction" of the text. The main creators focused the dramatic conflict on He Lina, the most affectionate, most obsessive and tangled in this romantic tragicomedy, and added original books such as "Beiyang Spring", "Flower Sending Party", "Dream Coffee", "Auspicious Alley" and so on, deducing many reasonable storylines and meticulous and subtle psychological portrayals. Through contemporary aesthetic concepts and artistic language, the emotional chapters of "The Cause of Laughter" and the mental journey of the characters in the book are strengthened and enriched. Sheng Xiaoyun reinterpreted the character of He Lina. The original book is cleverly embedded in the traditional retrospective, bridging a complete narrative line of Fan and He "love war", and thus reflecting the character fate of He Lina. He Lina, portrayed by Sheng Xiaoyun, smiled and expressed her affection, and raised her hands to make her feet move. However, Sheng Xiaoyun's performance is also measured and soft. Through a series of ridiculous plot designs and lingering emotional outpouring, it is gradually revealed to the audience that under the beautiful and infatuated appearance of He Lina, there is a more attractive personality undercurrent. He Lina is infatuated without indulging, affectionate and self-conscious, and she "knows herself, trains herself, and consciously and voluntarily transforms herself" in emotional conflicts and love entanglements, becoming the most lovely character of this character. The revelation and prominence of He Lina's personality undercurrent is not only a successful rereading of He Lina by Sheng Xiaoyun, but also a step forward in the aesthetic value of the bullet "The Cause of Laughter".

Of course, the 9th Book is not the whole picture of Sheng Xiaoyun's version of "Laughing Karma", and "Na" Thing Xin Said should be a "test field" in Sheng Xiaoyun's desire to "often say changxin". Judging from the whole book of "Laughing at the Cause", the single line of "love war" that takes out Fan and He is not complete. Zhang Hexhui's writing of "Laughing Causes" was deeply influenced by "Dream of the Red Chamber", especially in the placement and shaping of the characters in the book. Cao Xueqin writes about people, not only placing the characters in the complex network of relationships, but also forming a set of contrasts between important characters, or giving the main characters a projection and illusion. The former such as Xue Baochao and Lin Daiyu, the latter such as Jia Baoyu and Zhen Baoyu, Xue Baochao and the Attacker, Lin Daiyu and Qingwen and so on. These contrasts and projections are either interpretations of the characters' personalities, or footnotes to the trajectory of fate, or lamentations for the tragedies of life. In "The Cause of Laughter", Shen Fengxi and He Lina constitute a set of contrasting character relationships. Zhang Hexhui designed the two to be similar and have a cool appearance, which is not a trick of the general "novelist's words", but actually borrows the brushwork of "Dream of the Red Chamber", so that Shen Fengxi and He Lina are mirrored by each other, and write a concept of life and aesthetic creed with the contrast of fate and the reflection of personality. Shen Fengxi's fate is always in a passive state, she is dragged into the abyss step by step by the negative character of vanity, greed, and weakness, but she is an "insulted and damaged person". He Lina has always actively grasped her own destiny, from a vain rich family to a woman of the era who has washed away lead, although there are twists and turns and ups and downs, but the process is full of positive energy. Therefore, if Fan and He Zhi love are separated from the entanglement and contrast of Fan and Shen Zhi love, they will lose their meaning.

Looking forward to those who come. I hope that the editorial team led by Sheng Xiaoyun can continue to work hard, often speak new, rethink, reinterpret and recreate the original novel and the biography of bullet words based on today's cultural posture, and "reconstruct" the long bullet words belonging to our times, "Laughing Causes".

(The author is the director of the Theoretical Academic Committee of Jiangsu Qu Artists Association and the director of Qu Art Committee of Jiangsu Art Critics Society)