Hello everyone, I am learning from history.
When it comes to "The White-Haired Girl", I think that as long as it is a Chinese, it can sing two sentences: "The north wind blows, and the snowflakes flutter." Snowflakes that flutter, the year has come. ”
Moreover, once the opera "The White-Haired Girl" was performed, it caused a sensation, and her influence was extremely great. Not only has it helped the people of Yan'an to recognize that "the old society turned people into ghosts, and the new society turned ghosts into people"! It even had a great impact on the subsequent land reform, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the War of Liberation.
"The White-Haired Girl" later spawned a variety of art forms, including opera, film, ballet... Even going abroad, Japan's Matsuyama Ballet is famous for performing white-haired women.
In this issue, @Take History as a Lesson, let's talk about the little story behind the birth of this opera that all Chinese are extremely familiar with, and I hope you like it.
The creation of the opera "The White Haired Girl" came from the Lu Xun Art Institute in Yan'an.
In May 1944, he returned to Yan'an with Zhou Weizhi of the Northwest Field Service Corps (acting minister of culture and chairman of the Federation of Literature and Literature After the founding of the People's Republic of China), and told Lu Yi's classmates a story of a "white-haired fairy girl" circulating in the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region; in the autumn of the same year, Lin Man, a reporter for the Jin-Cha-Ji Daily, wrote a novel entitled "White-Haired Woman" and entrusted it to Lu Yi's president, Zhou Yang.
At that time, Yan'an was preparing for the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and Zhou Yang advocated adapting the story into a large-scale new national opera to present the Seventh National Congress. The task of organizing the creation was entrusted to Zhang Geng, director of the Luyi Drama And Music Department.
After Zhang Geng received the task, he immediately summoned several backbone forces in the drama department Shao Zinan, He Jingzhi, Wang Bin, Wang Dahua, Marco, Zhang Lu and others to form a creative group, with Shao Zinan as the main writer.
At that time, Shao Zinan was a Luyi instructor, and he successively served as an officer of the Northwest Field Service Regiment and a full-time literary and artistic captain of the Youth League Committee, and his seniority was very deep.
Shao Zinan then rewrote the story of the white-haired girl into a poetry recitation drama according to his own understanding. Although the main line of the white-haired girl from the sharecropper's daughter being occupied by the landlord because of the rent arrears, to being forced to flee to the mountains, and finally being rescued by the Eighth Route Army, the specific details of the legendary story have been initially formed.
However, after the trial shooting, everyone felt that there was no dramatic action, and the character personality was not distinct, and the rhythm was not tight, so everyone asked for modification.
However, Shao Zinan had a stubborn personality, believing that this was his own creative idea, and that inconsistency with everyone was not his own problem, and refused to revise; after being well-meaningly criticized by everyone, he simply wrote a large poster, posted it on the wall of the canteen, announced his withdrawal from the creative group, and also asked to withdraw the book, stating that the script creation of "The White-Haired Girl" had nothing to do with himself in the future.
However, everyone still expressed their recognition and respect for Shao Zinan's previous work.
In the preface to the 1952 edition of the opera "The White-Haired Girl", He Jingzhi and Marco wrote: Comrade Shao Zinan is the forerunner of this script creation.
But at that time, Zhang Geng saw Shao Zinan quit, and the time was very urgent, and there was no way.
Zhang Geng arranged for He Jingzhi, a top student of the Luyi Literature Department in his twenties, to write, and then arranged for director Wang Bin to bring comrades from the screenwriter, actor, director and other groups to create a collective work together.
Basically, Wang Bin led everyone to a meeting together, first put up the shelf of each scene, and then He Jingzhi went back to write a word;
After writing the lyrics, Zhang Lu, Qu Wei, Marco, Xiang Yu and others composed the music;
Finally, it was handed over to Wang Bin and Zhang Geng for approval;
After the approval was approved, the creative group went to Lu Yi's teachers and students, nearby cadres, masses, and fellow villagers, gave them auditions, and then listened to opinions and suggestions and went back to revise them.
Through this assembly line model, "The White-Haired Girl" quickly advanced to the last chapter, "Struggle Society", but at this time, He Jingzhi fell ill;
In addition, because He Jingzhi was still very young at this time and had never been behind enemy lines, he recommended Ding Yi, who had worked in the base area behind enemy lines, and let Ding Yi write and complete the scene of the Eighth Route Army marching behind enemy lines;
The creative team of "White Haired Girl" concentrated lu yi's elite soldiers, which can be said to be the strongest team of "Lu yi" at that time.
Director Wang Bin directed "The Man with the Gun" and "Fool" in Yan'an; Wang Dahua was both a director and a star in "Brothers and Sisters Open the Land"; and another director, Shu Qiang, was the younger brother of the musician Shu Mo and was very insightful in his research on the Stanev system.
The main actor is also the essence of Lu Yi, when Lin Bai played Xi'er in the first draft of "White Haired Girl", by the second draft, Lin Bai just happened to be pregnant, so he later chose Wang Kun.
Playing Yang Bailao is Ling Zifeng, who is known as "Ling Crazy", Ling Zifeng is versatile, can both direct, act, and draw, and can toss;
Playing Huang Shiren is Chen Qiang, who is only 27 years old, originally Chen Qiang was young and looked very dashing, and he was not married at this time. Unexpectedly, since the performance of Huang Shiren, he has become a famous villain face, and he is the most miserable in the whole crew, not only eating and drinking the worst in the whole group, and even being shot and killed by a PLA soldier who is too deep into the play during a performance...
After the completion of the whole play, the first full version of the rehearsal was finally ushered in, but this time the lottery caused a lot of controversy.
In mid-April 1945, a temporary narrow earthen platform was erected in the LuYi Courtyard, and the first rehearsal of "The White-Haired Girl" officially began.
Everyone laughed and cried after Xi'er for a while, and finally watched the whole drama with tears in their eyes, which directly caused a sensation. But some people pointed out very fiercely: When Huang Shiren was finally tried, why was he only sentenced to imprisonment instead of shooting?!
Yu Min, the screenwriter of the movie "The White-Haired Girl", recalled that when the opera was rehearsed, many people, including soldiers of the army, had opinions, and one of the cooks angrily slashed the knife in his hand on the cutting board and said, Why don't you shoot Huang Shiren? If I don't shoot him, I just won't accept it!
In this regard, the main creators also have their own opinions:
1945 was still a period of resistance against Japan, and the landlords also wanted to unite against Japan. If Huang Shiren is shot in the play, he is suspected of undermining the anti-Japanese national united front.
Soon, the controversy over the matter went straight to the top of the central government.
On April 22, 1945, the night before the Seventh National Congress, the opera "The White-Haired Girl" was officially performed in the Central Auditorium of Yan'an, and it was not only the delegates attending the Seventh National Congress, but also Mao, Zhou, Zhu, Liu and other central leading comrades.
This performance caused a sensation because of the rehearsal, the official performance of the ticket is extremely tight, the guard for safety, in strict accordance with the one-person,one-ticket system, no ticket is allowed to enter.
As a representative of the Seven Congresses, Chen Geng originally had a ticket, but he was snatched away by another friend who had a good relationship, Chen Geng originally thought that he could brush his face, but it took a lot of effort to say that the guards were clear, and when he entered the scene, Chen Geng could only sit on the windowsill and watch the whole performance.
The official performance of "The White-Haired Girl" received great repercussions, and after watching the play, the deputies attending the Seventh National Congress at that time said one after another that Huang Shiren was extremely evil in his crime, and that he was no longer the target of the united front of the anti-Japanese national united front, but a criminal with a lot of blood debts, an enemy of the people, and should be shot.
However, they cannot be shot casually, but must go through the public trial of the people's court and comply with the legal procedures.
The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee also put forward three opinions on the opera "The White-Haired Girl":
First, the play is very timely.
Second, Huang Shiren should have been shot.
Third, art is successful.
The communicator explains:
The peasants are the majority of the Chinese, and the so-called peasant question, that is, the question of the peasants' opposition to the exploitation of the landlord class, reflects the confrontation and struggle of this contradiction, and after the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, this class contradiction will inevitably sharpen, and this drama will soon become widespread because it reflects this reality. Huang Shiren was so vicious that he didn't shoot him? This shows that the author does not dare to mobilize the masses. Comrades, if we do this, we will make the mistake of right opportunism!
Therefore, the creative team was as good as flowing, and based on these opinions, the ending was revised.
Later, I learned that this was Liu Shaoqi's instructions.
This is also the plot of the classic "White Haired Girl" that we see today.
Many years later, Wang Kun, who played the white-haired woman, recalled: "If the central authorities had not decided in time to shoot Huang Shiren and Mu Renzhi in time, it would not have been impossible for Chen Qiang to be caught by the masses after the performance and dealt with as a bad person!" ”
During the Liberation War, the 20th Army Cultural and Labor Troupe performed in Shandong, and a small soldier saw Mu Renzhi appear and wanted to take a gun to beat Mu Renzhi, but fortunately, the squad leader quickly grabbed the gun. When Huang Shiren grabbed Xi'er's scene, the soldier almost threw a grenade on the stage.
Later, everyone advised him that this was acting, and it was only after half a day that he eased up, and when he went back, he cried with a headache, and when he asked, he knew that his sister and Xi'er had the same experience.
The famous writer Ouyang Wenbin recorded that when the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army were reading "The White-Haired Girl", they said: "Let's not say that the Cultural and Labor Corps will not fight, they are fighting a war of ideas, I originally had an iron heart, never shed tears, gave them a dozen "White-Haired Girls" battle, and then cried. ”
On another occasion, the performance was given to prisoners of war, but when they saw Xi'er being forcibly pulled away, the prisoners were too excited, resulting in a temporary interruption of the performance.
With the performance of "White Haired Girl" throughout the country, countless soldiers and the masses wept and felt the same for the fate of Xi'er.
After watching the performance, they strengthened their confidence in carrying out land reform and in overthrowing the reactionaries! Countless SOLDIER soldiers of the People's Liberation Army went to war with the slogan of "avenging millions of happy children" to defend the fruits of victory in land reform.
It can be said that the opera "White Haired Girl" has created a great miracle in the history of Chinese opera, and it can be said that one drama can defeat millions of soldiers.
Finally, I also hope that today's film and television drama practitioners can learn from the creative spirit of their predecessors and create masterpieces that are close to the pulse of the times, rather than hyping up traffic and filming some "divine dramas" that evade taxes and evade taxes.
Text/Take history as a mirror
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Resources
Behind the story of the white-haired woman's performance: Liu Shaoqi ordered The shooting of Huang Shiren
Why Huang Shiren was shot in "The White-Haired Girl"
The story of the birth of the opera "The White-Haired Girl"
The little-known story behind the creation and performance of the opera "The White-Haired Girl"