Xiangsheng famous Tian Lihe answers netizens' questions (2002)

1. About "The Art of Crying" and "Yao Jiajing":

　　"The Art of Crying" is a traditional work, and it does have a sense of distance from real life. However, the second half of the paragraph is to show the common feelings of people who are born, old, sick and dead, and this expression of emotion is no distance from real life. "The Art of Crying" mainly expresses a kind of folklore, and all traditional programs are closely related to folklore. If you want to perform this work well, it is mainly about emotional investment, the death of the wife, how to express this feeling, how to face the friend when he comes, this is life, and this life is also there now. As for some of the different situations in the content, such as the passage showing that it is buried in the earth, and now it is cremation, it is actually not very important.

　　"Yao Jia Jing" was performed by me a long time ago, and Tianjin Radio may still have a recording. Now I don't perform the show anymore. "Yao Jia Jing" is a novella, which is "eight sticks" in the jargon, and it takes more than two hours to say. This form cannot be performed on the same stage as other music and cross-talk, it is a kind of book art.

　　In the past, cross-talk actors had to master "single, double, quantity, and teasing", and the single work included "eight sticks". Two people partnering, this person is sick, what to do? You have to know your own stuff. There are reasons for this. In the past, performances used to take turns, starting at 2 p.m. and ending at 11 p.m. This is called the bench head, 2 o'clock to 4 o'clock, 6 o'clock to 8 o'clock time to make a stand-up. In the past the old gentleman would.

　　But now there is no time and venue conditions, so few people make it.

　　2. About the revitalization of cross-talk:

　　If you want to revitalize crosstalk, crosstalk must go to the market. The problem of going to the market is very complicated, and it is not something that can be explained in one sentence or two.

　　Crosstalk must first have a repertoire, and the repertoire of cross-talk must have a process of inheritance, and the length of time spanned should be longer. Like those works that are documentary and highly propaganda, they will not work. In the past, the passages were not completed by one generation, and many passages were completed by two or even three generations. For example, in "Selling Hanging Tickets", Mr. Ma Sanli performed the best, but in the past, Chang Baokun also performed this work, and the original idea of this paragraph is said to be Mr. Zhang Shouchen. Another example is "String Picking", which was first performed by Mr. Zhang Shouchen, who was polished according to a practical matter told by Mr. Deok Shoushan. Later, he did not say that our generation of actors still perform, but the books are not uniform, much the same. The book I performed is a synthesis of the strengths of each family and turned into its own thing. Therefore, the repertoire should have fine products, and the fine works are not completed by one person.

　　Then there are the actors. Crosstalk must have good actors. Frequent appearances on TELEVISION don't mean anything, you have to go to the theater. However, cross-talk is also a civilian art, and most of the people who go to the theater to see cross-talk are wage-earners, and the ticket price is too high to work. So I say the problem is complicated. Now some people say that cross-talk works can't work because there are too few authors, if you really want to enter the market, can you actors afford to play the author? One actor raises two authors, I'm afraid most of them can't do it. So now the actors still have to rely on themselves, in the past the actors were written by themselves, relying on this group of cross-talk actors to gradually improve and enrich the works, and some literati helped the actors without pay. Now that everything is changing, some things are hard to say.

　　For young people, if they want to learn crosstalk, they can go to school, like the Northern Qu School, there are secondary school classes, there are also college classes. Now we have graduates from various professional groups and have also trained many top students. If there is no condition for admission, you can only look for teachers and friends, watch more cross-talk videos, and read more text materials. Start by learning Mandarin well and become familiar with this art form. Take your time and try to participate in the show. There are also many good actors who are self-taught.

　　3. About Master Zhang Shouchen:

　　For Mr. Zhang Shouchen's research, there are actually many articles, like some actors and critics have written. His eldest son, Zhang Lilin, is also writing a biography for Mr. Zhang, and it is probably finished now.

　　I think that Mr. Zhang Shouchen's research should be historical, comprehensive, systematic, and in-depth, giving him a real historical status. Because Mr. Zhang is an artist who inherits the past and opens up the future, his art is broad and profound. Happily, on November 4, the China Ququ Association and the Tianjin Ququ Association will hold a commemorative event for Mr. Zhang Shouchen in Tianjin's Wuqing District, as this year marks the 103rd anniversary of his birth. At that time, there will be a symposium, and I think the experts and us actors should sit down and concentrate on the information and give Mr. Zhang a historical position. Because his historical position is very important. I think the book "History of Chinese Cross-Talk" does not make a comprehensive evaluation of Mr. Zhang's historical status, and to some extent lowers his status. Mr. Zhang is not only a cross-talk artist, he is also a patriotic artist, his integrity, style is upright, and he is also a cross-talk educator, Liu Baorui, Chang Baokun and so on are his students. This is not something that can be said in a sentence or two, so I say that he should be studied historically, comprehensively, systematically, and profoundly.

　　There are many articles that study him now, but they are all broken and have not formed a system. Even I have a lot of information about him at hand, his anecdotes, and his art experience. I was born relatively late, my brothers and brothers are all ancient, and their understanding of Mr. Zhang is deeper than mine. I knew Mr. Zhang and his apprenticeship in 51 years, until his death, and I know this history very clearly. But to gather and publish these scattered articles and materials is not a simple matter, nor can we personally accomplish it. There are a lot of things here, and I hope it will be realized in the future.

　　4. Teaching methods of crosstalk:

　　First of all, I don't think there's anything wrong with oral teaching, it's a traditional way of teaching. As far as our school is concerned, there are teaching plans, syllabuses, teaching materials, and teaching plans, which makes teaching more systematic and scientific. But it is mainly led by the responsible teacher, that is, orally taught by the heart. As far as I know, the college class is also based on this way, one move at a time, and taught hand in hand. At present, some of the worshippers in the cross-talk world are only nominal, but in fact, the masters teach very little. Teachers, preaching, teaching, solving puzzles. Which passage we teach, its source, its characteristics, its performance requirements, its difficulties, etc., must be reflected in the lesson plan. This is something that teachers did not have in the past when they taught students. For example, the paragraph "Reporting the Name of the Dish" must first have the purpose of teaching: why teach this paragraph? enlightenment. Then there is the requirement of passing through the mouth, practicing words, practicing voice, practicing qi, practicing rhythm, and standardizing your Mandarin through this. The name of the dish is secondary, you can now copy this recipe, and you can write it out in a moment. Therefore, this kind of passage does not need to be renovated, mainly to practice speech. Another example is "Eighteen Sorrows Tongue Twister", which has trained children's voices, trained double lip sounds, and trained lip and teeth sounds. A further step is the teaching of the repertoire, the repertoire teaching is also the teacher's oral teaching, one move and one style, first of all, the teacher must understand the person, how to teach this passage in the heart.

　　Now some people oppose the teacher's oral teaching in this way, and I don't understand it. Teachers don't teach by mouth, how do students learn? Now that science and technology have developed, there is electronic teaching for students to watch CDs? Doesn't that have to be explained by a teacher? Therefore, I think that oral transmission is suitable for cross-talk teaching.

　　Speaking of Mr. Zhang Shouchen's teaching of students, it is necessary to say something about it. Mr. Zhang has always had a kind of "keeping pace with the times" thinking, and he himself is a very open person. I experienced his teaching, not only for me to learn his life, he did not think that his things were supreme. When I first apprenticed with him, he was talking about storytelling, and he said to me: I now talk about storytelling, not crosstalk, and I don't know much about the changes in the past few years. Don't think about the portal. So his open-ended teaching has benefited me for a lifetime. I heard a lot of cross-talk at that time, like in 51 and 52 years, Master Hou Baolin led the Beijing Quyi Three Troupes, including Luo Rongshou, Wang Changyou, Gao Deming, Sun Baocai, Wang Shichen, etc. These actors came to Tianjin several times to perform. There is also the Red Maple Qu Art Society in Tianjin, there are Chang Baoting, Mr. Ma Sanli, these are my teachers, as well as Ban Degui, Yang Shaokui, Liu Kuizhen, Yan Xiaoru, etc. who performed in Bird City and Nanshi, I have heard all these gentlemen, so I am benefiting for life.

　　In addition, he teaches his students to be hands-on. Teach "The Great Bodyguard" one move at a time. At that time, his legs were not good, and when he taught "Dou Gong Training Girl", he had to be brittle, and he couldn't get up when he was crisp, so I hugged him... I will give two examples, one is the "Crooked Criticism of the Three Character Classic", there is a crooked text, others use to play mahjong cards, he uses push card nine, but when teaching me, he deleted it. There is also "Big Face", giving three phases, the first phase, according to your appearance and temperament, I conclude that you must have a father in your family. This line was purified when he taught it.

　　He will also tell the students a lot, the source of this paragraph, whose masterpiece, who he inherits, and how far he can act. For example, "Tongue Twister", according to him, the current performances are not up to the requirements. Mr. Hou Baolin mentioned in a book that after he had seen Zhang Shouchen and Zhou Deshan's "Tongue Twister", he gave up not acting in this show. According to Mr. Zhang, his "Tongue Twister" has also been performed to 70% of the millions of fans, which is also unqualified. About this paragraph, how it should be performed, how others should act, how he acted, he will tell the students in detail.

　　In short, Mr. Zhang Shouchen is open-minded and open-minded to run the school.

　　Speaking of Mr. Zhang's later life should be good, he is an old fourth-level actor, the salary is very high, he is a member of the Tianjin Municipal CPPCC Committee, he has patriotic ideas, he is a Catholic, but he put forward "first love the country and then love religion", his thinking is very progressive, very much love for New China. In terms of art, whoever asks the art he teaches. He not only taught his own disciples, but also the younger generation and the later generations, which can be said to be a question that must be answered. He often said that he was not afraid of what you learned, and he was afraid that you would not learn. He retired before the Cultural Revolution but has been participating in performances. Later, Mr. Ni Zhongzhi and another gentleman helped him sort out his memoirs, experiences from art, and experiences, but later lost them for various reasons. He was not shocked during the Cultural Revolution because he was a patriotic entertainer and had no problems politically. He died of lung cancer in 1970.