Recently, 5 "post-00s" girls from the Peking Opera Performance major of the Shanghai Theater Academy have caught fire. They integrated the Peking Opera singing voice into modern music, and interpreted the songs refreshingly, making people sound like a spring breeze, and were called "416 women's group on the opera" by netizens. At present, the cumulative number of likes of their Peking Opera-related videos has exceeded 20 million. After watching the video, many young people took the initiative to understand Peking Opera, and even discovered new hobbies and became Peking Opera fans.
According to the "2021 Douyin Intangible Cultural Heritage Drama Data Report" released by Douyin, among the audiences who watched videos related to national intangible cultural heritage dramas online, the post-90s and post-00s audiences accounted for more than 50%. "Young people become the main force of listening to plays", which has become a hot topic in the news for a while. Why are young people attracted to traditional opera? What is the real state of survival of traditional opera in the Internet age? How can we continue to win "new audiences" in the future? Let's take a look.
Source | People's Forum magazine and People's Forum Network (rmltwz)
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In December 2021, Douyin released the "2021 Douyin Intangible Cultural Heritage Drama Data Report", which shows that as of November 2021, Douyin has covered 98.83% of the national intangible cultural heritage drama projects, with a total of 60 billion videos played and liked 2.2 billion times; post-90s and post-00s audiences account for more than 50%. "Young people become the main force of listening to plays", which has become a hot topic in the news for a while. The so-called intangible cultural heritage dramas in the report are actually dominated by traditional opera. The above statistics indicate to a certain extent the online survival status of traditional opera. It is undeniable that the current online activity of traditional opera is far higher than that of daily theater performances. Some commentators therefore believe that "the temporary slump of theater performances, although the epidemic prevention and control is one of the reasons, but the depth is because the external conditions of the theater inheritance have changed." These two points force us to explore a new way of inheriting drama. Drama network communication has taken a good road, forming a positive interaction, and in time, 'young people becoming the main force of listening to drama' will no longer be news." This suggests a new perspective on the relationship between "young people" and "listening to opera" and the traditional way of opera transmission.
Although Douyin shows relative optimism about the correlation between "young people" and "listening to drama", strictly speaking, this statistic is limited to the Douyin platform itself and does not cover other online platforms. As for the offline communication and inheritance channels with theaters as the main body, they are even less considered. The report also does not specifically analyze the motivations, purposes, participation methods, interests and responses of "young people" to traditional opera. All this must be examined from a historical perspective in the context of the overall social environment.
The key to the continuation of traditional opera
As a cultural heritage, one of the necessary conditions for the inheritance and continuation of traditional opera is that it must have a certain number of audiences and maintain its relative stability. The key is to be able to continuously acquire "new audiences". The so-called "new audience" refers to the latecomers in the opera audience group. The basis for distinguishing the "new" and "old" is the order in which the audience enters the group rather than the actual age. In the real opera audience group, there are many young people around 30 years old who have more than ten years of experience in watching opera, and middle-aged and elderly people who only begin to contact opera after retirement are not a minority.
There has always been a misconception about the source of opera audiences, that is, there seems to be a natural gap between "young people" and tradition. It is based on this recognition that the professional field of opera attaches special importance to young people from the policy to the practical level. In November 1995, the Shanghai Peking Opera House brought four plays such as "Wise Tiger Mountain" to Beijing for performances, and began the "Peking Opera to Youth" activity that lasted for more than 20 years, and soon changed from "going to youth" to "entering the campus". The "campus" that enters is also from university to middle school to primary school, until "starting from the doll" - the "young" degree and cultural level of the object are getting lower and lower, and in practice, the early and sinking of the audience competition is formed. Because the basic strategies of these "going" and "walking in" are to "change to adapt" rather than "stick to and attract", to a certain extent, it shows the lack of confidence in the national opera itself. Therefore, not long after the start of the activity, some commentators pointed out that "the popularization of Peking Opera should pay attention to the protection of national cultural characteristics, and should help young people adjust their cultural structure, approach Peking Opera, and approach tradition; not Peking Opera to change itself to youth."
In essence, the most fundamental reason why traditional opera can attract audiences is that it is rich in the accumulation of Chinese historical civilization, traditional cultural spirit and national aesthetic value. As a result, the vast number of people who have a sense of identity with traditional culture will transcend the boundaries of age, gender, occupation and other boundaries to become loyal audiences of traditional opera. Naturally, this includes a large number of young people. In fact, no matter what the historical stage, young people who take the initiative to choose traditional opera are not uncommon.
At the key point of the transformation of the times, traditional opera is always placed at the forefront of the conflict between the old and the new due to the characteristics of its traditional cultural representative style. Young people, on the other hand, are often given the image of deniers of traditional culture, in an atmosphere of rebellion and antagonism against tradition. However, even in this way, there was still a young man in his early 20s, Zhang Houzai, who was already a veteran opera critic, and insisted on defending the "old dramas" represented by Peking Opera at that time. During the Cultural Revolution, traditional opera was driven off the stage. After the reform and opening up, the entire social atmosphere tended to pursue fashion, and although traditional opera returned to the stage, it quickly fell into a trough. However, there are still many young people who are attracted to the traditional dramas that have been revived. Although theater performances are sluggish, the box office is quite active everywhere, and many young people are present. In 1991, Tianjin held the "Peace Cup" Chinese Peking Opera Fan Invitational Competition, selected the "Top Ten Famous Tickets of Peking Opera", and four young people under the age of 30, the youngest was only 21 years old, and the content of the performances was all pure traditional drama. These young people have changed from "new audiences" to "old audiences", from recipients to inheritors and communicators. It is the cultural charm and spiritual connotation of traditional opera that really attracts them, making them in the tide of fashionable society, but forming a firm confidence in traditional opera culture.
In recent years, with the improvement of the dissemination of traditional Chinese culture, especially the rapid development of network communication, traditional culture, including traditional opera, has gained unprecedented space. It is not unexpected that more "new audiences" will be attracted to traditional opera. The Internet has brought huge space for the development of traditional opera, and also provided a broad stage for young people pursuing traditional opera. At present, network communication has entered the era of self-media. The scope and speed of traditional opera spread has increased geometrically, a large number of performance materials have been excavated and shared, and many historical materials that were relatively rare in the past have become introductory textbooks. In addition, with the intensification and deepening of various criticisms and debates, it has also triggered more reflections on the inherent views of traditional opera, which objectively promoted the construction of traditional opera theory. And all this has greatly promoted the participation of young people.
The complexity of the online dissemination of traditional opera
With the continuous improvement of network technology in recent years, especially the full entry of self-media into the mobile terminal, coupled with the impact of the epidemic, the role of network communication on traditional opera has become more obvious, and it has become one of the main channels for the dissemination of traditional opera. The most significant feature that distinguishes online media from traditional media is the degree of freedom and autonomy of communication subjects. As a result, the traditional opera network communication as a whole also shows different characteristics and generates new problems, which are concentrated in the diversity of communication subjects and the pan-entertainment of the communication process.
The main sources of traditional opera network communication are different. In addition to many traditional opera lovers, many professional actors have also become self-media people. Due to the impact of the epidemic, theater performances were once unable to be carried out, forcing professional theater troupes to move their performances to the Internet and attract online audiences. Some troupes also consciously or unconsciously encourage some actors in the troupe to become "Internet celebrities". Generally speaking, the advantages of professional practitioners in stage practice, basic training, etc., can provide intuitive help and reference for online enthusiasts. At the same time, compared with traditional media and professional theater troupe practitioners, many enthusiasts may have more advantages in their professional appreciation of traditional opera and their comprehensive network ability. It should be said that the diversification of communication subjects provides a possibility for the benign dissemination and interaction of traditional opera networks.
However, on the other hand, due to the low entry threshold of self-media, the restrictions and responsibilities are relatively small, the content of communication is uneven, and the communication environment is mixed. Some performances that lack a bottom line and cater to low-level interests have caused serious pollution to the traditional opera network communication environment. The diversity of communication subjects also directly leads to the reduction of the authenticity of network information. The authenticity of the network, especially the self-media information, is difficult to guarantee and must be treated with caution. In reality, information distortions caused by the pursuit of traffic, entertainment and funny, or limited to professional level abound. For example, arbitrarily cutting the original materials, taking them out of context; lack of knowledge reserves for opera, only relying on hearsay and taking it for granted, and piecing together various articles to push on the public account, etc., have caused chaos for the spread of traditional opera. In addition, it is not uncommon to obtain improper benefits in the name of opera dissemination, such as stealing other people's materials for sale, and plagiarizing other people's works by means of plagiarism, manuscript washing, etc. What is more, the use of the Internet and technical means to falsify information. For example, some people will still the stills of Peking Opera actor Yu Kuizhi in the newly compiled Peking Opera "Mei Lanfang" and Meng Xiaodong himself photo to synthesize "Mei Lanfang, Meng Xiaodong Photo", which has been widely disseminated on the Internet, and there are still many Online writers who cite it without distinction. These acts have undermined the credibility of network communication and have greatly interfered with the absorption of new audiences by traditional opera.
In the Internet age, the traditional opera dissemination process is pan-entertainment. To a certain extent, the network pan-entertainment is an inevitable product of network communication, after all, the original intention and motivation of most self-media is entertainment. Therefore, the entertainment of the traditional opera dissemination process is beyond reproach. Moreover, edutainment itself is a means of communication. Taking the cultural community and video platform B station, which is highly concentrated by the young generation in China, as an example, it brings together a large number of traditional opera materials, in the form of both complete repertoire and fragment editing. Many of the video materials on this website have been carefully processed. For example, in some traditional opera-related "collections", the uploader will display the same clips or details of different actors and different versions of the same play through editing. This contrast presentation, for the traditional opera with stage performance as the core, is intuitive and accurate, and even new audiences can benefit greatly from the direct comparison of "not afraid of not knowing the goods, only afraid of comparing goods". Compared with traditional media appreciation programs, various knowledge lectures and school classroom teaching, it is not the same in terms of the number of disseminated content, the breadth and sustainability of dissemination, and the impact on the audience. Combined with other knowledge lectures on the website, a vivid appreciation lesson has been formed invisibly.
However, it should not be ignored that once the communication of entertainment is generalized, it is inevitably vulgar. A large number of spoofs and nonsense works produced for entertainment are mostly chicken ribs from the perspective of traditional opera dissemination. What is even more regrettable is that some professional actors, in order to attract people's attention and obtain traffic, record some funny and vulgar videos to upload in the name of spreading and promoting traditional opera, and sensationalize the public. Some common characteristics of the pan-entertainment of network communication also exist in the traditional opera network communication. In the name of disseminating traditional opera, some people are involved in the idol economy, creating personal image brands, marketing peripherals, investing in derivative products and related industries, and building an industrial chain. In essence, it is a certain refraction of the operation of network capital and the so-called "rice circle" culture in the field of traditional opera dissemination. The "fan circle" of these "idols" is mainly young people, and although fans also pursue and disseminate traditional opera in the name of pursuing and disseminating traditional opera, in fact, the pursuit of idols may be far greater than the love for traditional opera itself. In order to protect idols, chaos such as "tearing" and "black" also occurs from time to time. This "rice circle" tendency in the spread of opera has attracted a large number of new audiences among young people in the name of traditional opera, but at the same time it may also lead these young people who do not have a deep understanding of opera to blindness, blurring the boundary between idols and traditional opera itself. To a certain extent, it hinders the absorption of new audiences by traditional opera.
The relationship between the traditional opera dissemination and young people in the Internet age, like the relationship between various other ethnic groups in the online world, is not simple, but shows a complex situation. Adapting to these characteristics, weighing the pros and cons, and seeking a balance should become an important topic in the spread of traditional opera at present.
How does traditional opera win over new audiences?
In the face of changes in the environment of the Internet age, it should be inevitable that traditional opera should continue to gain new audiences and explore new ways of dissemination. Its basic principle should lie in truly carrying forward the charm of traditional opera itself, that is, constantly digging deep into the excellent traditional connotation and aesthetic spirit of national culture contained in traditional opera itself, prudently coping with and rationally using the ever-changing means of communication, adhering to the road of "keeping right and innovating" - keeping the "right" of traditional cultural connotations, and creating a "new" form and method of dissemination and inheritance.
▲ First of all, it is necessary to clarify the purpose of communication, adhere to the position of traditional opera in the process of dissemination, and prevent heterogeneity caused by dissemination. The purpose of traditional opera network dissemination is to promote the charm of traditional opera culture itself. Therefore, it is necessary to emphasize the maintenance of the essence of traditional opera. For the "cross-border" and "mix-and-match" forms that prevail on the Internet, it is necessary to be cautious to prevent the traditional opera itself from being heterogeneous. "Crossover" and "mash-up" are often seen as convenient ways to attract young people because of their fashion. From the perspective of traditional opera, it is to precipitate the elements of opera from the whole of opera and combine with other popular elements to form a new type of work. For example, "drama songs" created by extracting opera melodies and adding them to popular songs; using certain opera vocal techniques to sing popular songs, "drama cavities" can be classified into this category. It is essentially a creative act, which has its own value and is beyond reproach.
However, as far as the spread of traditional opera is concerned, this form may not be effective. In the final analysis, it is to step out of the world of opera and hitch a ride on a fashionable car. As a result, only the audience of "opera" and "opera" is absorbed, not the opera audience. Although creators may be popular because of this, as far as the traditional opera dissemination is concerned, the result is half the work and the gain is not worth the loss. In fact, attempts to appeal to young audiences with the help of popular elements have always existed. The Peking opera "Pansi Cave", rehearsed in the 1980s, "not only the wonderful Peking Opera performances, but also the magic, acrobatics, modern songs and dances and high-tech means" were incorporated. However, at that time, there were also criticisms that the effect of popularizing peking opera art by popularizing the art of Peking opera with a hybrid of "Pansi Cave" and the like often backfired. Far from helping to eliminate the cultural and historical barriers between young people and classical opera, it makes it easier for them to identify with the popular art sentiments mixed in, and they are getting farther and farther away from Peking Opera in the classic sense. In the Internet age, "cross-border" and "mash-up" should also be vigilant against the phenomenon of being close to fashion but far from the real sense of traditional opera.
▲ Secondly, in the inheritance and dissemination of traditional opera, we must adhere to the principle of integrity, and at the same time, we must face up to the fragmented characteristics of network communication. The short video boom has almost completely subverted the traditional viewing model. Opera, on the other hand, is a comprehensive art with a strict internal logical composition. At the same time, as a cultural heritage, traditional opera preserves the historical memory of the social life, aesthetic taste and humanistic thought of the Ancestors of the Chinese nation. Only when it is comprehensive and complete can it have artistic value and historical significance. Only when it remains intact can its cultural vitality be continued. The contradiction between the two cannot be ignored.
After the traditional opera stage performance is broken, the short video is re-edited and presented intuitively and intensively, quickly arousing the sympathy and resonance of the audience. But at the same time, it also breaks the unity of the opera itself. In the 2022 Xiqu Spring Festival Gala, "Absolute" concentrates many acrobatic techniques in the opera into a short film. Because the "unique skills" in the film are all body movements with certain difficulty, after being intercepted as a short video and transmitted to the Internet, it has received a large number of likes and forwards. However, some people in the industry expressed their objections, "Not combining the plot and the unique skills of the characters will eventually become a sale of art... All the actors are empty inside and have a cute expression." In fact, this short film is one of the entire evening program, and the live guests also show that the unique work must serve the performance after all. Obviously, the original intention of the choreographer was to show the skills of opera and show the hardships of opera actors "one minute on stage and ten years off stage". However, once it is fragmented as a short video, it is separated from the overall atmosphere of the party and dissolves the logical structure before and after. Objectively, it has become a simple technical show-off, and it is not surprising that it has attracted different voices.
Only by facing up to the contradiction between the fragmentation of network communication and the integrity of traditional opera can we find a balance from it and find the correct way for the dissemination of traditional opera. The use of fragmented communication can convey traditional opera information to the widest audience at the fastest speed and the highest efficiency, so that the audience can understand traditional opera from multiple perspectives and forms. But in the end, it is necessary to lead the audience to the whole of traditional opera and establish a complete understanding of traditional opera culture, which is also a manifestation of reverence for traditional culture.
▲ Finally, it is necessary to make full use of the advantages of network information and technology, consolidate the foundation of literature and materials, improve the level of theoretical construction, and give full play to the leading role of opera theory in the dissemination and promotion of traditional opera. The construction of traditional opera theory has always been in a weak state, and without the support of relatively unified and solid theories, the overall cognition and promotion of traditional opera is inevitably full of obstacles. If opera theory cannot fully elucidate the cultural connotation, historical significance and aesthetic value of traditional opera, then the object of transmission and inheritance of traditional opera and the self-confidence of opera culture cannot be discussed. At the same time, traditional opera has its own set of speech system, which is the basic form of its artistic and cultural expression. Only by mastering this form can we obtain the key to understanding traditional opera. Therefore, the construction of opera theory and the popularization of knowledge are the necessary foundations for dissemination. One of the main obstacles to theoretical construction is the long-standing literature barriers.
The development of the web has brought the dawn to breaking down this barrier. During the severe period of the epidemic, the Shanghai Peking Opera House carefully restored the precious performance videos and a large number of stills in its collection, and shared them at Station B, which received a good review, which is an excellent example. In contrast, it is not wise for many institutions to regard the information they hold as forbidden and not allowed to be touched by others. In-depth study of traditional opera culture and aesthetic theory, promotion to the public, and help new audiences to enter the room, get a closer look at the church, transform into old audiences, and then become the disseminator and successor of opera culture, which is an important goal of the dissemination and inheritance of traditional opera in the Internet age.
The network spread has brought huge traffic to traditional opera and gained many young audiences on the Internet. Fundamentally speaking, the renewal of all means of communication is to better continue the connotation of traditional opera. This connotation is exactly the national gene and bloodline carried by traditional opera. Only its complete and comprehensive adherence and transmission is the real responsibility for future generations.
Excerpt from the magazine People's Forum |
Original title | The mystery of traditional opera in the Internet age winning over new audiences
Author | Zhang Weipin, director of the Theoretical Teaching and Research Office of the School of Xiqu of Shanghai Theater Academy and director of the Research Center of Xiqu Stage Form
New Media Editor | Liu Yilin
The original article is responsible for editing | Danielie Lee
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