The Flower Drum Art Troupe's 2021 elegant art will enter the campus for literary and artistic performances. Zhang Zhuo/Courtesy photo
Whenever the Fengyang Flower Drum is performed on the stage, a sense of pride will arise in Ding Siwen's heart. "Fengyang flower drum is the folk art of Chuzhou, Anhui Province, and the cultural treasure of our hometown, which needs to be passed on by us." Ding Siwen told the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network.
Ding Siwen is a teacher at the Conservatory of Music of Chuzhou University and a municipal inheritor of the Fengyang Flower Drum, a national intangible cultural heritage. Since the 1980s, Chuzhou College has been excavating, recording, sorting, protecting and inheriting the art of Fengyang Flower Drum. Li Daolin, general secretary of the party branch of the Chuzhou University Conservatory of Music, said that after the Fengyang Flower Drum was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006, Chuzhou College further thought about its social responsibility in cultural inheritance, and established the "Flower Drum Art Troupe" in 2007, officially embarking on the road of inheritance of Fengyang Flower Drum.
Ding Siwen told reporters that the Fengyang Flower Drum is a comprehensive performance of music and art, which has high requirements for performers. The performer holds the drum in his left hand and the drum strip in his right hand, singing and performing. Fengyang Flower Drum has a history of nearly 600 years, students will feel "a little bit of soil" and "too old" when they first start learning this performing art, but with the deepening of learning, they have more understanding of Fengyang Flower Drum, and gradually fall in love with this art.
Zhang Zhuo, a member of the "Flower Drum Art Troupe", saw the Fengyang Flower Drum performed by the students in his first year of college, and he thought to himself, "When can I also perform such a beautiful program on the stage." Later, she was selected to join the "Flower Drum Art Troupe" as she wished. "At first, I was simply attracted to the good-looking program, but later I can feel the charm of this art more and more, and I love this folk art more and more." Zhang Zhuo said.
In order to let more young people understand and love the Fengyang Flower Drum, Chuzhou College will organize the "Elegant Art into the Campus" tour every year, taking advantage of the opportunity to perform in major colleges and universities to spread the artistic essence of the Fengyang Flower Drum. "We not only sent a wonderful Fengyang flower drum performance, but also interspersed with live teaching in the performance. For students participating in the activity, we will also give away exquisite Fengyang flower drums. Ding Siwen said.
The performances of the "Flower Drum Art Troupe" in each school were very warmly welcomed, which gave the students of the "Flower Drum Art Troupe" a sense of mission to inherit this folk art. Ke Jing, a member of the "Flower Drum Art Troupe", told reporters that every time she performed, the audience reacted very warmly, which made her feel particularly proud, and also made her more eager to deeply learn the intangible art of Fengyang Flower Drum and carry it forward. "As long as I can jump, I will keep jumping and spread this art to more people."
What made Ding Siwen most memorable was that in the mass parade after the 70th anniversary of the National Day in 2019, four students of the "Flower Drum Art Troupe" boarded the "Beautiful Anhui" float to show the charm of Fengyang Flower Drum to the people of the whole country. "Everybody was standing in front of the TV that day. I was particularly excited, and when I saw the floats of the students slowly coming, my tears flowed down at once, and I was particularly proud and proud. Ding Siwen recalled.
Ding Siwen has been engaged in the dissemination of Fengyang flower drums for more than 10 years, during which time she has more and more deeply realized that "only the national is the world." This treasure needs to be passed on to us, but it cannot be set in stone. Ding Siwen said. In her view, no matter how good the traditional culture needs to keep pace with the times, constantly innovate, if it is only a static inheritance, it will eventually be eliminated by the times.
"The Fengyang Flower Drum that we inherit now is also developed little by little to today's appearance through the innovation of each generation of Flower Drum people, so we must also integrate the Fengyang Flower Drum with the new era, which is the living inheritance and the vitality of folk art." Ding Siwen said.
In order to make the Fengyang Flower Drum better inherited in the new era, Chuzhou College has carried out many activities. Ding Siwen said that the students of the "Flower Drum Art Troupe" regularly go to the community primary school every year to carry out the teaching activities of Fengyang Flower Drum. To this end, Ding Siwen specially choreographed a set of "flower drum fitness exercises", extracting the body elements of the Fengyang flower drum and integrating them with the fitness exercises. "Flower Drum Gymnastics" replaces the traditional recess exercises in primary schools, and children can learn Fengyang Flower Drum while doing exercises, which can not only strengthen their bodies, but also learn traditional culture and arts, adding to the fun of learning. It is understood that the "flower drum fitness exercise" has been promoted in local primary schools in Chuzhou.
In order to let children across the country see the charm of fengyang flower drum, this year, Ding Siwen also created a children's dance of fengyang flower drum and was shortlisted for the national dance competition.
Li Daolin introduced that Chuzhou School relies on the superior resources of colleges and universities to inherit the Fengyang flower drum culture in the way of "going out, please come in". "Please come in" is the excellent faculty. In addition to Ding Siwen, the school also hired Sun Fengcheng, the representative inheritor of the Fengyang Flower Drum of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage, as a visiting professor to teach the traditional Fengyang Flower Drum technique to teachers and students. At present, the school already has 3 municipal inheritors of Fengyang Flower Drum. In recent years, the school has also introduced nearly 10 outstanding graduates from china academy of arts, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Tianjin Conservatory of Music and other universities to teach at the school.
"Going out" relies on strong cultural self-confidence. In 2021, Chuzhou College exchanged Fengyang flower drum skills with more than 1,300 Chinese teenagers in Indonesia online.
Previously, the college was also actively carrying out exchanges with Taiwan and promoting the culture of Fengyang flower drum. In 2019, the "Flower Drum Art Troupe" of Chuzhou University went to Taiwan's universities, middle schools and primary schools for cultural tour, and the performance was very successful and highly recognized by Taiwanese audiences.
Recalling the tour, Ding Siwen still remembers it vividly, she said, "At the beginning of the performance, you can hear someone humming this tune in the audience, because the tune of the Fengyang Flower Drum has sounded all over the country, and everyone is familiar with it." ”
Taiwan and the mainland have the same roots, this cultural resonance made Li Daolin very moved, but also let her see that the inheritance of Fengyang Flower Drum there is room for further sublimation, so that she is more convinced that "through our efforts to achieve the new inheritance and new development of Fengyang Flower Drum in the new era."
"Chuzhou College will continue to excavate the various performance forms of Fengyang Flower Drum to make it closer to young people and close to people's daily lives." Ding Siwen said. She hopes that through the platform of "Warm One Square" of China Youth Daily, anhui Fengyang Flower Drum, an excellent folk traditional culture and art, will be disseminated to more young people across the country, more intangible cultural heritage audiences will be cultivated, so that more people can know, love and learn From Fengyang Flower Drum, and more Chinese intangible cultural heritage can be better passed on from generation to generation.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Xia Jin Source: China Youth Daily