In order to commend young and middle-aged artists with high moral character and outstanding literary and artistic achievements, and to stimulate the enthusiasm of literary and art workers, the list of writers and artists of the Fourth Guangdong Province was announced, and Wu Peijin, the representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project white character opera, became one of the 10 artists who won the honor.
Young and middle-aged artists in Guangdong Province took a group photo at the commendation meeting.
Wu Peijin, born in 1972 in Haifeng, Guangdong Province, a member of the Communist Party of China, began to practice art in 1988, and is now a representative inheritor of white character opera in the national intangible cultural heritage project, a second-level actor, a member of the Chinese Dramatists Association, a member of the presidium of the Guangdong Dramatists Association, a director of the Guangdong Intangible Cultural Heritage Promotion Association, a part-time vice chairman of the Shanwei Municipal Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and the chairman of the Shanwei Dramatists Association. He once served as the head of the Haifeng County White Character Drama Troupe and is a representative figure of the current white character drama scandal.
As the inheritor of traditional opera at the grassroots level, Wu Peijin has been pouring into the inheritance and development of rare dramas for more than 30 years. With his feelings and responsibility for local drama, he insisted on being honest and innovative, and created theatrical characters such as Tao Da of "Bai Luoyi", Han Qi of "Qin Xianglian", Zhang Wujie of "Jin Ye Ju", Xu Jiujing of "Xu Jiujing Promotion", etc., so that traditional drama genres entered the times and entered people's lives. In order to promote the external dissemination and inheritance and development of white character opera, he used the rest time to teach skills to white character opera lovers, tutored a number of private professional theater troupes in Shanwei City, participated in the inheritance demonstration performances such as "Opera Entering the Campus", held public welfare training classes for white character opera, and continuously improved his interpretation skills, creative ability and teaching level, hoping to do his best to enhance the popularity and influence of white character opera.
Wu Peijin, the representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage "white character drama".
Nandu: Please talk about your feelings about winning the award.
Wu Peijin: In this list of winners, as the only actor, I feel very honored. This honor is a high affirmation and great encouragement for me to engage in the theater industry for more than 30 years, and it is also a great encouragement to our rare dramas (white character drama, orthographic drama and Western Qin opera) and the inheritors of rare dramas! This honor goes to our three rare dramas in Shanwei. In my opinion, this is an honor, but also a responsibility! Grateful for the cultivation of the party, grateful for the trust of the people, look forward to more and more outstanding artists continue to present, for the acura party, acura motherland, acura heroes, acura people, acura new era, with heart, affection, strength to carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese drama to do a good service, add bricks and tiles, make greater contributions.
In 2012, I was transferred away from the Baizi Theater Troupe to work in the Shanwei Cultural Center, mainly to participate in the public welfare performances of government acts, but also to a number of private professional theater troupes in Shanwei City for counseling, to participate in the "Xiqu into the Campus" and other heritage demonstration performances, to hold Baizi opera public welfare training classes and so on. It can be said that I have been doing the living inheritance work of the white character play. However, seeing that so many years have passed, the artistic level of the troupe has not been greatly improved, I can't sit still, coupled with the strong promotion of Ding Fan, chairman of the Guangdong Dramatists Association, Lin Jinzhou, full-time vice chairman, and Fang Zhanrong, the representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project, they said, "You are a rare theater talent, you can't leave the stage, only on the stage can you reflect your artistic charm, you should return to the troupe to work", so I gave up my high salary to return to the troupe in July 2020. Single-mindedly take on the responsibility of inheritors and cultivate more talents for the drama genre. It's been almost two years now, and this is also an artist's feeling.
Nandu: What do you think are the difficulties encountered in the inheritance of rare dramas now?
Wu Peijin: The first thing is that the salaries and treatment of the cast members are not guaranteed, especially since the outbreak of the epidemic, the troupe cannot go to the countryside to perform, all the cast and crew can only receive 50% of the salary, life is difficult to maintain, there is a phenomenon of "people in Cao Ying's heart in Han", the troupe has lost its centripetal force, the performance team is unstable, the talent is difficult to sustain, and the artistic level has declined year by year, which is not conducive to the development of the drama genre.
At present, there is only one professional troupe of the three rare drama genres in Shanwei, and they are all county-level, known as the "first troupe in the world". As the chairman of the Shanwei Dramatists Association, I think we can consider integrating the resources of the three troupes, establishing the Shanwei Rare Drama Theater, upgrading the grade of the drama genre, and regularly holding local drama talent training classes to let more young people fall in love with our own drama, so that the three rare dramas can be endlessly born and passed on from generation to generation.
Nandu: What are your next plans to inherit and protect the white character play?
Wu Peijin: As a rare drama inheritor from the grassroots, I will further implement the spirit of this commendation conference and the symposium on promoting the high-quality development of literary and artistic work in the province, take the obligations and responsibilities of the inheritors of the drama as the driving force, take root in the grassroots, bring excellent and grounded works into the campus and into the countryside, use the artistic spirit to enhance people's yearning for a better life, and continue to serve the inheritance of traditional opera. This year, I created the rural revitalization theme of the play "Into The Spring", starting from sketches and small plays, highlighting local characteristics, and praising the great changes in the countryside that allow farmers to live a happy life. In the future, I will continue to promote white character drama into the campus and guide students to feel the charm and value of traditional Chinese culture at zero distance.
At the same time, I will also pay attention to the cultivation of inheritors, especially the requirements for students and disciples, first of all, with "virtue" as the first priority, virtue and art, and the word "virtue" first. Once I become my disciple, I will devote my life's skills to me, he will have to inherit my mantle, if you only learn three things and want to be a disciple in the name of a master, I will absolutely not accept it.
Nandu: In March 2022, the three rare dramas were officially entered as elective courses in Xinghai Conservatory of Music, the highest music school in South China.
Wu Peijin: The main purpose of our cooperation with Xinghai Conservatory of Music is to promote the dissemination and influence of rare dramas, so that more scholars, more students and all sectors of society can pay attention to the development of white character opera, Western Qin opera, orthographic opera and the improvement of artistic level, which is an excellent platform for publicizing the customs and culture of Shanwei.
Written by: Nandu reporter Zhou Peiwen intern Zhou Zhengying
Images courtesy of respondents