Xinhe Street is a street and a world.
On the street, there are singers, Peking opera helmets, wood carvings, fishing, paintings, wine, doctors, booksellers, costume designers...
They live all around us, but they are far away.
Zhe Gui's new short story "Wonderland" is the story of this river street. He has insight into how generations of craftsmen on Xinhe Street find the way back of the soul in dreams and reality, and how to embark on the return of life calmly and calmly, and this return is the future.
This book was shortlisted for the March list of good books in Chinese.
Wonderful selection
It takes about twenty minutes to drive from home to the Yue Opera Troupe. As soon as the car started, Yu Zhanfei's body felt, excited, and soft. It's not soft and weak, it's flexible, full of strength, eager to try. At the same time, there seems to be a stream of water flowing in the body, which is softer than water, almost dissolving the body. Very light and heavy. Very light and very thick. He enjoyed it a lot.
The Yue Opera Troupe has two rehearsal halls, one large and one small. He went straight to the small rehearsal hall. There was no need to contact in advance, let alone say hello, he knew that the regiment leader Shu Xiaoxia was already in the small rehearsal hall. As soon as I opened the car door, a burst of music poured into my ears, it was the sound of gongs and drums, it was a dense line of ten thousand horses. As soon as I heard the sound, my body immediately reacted differently. This time it was hot, it was piping hot, it was unrestrained, and he was almost on the verge of shaking his fists. He heard the boiling grunt of boiling water in his body, it was the sound of his body being ignited, and he was about to bloom. He knew that it was an excerpt from "Thief Immortal Grass", a rare martial art in Yue opera, which was particularly challenging, fascinated him, and fascinated him. He was in a trance.
He entered the rehearsal hall, and sure enough, Shu Xiaoxia was already dressed and was pacing around the hall. She saw Yu Zhan fly in and look at him, and the look in his eyes was impatient. The two went straight to the powder room.
This is Yu Zhanfei's habit, and it is also his attitude, even if it is rehearsal, even if there are only two of them in the rehearsal hall, he must also wear costumes and costumes. He doesn't allow sloppiness, not at all.
Shu Xiaoxia gave him a disguise, and neither of them spoke. They don't need to. For decades, as long as a look, a small movement, you can understand the meaning of the other party. What is mind-to-heart communication? That's it. What is a spirit of the heart? That's it. Moreover, Yu Zhanfei listened to the accompaniment music before coming in, and already knew the content of the evening rehearsal, yes, it was still an excerpt from "Thief Immortal Grass".
How many times did he and Shu Xiaoxia rehearse this play? At least a few thousand times, or even more.
After the costume was finished, Shu Xiaoxia helped him put on the costume. At night, he plays the fairy boy who guards the Lingzhi fairy grass, dressed in short clothes and wears a red turban on his head. In the official performance of the play, the fairy children guarding the fairy grass are four, two of whom appear first and fight against Bai Suzhen. After being defeated by Bai Suzhen, he went to houshan to ask the two brothers to come out. Bai Suzhen was finally defeated, and was held by four fairy children. At this time, Xian Weng appeared and let her go down the mountain to save Xu Xian.
They practiced two guns at night. This is a very important martial arts scene in "Thief Immortal Grass". Of course, double gun is almost an important martial art in all Chinese opera, and it is also the most basic martial arts. It is precisely because of the foundation, it is not easy to practice to be brilliant, it is not easy, almost all martial arts students will do the action and technology, everyone is very skilled, they all want to do brilliant, what to do? There is only one way: innovation.
Yes, only to make difficult actions that others will not do, only to make wonderful and beautiful actions that others will not and do not think, only to make thrilling and coordinated with Bai Suzhen's spirit of risking death. Hard, too hard. But that's where the possibilities are, that's where the appeal is, and that's what drives innovation.
Under normal circumstances, Bai Suzhen and Fairy Boy first appear with dust, then swords, then double guns, and finally empty-handed fighting. The difficulty of empty-handed fighting is in the flip and fight, each fairy child flip and fight are different, all are exquisite, the first is a front flip, the second is a side flip, the third is a backflip, and the fourth is a front flip plus a backflip. The flips are all continuous, there are three consecutive flips, there are also six consecutive flips, whether the body is straight, whether the action is clean, it is very challenging.
The double gun is the highlight of "Thief Immortal Grass" and is the top priority. In the general performance, Bai Suzhen and the four fairy boys each took two guns, and the fight was fierce, and the four fairy children surrounded Bai Suzhen and threw the two guns in their hands to Bai Suzhen in the middle, and Bai Suzhen used the footboard, knees, shoulders and double guns in his hands to accurately and sharply pick the guns from all directions back into the hands of the four fairy boys. There is continuity and accuracy, and it is necessary to control the power and arc, which is almost not good. Moreover, the eight guns should be coherent, the audience should be dazzled, and the clouds should be flowing. It is both martial and artistic, and it must be sublimated to the height of beauty. It's too hard.
Shu Xiaoxia adjusted the accompaniment music and skipped the previous passages of dancing dust and dancing swords. Straight to the gun flower. The gun was made of old thorn vine, a meter long, with a gun tip at both ends, painted red and white in the middle, and the tip of the gun was tied with red wisps, called the flower gun in the jargon. They each had two flower guns, first symbolically drawing a few strokes. One of the souls of opera is symbolism.
As the sound of gongs and drums intensified, they stood in the middle of the rehearsal hall and played with guns. You can't see that their bodies are moving, in fact, their whole bodies are moving, and their bodies are quickly covered by gun flowers in their hands. Their guns first drew circles around the body, the arms did not move, the wrists twisted with the body, the gong and drum sound became more and more intense, the speed of the gun rotation became faster and faster, and the red and white patterns now became red and white, and the two rays of light were finally connected together to form a colored barrier. From a distance, Yu Zhanfei and Shu Xiaoxia in the middle of the rehearsal hall were gone, there were only two colored spheres, not moving at all, but surging with wind.
After playing with the gun flower, they practiced picking guns. Yu Zhan feitou, Shu Xiaoxia picked. This is the creation of Yu Zhanfei and Shu Xiaoxia, they are not one by one, but eight. Yu Zhanfei threw the eight guns together, and Shu Xiaoxia picked the eight guns back with his toes, knees, shoulders, and guns. What tested his skill was that Yu Zhanfei's eight guns were thrown at the same time, while Shu Xiaoxia had to pick up eight guns in a row, and the eight guns had to form a row and draw a beautiful arc in the air, like a rainbow. After practicing for a while, in turn, Shu Xiaoxia threw and Yu Zhan flew to pick. This kind of gun picking, the whole Xinhe Street Yue Opera Troupe only has two of them, and it is estimated that there are only two of them in the whole world.
(This article is excerpted from Wonderland)
Wonderland
Written by Zhe Gui
Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House
"Wonderland" is Zhegui's latest collection of short stories, written around the "Xinhe Street" personnel in his heart, especially the subtle current situation and inner perseverance of folk craftsmen in the face of the great waves of reality. No matter what kind of professional status people, they are a shining seed of the times, they collide with the world, conflict and reconciliation, after the storm, after the rain and the sun, all stories have a lasting spiritual rhyme, exuding the independent pride of personality.
Shanghai Culture Publishing House
Shanghai Story Club Culture Media Co., Ltd
Shanghai Chewing Character Culture Communication Co., Ltd