China News Service, Beijing, March 31 Title: Liu Lanfang: Why does quyi "always have its vitality"?
"China News Weekly" reporter Huang Weibao Anqi
In mid-December 2021, Liu Lanfang's newly edited commentary book "New Douluo Continent" was launched on platforms such as the Himalayas. Many of her reviews have combined billions of hits in the Himalayas.
Recently, China News Service "East and West Question" interviewed Liu Lanfang, a storyteller, trying to tell her artistic life, and the growth opportunity of Quyi in the new era, answering why Quyi "always has its vitality".
QuYi Troupe learns art
People familiar with Liu Lanfang know that she stays up late every day and is revising or memorizing words every night. This is a habit I developed when I was studying art in an anshan Qu Art Troupe.
In 1959, at the age of 15, Liu Lanfang was admitted to the Anshan Qu Art Troupe and became a student.
Liu Lanfang learned the Northeast Drum before entering the regiment, so she officially worshiped Sun Huiwen, who sang the Northeast Drum in the group, as a teacher. But she also has a blind teacher Yan Chuntian who has not officially visited the door. Yan Chuntian found that she worked hard, had a good voice, and sang emotionally, so he proposed to help her "put it in place".
After that, after eating breakfast every day, she went to Yan Chuntian's house to "walk her throat." There is a large mirror on the cabinet of his home, and Liu Lanfang practices in front of the big mirror every day. Afraid that the sound of drumming would disturb her neighbors, Yan Chuntian asked her to take the cabinet as a drum. Finally one day, Yan Chuntian said, "Okay, your drum can be played, and the chords can be closed." By then the cabinet had been punched out of a deep pit by her.
In 1962, Liu Lanfang became a teacher and became a full-fledged actor. She went on a tour with the troupe to perform in other places, and said "Jingzhong Say Yue".
The book is taught by the teacher, but it is taught for about 40 minutes. But there are two and a half hours in one session, and the rest of the time is made up by yourself. Every night she had to think hard about the words she was going to say the next day, and there were not enough words, so she went to yan Chuntian, who always told her not to worry, and then searched her stomach to help her make up a paragraph. But sometimes the words on the stage are not enough, and they have to be edited, and the improvisational things the audience loves to hear.
Yan Chuntian was not only a mentor, but also her matchmaker, and introduced her to Wang Yinquan, who was the captain of the folk song rap team in the Anshan Qu Art Troupe at that time. In 1965, the two got married, and after marriage, they engaged in book reviews together, one performing and one creation, and the woman sang with her husband, and they have been with them to this day.
▲ Liu Lanfang (right) once learned the Sichuan language from the famous drama actor Zhao Fan. China News Service reporter Yang Zuohuan photographed
A hit
In 1979, Li Xiyuan, deputy director of the Literature and Art Department of Anshan People's Radio, found Liu Lanfang.
At that time, there was no radio station in the country to broadcast traditional commentaries, Li Xiyuan wanted to break through this forbidden area, and decided that Liu Lanfang would take the lead and record which one to consider, it was best to borrow the past to discuss the present, which had practical significance. After consulting with Wang Yinquan, she proposed to record the "Biography of Yue Fei", and Li Xiyuan simply agreed.
Recording on the radio cannot be like telling a book at a tea house to temporarily add "small worries" (referring to small plots, small stories), and there must be a script. At that time, the performance task in the troupe was very heavy, she performed twice a day in the tea house, said "Ming Yinglie" in the afternoon, said "Great Sui Tang" in the evening, and only had time to write scripts after 9 pm. She wrote first, and then Wang Yinquan continued to write in the middle of the night. Every time I finish writing, I take advantage of the fact that there is no performance in the morning to record on the radio.
On September 1, 1979, "Yue Fei Biography" was premiered by Anshan People's Radio. In less than a year, it was broadcast on 66 radio stations across the country.
At that time, at 12:30 p.m. or 6:30 p.m., as long as someone shouts "It's time!" "Yue Fei Biography" is coming! "The children who rolled the hoops and played marbles outdoors ran clean. Every family stood by the radio and listened intently. Semiconductor radios in many places are sold out.
Liu Lanfang became a hit, various honors followed, won awards and won soft hands, and also joined the party and became a model worker. In 1985, she was elected vice chairman of the Chinese Qu Artists Association, and in 1993, she was appointed deputy director of the Anshan Municipal Bureau of Culture.
In December 2001, she was elected vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and in 2002, she was elected as the president of the China Ququ Association.
▲ Liu Lanfang told the public about "Yue Fei's Biography" at the scene of the Majie Book Club in Baofeng County, Henan. The Horse Street Book Club, also known as the "Thirteen Horse Street Book Club", has a history of more than 700 years and is a trade event for the national music and art industry. Photo by Wang Zhongju of The China News Agency
Apprentices
Liu Lanfang had two disciples, one was the Northeast Drum and the other was storytelling. There were 30 disciples in the Commentary Gate.
Wang Shuangfeng, the first apprentice Liu Lanfang received when she toured Heilongjiang in 1980, was only 16 years old at the time and is now the inheritor of the book review in Anshan City.
Wang Shuangfeng remembered that from the time she knew Liu Lanfang, Liu Lanfang seemed to be memorizing words every night, one back until two or three o'clock in the night. She went to see Liu Lanfang, and Liu Lanfang often said, "I have a new paragraph, and I will tell you about it." "This can be said all the way from home to the restaurant. In 2020, at the age of 76, Liu Lanfang can still memorize the new commentary book "Academician Zhong, a mountain in the hearts of the people". The mouth is not for thought, and it must be memorized before it can be blurted out. "What about the easy way to say it?" I was daunted. All the people admired my Master's hard work. Wang Shuangfeng said.
Liu Chao was a female disciple (officially worshiped in 1994) that Liu Lanfang had adopted in the Kunming Military Region's Cultural and Labor Troupe during her 1982 tour. She said that the music art is one or two people singing monologues, one person is a small workshop, many people regard their own little things as particularly strict, there is a feeling of inaccuracy, lest others pay too much. Because the previous teahouse literature and art is like this, half of a cup of tea is book money, you can listen to it every day, you can steal it, and when you see your peers coming, you change the word. But Liu Lanfang is not like this, she is "over the truth".
She remembered that Liu Lanfang once taught her the famous fragment of "Yue Fei's Biography", "Throwing Colors and Inviting Relatives". This is a very wonderful single paragraph, with its own unique character sounds, as well as a strong sense of scene description, at the beginning of the people have a sense of substitution, in the language of drama called "prescribed situation", the commentary is called "the end of the pose". Liu Lanfang gave her an analysis of how to make the shape, how to make the fan, and the voice of the commentary should make a middle tone, that is, it is emitted from the middle chest cavity.
Wang Fengchen started late, and only met Liu Lanfang in 2005, but ranked 18th overall in Liu Men.
Since 2005, more than 90% of Liu Lanfang's newly compiled short paragraphs and long books have been involved in the creation. She set up a creative team consisting of Wang Yinquan, Yang Qingjiang and Wang Fengchen. They write the first draft, which is then processed by Liu Lanfang.
When Wang Fengchen was still in the field, Liu Lanfang asked him to help change the Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor into a commentary. After he finished writing a part, he received a call from Liu Lanfang, and she said: "Feng Chen, you have thought through our storytellers!" He was secretly happy, but he heard Liu Lanfang continue: "You have learned all these messes of our storytellers!" ”
She said, these mmm-hmms and uh-huhs that you wrote are all "words of pretense", these should not appear on your blueprint, and there are a lot of life-saving words in it, what is a life-saving word, do you understand? Wang Fengchen said, I don't understand. She said that when everyone goes on stage to talk about books, there will be a short circuit in their heads, such as Zhang Sanda coming from afar, and Li Si looked up, "Oops! This gives you three seconds to think, which is the "life-saving word." You can't add that word to me, I naturally use it when I need to.
She also said, why did I ask you to help me create? If you write this kind of thing, I don't know better than you? What I want is the thinking of your young people, I want fresh blood, and I have to learn from you in this regard, and you don't give me old things.
Wang Fengchen is a night owl, Liu Lanfang sleeps late every day, often calls him at 12 o'clock at night, and turns over the manuscript and says: "I am reading your manuscript, there is a point I can't understand in this piece, I will discuss with you." "If you go to her house during this time, you will find manuscripts piled up everywhere on the table and on the sofa, as well as pens, scissors, glue, and she is haggard because of lack of sleep. Often Wang Yinquan and Wang Fengchen felt that it was okay, she felt that it was not enough, and one of the words she often said was "afraid of smashing the brand".
▲ Liu Lanfang instructed book critics in Yue Fei Primary School in Tangyin County, Henan Province, on the basic skills and skills of book critics. In recent years, people's cultural life needs have become increasingly diversified, the older generation of storytellers or elderly or have passed away one after another, saying that there are fewer and fewer people who have commented on books, studied and listened to books, and there is a lack of successors, and it is urgent to cultivate inheritors. China News Service issued a photo by Chang Zhongzheng
New Commentary "New Douluo Continent"
Wang Fengchen felt that Liu Lanfang's popularity was in heaven, place, and people. Her generation coincided with the era of alternating old and new art. From an early age, he practiced hard and laid an extremely solid artistic foundation for his livelihood. At the height of artistic life, it caught up with the "Golden Age" of book reviews in the 1980s and 1990s. "Now many people say that the book review has declined, but it is not true. Storytelling has always been like this throughout history, never becoming a mainstream art except in that 'golden age', but its vitality has always been continuous. ”
He said that the emergence of new media has given storytelling an opportunity to grow, but now it is possible to use storytelling to support itself.
Liu Lanfang loves to read online novels and has watched thousands of episodes. She regarded reading online novels as an opportunity to learn a new language, and after reading them, she found that online novels, like the art of storytelling, are to create suspense and make people addicted.
In mid-December 2021, the Himalayas and other platforms launched her newly edited commentary " New Douluo Continent " . This is based on the classic traversal fantasy novel, and Wang Fengchen also participated in the adaptation.
He said that his first contact with his master was to adapt the fantasy crossing novel into a commentary, which was an attempt to win over a new generation of young listeners. It is very difficult to broadcast this commentary for the master, because it needs to be completely memorized, and the plot is better, especially the difficulty is that those strange and strange things such as soul skills, moves, weapon names, etc., a string of strings, the challenge is very large, but the 78-year-old's state is not reduced that year, and the program is liked after the broadcast.
Liu Lanfang believes that no matter when it is, Quyi will always have its vitality, because it comes from the grassroots level and is liked by the people. She said that many of the reviews in the Himalayas added up to billions of hits, and she was shocked to see them. Shao Qiushi, who served as her business assistant, was upset with her, thinking that she did not make a lot of money like other book critics, but she said that she had "earned fame".
She said that storytellers have a history of thousands of years, and storytellers have been eating and drinking in the red since ancient times, hugging before and after, but the evening scenery is desolate, and some of them freeze to death in the gutter, using a roll of reed mats, or artists pooling money to get a thin-skinned coffin. In today's society, artists are called literary and artistic workers, artists (of course, now called "artists", she said), political treatment is not low, and there are pensions, very content. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Liu Lanfang, a famous storyteller and performance artist, a national first-class actor, enjoys special allowances from the State Council. He is an honorary member of the 10th China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Honorary Chairman of the Chinese Qu Artists Association. Since 1979, more than 100 radio stations have broadcast her long commentary "Yue FeiChuan", which has caused a sensation throughout the country and influenced overseas. Later, he wrote and broadcast more than 30 commentaries such as "Yang Jiajiang" and "Dream of the Red Chamber", and won many national literary and art awards and national "May Day Labor Medal" and "March 8 Red Flag Bearer" and other titles. On September 25, 2020, he won the title of "Lifetime Achievement Quyi Artist of China Federation of Literature and Art" at the 11th China Quyi Peony Award.
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