Mr. Xue Yan recalls Mr. Zhang Tiemin: The eternal "iron old"
Text/Xue Yan
Mr. Zhang Tiemin's style
Profile of Mr. Zhang Tiemin
Zhang Tiemin (October 1935 – August 2018) was a native of Matou Town, Tancheng County, Shandong Province. Since the 1950s, he has published plays, poems, novels, essays and other works, including selected plays "Under the Ginkgo Tree", drama history manuscript "Liuqin Drama", long historical novel "Legend of the Sage", "Iron People's Self-Selected Collection" (three volumes) and many other works. He has successively served as the director of linyi drama creation research office and the chairman of Linyi dramatists association. In 2008, it was awarded the "Linyi Literature and Art Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Linyi Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government.
People habitually call Mr. Zhang Tiemin "Iron Elder", not only respecting his "iron mouth", "iron pen", "iron calligraphy" and "iron will", but also admiring his ubiquitous love and kindness. The old man is gentle and humble, clean and elegant, diligent and diligent, talented, frank and sincere to his friends without reservation, and obedient to the younger generations, which has won the wide respect of new and old friends in the art world. Tie Lao pays special attention to promoting backward progress, tirelessly teaching people, carefully guiding, discovering, excavating and cultivating a group of young writers, young musicians, young dancers, young folk artists, young music artists, dramatists, tie lao's love and dedication, which has played an important role in cultivating new talents in Yimeng literature and art.
Mr. Zhang Tiemin in his youth
Mr. Zhang Tiemin calligraphy
For many years with Tie Lao, whether in work or in life, the biggest responsibility is always to be carried by Tie Lao first; the heaviest tasks are shouldered by Tie Lao first; the most difficult things iron laos do first, whenever we encounter any difficulties and setbacks, Tie Lao will always rely on the prestige of "iron" cast over the years, in many places, on many occasions, to give care to our young people, and even sometimes there is a little "protection of shortcomings". Therefore, our younger generation called Mr. Zhang Tiemin "Iron Elder" and also has a layer of "iron backer" meaning.
The days with Iron Elder were happy and unforgettable, it was really a period of burning passion! Although Tie Lao is more than 20 years older than us, there is no generation gap between him and us! He keeps up with the times and keeps pace with the times, with clear and sharp thinking, knowledgeable and strong memory, and computers and WeChat play more skillfully than us. How many times have we received tasks together, met and gone out together to collect wind, and held creative meetings together. Sometimes, we also fight for the style of a party, an idea, a bridge, or even a line, but this does not affect our feelings in the slightest. Whenever everyone reached a consensus and each of them had received a task, we would sit down and drink freely, and then The Iron Elder would change the seriousness of the meeting, or frequently raise a glass to the left and right, or slang funny words and witty remarks, and sometimes improvise a poem recitation, and the prologue of the evening party in this atmosphere was also opened.
Tie Lao once lamented to me many times, "We have a relationship with our grandfather!" "It's true! In 1977, after graduating from the "May Seventh" Art School in Shandong (now Shanyi) and assigned to work in Linyi, I had the privilege of knowing Tie Lao, and I have been counting for more than 40 years. For more than 40 years, he has been deeply taught and cared for by Tie Lao, and all the scenes are still vividly remembered: in 1982, he participated in the rehearsal of the newly compiled historical Peking Opera "Daotong" created by Tie Lao; in 1984, he participated in the rehearsal of the modern Peking Opera "Spring Tide" created by Tie Lao; in 1990, Tie Lao created the children's song and dance drama "Young Che Yin" and let me serve as the director. Later, this drama won the bronze medal of shandong children's drama and school drama competition; in 1993, Tie Lao created an 8-episode TV series based on the abacus inventor Liu Hong, "Suan Sheng", and Tie Lao sent me to be an actor and drama director. During this period, Tie Lao also created a number of large-scale modern Liuqin dramas such as "Yimeng Frost Leaf Red", "Cai Shi Yu", "Under the Ginkgo Tree", the medium-sized drama "Bright Moon Kyaukyao", and the small Peking Opera "The General and the Groom", "Fusheng Looking at the Melon", which had a great impact on the drama circles inside and outside the province.
In 2003, the organization sent me to concurrently serve as the head of the Municipal Liuqin Opera Troupe, in the face of the embarrassment of opera creation at that time, the bureau leaders invited Tie Lao to assist in grasping the creation of Liuqin opera, Tie Lao did not resign, and gave his best to help, in 2004 Tie Lao was the artistic director, organized the creation of a series of Liuqin dramas that reflected the story of Yimeng Red, "Yimeng Deep Love" to Xuzhou City to participate in the Xuzhou Liuqin Festival in China, won a number of awards, caused quite a stir; in 2007, Tie Lao took the initiative to take the initiative and invited Mr. Zhang Peng, the former director of the Provincial Art Creation Office. Mr. Li Ying, a famous playwright, co-created a large-scale new historical drama "Wang Xiang Lying Fish", which was invited to Jinjing in 2008 to participate in the "China Intangible Culture Exhibition", laying a solid foundation for the city's stage art creation to climb to a higher peak.
Li should be with Zhang Tiemin and Xue Yan on the banks of the Yi River
Zhang Tiemin's historical work "Liuqin Drama"
Zhang Tiemin's collected works "Selected Works of Iron People" (three volumes)
When I gave a eulogy to Tie Lao, I learned that Tie Lao retired in 1997. To be honest, I have always been vague about the concept of the time for Tie Lao to retire, because Tie Lao has always been busy and present, and I have never seen him really rest. In the early years, from the music and dance poem "Yimeng Monument" in 1991, with Comrade Li Fanxiu as the general director, to the large-scale water live performance "Mengshan Yishui"; from the "Joy in Tonight" column founded by Comrade Chen Honglin on Linyi Television Station, to the city-wide tour of "Song of Righteousness" organized by the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection; from the large-scale song and dance "Yimeng Ode" to the special performance "Yimeng Red Sister-in-law"; from the annual Spring Festival gala to various types of special performances; from the Shusheng Cultural Festival to the Zhuge Liang Tourism and Cultural Festival - Where there is no iron old figure, where there is no iron old man's literary talent, where there is no iron old man's painstaking efforts!
In the TV series "Yimeng" filmed in our city, the crew sent dozens of scripts to Tie Lao, and let Tie Lao give advice to check the pass. Tie Lao was lying there wearing reading glasses, deliberating word by word, deliberating sentence by sentence, commenting on page after page, almost day and night. The script was changed, and Tie Lao was tired and sick. Some people do not understand, saying that Tie Lao is neither a screenwriter nor a director, neither a name nor a manuscript fee, what is such a serious picture? Tie Lao said: "We don't want anything, people trust us, we are seriously responsible, this is a scene of filming our Yimeng, but there can be no problem."
Xue Yan attended the memorial service for the first anniversary of Mr. Zhang Tiemin's death
Participated in a creative seminar with Mr. Zhang Tiemin in Yishui Heavenly King City
At the beginning of 2018, I was tasked with creating the Liuqin play "Cui Jiagou". In the process of writing this play, I have consulted Iron Elder many times, and Iron Elder has given me a lot of tricks. After a few months of creation, this play is ready to go to the ground to enter the rehearsal, in order to ensure the quality, one day in early June, I went to Tie Lao's home again to ask for advice, that is, this time, we suddenly found that Tie Lao had changed, skinny, people obviously saw the old, when we came out of Tie Lao's door, this time he made an exception and did not send us away, but stood at the living room door to wave to us, for a long time unwilling to leave.
At about 8 p.m. on August 11, I received a call and immediately realized that "Iron old is not good!" So he hurried to the hospital with Zhaolian and Qizhong. At this time, the iron elder was already dying. Seeing that we had arrived, Aunt Zhao, who was guarding the bedside, shook his hand and shouted: "Tiemin, Tiemin, you wake up, Xue Yan and Zhaolian have come to see you--" But the old man did not respond anymore.
At 20:00 that night, our esteemed Iron Elder passed away!
"The long throat of the landscape cannot be changed, and Linyi has fallen into the Wenqu Star." Writing this, the tears could not help but blur my eyes once again. Looking up at the watch, it was already the early morning of the next day, at this time the window was silent, the black night sky, there were still a few stars twinkling, the brightest star seemed to be the iron old, the iron old seems to be still paying attention to us all the time...
The iron old man who deserves our eternal remembrance!
About the Author:
Xue Yan is a national first-class screenwriter, former deputy director of Linyi Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, and honorary chairman of Linyi Dramatists Association.