On weekends, Zhang Huan, winner of the 29th Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Awards and vice president of the Beijing Opera House in Heilongjiang Province, is very busy. In addition to teaching students at heilongjiang art vocational college and Harbin Conservatory of Music, she also goes to The Yisheng Art Center in Daoli District of Harbin City and the Peking Opera Art Heritage Base of Daowai District of Harbin City to conduct public welfare teaching.
"As a Peking Opera actor, only by taking root in life, taking root in the masses, taking root in the grassroots, dedicating the people with fine products, and casting the soul for Bacon in the new era can we be worthy of cultivating our own country and society." Zhang Huan said.
Zhang Huan studied Peking Opera at the age of 11, and after graduating from the Heilongjiang Provincial Art School, he went to the postgraduate class of the China Academy of Performing Arts for further study. In 1999, After returning to the Beijing Opera House in Heilongjiang Province, Zhang Huan studied the art of Guanpai Peking Opera with Xing Meizhu, an apprentice of Guan Sushuang and known as "Xiaoguan Sushuang", and studied with Xing Meizhu 10 years later.
▲ Zhang Huan played Mu Guiying in "Zhan Hongzhou" (Courtesy of Heilongjiang Provincial Peking Opera House)
Xing Meizhu told Zhang Huan that Guan Sushuang acted in "Iron Bow Edge" at the age of 16, and by the time he was 51 years old in 1979, he made a movie, and the play "grinded" for 35 years and finally became a fine product. Guan Sushuang's story touched Zhang Huan greatly, and made her understand that to study Peking Opera, she must eat bitterly, participate thoroughly, learn well, and practice fiercely, so that she can stand firm.
To this end, Zhang Huan practiced for more than 5 hours a day, never rested on holidays, and had to practice Chinese New Year's Eve. Relying on the shot is a unique skill of the Guan Sect, which needs to be skillfully coordinated with the hand to complete. 4 hands to throw guns at her, she could not receive the gun at first, hit her head, stumbled, and bruised her legs. She also had to tighten the 20-pound flag so that she could control the flag to accurately return the gun, and after 20 years of polishing, she finally achieved the effect of zero mistakes in the performance on the stage.
Over the years, Zhang Huan has studied, practiced, watched, and acted conscientiously and diligently, striving to achieve the level of being able to write and fight and be able to produce dan. "In the study and practice, I truly understood the profundity of Peking Opera art, especially the artistic characteristics of the Guan School that can be graceful and colorful, subtle and natural, and can be strong and bright, free and magnificent, which has further cultivated my curiosity."
In September 2012, Zhang Huan brought the traditional Peking Opera "Iron Bow Edge" and "Hongqiao Gift Pearl" to participate in the CCTV National Young Peking Opera Actors Television Competition. During the game, she accidentally strained the ligaments in her legs and limped, making it difficult to complete the heavy martial arts skills. She could have retired from the competition, and she thought that she would never embarrass Heilongjiang and continue to compete with a closed needle. Unexpectedly, she was allergic to anesthesia, and her vision was blurred after closing the needle, and she couldn't see things clearly. In the final, she wrapped her thighs tightly with bandages to reduce pain, concentrated on the performance, and insisted on completing the competition, winning the silver medal in the Wudan group.
Through this competition, Zhang Huan realized that actors must have "horizontal strength" and "fierce strength". Since his performance, Zhang Huan has performed 38 major plays and hundreds of folding plays such as "Xie Yaohuan", "MoonLight Saibei" and "Strange Girl Without Appearance", with a total of more than 500 performances.
Due to Zhang Huan's excellent business, strong skills, and organizational and coordination skills, in 2016, she was appointed as the head of the actor group of the Beijing Opera House in Heilongjiang Province. At this time, she was even busier, not only to lead everyone to practice the basic skills and create a repertoire, but also often led the actors or groups to fight, or in the form of literary and art detachments, into the police barracks, community squares, townships and villages, organs, enterprises and institutions, to deliver the art of Peking Opera to the doorstep of the people.
In order to enhance the influence of Peking Opera, Zhang Huan has led the troupe to Beijing, Tianjin, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places for many times, and even went abroad to exchange performances in more than 10 countries such as New Zealand, Denmark, Spain, and Russia, deepening the understanding of Peking Opera art and Traditional Chinese culture by people at home and abroad.
It is worth mentioning that after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Zhang Huan, with the support of the Party Committee of the Beijing Opera House, actively innovated the form of performance, launched the "Cloud Theater" series of online performances, and broadcast more than 70 anti-epidemic works created by her and her actors such as "Resolutely Demand to go to the Battlefield", "Fight the Epidemic with One Heart" and "Let the Party Flag Shine With New Light" online, and the number of online viewers exceeded 200,000.
The inheritance and development of opera art is a main line for spreading Chinese voices and promoting traditional culture to penetrate the hearts of the people. Zhang Huan, who was employed by Heilongjiang Art Vocational College, Jilin Art College, Harbin Conservatory of Music and other art colleges, conducted in-depth thinking and exploration of his many years of stage practice and research accumulation, and sorted out a set of Peking Opera teaching materials suitable for graduate students, undergraduates, secondary school students and all ages, which promoted the theoretical improvement of Danxing Peking Opera and Guanpai art. In particular, the amateur Peking Opera class students tutored by Zhang Huan in his spare time have also been admitted to art academies such as the China Academy of Drama and the Shanghai Theater Academy, and have also won provincial and municipal and national awards.
It is worth noting that during the epidemic period, Zhang Huan led the teaching team to study the online teaching plan, breaking the traditional opera art transmission teaching mode that has been circulating for a hundred years, opening an online teaching demonstration open class, and more than 120 Peking opera students from different schools listened to the lectures online at the same time, which was well received by industry experts. On March 27, 2020, Zhang Huan's online teaching officially began, she took the folding play "Yue Lai Dian" as an example, so that students can understand and master the pronunciation of Wang Pai Peking Opera art Jingbai, the characteristics of singing, the performance skills and the characteristics of representative body, in the simultaneous application of teaching and learning, online and offline, to stimulate students' love and enthusiasm for learning traditional Chinese arts.
In order to better promote the public welfare undertakings of Peking Opera art, Zhang Huan, as the third-generation inheritor of Peking Opera Guanpai art, led a group of backbone actors to carry out public welfare lectures in Harbin primary and secondary schools, universities, opera training bases, communities and other places, vigorously promoted the art of Peking Opera, and formed a situation in which Peking Opera art blossomed everywhere.
At the same time, with the support of the China Peking Opera Art Foundation and the Heilongjiang Provincial Peking Opera House, Zhang Huan led the excavation and collation of the lost play "South Boundary Pass", and served as the main actor, re-presenting this long-lost old play on the stage in 2017, which was unanimously praised by the Foundation and many experts in the domestic Peking Opera circle.
The key to the inheritance of Peking Opera art lies in talents. To this end, in 2016, Zhang Huan organized the Training Class for Artistic Talents of the Peking Opera Guan (Sushuang) School of Arts funded by the National Arts Fund, and served as a teacher with Master Xing Meizhu, etc., and completed the inheritance and teaching of 40 actors from various Peking Opera troupes in China, making achievements for the inheritance and development of Guan Pai art.
Zhang Huan, who has now grown into the vice president of the Heilongjiang Provincial Peking Opera House, said that it is her lifelong goal to lead everyone to produce good works, cultivate outstanding opera talents, and inherit the cause of Peking Opera. Next, she will lead the team to continue to explore and delve deeply, vigorously promote the digital construction of Peking Opera, and promote the new vitality and vitality of traditional culture in the new era.
April 19, 2022 China Culture Daily
Special reports were published on the 4th edition
"Zhang Huan: Drama and Life Are Wonderful"
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Haining