Entertainer Xu Huichun
———— brilliant life torn off with paper
Text/Cai Baoxin Photo/Lin Jin
If you are facing the magnificent and majestic paintings of mountains and rivers in the floating clouds and the dragons, and you are shocked by the vivid portraits of the leaders who are both physical and divine, the mood seems to be unable to calm down for a long time. In a studio, the audience's eyes are not enough.
These works are hand-torn works.
What the? Hand torn? Not kidding, right?
It is true that Xu Huichun, the "paper-tearing odd man" in LiaoxiYi County, did it.
Enlightenment comes from grandmothers and mothers, and development is rooted in diligence and perseverance
Xu Huichun was born in January 1958 to a working-class family in YiXian County, Liaoning Province. After graduating from high school, he went to the countryside for two years, returned to the city to take over, and successively worked in the clay factory, the phosphate fertilizer factory, and the grain depot. In 2001, he bought out his work and opened his own Arts and Crafts Department.
When it comes to the enlightenment of tearing paper, it comes from my grandmother and mother. The two kind elders are skillful in their hearts, and every New Year's Day, Spring Festival and other festivals, they will tear some simple window flowers with paper, such as birds calling for spring return, big roosters eating pests, etc. At that time, the neighbors all posted window flowers, but most of them were paper cuts, and only grandma and mother would tear the paper. On the window, seeing the lifelike paper tearing works, the little Xu Huichun felt warm and full of yearning for the art of tearing paper.
In 1992, Xu Huichun came to work in the Yixian grain depot and managed propaganda in the trade union. I often come into contact with newspapers. Once, he tore out a few "hieroglyphs" with waste newspaper, and suddenly remembered the window flowers torn by his grandmother and mother when he was a child.
When it was said, Xu Huichun tore off the first Chinese character in his life: "Zhong". He vowed: In the future, we must do a good job of Chinese!
Although it was initially torn out of shape, Xu Huichun explored it diligently and persistently.
In 1993, Yixian organized a calligraphy exhibition. Xu Huichun found the jury and asked the judges: "If I tear a piece of paper, can I participate?" "Everyone else is writing with a pen, why are you tearing it up?" "I just wanted to try." "Then you can try it." He tore up the words "Gao Jie Laughing Chunmei" and reported it. The judges all said it was fine, but the opinion given was: do not participate in the competition, because the calligraphy works are written, and the torn characters cannot participate in the competition. He was very resentful in his heart, but he didn't show it, and vowed: We must try to tear the paper down and make it famous!
Initially, Xu Huichun's words were all white characters, that is, words torn from ordinary white paper, and then framed on colored paper. Ordinary white paper has horizontal stubble, and it is not good to tear the work; Rice paper cotton is too large and does not apply. Since 1995, it has been explored to tear with newspapers, and the newspaper has less horizontal stubble and is more suitable for cotton. Later, I tried to dye newspapers. Pure black, black red, have tried.
In everyone's eyes, although Xu Huichun is not good at talking, he is skillful in his heart, has "living" in his eyes, has no teacher, and can integrate calligraphy arts such as calligraphy, calligraphy, calligraphy, and cursive writing into the tearing words, shining brightly.
After tearing words with certain achievements, Xu Huichun studied tear paintings, and then tearing portraits... Tearing is carried out by some people in the country, but tearing painting is only a small number of people, and tearing portrait painting is very rare. It is very difficult to grasp the characteristics of the character and accurately express it with lines, and each painting needs to be repeatedly adjusted and tested to achieve the best results. What is particularly valuable is that whether it is tearing words, tearing paintings, or tearing portraits, "until now, I picked it up and tore it, never drawing sketches and making a base draft in advance." ”
Without scissors, carving knives and other tools, there is no sketch, with the perception of art, the conception and the agility of the fingers, the pictogram of the object should be formed in one go, and this piece of paper will be "torn" into a wonderful calligraphy and painting. Mr. Wu Zhenquan, an overseas Chinese in the United States, once wrote a poem evaluation: "The tearing technique is amazing and wonderful, and the paper row pen and strokes are thousands of jun." Success is a must-have blast throughout the universe, and the word is known as a wizard Xu Huichun."
Relying on "tearing", Xu Huichun "tore" out many social posts: members of the Chinese Folk Writers Association, members of the Liaoning Folk Writers Association, vice chairman of the Jinzhou Folk Writers Association, and chairman of the Yixian Folk Writers Association.
Adjacent to success: give life's work
When it comes to the highlight moment of tearing paper, Xu Huichun's eyes are shining.
On May 8, 1994, Xu Huichun was invited to participate in the Shanghai Great World Guinness Stunt Show. In the recording hall of the Dragon and Tiger List of "The World's First", the audience was like a cloud and full of people. During the temporary performance, the host was embarrassed for him: "Teacher Xu, now someone has proposed that what content you want to tear up is decided by the audience, can you?" Without waiting for an answer, a male audience member could not wait to stand up and said, "Teacher Xu, can you tear up a 'god' word?" If possible, tear it in cursive. The word "God" had just been torn up, and another female audience member could not hold back and said, "Teacher Xu, you have just finished tearing the word 'God', so let's tear up the word 'Qi', I want to ask you to tear it with the seal book." Undoubtedly, he won the title of "the first in the world" to tear the word.
The following year, Xu Huichun was once again invited to participate in the Shanghai Great World Guinness Stunt Show. What he showed was the 26-meter-long scroll of 752-character seal tearing characters "Pipa Line".
The audience has not heard of it, not to mention it. The creative process is: "First throw the paper on the board, brush it with black ink, dry it, cut it into squares according to the size of the word, and then tear the word by hand, from top to bottom, first left and then right, the edge of the word is torn with the thumb and index finger, the word is torn with small armor, there is a pen and a falling pen, there are turns and a connection, like a pen out." Finally, the torn words are framed on rice paper in the order of the poems. After 4 months of hard work, "Pipa Line" was finally 'torn' into pieces. At the scene, during the temporary performance, he carried out blind tearing, his eyes were covered with black cloth, and the scene tore the word "Fu" by hand, which was even more surprised and shocked the scene, sometimes silent, nervous so that the needle fell to the ground and could be heard clearly, and sometimes shouted and shouted that the hall collapsed.
From 2004 to 2006, Xu Huichun created a 100-meter-long scroll representing China's 5,000-year culture. In this masterpiece of "Weeping Blood", he overcame many difficulties.
First, it's about determining the content. From the Shang Zhou Dynasty onwards, they were arranged in historical order, looking for poems, words, couplets, sentences and other fine works of celebrities of all dynasties, and Chairman Mao Zedong's words "Qinyuan Spring And Snow" selected in modern times. What if a dynasty does not find the corresponding poems, words, conjunctions, and sentences? Just put the text rubbings of that dynasty, the tiles, or the Peking Opera masks, the zodiac signs, the Chinese kites, and so on.
Second, it is to find good raw materials. The main thing is what kind of paper to use for paper preparation? Finally decided to use the sunning drawings, but yixian is not long enough, so he ran to Jinzhou City, in a cultural goods store in Shanxi Street, bought a 100-meter-long, 0.96-meter-wide sun-dried drawings and carried it home, using more than 300 yuan. That's equal to his 3 months' salary.
The third is to overcome family conflicts. At that time, the people around him did not understand Xu Huichun, who was integrated with words such as "mental illness", "madman", "loser" and so on. His wife gradually did not understand him much: "You need money to live a life, and you need money for your children to grow up." Where are you tearing paper here? It's clearly tearing up the money! What the hell do you want to do? "Once, when his wife inadvertently broke his torn paper, the two quarreled, and neither of them let the other, and even mentioned divorce. Feelings caught up in the Cold War, and no one paid any attention to anyone for a week.
Finally, there is the difficulty of creation. Xu Huichun knew that there should still be people engaged in tearing paper in the whole country, but he did not know who it was, there was no person to learn, there was no road of communication, and he walked alone and lonely on the road of tearing paper. At the time of specific creation, night and day, sometimes, lying down to tear paper. After tearing the paper, sticking is even more problematic, and it takes longer than tearing the paper. The family housing is small, where to put it when it is sticky? Can only be "tossed" at the table where you are eating. Lay out a piece of paper, stick a paragraph of words, roll up a paragraph, and repeat the cycle.
More than 700 days and nights passed, and two years later the 100-meter-long scroll was completed. There are more than 200 pieces of "torn products", a total of 2741 characters of various calligraphy, and 450 paintings of figures and animals. Only the lining paper is used to remove 150 meters, 93 large bottles of ink, more than 50 boxes of latex glue, and more than 120 meters of modified edge materials. On January 3, 2006, the 100-meter-long scroll ran through a straight track at the Jinzhou City Stadium, and Xu Huichun himself saw the complete work for the first time and sighed. The work also made the audience stunned and caused a strong sensation in society.
Xu Huichun, 1.75 meters tall, thin in stature, weighing only 61 kilograms, is a very ordinary person. So why did he succeed? After understanding, I learned that he has many hobbies: he loves to play basketball, can play flute and erhu, can carve eggs, gourds, pebble paintings and so on. Perhaps it is that all kinds of hobbies have been integrated into each other in him, so that he has exercised such a character, cultivated his unique sentiments, and finally evolved into a miracle.
The highest state of tearing paper is patriotism
Xu Huichun believes that the highest realm of engaging in any art should be patriotic. Tearing paper is no exception. He pays special attention to major events at home and abroad, and uses his art of tearing paper to drum and shout for it.
July 1, 1997, the day of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, was also a major event for Xu Huichun, who loved the motherland and paid attention to development. What can you do for this momentous moment in history? Later, I thought of tearing 4 big characters of "Bless Hong Kong" 100 meters square. On June 16, some Hong Kong media reporters and more than 10,000 people in Yixian County poured into the Sports Arena of the Second High School. He tore words on the performance stage of 40 meters long and 12 meters wide, and used more than 400 pieces of gouache paper for four big characters, first brushed the red advertising color on the gouache paper, and then tore the words, and the hands and socks finally turned red, including the clothes, becoming the "red hero". Finally, four large characters are glued to the yellow silk and slowly hoisted onto a large background frame behind the stage with a length of 60 meters and a height of 13 meters. "Bless Hong Kong" took shape and towered in the wind. The sound of amazement, bursts of applause. He said: "These 4 100-meter characters contain the good wishes of the people of the motherland for Hong Kong. ”
In May 1998, a taiwanese scholar came to the mainland for exchanges, found Xu Huichun through the relevant departments, and pleaded with Him to tear up a portrait of Mr. Ma Ying-jeou. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou said that he would be invited to perform in Taiwan when he had the opportunity. In 2011, he went to Taiwan with relevant departments to carry out the exchange activity of "Kanto Love Taiwan Tour", bringing 5 calligraphy works and 10 portrait works. The scene was crowded with many Taiwan compatriots, invited to perform live. He made the only demand: only for the Taiwan compatriots to tear their surnames, implying that "no matter where you are, don't forget your surname and roots!" ”
Telling the story of Chinese tearing paper to the world, letting Chinese traditional culture go to the world, and letting the world understand China's good art has always been Xu Huichun's dream. In 2010, he accompanied the National Chinese Language Office to 5 russian states, more than 10 universities, and a number of Confucius Institutes for cultural exchanges. During this time, the governor of Novosibirsk Oblast forwarded his torn portraits of President Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Up to now, his works have been cherished by international friends in the United States, Japan and other countries.
Longing for inheritance, lonely and stubbornly moving forward
Regarding the matter of inheritance, Xu Huichun has been thinking about it for a long time.
In 2010, through the expert review of Jinzhou "Intangible Cultural Heritage" and the deliberation of jinzhou "Intangible Cultural Heritage" Protection Leading Group, Yixian Paper Tearing Art and Xu Huichun were identified as municipal intangible cultural heritage projects and inheritors. The inheritors of culture, also known as the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, are the guardians of intangible cultural heritage.
It was from this time that Xu Huichun began to think about the problem of "tearing paper inheritance".
Xu Huichun said: In recent years, although non-genetic inheritors have received attention and support from relevant state departments, under the impact of industrial mass production and commercial operation, the cultural and ecological space on which intangible cultural heritage projects depend for survival has been continuously squeezed and fragmented and marginalized.
Xu Huichun met young people who were willing to learn, and they were particularly "good teachers", but many people did not have a long temperament and could not persist. "Why? Now young people tear up paper with no future, can't make money, and even build money, who still learns? He understands this indisputable fact very well: "To be able to sink your heart, to be able to bear hardships, to endure loneliness, and to have a certain degree of understanding, good seedlings are more difficult to excavate." ”
There is no way but to start with the doll. On June 3, 2011, the Yixian Education Bureau and the Yixian Quality Education Center hired Xu Huichun as a professional lecturer on tearing paper, volunteering to undertake the teaching and teaching and research of paper tearing, and teaching and teaching and research courses for primary and secondary school students in the county.
Later, an off-campus "paper-tearing class" was opened in Wenchanggong Primary School, recruiting 40 students in the school every year and holding a paper-tearing class every week. Xu Huichun was very grateful to the leaders of this school, saying: "The school leaders are very bold, and they have also opened extracurricular classes such as 'calligraphy class' and 'paper-cutting class'. For the sake of non-genetic inheritance, for the sake of the art of tearing paper, he was grateful and devoted himself to every lesson and every minute. Speaking of students with grades, he mentioned "Shen Zikai". This student has been promoted to junior high school, and in the primary school, tearing paper has participated in the annual paper-cutting exhibition organized by the Jinzhou Municipal Education Bureau for three consecutive years.
The epidemic suddenly appeared, and the paper-tearing class was suspended.
Some experts said that how to introduce professional forces in the inheritance and promote, rather than relying on the personal characteristics of the inheritors, has become a problem that the intangible cultural heritage protection department needs to seriously consider.
Xu Huichun walked alone and stubbornly on the road of tearing paper.