The Golden Bell Award this time the emperor of sight really exploded the historical upset:
The Best Actor Award was awarded to 57-year-old actress Chen Yalan.
She won the award for her anti-string role, just like Ye Tong played Xu Xian in "The Legend of the New White Lady".
What is even more surprising and upset should be Chen Yalan's award-winning work.
It is not a regular TV series, but a song boy drama "Jiaqing Jun Tour Taiwan".
Similar to Yue Opera, Gan Opera and Yue Opera, it is a traditional local drama of the Hokkien language family and one of the intangible cultural heritages.
In other words, Chen Yalan defeated the star-studded modern entertainment industry by relying on traditional opera that is rarely appreciated.
Chen Yalan cried directly on stage after winning the award, unlike other award-winning actors who talked eloquently.
Because before winning the award, almost no one in the outside world cared about her efforts to inherit the opera.
I don't know how many "Chen Yalan" will cry silently outside the screen.
Of all those who struggle with art they think is worth it, she is already one of the luckiest.
01
10,000 years of green leaves in the entertainment industry
It has also been brilliant
It is calculated that Chen Yalan has been in the entertainment industry for more than thirty years.
But it wasn't until she won the Golden Bell Award unexpectedly that many people learned her true identity.
In the past, in the eyes of ordinary audiences, she was a tepid senior actor in the Hong Kong and Taiwan circles, and she assumed the role of a beauty in costume in various old dramas.
Gao Yanan in "The Legend of Xiangshuai", Mazu in "Mazu of the Virgin of Heaven", and Queen Ma in "Magic Trick Liu Bowen".
In the eyes of viewers who watched Xiamen Satellite TV when she was a child, she is a special style entertainment program host.
In 2005, Chen Yalan signed a contract with Xiamen Satellite TV to host "Entertainment Fighting Formation", and many entertainment programs were almost the same as the news that year, and the host finished reading the gossip news one by one.
Chen Yalan's gag made the men, women and children of Xiamen bright, and the ratings were quite high.
Only now has her job been presented to young audiences -
The anti-string student of the opera.
And it is the pillar of the heir to the opera.
Chen Yalan was born in the Gezi Opera Troupe, and her father was the owner of the troupe.
But don't think that she is the eldest lady of some artistic family, there was a saying in those days that "parents are silent, send them to learn drama".
When Chen Yalan was a child, because she was worried that her classmates would look down on her, she didn't want everyone to know that she was from a theater company, and her family was hard and poor.
When she was in elementary school, her parents performed in various townships like a mobile circus, and she was placed in foster care with relatives.
Chen Yalan recalled that she smelled the smell of stewed pork rice from her neighbor's house every day and was envious, and once rushed to steal a bite, but when she ran home, she was too tired to fall asleep on the stairs.
When I woke up, I found that the stewed meat I had eaten was still in my mouth, and I was reluctant to swallow it.
There are many practitioners of intangible cultural heritage who stay for love, but Chen Yalan was not at first, and her reason for inheriting her parents' mantle is extremely simple - poverty.
The family could not even afford to continue her studies after she graduated from junior high school, so she had to go home and sing.
So much so that in many interviews so far, Chen Yalan will say:
"I don't read many books, and a lot of the truth was taught to me by Gezi Opera."
Chen Yalan has good talent and family ties, because of her outstanding performance, she was accepted by Yang Lihua, a singer at that time.
What she is best at is the role of a small student, a woman against a man.
However, the stage that makes Chen Yalan shine is not the traditional stage where a large number of people sit in the audience.
It is a special type of drama that became popular in China in the seventies and eighties - opera TV dramas.
As the name suggests, this drama is to use modern film and television techniques to bring opera to the screen.
Opera TV series "The Female Horse"
In fact, many opera artists got involved in the field of television in various forms during the same period.
Like the 86 version of "Journey to the West", director Yang Jie is a opera director, a six-year-old child comes from a monkey opera family, and Ma Dehua, who plays Zhu Bajie, is from a Kunqu opera harlequin.
Even Ma Lan, who made a cameo appearance in the play and played the mother of Tang Monk, is a serious Huangmei actor and was once known as one of the five golden flowers of Huangmei.
The Chinese opera TV series came into being.
It's like a normal TV series, there will be different scenes, dialogues.
In the early years, the Dian opera "Nanzhao Bong Shengle" was even filmed directly in front of the snowy mountain forest.
Some lines without drama will be appropriately added to the original basis.
Lower the viewing threshold, but retain the traditional singing segment, the final sense of déjà vu is actually similar to the Disney movie in which the protagonists start singing at every turn.
Compared with traditional theater, one of the major advantages of TV shooting is to amplify the demeanor of the actors.
Chen Yalan stands out in this context, she not only has a smart demeanor, but it is even more rare that she still blends in naturally when she reverses gender.
Playing the hairy boy in "New Xijiang Yue", his face is full of juvenile cleverness.
Playing the military general Xue Pinggui in "The Beggar and the Thousand Gold", there is more Kong Wu fortitude in his expression.
In the field of opera, there has also been an anti-string student with a similar positioning to Chen Yalan, Sun Cuifeng.
She wins in appearance, and she is full of spirit.
Acting out a tragic drama, but also giving birth to a unique sense of vulnerability in addition to heroism.
At the beginning, the older generation of audiences chased these famous characters, and now they are enthusiastic and enthusiastic about chasing stars.
But going around in circles did not lag behind, and most of them withdrew from the public eye.
Only a few Chen Yalans are still making efforts to bring opera back to the screen.
02
Sell all the properties
Put all one’s eggs in one basket
In order to prepare for the award-winning "Jiaqing Jun Tour Taiwan", Chen Yalan can be said to have gambled everything, and has not gone out to earn money for four years and has to subsidize the production fee.
The reporter asked her if she had paid out of her own pocket, and she said that "the house has long been sold out."
At that time, her opera master, Yang Lihua, who was nearly 80 years old, comforted her and said, "I will raise you for the next half of my life." ”
Chen Yalan cooperated with her master when she was young, playing Pang Juan in "Sun Bin Descending the Mountain"
Chen Yalan's final path is to fight back, but in fact, this is not the direction she originally chosen.
As mentioned earlier, if the younger generation of audiences know her, most of the people who can think of it are Hong Kong and Taiwan dramas or hosts.
These are the paths she originally chose for herself.
Judging from past choices and resumes, Chen Yalan may not be the idealist in the public imagination.
She is pragmatic and always plans to make a living.
After graduating from junior high school, she originally wanted to go to beauty, a new money-making business, but unfortunately her family did not have the capital to support her entrepreneurship.
After relying on the fire of the opera, Chen Yalan did not refuse the invitation of the entertainment industry.
Filming, singing pop songs, appearing on variety shows, being a host... Learning, but also skillful.
She is also the first Taiwanese artist to obtain a hosting certificate in the mainland, interviewed many ancient stars, witnessed the birth of the first generation of fast men and superwomen such as Li Yuchun, and the rapid development of the mainland's entertainment industry in the early days.
When she first signed a contract with Xiamen Satellite TV, she became the focus of attention, and many people interviewed her.
When talking about his near-term life goals, he did not shy away from talking: "If you want to buy a house in Xiamen, you can't afford it yet." ”
Then in an interview two years later, he excitedly told reporters: "I tell you, I have already bought a house in Xiamen!" ”
And to today's interview - for the sake of the opera, the house is sold out.
Chen Yalan made the choice to integrate into the entertainment industry, which was actually right from a personal point of view.
The impact of the modern entertainment industry, the increasing abundance of entertainment life, and the generational change of audiences have brought about the indisputable decline of opera culture.
Although the category of opera TV drama is an ingenious attempt to adapt traditional opera to modern film and television.
But the era did not leave enough space for opera to be liked by the new generation, leaving only some imprints that remained in memory.
The famous sentence in Yue Opera "A Lin Sister Fell from the Sky" was sung by the popular Yue Opera movie "Dream of Red Mansions" in the last century.
The Huangmei opera, which is gentle and lyrical and catchy, has also spawned many film and television dramas, and everyone in the opera has left a stunning glimpse on the screen.
For example, Yang Jun, a national first-class actor who is now a national first-class actor of the Hubei Provincial Opera Art Theater, once played the village girl with white bones in "Journey to the West".
Although the background is the decline of opera culture, Chen Yalan may face a more difficult situation.
The mainland has a large audience base, a good environment for protection and inheritance, and has been continuously establishing an academic inheritance system for decades.
In contrast, the living space of opera in Taiwan Province is narrower and the brain drain is serious.
This is also the opportunity for Chen Yalan to return to the opera world - there is really no one.
She realized: "When I'm doing opera, I can't just be an actor. ”
And I am afraid that the new generation can only know what the opera looks like from documentaries or historical videos.
In order to inherit Gezi opera, she finally chose to resign to Xiamen Satellite TV in May 10, and founded "Chen Yalan Gezi Opera Troupe" the following year.
And to get to the position of the Golden Bell Award and attract people's attention, she and her partners have spent 11 years now.
03
The achievement of the "female emperor"
A possibility is demonstrated
Reviving traditional opera undoubtedly requires innovation, and Chen Yalan's first attempt was to shoot the TV opera "The Legend of Dragon".
The shooting technique is very similar to old-fashioned fantasy films, incorporating elements of opera, and Chen Yalan is still a woman dressed as a man.
Although it has aroused some discussion and attention, and the ratings are high, there are also doubts about "thunder drama".
In order to increase attention, Chen Yalan also wore a costume to host a variety show called "Wanxiu Pig King".
On the show, I try to show some interesting details in the opera, such as the handsome movements of throwing fans and turning swords.
At that time, he was nearly fifty years old, but he could easily hold the actresses and stage romantic scenes in circles.
The most eye-catching thing about "Jiaqing Jun Touring Taiwan", which won Chen Yalan's award this time, was not her own singing skills, demeanor and skills when it was spread on the Internet.
It's a funny buffoon in it, an ugly maid next to the protagonist.
Perhaps this is also a change made to spread and amplify the absurd side of the funny character.
As a result, I don't think it's necessary to compare whether these efforts really worked, or whether they clashed with the traditional culture of opera.
Chen Yalan at least let more people know about herself, as well as Gezi play.
Sun Cuifeng's song boy costume
People can't avoid speculating that Chen Yalan can win the Shidi Award because of the advantages of traditional cultural inheritance.
Reward her persistence and the performance of being able to play the male protagonist from a young prince to an elderly emperor in the play.
But frankly, even with these advantage bonuses.
For Chen Yalan, it is enough to achieve the purpose of communication, and she admitted in an interview after the award ceremony that she will take on some variety show work to continue to make money.
Chen Yalan's female costume in the opera
And for the category of opera, this award proves that one possibility is enough——
It proves that under the insistence of people with hearts, traditional culture always has a way to go and the possibility of burning fire.
Huangmei opera master Han Zaifen
Perhaps the biggest misunderstanding of traditional opera for many years is that it is difficult for this art to be new and remain in the inheritance.
It is the opera channel that the older generation only watches, and it is the opera skewer spliced in the spring evening.
But in fact, in the process of transformation of opera to modern film and television integration, it once flashed a very unique speculative light.
For example, Liang Zhu, as everyone knows it today, underwent adaptation in the 50s.
The earliest version of the Yue Opera "The History of Liang Zhu Mourning" is actually a story mixed with a lot of eroticism and decadent gaze.
It explained that Liang Shanbo did not recognize Zhu Yingtai's daughter, explaining that he was hooked by Zhu Yingtai, like a demon and a ghost.
At that time, a group of Yue Opera artists did not agree with the stigma of studying for women in the play, and decided to adapt Liang Zhu.
This gave birth to a new version of "The History of Liang Zhu Mourning", and gave birth to China's first color film "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai".
Liang Zhu appreciates each other because of his ideas:
"I think boys should read books, and girls should read books."
"Brother Ren's grand theory is respectable."
It's a pity that when Liang Zhu was adapted into an idol drama and costume drama, it became a boring love story of "who should Marven and Liang Shanbo marry".
Or "Dream of the Red Mansion", which has been adapted and remade many times, many versions put pen and ink on the personal tragedies of Bao Dai Love and Jinling Twelve to shoot the prosperity and decline in Daguan Garden.
When the Yue Opera TV series version of "Dream of the Red Mansion" was remade, many scenes were left to outsiders.
This version of "Dream of the Red Mansion" was only filmed for 30 episodes, but several episodes were dedicated to the unwarranted tragedy brought to the common people under the oppression of the authority of Jia Province.
Because Wang Xifeng was greedy for money, he was separated alive and committed suicide;
Inja Amnesty wanted an antique fan, and was designed to raid the house and was forced to hand over the scholarly family who treasured the fan;
……
From an outside perspective, look at the catastrophe brought about by the family's journey to erosion.
There is no shortage of innovative and eye-catching things in traditional opera.
Like the 19-year-old Cantonese opera movie "The Legend of the White Snake", the water sleeves rolled up the lights in the scene, which surprised many people to think that it was a special effect.
But what is missing may be someone with a heart.
With a market that believes in its ability to come alive and is willing to let it experiment boldly.
Let it dare to go to the sea of people and compete with other categories of film and television works.
And not just tied up on a high platform, singing old and ethereal ballads.