【Red Culture Pickup】
Author: Zhou Lijuan (Professor, China Academy of Opera)
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in the face of a complex international environment, the mainland's foreign cultural exchanges closely cooperated with diplomatic work. Among the visiting literary and artistic contingents, opera actors account for a considerable proportion. The famous playwright Ma Shaobo has led troupes and organized Peking Opera actors to visit abroad many times. Ma Lao recalled that many people thought that Peking Opera was not suitable for performing abroad because of language barriers, and Premier Zhou Enlai said that the level of appreciation of foreign audiences and experts should not be underestimated.
Peking Opera "Guifei Drunk" Mei Lanfang as Yang Guifei
From July 1951 to August 1952, the China Youth Art Troupe participated in the Third World Youth and Student Peace and Friendship Festival (referred to as World Youth Day) in Berlin, the capital of the GDR, and then toured 9 countries including the GDR, Poland, the Soviet Union, and Austria, performing 437 times in 152 cities. The Peking Opera Troupe, composed of 222 members and 7 members, performed plays such as "Sanchakou", "Haolong Palace", "Hujiazhuang", "Wusong Fighting Tiger" and "Yandang Mountain". At this World Youth Festival, China won four first prizes. "Three Forks" performed by Zhang Yunxi and Zhang Chunhua, and "Dragon Palace" performed by Zhang Yunxi and Xie Ruiqing won two first prizes in the dance category. During the World Youth Festival and subsequent tours, Peking Opera shows were generally warmly received. In order to thank the audience for their enthusiasm, the actors often had to perform two additional segments. When performing in Hungary, "Wusong Fights the Tiger" once actually thanked the curtain nine times. Austria's People's Music newspaper said that the play "Three Forks" "contains more humor than Chaplin". Audiences in many countries believe that "Sanchakou" is a model of classical Chinese art, which uses humorous mood, "superman" dance, and unique rhythm to express that Chinese people have always been brave and highly intelligent people.
This is the first international appearance of Chinese opera actors, and since then, the proportion of opera actors in the comprehensive art groups visited abroad has increased. In 1955, the Chinese Yue Opera Troupe performed in the GDR and the Soviet Union, and the Chinese Classical Song and Dance Troupe visited five Nordic countries. In 1956, Mei Lanfang led a delegation of Chinese Peking Opera to Japan, Zhou Xinfang led the Shanghai Peking Opera to the Soviet Union, and the Tianjin Jury Troupe to perform in North Korea. In 1959, the Guangdong Cantonese Opera performed in Korea, the Chinese Yue Opera Troupe performed in Vietnam, and the Chinese Sichuan Opera Troupe toured Poland, Czechoslovakia, the GDR and Bulgaria. During this period, the repertoire of overseas performances added literary opera to the original martial arts, martial arts and monkey operas, and later added whole major operas.
Peking Opera "Three Forks" Zhang Yunxi as Ren Tanghui (top), Zhang Chunhua as Liu Lihua (bottom)
In the 50s of the 20th century, the largest multilateral cultural exchange activity in the world was the World Youth Day. The actors took advantage of the comprehensive characteristics of opera performances to participate in the competition, such as "Hunting Tigers" and "Picking Jade Bracelets" with pantomime, "Sanchakou", "Double Shooting Geese", "Water Manjin Mountain", "Autumn River" with folk dances, "Haotian Palace" and "Yandang Mountain" with collective dance, Peking Opera oratorio with ethnic singing and other alternative forms to participate in the competition. During this period, in the five World Youth Festival competitions he participated in, opera actors won a total of 17 first prizes, far exceeding the number of awards in other art categories. In 1955, when the Chinese Art Troupe participated in the second Paris International Theater Festival, Zhang Chunhua recalled the first performance: "The most impressive thing in my life was the performance in France, which made me truly understand what is a literary and artistic soldier and a literary and artistic soldier." Because I heard in advance that someone was going to make trouble, we put "Three Forks" in the first program of the opening, and we must win applause within four minutes, Comrade Zhang Yunxi and I decided to compress some of the programmed actions and bring the wonderful fight scenes to the front to attract the audience. The performance began, when Liu Lihua and Ren Tanghui looked back and forth, one back and forth, one left and one right, the audience first covered their mouths and music, and then applause broke out. Applause together, I quickly said: 'Hit! Beat! It means to start fighting quickly and 'bake' the atmosphere. So Zhang Yunxi came over with one mouth, and the two of us started fighting. After a fierce fight, when Zhang Yunxi held my hand, the audience sitting on the third floor 'blew up', and they applauded and stomped their feet, shouting loudly. Two interpreters shouted up and down: 'The audience is asking you to do it again!' Repeat it again! We quickly communicated, but we continued according to the rules. After the performance, thunderous applause continued to sound, such a scene, how dare someone come out to make trouble! ”
In the early days of the founding of New China, the vast majority of Western countries did not establish diplomatic relations with China. In 1952, Zhou Enlai said at a meeting of foreign envoys: "Diplomacy is carried out through the form of state-to-state relations, but the foothold is still to influence and win over the people. "Relations between the two countries should not be conducted by career diplomats alone, but more by the direct conduct of the two peoples."
In 1956, at the invitation of Japan's Asahi Shimbun Agency, a delegation of Chinese Peking Opera headed by Mei Lanfang headed by the Chinese Min's Foreign Cultural Association went to Japan, opening a new chapter in Sino-Japanese people-to-people exchanges. Mei Lanfang, Jiang Miaoxiang, Li Shaochun and others performed 25 plays such as "Guifei Drunk", "Overlord Farewell" and "The Legend of the White Snake". The delegation performed 32 performances in Tokyo, Osaka, Nara, Kobe, Okayama, Hiroshima, Nagoya and other places, with an audience of more than 70,000 people, and the last two performances were for the relief of orphans in the Japanese war and the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, with an audience of more than 10,000 people, including more than 2,000 standing tickets. It was also broadcast on TV four times in Tokyo and Osaka. Before leaving, Premier Zhou received the cast and staff, and he talked about the historical exchanges between the two countries, the political significance of long-term friendship, the guidelines and tasks of the trip, the specific methods of activities, and even detailed instructions on appearance, etiquette, discipline, security, and maintaining contacts with China. He said excitedly: "The Japanese people curse war and hope for peace, and you will definitely be welcomed here." Your performance will be a success! ”
Japanese novelist Tsuyoshi Kotani went to the play with a faulty mentality. After reading it, the next day he wrote in the newspaper: "It's so beautiful, so complete, so interesting!" Without reading the instructions, without preliminary knowledge, you can understand it thoroughly at a glance. In the past, others wept when they watched tragedy, and I always had to laugh when I watched tragedy, but after watching a Peking Opera performance and seeing the most beautiful things in the world, I was moved to tears! An old fisherman at Moji Station said with tears in his eyes: "The birds of our two countries have long flown around freely; We people should not lose to birds, we should be free to come and go as long as we want! In a letter to Li Shaochun, young audience member Watanabe said: "Art has connected two peoples with a huge psychological barrier. ”
In 1958, the Chinese Opera Song and Dance Troupe participated in the 3rd Paris International Theater Festival. Tickets for eight shows were sold out within days. The first performance was held at the famous Sarah Bernal Theater in Paris, and the brightly lit theater was filled with well-known figures from all walks of life in French politics, literature and art, and envoys from many countries in France. Many women deliberately wore cheongsams. Before the performance began, the audience stood up and played the national anthems of China and France. Each performance of the troupe in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Nice was met with applause and applause. Parisian audiences called "good" in Chinese from nowhere. After the performance, the audience flocked to the backstage to congratulate the success, asked for autographs, dispersed for a long time, and people lingered outside the theater, waiting to see the actors again and wave again. Theatre critics used words such as "perfect", "magical", "magnificent", "wonderful" and "brilliant" to express their admiration. In each city, the song and dance troupe is warmly received by the local government. When the actors walk on the road, they often encounter some French people who come over with sincere smiles to say hello. Madame de Marda, Vice-President of the Franco-Chinese Friendship Association, said: "Our work to promote friendship between the people of France and China is becoming less and less difficult, because more and more people support us. ”
In the 50s of the 20th century, the vast number of opera artists in New China lived up to the trust placed on them and, with the pride and sense of responsibility of being masters, sent the art of opera with distinctive characteristics to many countries and regions in the world, displaying a good spiritual outlook and superb performance skills, creating momentum and influence in the international arena, and making great contributions to opening up a new situation in New China's diplomacy.
Guangming Daily (October 28, 2022, 16th Edition)
Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily