Why are Chinese opera students like that

Author|Gu Han

Editor|Li Chunhui

In 2022, the success of "Menghualu" confirmed the potential of 85 raw flowers to return to ancient dolls, but it failed to affect the choice and star path of one of the parties, Chen Xiao, to what extent.

In September of that year, "Life Luyao", adapted from serious literary IP, had just been completed, and Chen Xiao immediately entered the group of the period suspense drama "Thirteen Years of Dust". It's really as netizens ridiculed - "Every time you play a beautiful man in ancient costume, reward yourself with a rough man".

To speak in good conscience, according to the logic of reasonable allocation of resources, Chen Xiao's performance in a formal drama is not as beneficial to the audience as playing an ancient puppet. From getting married young, missing the traffic era to later transforming into a positive drama, Chen Xiao's career choice can be called willful.

This willfulness is not alone in your circle, and in the near future, Chen Xingxu is one.

Chen Xingxu's "Starfall into Sugar" stills

The overly strong body and the original lines of "Buffalo Moo" drove away many fairy tale ancient puppet audiences at the beginning of the broadcast of "Starfall into Sugar", and the efforts of one person to play multiple roles were finally appreciated only by fans and fans who were willing to break and stand. In fact, if you listen to the voice of the masses early, these two points can be completely avoided. Finally, it evolved to this point, how can it not be stifled.

The two are different in age, experience, and personality, but they belong to the same group - Chinese opera students. Admittedly, the categorization of institutions, especially universities, is somewhat arbitrary. However, Chinese opera people do have a unified style in terms of hardware conditions, career choices and even words and deeds, making them the best recognizable group in the three major classes.

Alpha Legion

Chinese opera, Nortel and upper drama, as the three major classes in the hearts of the people, are inevitably often compared horizontally, and there are many stereotypes handed down compared to nature. Among them, there are two sayings that are more famous, one is the early "Chinese drama out of actors, Nortel out of stars", and the other is the fashionable "Chinese drama Alpha, play Omega".

The former statement is said to come from the comparison of two 96-level star classes in the two schools: Zhang Ziyi, Liu Ye, Qin Hao VS Zhao Wei, Chen Kun, Huang Xiaoming. The latter is more like a specific label for the contributions of well-known alumni such as Sun Honglei, Hu Jun, Jin Dong and so on. But this does not prevent us from taking it as a basic summary of the hardware characteristics of Chinese opera people: the face of a powerful person, plus a strong aura and red seedlings.

This is first and foremost the difference that the medium brings. Nortel cultivates film and television actors, who need small heads and small faces and beautiful faces that can withstand the test of the camera, especially the big screen. In theory, Chinese opera is to cultivate talents for the theater stage, so that the audience can see clearly is the most important, so I don't mind a bigger face and a longer body. In his early years, even Liu Ye, who was famous as a melancholy and beautiful boy, was 186 tall and had a not small head.

Second, it may also be a difference due to geography. The middle opera and the upper drama are one north and one south, one thick and upright, and the other light. It's like they are all Qinggao, the Qinggao of the Chinese opera people has a sense of mission, and the Qinggao of the opera people is more similar to the debauchery of the talent. In the past, he contributed many idol students, such as Yan Kuan, Shen Xiaohai, Lu Yibao Jianfeng, Hu Ge Yuan Hong, and in recent years, he has contributed Yu Hewei, Guo Jingfei, Lei Jiayin, these treasure old boys who are also Zhuang and harmonious.

On the other hand, Chinese opera people, their facial features are not necessarily exquisite but mostly upright, and they are not compatible with idol dramas, but they are particularly compatible with formal dramas and period dramas, until Bai Yu after 90 and Chen Xingxu after 95.

In 2015, Station B had a mixed cut of a "Chinese opera boy group" that once ranked first on the site, and many of the materials were from popular spy war dramas. One by one, the characters who wore suits or uniforms were born and died for the country, and naturally put on male god filters for the actors.

Drama performances have low fault tolerance, need to be performed in one go, not only can not dub, but usually need the voice to penetrate the entire venue, which requires higher requirements for the actors' various business capabilities. Therefore, in addition to appearance and aura, voice and lines are also the advantages of Chinese opera people. One of the labels when Wang Kai became popular was "subwoofer". Among the actresses, Mao Xiaotong, who scolded the scumbag for showing his line skills, and Bu Guanjin, who appeared in the famous scene of "Twenty Not Confused 2", are also born in Chinese dramas.

Of course, this advantage is not absolute, nor is it exclusive to Chinese drama. Chen Xiao's use of the original soundtrack in "The Condor Heroes" also caused a lot of controversy, not to mention Tang Yan, who is known as the "shame of Chinese drama". At that time, "Fragrant Honey Sinks Like Frost" relied on the actor's original voice to open the situation and get praise, and the three leading actors one was born in Nortel and two came out of the play.

Honestly, the drama can compete with Nortel and the profession with Chinese opera, but it may be because the commercial atmosphere and academic atmosphere are involved, and the impression is not clear enough.

Transformation maniacs

Chinese opera teacher Liu Tianchi once revealed in an interview that with the decrease in talent demand for dramas, the demand for talents in film and television dramas has increased, and the selection of Chinese opera people has begun to consider the standards of film and television dramas. This is the reverse influence and shaping of the market on supply.

Similarly, after roughly entering the 10s, the output and influence of idol dramas have become more and more, surpassing formal dramas and period dramas. So that younger Chinese opera students cannot copy the path of their predecessors, and usually rely on idol dramas to mix up and make a living.

In other words, among the younger generation of actors, the difference between the appearance and drama of the three major classes is shrinking, and what better reflects the characteristics of the college is the career choice. It may be due to the self-pursuit of academic actors, and many Chinese opera students will try to switch from idol dramas back to formal dramas. For them, transformation is not only external public opinion pressure, but also internal self-drive.

Chen Xiao is a typical case. He also appeared in the mixed cut video mentioned above, but compared to the old male gods, Chen Xiao is obviously too young and handsome. In this way, he is also unexpected, and finally became popular as an ancient puppet beautiful man in the main play.

It is said that the red is red, but he has shown a strong determination to evacuate since then. First of all, he married young and completely missed the traffic IP era; then changed the drama path step by step, from plastic ancient puppets to "The Blooming Moon That Year" directed by Ding Hei and partnered by Sun Li; After leaving Yu Zheng, he even let go and tried, cooperating with Kang Honglei, Mao Weining, Fu Dongyu and other famous drama directors, filming modern military dramas, police and bandit dramas, and also participated in the anti-corruption drama "Breakout".

As early as 2014's "Outsmart the Tiger Mountain", Chen Xiao tried to paint black and paint rough

However, due to the heavy label of ancient puppets and the fact that his acting skills are not outstanding in the main drama, his transformation path is not smooth. So much so that although Chen Xiao actually did not broadcast dramas after marriage, when "Menghualu" was broadcast, many young people felt that he and Liu Yifei had been away from the screen for a long time.

In contrast, the transformation of Bai Yu and Qin Junjie was smoother. Bai Yu belongs to the classical Chinese opera looks, to say that the controversy is still more controversial when acting in idol dramas, put into the misty theater and noon drama there is no sense of contradiction, black and rough like a fish. It's just that the fans are bitter, and they were "tricked" into the pit by his spirited appearance in the drama, and then they have to watch his various abuses in the reality theme.

Qin Junjie was fed six or seven ancient puppet dramas during Huanrui, and also challenged the boss in the new version of the ancient romance IP "Bubble Summer", but he never managed to occupy a place in the traffic rivers and lakes. But this also facilitates him to secretly switch dramas, and in recent years most of his works are straight male dramas such as spy warfare, suspense, and martial arts.

Entertain the living inside

Now things are different. First of all, the cold winter of film and television coupled with the solidification of resources, some actors have a good filming, and it is even more difficult to gain control over their careers.

At the same time, formal dramas and period dramas are greatly appreciating, and have become a good cake for young actors to show red hearts and earn word of mouth. For example, Zhou Ye's filming of "Our Southwest United University" and "Ah Cradle" obviously cannot be called the transformation of traffic flowers, but should be called elaborate design of performing arts roads and seizure of hot tracks.

In this way, the most prominent characteristics of Chinese opera students is no longer a career choice. Zhang Xincheng and Chen Xingxu, who were once regarded as 95 outstanding stocks, still joined the 101 army.

Zhang Xincheng "Guangyuan" stills

So what are the most prominent characteristics of Chinese opera students today? From their personal lives to their business styles, they all show a strong confrontation with the atmosphere of the rice circle. This is also doomed, it is difficult for them to have long-term fans, and it is difficult to become what top traffic. Internet product managers will probably say that they lack user thinking, have no product awareness, and belong to the last media era.

Originally, after the birth of film and television, drama was biased towards high art. Chinese opera is an institution with a long history and a strong academic atmosphere. What Chinese opera people learn here is obviously not only acting skills, but also theories and concepts. We can often hear golden sentences such as "learn art first to be a person" and "actors serve the role" from the interviews of Chinese opera people, which can be described as meaningful.

In life, they also smoke the mystery of the actor and refuse to join this era of reality TV where stars are anytime and anywhere. Whether it is Liu Haoran in the mixed film industry, Bai Yu who has successfully transformed in the drama industry, or Liu Xueyi, who is still a worker in Huanrui, and Chen Xingxu and Hu Xianxu, who have just started their careers and have just had a non-child star masterpiece, they are all in a state of seclusion without filming, and social media updates are calculated weekly or monthly, and they may not show their faces.

They still maintain a more traditional understanding of actor work, and are more inclined to become, or prove that they are people who rely on their skills rather than fans. Chen Xiao generously announced the marriage news, not afraid of losing fans, Cheng Yi is the first person in internal entertainment to violently dismantle CP, Chen Xingxu dissolved his fan support club, and it is also equivalent to going against the wind in terms of lifting iron.

For some people, these traits can bring the superiority of pink actors. Especially after "Crazy" made the rise of the uncle circle and the "desperate illiterate" also attacked and ridiculed each other for a round, the public paid more and more attention to the value of classes and majors, and their curiosity and tolerance of students were increasing, and it was even easy to put on science filters on artists.

However, in the entire domestic entertainment public opinion field, many of the above styles are also easily understood as "uncareer" fan chasing operations. Guo Degang said that half of the money earned by artists is money that is scolded. We don't have to scold anyone, but why do today's artists have skyrocketed their income compared to the pre-Internet era? It is because they are not only actors now, but also aggregators of traffic and topics in social media. If it's just the people in the play, who is worth so much.

In the final analysis, the rise of short videos in recent years and the crossover of idou and Internet celebrities have not only brought different actor aesthetics, but also brought different fan cultures, and pushed the business volume to a new height. For new-style actor fans, "insisting on staying away from the hustle and bustle for a month and not posting Weibo" and "posting more than a dozen live pictures every time it opens" may be the latter's efforts are more worthy of appreciation.

At the same time, due to the chaos of the market, the crotch pulling of partners or their own lack of ability, in fact, not every Chinese opera student has enough achievements to support the words and deeds of orthodox actors. Many times it is more like a backbone than a wind bone.

At present, "Life Road" has been renamed "The Road of Life" for a week. The good news is that the slot is there, but not on Chen Xiao; The bad news is that it has no positive out-of-the-loop point for the time being, and its presence in the new dramas of the same period is thin. Chen Xiao, who is persistent in transformation, finally came up with a performance that matched the main drama, but not many people witnessed it. So is this transformation a success or an unsuccessful one?