To this day, Bai Xianyong, who is old, still has a deep attachment to Shanghai.
Bai Xianyong at his home in Taipei photographed by Xu Peihong
On the occasion of the 84th birthday of Bai Xianyong, a famous Chinese writer, founder of Modern Literature and professor at the University of California, it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the publication of his classic work "Taipei People". This collection of short stories confirms Bai Xianyong' pure heart of integrating things and witnessing vicissitudes in the literary world, and in the past fifty years since its publication, there have not only been many editions, but also English, French and other translations, as well as many research monographs, which can be described as well-known and well-known at home and abroad.
Readers familiar with "TaipeiEr" are not difficult to find that many of the articles and characters in this short story collection are closely related to Shanghai, whether it is Paramount's Jin Daban or the eternal Yin Xueyan, all of which have a strong maritime complex. In fact, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the young Bai Xianyong lived in Shanghai for less than two years, and it was this short Shanghai period that played a decisive role and influence on Bai Xianyong's literary creation and even cultural promotion throughout his life. In 1987, Bai Xianyong returned to the mainland as a visiting scholar and lectured at Fudan University for a semester, not only revisiting many childhood footprints, but also getting to know a large number of outstanding artists of the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe such as Cai Zhengren and Hua Wenyi, and also planting the karma for the future promotion of Kunqu art.
The author and Bai Xianyong were photographed by Xu Peihong on Nanjing Road in Shanghai
Indeed, Bai Xianyong is related to drama, and even more so to Shanghai. Over the years, many of his characters have been displayed on the Shanghai theater stage, and he has planned and produced the youth version of kunqu opera "Peony Pavilion", "Jade Hairpin", "Bai Luo Shirt", etc., which have caused a sensation on the Shanghai stage many times... In 2018, the 28th Shanghai Magnolia Theatre Performing Arts Award awarded Bai Xianyong the "Special Contribution Award", which is a lofty tribute and tribute to Bai Xianyong, who has called himself a "Kunqu volunteer" and has been committed to the revival of traditional culture for many years. In the face of the honor, Bai Xianyong smiled and said to me: "You know, in fact, the 'volunteer' is not me alone, but the result of the joint efforts of many cultural elites." ”
Over the years, Bai Xianyong, who has a strong Shanghai complex, often has the opportunity to come to Shanghai for a few days, or give lectures, or release new books, or promote Kunqu opera, although it is already an old age, he is still very busy. But all the activities in Shanghai, as long as time permits, he will come to participate happily, even if there are endless interviews and endless guests. No matter how hurried the itinerary is, he will also try to take time to taste the hairy crabs, pickled fresh, small dumplings, and will be Yue Meiti, Cao Kefan, Xu Jun and other old friends for a while, and the ease and comfort of that moment makes Bai Xianyong full of joy and satisfaction.
Shanghai Memory
Two years ago, in the spring of March, when the weather was sunny, I accompanied the 82-year-old Bai Xianyong on the streets of Nanjing Road in Shanghai, a scene that was both fresh and strange. From the former site of Xianshi Company to Yong'an Company, from the Seventh Heaven to the New World, as well as Maochang glasses and Hendari clocks, "when I was a child, I came here, but I didn't expect them to be in the same place!" In the Wang Kai Photo Studio, he once took a photo when he was a child, "At that time, when Wang Kai took a photo, the old price was (rare) because Wang Kai was the top of the forehead photo studio!" As the years passed, the authentic Shanghainese dialect remained unchanged, and he still remembered that Daxin Company (now the Baiyi store in the city) installed the first escalator at that time: "My family carried me to sit, and it felt so fresh!" ”
The past of more than seventy years ago has resurfaced in front of us, and Nanjing Road is still neon-lit and bustling. Looking back, Bai Xianyong at the dim light had a trace of nostalgia and joy under his eyes: "Shanghai is still so beautiful, so emotional." "Standing in the once familiar homeland, wearing a gray trench coat, with his hands in the pockets of his coat, he stood independent and took a picture." A is a bit old Keler? He laughed and teased.
It is said that life is like a drama, drama is like life, in fact, no matter how wonderful and tortuous the drama is, how can it reach one in ten thousand of the encounters in life? To this day, when he was old, he still has a deep attachment to Shanghai: he likes to live in the old Jinjiang, he also loves to go to the place where he lived as a child to take a look, and there are many good friends in Shanghai's cultural circles, and he loves to eat exquisite Shanghai cuisine... As long as he has the opportunity to come to Shanghai, he must not miss it, where there is friendship worth enjoying, and there is a past worth nostalgia for. "So no matter where I go, shanghai's influence on me, my feelings for Shanghai, are very different!"
Old photo of the Bai Xianyong family
People familiar with Bai Xianyong know that his language ability is particularly strong, for decades, not only the authentic Guilin dialect is difficult to change, but also fluent Cantonese, in the United States, he teaches foreign students "History of Chinese Novels" in Complete English... I didn't expect him to speak Shanghainese so fluently, old-school and kind. In the face of praise, Bai Xianyong smiled and said, "Pidgin, pidgin!" Hahaha! In fact, I only know a few words, after all, when I was a child, I lived in Shanghai for a period of time, and I was deeply impressed. ”
In the 1960s, Bai Xianyong and his father Bai Chongxi
From 1946 to 1948, the two years of Shanghai were not long in Bai Xianyong's life, but they were extremely precious. Teacher Bai told me that the Bai family had lived in many places in Shanghai, "The earliest was on Duolun Road in Hongkou, where my father, mother, brothers and sisters lived. Later, I got lung disease, isolated from my family, and lived in a house in Hongqiao, where I was very lonely, vulnerable and lonely. I remember that at that time, Hongqiao was still a farmland, very remote. I returned to the mainland for the first time 39 years later, and I have been there, and it is still relatively desolate. But today, Hongqiao is already a very prosperous and lively place. Tonight and night, people feel it. I remember the first time I returned to Shanghai in 1987, the plane landed at Hongqiao Airport, and the window was a black pressure, almost no lights, and my impression of Shanghai seemed to be different. But at that time, I had a premonition that one day, Shanghai, the 'dragon head' of the Yangtze River Basin, would definitely take off, and it would be impossible at that time! Today, sure enough! Speaking of the original judgment, Bai Xianyong gave a thumbs up, a look of excitement, and a proud look as if he was boasting about his hometown.
Hong Jian's "White Mansion"
Speaking of Bai Xianyong's most famous "footprint" in Shanghai, it is undoubtedly the beautiful small bungalow at No. 150 Fenyang Road, which is still affectionately known as the "White Mansion" to this day. Today, the bungalow has been restored as old as ever, and has become the site of the Shanghai Shanghai Opera Art Institute. I remember last year, Hong Jian, a famous Chinese painter who was good at painting architecture, walked there with me to collect wind, and soon after, he painted a unique "Winter Snow". On the screen, the plain old building is covered with snow, and the lights in the windows add to the warmth of the winter night in Shanghai. I first passed the painting to Teacher Bai, which caused him a lot of memories: "At that time, Fenyang Road was called Bixun Road, and I was studying at Nanyang Model Primary School not far from it. The building is said to be called the White Mansion, but in fact, my parents have not lived there for a day, that is where I live alone, and my parents and other siblings have been living on Duolun Road in Hongkou. I was under the impression that there was a big fountain in the garden, and there was a very beautiful sculpture on it... When I first returned to Shanghai in 1987, I made a special visit, the sculpture was gone, the pool was still there, and my former bedroom became the office of Ms. Yuan Xuefen, the director of the Shanghai Yue Theatre. Recently I learned that it has completely returned to its original appearance, thank you to this painter, he painted a lot of like, very beautiful! It made me feel like I was back in time. ”
Kunqu love affair
I don't know what to do, but I go deeper. Another fate between Bai Xianyong and Shanghai took place at the Majestic Theater. In the autumn of 1945, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Shanghai Majestic Theater, Mei Lanfang, a Beijing-Kunming art master who had not been on stage for many years with a bearded Mingzhi, returned to the beloved opera stage with the expectations of all the people, and performed Kunqu opera with the famous Kunqu opera performance artist Mr. Yu Zhenfei for several days, from "Dream in the Garden" to "Broken Bridge", silk bamboo orchestra, the sound of water mills, for a time, thousands of empty alleys, and just in the place where the yin and the yin were lingering, the melodious flute sound unconsciously entered the sensitive, delicate and affectionate heart of an eight-year-old child. He is Bai Xianyong, who takes "reviving Chinese culture" as his mission today.
In Kunqu, Bai Xianyong has an unforgettable love affair in his life, and the seeds planted in his heart when he was a child have gone through the changes of the years, walked through the north and south of the sky, and finally took root and sprouted, and opened a different kind of gorgeous flower. He once frankly said: "Kunqu opera without him, get a 'beauty' word, rhetorical beauty, dance beauty, music beauty, human beauty, is the concentrated embodiment of China's aesthetic ideals, is the product of China's classical culture is highly developed, is a world-class art, all of us must cherish it." ”
Mei Lanfang and Mei Baojiu performed "Dream in the Garden"
Since planning and producing the youth version of "Peony Pavilion" in 2003, for eighteen years of popularization and inheritance of Kunqu opera, Bai Xianyong has walked hard and tortuous but happy and fulfilling. Just as the so-called "many lovers are not old", this love is the most beautiful traditional art and national culture. In the past eighteen years, the fate of Kunqu opera has been different from that time, and the original "see the wind and moon disappear in the dark" has been transformed into "who is like me in the spring". These two sentences are the words written by Tang Xianzu to the male protagonist Liu Mengmei, but here it can be borrowed to refer to the decline and rise of Kunqu opera in contemporary times, from cultural consciousness to cultural self-confidence, Kunqu opera has truly achieved "the moonset is reborn and the lamp is red again".
Several degrees of vicissitudes have not stopped, who can think, just in the beginning of this cultural seed buried in the heart, with the "2021 Shanghai International Film Festival" of the east wind, ushered in the magnificent return of ancient Kunqu art in the film, or the classical and foreign Majestic Theater, what has changed is the years, but what has not changed is the enthusiasm, effort and expectation of generations of cultural people and artists for the great rejuvenation of Chinese culture in today's prosperous world.
In June this year, the documentary film "Peony Returns the Soul - Bai Xianyong and the Revival of Kunqu Opera" premiered at the Majestic Theater. Although due to the epidemic, Teacher Bai could not go to the scene in person, after learning of this past, the organizers deliberately printed the report of Mr. Mei Lanfang's performance here before the premiere, leaving a souvenir for the audience. On the big screen, the eighty-four-year-old Bai Xianyong attacked tang costumes, smiling, in an hour and a half of the movie, this Chinese literature everyone personally told the audience a lifetime of Kunqu love, between the eyebrows, as if it was still the eight-year-old innocent child: "My life has been to many places, the East and the West, always looking for where my hometown is, and finally I found that the eternal root in my heart is the ancient and great Chinese culture." ”
Stills from the movie "Peony Returns the Soul - Bai Xianyong and the Revival of Kunqu Opera"
There is a mood that the dream is not far away. As Bai Xianyong once said to me, "My profession is a writer, and literature is the foundation of my life." In fact, I just need to write well at home, so why do I have to do such tedious things? The key is because of my love for Kunqu opera, because this thing is worth doing. Tightly tied to Kunqu for nearly 20 years, I think that my biggest change is to change from a writer to a Kunqu 'evangelist' in the mass media, no matter where I am, I say over and over again how beautiful Kunqu is, until everyone believes in me... Kunqu opera is the most beautiful treasure of our nation. I am already 84 years old, in fact, I should have retired a long time ago, but for the culture and art of the nation, I have a kind of reluctance. I hope that in the 21st century, as the country becomes stronger and stronger, we can usher in a Renaissance that belongs to China. I take Kunqu opera as the starting point, if it can be done, I believe that in the near future, literature, art, philosophy... All will usher in prosperity, and I personally look forward to this day! (Wang Yueyang)