Text | Ling Hu Boguang
He Saifei complained about the issue of opera on the hot search, and this hot spot has been spreading, netizens have a variety of discussions and views, Bo Guangjun has also written cultural analysis before, traditional opera in the current society facing problems.
Because traditional culture does not conform to the current social environment, the competition of opera in the market is seriously insufficient. The state uses various forms of support to make people high and low, which leads to a small and very fixed circle. There is a serious shortage of innovation and young practitioners in the circle, and it is difficult for out-of-circle workers to survive, which eventually leads to a vicious circle.
The most direct reason is that there is no large area of young audiences, no matter how support can only ensure that this genre does not die, but it seems difficult to restore the prosperity of the past, such as this "music circle" and the composer circle of stagnation, this is a problem that art is difficult to change a word, it is difficult to solve.
So the question is, if it can be changed, is there any other way out for traditional opera?
He Saifei's wrath is useless? The decline of Chinese opera is not a cold day
In fact, I think that the biggest problem in the decline of opera is the change in the social environment, and the stagnation of the circle is a side effect of the involution after the state forcibly intervenes and supports it, and the market cannot expand after the involvement. If you can really open the market and make money easily, do you think the big guys in the opera circle will not be open? Who can't get by with money, right?
In the final analysis, the development of science and technology is getting faster and faster, resulting in the rapid pace of the entire social development, people's pace of life is getting faster and faster, the pace of life is accelerating, making people have a strong sense of urgency, and their thoughts, emotions and behaviors are becoming more and more superficial and restless.
This has led to more and more impetuousness in people's hearts, and people are no longer willing to watch abstract words that require brain conversion in cultural entertainment consumption, and even in the dissemination of public opinion information, but only want to watch the most direct, simplest, relaxed, most entertaining, and shortest short videos without using their brains.
Now even the movies and TV series that once replaced opera, there are many audience TV series episodes, 30 minutes, or even 10 minutes without catching you and start scolding the slow rhythm, not to mention the drama that does not move for hours and the content is still jerky.
People are only keen on short videos, and even whatever is best seen or told the result at once, even movies and TV series that are slightly deeper are too lazy to wait and study. Therefore, today's Internet public opinion is binary opposition, one hold and one step, one side and one swarm of bees are getting more and more serious.
Young people don't listen, lose their vitality? Can "reform" save traditional opera?
As a cultural entertainment method in traditional Chinese society, it is inevitable that opera will gradually decline with social progress and the development of the times. But it does not mean that they have lost all their way out, and this way out must also be combined with the times, social development, and popular culture among young people.
So if opera is really determined to reform, how many directions are there?
1. As a stage performance, opera itself can still adapt to the times, and the most fundamental thing is that the literary and artistic form of opera needs to reform itself.
It is completely impossible to count on the state to support it, and you can only find a way in the market yourself. The state can only support a very, very small part of the population, and fairness is questionable. There is no good reason for the state to feed the theater world.
The opera we see now is the product of the fusion of various local opera arts, and Peking Opera, known as the "national essence", has only a history of more than 200 years. Peking Opera, also known as Pihuang Opera, is formed by combining "Xipi" and "Erhuang". The Qin cavity was introduced to Hubei, and then combined with local opera arts (including Yiyang cavity) and Kunqu opera in Anqing and Jiangxi to form the prototype of Peking Opera.
In 1791, in order to celebrate the 80th birthday of Qianlong, the four major emblem classes entered Beijing, and Peking Opera began to take shape. In the era of "model opera", Peking Opera reached a new height. The inheritance and innovation of theater is an old topic. Now the younger generation is more influenced by new media and new arts, and has moved away from theater.
At the same time, the rural population has lost a large number, and open-air movies and large theaters are no longer visible.
However, traditional arts such as opera still need to be protected and inherited, but the aesthetics of the audience have changed, and the aesthetics of the audience need the guidance of the improved industry, which is a basic situation in the development of popular culture. Therefore, opera should be bold and innovative, support good artists and art to "go to the countryside", and keep the performing arts market healthy and prosperous.
If opera does not renew itself, it is a road to death, and saying that you should not rely on shouting revitalization is a meaningless empty shout. Instead of mouthing heartache actors, it is better to arrange a few scenes for them to earn money and eat. What is opera for? Entertain the public, don't put gold on your face what the predecessors did, you can see the essence of opera clearly.
It was the predecessors who did the opera to the national essence, not the current people. You can't entertain the audience, it's not normal to not have enough to eat. It sounds ugly, but that's the reality. First put down the things you are carrying, and re-understand opera as a cultural industry, and the practitioners of an industry generally live in embarrassment.
In fact, I have always felt that the official began to improve opera with "three changes in literature and art", and integrated opera into traditional culture and art, and at the same time combined with the improvement of historical events in New China (such as "Outsmart the Tiger Mountain" and "The White-Haired Girl"), which is the most successful improvement of opera.
Reform may not save traditional opera, but if it is not reformed, opera will surely die.
"He Saifei's scolding" can't save the opera? There is only one way to do it except reform
The above is the reform of opera itself to conform to the new era, but it is more on the traditional stage. If you still want to be liked by young audiences, it can only be combined with the current popular culture form, and this "pop culture form" is diverse, if you look at the familiar situation of the audience.
2. Popular culture such as games, animation, film and television dramas and popular songs is still the biggest way out for traditional opera to survive.
Later, after the reform and opening up, it began to be marketized, and it was no problem to make opera a high and low intangible cultural heritage, but it was a good thing to raise all kinds of music associations, and the opposite kind did bad things. The result is that a group of people who watch people cooperate with the popularity of traditional culture, and the market is getting farther and farther away, and it is difficult for opera to survive, so many moths?
In the 21st century, the soundtrack of the Chinese-style anime "Caiyun Country Story" and "Twelve Kingdoms" from Japan, the erhu song that has been played so far, now there are high-energy pipa songs in "Assassin Wu Liuqi", "Spirit Cage" and "Bad Guy 4" have Suona with martial arts famous scenes out of the circle.
This is when the problem came, in 2000 second-hand roses said that Suona was not popular, and at that time it was worried that Suona would be lost. Until the movie "A Hundred Birds and Phoenixes" is calling for the protection of Suona, a traditional cultural musical instrument, how popular has Suona been in recent years? Is it still difficult for practitioners to survive?
Yes, it's really that simple.
More than 40 years ago, Hong Kong and Taiwan music masters created martial arts songs, improved Cantonese opera into Cantopop songs, Taiwanese folk songs and folk songs, and led the Chinese music scene for decades.
30 years ago, Zuo Hongyuan improved and created the new yellow plum tune in "The Legend of the New White Lady", and this new cultural form was integrated to continue the life of traditional culture for decades.
20 years ago, Jay Chou improved the new Chinese style, 10 years ago, there was an amateur who played the national style on 51sing to replace rap with allegro, and the anime "Qin Shi Mingyue" Snow Girl danced Chinese dance all over the young people's circle. Li Yugang's works, in terms of strict opera requirements, he is actually very unqualified, but as a pop culture product he is very successful.
Five years ago, radio dramas and comic novels provided the stage for a bunch of ancient martial arts dramas.
In the past two years, "Goddess Splitting View" in the Chinese phenomenal game "Original God" has become a phenomenal cultural work and has been successfully exported to the outside world, and even led a number of national team actors to sing covers, and was generally welcomed by young audiences.
To be honest, "Goddess Splitting View" I don't think it's good for opera fans, and the story background has also been contacted, although it is a game company, but creating this play also requires a high level of classical literary literacy. This kind of integration with the cultural entertainment forms of the new era is actually an inevitable way to inherit opera.
The result? In recent years, the traditional repertoire has had some influence, first Sha Jiabang of the "In the Name of the People" model play, and a group of singing operas are still in traditional culture and art, and the concept that the law of the ancestors is immutable is not released.
Therefore, the music industry itself has always been resting on its laurels, and if it is not grounded, it is not always necessary to say why young audiences do not like it. The golden age of Disney can put the court opera into the painting for people around the world to see, the magic age can extend the European and American fairy tales, to shoot the princess animation of various civilizations around the world, and then spread cultural soft power all over the world
(Of course, now changing the animated live-action version to black is a madman).
Therefore, China's own opera artists still have to change their own ideas, concepts, and forms, and what is called seeking truth from facts. In fact, today's so-called traditional art is not only not traditional in the popular historical period of the year, but is more likely to be cultural entertainment that leads the cultural trend of the times.
In order to achieve long-term development of culture and art, it is necessary to retain certain essences of traditional culture and art, such as aesthetics, content, and cultural values transmitted; But what is more important is to adapt to the new society in form, and whether it can keep pace with the times and be recognized by young people.
He Saifei's roar cannot save opera, let alone traditional culture and art
Bo Guangjun is a post-80s generation, when he was a child, the black and white TV set only received a few stations, still remember which channel CCTV played opera, and watched a lot of opera movies and TV series. At that time, in addition to Sichuan Opera, Peking Opera could be watched with relish. I don't remember when it started, I don't seem to have seen any new drama film and television dramas.
Later, it was the prevalence of Northeast sketches, Hong Kong dramas and Taiwanese idol dramas, Hollywood blockbusters, Japanese comics, Korean dramas in previous years, domestic film and television dramas, animations and games are about to rise in recent years, and the opera of the Eight Classics feels like eight hundred years ago.
To say that the last time I watched a drama film and television series, it can be determined that it was the 2019 movie "White Snake Love".
Because I was engaged in the film and television entertainment industry, in those years, when the great Chinese directors made the art costumes of Chinese mythological blockbusters and costume blockbusters out of the ocean. This Cantonese opera movie, because of the restoration of traditional Chinese culture by art, service and special effects, immediately caught my eye.
I chose to go to the cinema to support and promote the tap, and finally this opera movie became a small hit on the Internet that year, originally predicted to have a box office of millions, and finally reached 23 million, which is already a big sale. You see, it's not that young people don't watch opera movies, nor do they dislike traditional culture.
On the contrary, in recent years, with the rise of cultural self-confidence, national self-confidence and civilizational self-confidence. Young people hate the aesthetics of the Chinese dynasty in domestic popular culture works, and have always been scolding; On the contrary, this Hanfu, the traditional culture of various new cultural forms, is becoming more and more popular.
If "The Legend of the White Snake. Love" This kind of improved opera movie can strike while the iron is hot, which may be a method.