Zhou Xinfang was intelligent and hardworking, and in just over a year, she learned several plays. When he was seven years old, Zhou Weitang was still performing in Hangzhou, so he thought why not ask Xinfang to also try on stage, and Zhou Xinfang was also very happy, so Zhou Xinfang debuted on stage under the name of "Little Child String", which was in the Tianxian Tea Garden in GongchenQiao, Hangzhou. Zhou Xinfang was seven years old because he was false, and Zhou Weitang gave him a stage name: Seven-year-old child.
The seven-year-old boy was a hit
Zhou Xinfang was originally from Cixi, Zhejiang (present-day Cicheng, Ningbo), but was born in Huaiyin, Jiangsu Province. His ancestors were once officials and eunuchs, his father Zhou Weitang went to the sea to practice art because of his infatuation with Beijing opera, singing Danjiao, taking the stage name Jin Qinxian, and his mother Yu Guixian was also a Beijing opera artist. Since she was a child, Zhou Xinfang has been wandering in the rivers and lakes with her parents and opera classes, and her contacts are all the costumes, gongs and drums, and the sound of the piano, which makes him and Beijing opera particularly close and familiar. When he was 5 years old, Zhou Weitang went to Hangzhou with the opera class to sing opera, and when he saw that his son was talented and intelligent, he asked him to practice under the famous old man of literature and martial arts, Chen Changxing. The enlightened play is "Golden Stage", and then teaches him "A Bunch of Snow", "Qingding Pearl" and other plays. Soon, Zhou Xinfang studied under Wang Yufang, a disciple of the previous artist Wang Jiuling.
Zhou Xinfang was intelligent and hardworking, and in just over a year, she learned several plays. When he was seven years old, Zhou Weitang was still performing in Hangzhou, so he thought why not ask Xinfang to also try on stage, and Zhou Xinfang was also very happy, so Zhou Xinfang debuted on stage under the name of "Little Child String", which was in the Tianxian Tea Garden in GongchenQiao, Hangzhou. Zhou Xinfang was seven years old because he was false, and Zhou Weitang gave him a stage name: Seven-year-old child. The first play is "Golden Stage", playing the doll Ikuta Fazhang in the play. "Golden Terrace" writes the story of the Zhou Dynasty, the king of Qi favored Zou Concubine and the eunuch Yi Li, Yi Li framed Shizi Tian Fazhang for insulting Zou Fei. The king was furious and sent Yi Li to behead him. Tian Fazhang fled, and with the help of Goshi Tiandan, he escaped from the pass. Zhou Xinfang's performance is realistic, childish, and very moving. The audience greatly appreciated his cleverness and wisdom, so when he first appeared on the stage, he was a hit.
This year, the famous old worker Xiao Mengqi (Meng Xiaodong's uncle) went to Hangzhou to perform, performed "Iron Lotus", wanted to find a doll, found several unsatisfactory, and later selected Zhou Xinfang, who played Dingsheng in the play. In the play, the aunt Ma Shi abused Dingsheng in every way, stripped him of his clothes in winter, told him to sweep the snow in the wind, and offered him a hot bowl. Zhou Xinfang acted very realistically, in the "snow running" one, she also slipped away a difficult action in Peking Opera, "Hanging Hair", which won a full house of color. So the reputation of this little boy string gradually spread in the Six Bridges and Three Zhus of the West Lake.
The stage name of the front desk manager newspaper is "Seven Spirit Boys", and he misheard them as "Kirin Boys", because the pronunciation of "Seven Spirit Boys" in northern dialect and "Kirin Boys" in Shanghai dialect is very similar. In this way, Mr. Wang wrote out the poster.
From "Seven-Year-Old Child" to "Kirin Child"
After a while, Wang Hongshou, a famous actor in Peking Opera, came to Hangzhou. Wang Hongshou, stage name Sanmazi, a native of Huaining (present-day Anqing), Anhui, was a famous Southern Peking opera artist from Huiban. He can play a lot, especially good at Guan Yu play, known as "Red Life Taidou". This time Wang Hongshou came to prepare for the establishment of the Ronghua class, he quietly went to the theater to see Zhou Xinfang's play, felt that he had a good foundation and extraordinary temperament, so he absorbed Zhou Xinfang into the Ronghua class. After entering the class, Wang Hongshou asked Zhou Xinfang to co-star with Zhou Fenglin of Kunqu Opera, with Zhou Fenglin playing Xu Shi, Zhou Xinfang playing the childish guanbao, and Wang Hongshou playing Zhixian himself. When The child was killed, Zhou Xinfang acted in tears, and the audience was deeply moved. At that time, it was a cold winter, the child's clothing was very thin, Wang Hongshou was afraid that Zhou Xinfang would be frozen, whenever Zhou Xinfang went down, he always had to drape the old sheepskin jacket he was wearing on Zhou Xinfang's body, hug him into the seat, and warm him.
In 1906, Wang Hongshou also recruited Zhou Xinfang to join the Manchun class to perform in Wuhu, Hankou and other places. He made an exception and gave Zhou Xinfang a package of 60 yuan per month and asked him to sing the main play. He played "Cuiping Mountain", although the knife is long, but he can also dance full of style, and the audience applauds one after another. From this time on, Zhou Xinfang was a formal horn. At that time, because he was more than seven years old, his stage name was changed to "Seven Spirit Boys".
In 1907, Zhou Xinfang was twelve years old. He went to Shanghai Dangui with the drama class to perform at the first stage, and the stage name he used at that time was still Qilingtong. The night before the singing of the cannon play, the front desk was to put up posters as usual, and the theater garden specially invited an old gentleman who was good at calligraphy to write the posters. Mr. Lao's surname is Wang, and he is a native of Shanghai. When he wrote the poster, he got the name wrong. The stage name of the front desk manager newspaper is "Seven Spirit Boys", and he misheard them as "Kirin Boys", because the pronunciation of "Seven Spirit Boys" in northern dialect and "Kirin Boys" in Shanghai dialect is very similar. In this way, Mr. Wang wrote out the poster. At that time, the backstage was busy preparing for the opening of the gong, and no one paid attention to it. Zhou Xinfang's performance that day was quite successful, and the next day, both the Declaration and the Times published the news that "Qilin Tong performed on the first stage in Dangui last night". Until this time, the class owner knew that the poster had written the wrong name, so he asked someone to write a poster of the "Seven Spirit Children" performance and posted it at the door of the theater. However, before the play started that night, many spectators at the entrance of the theater began to clamor, saying that we were coming to see the Qilin Boy, but not the Seven Spirit Boys, and some also asked for a refund.
"Gorgeous Edge" Zhou Xinfang as Huangfu Shaohua
In this way, the class owner had to make a mistake and once again asked someone to change the name on the poster to Kirin Boy. So Zhou Xinfang inadvertently got this stage name. To this end, Zhou Weitang specially took Zhou Xinfang to the home of Mr. Wang, who wrote the poster, and bowed his head to thank Mr. Wang. Since then, Zhou Xinfang has officially changed to the stage name of Qilin Tong, and later the name of Qilin Tong has indeed become popular all over the country.
Wu Song, played by Zhou Xinfang, when he asked Uncle He Jiu, poked at the table with a real knife, stared at him with both eyes, and held Uncle He Jiu in his hand, and the realistic image shocked the actors on the same stage.
Turning over hundreds of years of chen cases
In the autumn of 1923, Zhou Xinfang came across a magazine called Nanguo Semi-Monthly Magazine, and he found that the editor-in-chief of this magazine was the famous dramatist Tian Han. Zhou Xinfang admired his great name for a long time and wanted to get acquainted with him. So he followed the address printed on the back cover of the publication.
At that time, Tian Han had just returned from Japan to live in Shanghai. Following the precedents of the Japanese thinkers Kawakon and Lady Kikuei, he co-founded the Southern Half-Monthly Magazine with his wife, Yi Shuyu. At that time, Tian Han lived at No. 40, Minhou North Lane, Hatong Road. Zhou Xinfang found it, raised his hand and knocked on the door, and it was Tian Han's younger brother Tian Hong who came to open the door. Tian Han heard that Zhou Xinfang was visiting, hurriedly greeted him, and they went into the living room, made tea, put snacks, and talked freely as they wanted. As early as seven years ago, when Tian Han was in Shanghai, he had seen "Chasing Han Xin" performed by Qilin Tong. The two have admired each other for a long time, and when they meet today, they see each other as before. Since then, they have become invincible, and the two have been very close and often interact with each other together.
In December 1927, Tian Han's Nanguo Society held a performance of "Fish Dragon Society" at the small theater of Shanghai University of the Arts. In China's Han Dynasty, there was a kind of pseudo-shaped dance performed by people dressed as giant fish and dragons, called "Fish Dragon Manyan", which was one of the largest programs in the hundred operas at that time. This is where the "Ichthyosaur Society" came from. Tian Han said, "We are fish, so let's ask two dragons to come." Zhou Xinfang and Ouyang Yuqian, they are famous actors in Peking Opera. The "Fish Dragon Club" began on the 17th and ended on the 23rd, with a total of 7 days of performance. The repertoire includes dramas such as "Suzhou Night Talk" and "The Death of Famous Talents". On the first day, he performed the six-act Peking opera "Pan Jinlian" written by Ouyang Yuqian. The play boldly portrays Pan Jinlian as a rebellious woman. In the play, Zhou Xinfang plays Wu Song, Ouyang Yuqian plays Pan Jinlian, Gao Baishi plays Ximen Qing, Friday Bao plays Wang Po, Tang Huaiqiu plays He Jiushu, Tang Shuming plays Brother Yun, and Gu Menghe plays Zhang Daguanren's family. This is a grand event for Peking opera actors and drama actors to perform on the same stage.
"Three Hundred Years of the Manchu Qing Dynasty" Zhou Xin
Fang as Dolgun
Wu Song, played by Zhou Xinfang, when he asked Uncle He Jiu, poked at the table with a real knife, stared at him with both eyes, and held Uncle He Jiu in his hand, and the realistic image shocked the actors on the same stage. The audience gave a warm applause. When Wu Song raised his sword and wanted to cut Pan Jinlian's heart, Pan Jinlian knelt close to Wu Song with his chest up and said, "Erlang, there is a heart of pure sincerity in this snow-white chest." This heart has been giving you for a long time. You don't want it, I have to right and hide here. Poor me have been waiting for you for a long time, are you going to cut it? Please cut slowly, and let me be as close to you as I can. After watching "Pan Jinlian", Tian Han said to Zhou Xinfang and Ouyang Yuqian: "I heard the last line of that paragraph, and I was completely intoxicated. That day, the famous painter Xu Beihong also went to see it. After reading it, he gladly wrote: "Turning over hundreds of years of Chen cases, revealing the hidden intentions of beautiful people; into reason, strong and fast, worthy of masterpieces." ”
Zhou Xinfang gave Tian Han another twenty yuan, tightly held Tian Han's hand, and asked him to get into his car and drive to the Japanese concession. Tian Han hid in the home of a friend in the Japanese Concession and was able to escape safely.
Use the "Qipai" to perform dramas
In June 1930, Nanguoshe performed "Carmen" at the Central Theater on Shanghai's Liuma Road, which was banned by the Kuomintang authorities. In September, the Nanguo Society was again shut down, and the authorities searched everywhere for Tian Han. Due to Mr. Lu Xun's timely warning, Tian Han temporarily moved from his original residence to a front building in Pingyuanfang, but just after settling down, Jin Yan and others came to the police again and told him to leave quickly. Tian Han, under the protection of the electric lightsmith and carpenter and other co-workers, quietly came to the backstage of the Tian toad Stage to find Zhou Xinfang. At this time, Zhou Xinfang, Wang Yunfang, and others were preparing to perform, and when they heard about this situation, they were very anxious, but the backstage of the theater could not hide people. In a hurry, Wang Yunfang was busy lending one of his beep robes to Tian Han to change his clothes, and Zhou Xinfang took out twenty yuan to Tian Han, tightly held Tian Han's hand, and let him get into his car and drive to the Japanese concession. Tian Han hid in the home of a friend in the Japanese Concession and was able to escape from danger.
Although Zhou Xinfang is a Beijing opera artist, he is very close to the drama of the new literary and artistic form, he not only participated in the famous drama group Nanguo Society, but also he personally appeared on stage and officially participated in the performance of the drama. It was january 23, 1940, when progressives from the isolated island of Shanghai jointly held a charity performance to help refugees. The Wind Shifting Society, led by Zhou Xinfang, also actively participated in the work and jointly performed the drama "Thunderstorm" with some cultural figures. The venue is the Calden Theatre. Zhou Xinfang plays the protagonist Zhou Puyuan. Most of the other actors are actors of the Wind Shifting Society, and some of them are people from the cultural, film and journalistic circles. Jin Suwen as Fanyi, Sang Arc as Zhou Chong, Hu Tiwei as Zhou Ping, Gao Baishi as Lu Dahai, Zhang Huicong as Sifeng, and Ma Qilan as Lu Ma. The director is Zhu Duanjun.
Zhou Xinfang gave full play to his strengths in peking opera, portraying the complex character of Zhou Puyuan with rich expressions and demeanor. In the second act, Zhou Puyuan meets with Shi Ping, and Zhou Puyuan does not know that it is Shi Ping who is in front of him, so he asks her about The situation of Shi Ping jumping into the river in the past, showing his attachment to the past. This old mother, who did not know each other, was very familiar with the events of that year, which made him suspicious and alert, and he suddenly asked Shi Ping several times: "You--your surname?" "What's your last name?" "Who are you?" Zhou Xinfang handled it very layeredly. In the last scene, Zhou Puyuan asked Zhou Ping to recognize her birth mother: "Ping'er, you come here." Your birth mother is not dead, she is still alive. Zhou Ping said half-madly, "Not her!" Dad, not her! Zhou Puyuan said angrily, "Kneel down and recognize her!" This is your birth mother! Here Zhou Xinfang reads these drama lines in his special "Qipai" voice, which further strengthens the tense air and artistic appeal of the plot.
Zhou Xinfang and Mei Lanfang
At this time, Song Shijie faced Gu Reading, held out three fingers, and the camera was pushed into a close-up, so that the extremely wonderful scene on the stage left a strong and prominent impression on the audience's vision.
The screen left an out-of-print treasure
After the founding of New China, Zhou Xinfang's art became even more pure. In February 1956, Zhou Xinfang filmed the finished "Song Shijie" into an opera art film, which was produced by Shanghai Film Studio, directed by Ying Yunwei and Liu Qiong, and photographed by Huang Shaofen. This is the first film shot by Zhou Xinfang after the founding of New China.
He said to the director: "The stage performance is done the way the stage is, and the film must be done according to the movie, and you have to ask for it." In addition, he actively helped the director and filming staff to deeply understand the characteristics of opera performance, grasp the wonderful parts of the performance, and make full use of the strengths of the film to show the style on the Peking Opera stage. For example, he told them that when Song Shijie entered the court, the action of him grabbing his hat was dramatic, so the camera shot his upper body. After Song Shijie grabbed his hat, the action turned to his leg, and the camera changed to a panorama. Regarding a large section of Song Shijie's defense against Gu Shu in court, Zhou Xinfang said: "This paragraph requires one breath in the performance, and the emotions gradually rise, like a rushing stream, and the audience pays the most attention to Song Shijie's facial expression. So the director made a corresponding treatment, and as Song Shijie's emotions gradually intensified, the camera gradually pushed closer. When Gu Read rebuked Song Shijie: "Listening to your words, could it be that you have been bribed?" Song Shijie said sarcastically, "Bribes? Not much bribe, three hundred and two! At this time, Song Shijie faced Gu Reading, stretched out three fingers, and the camera was pushed into a close-up, so that the extremely wonderful scene on the stage left a strong and prominent impression on the audience's vision.
General actors make movies, always like to let the director shoot more positive shots for themselves, shoot more close-ups, close-ups, if you shoot him a seven-point face, eight-point face, often not very happy, if you shoot him back, it is more opinionable. But Zhou Xinfang was not. Once, the director planned to shoot a positive shot of Zhou Xinfang according to the script of the sub-shot, but Zhou Xinfang disagreed, he said: "From the perspective of the scene, the main scene here is not on me, and it is more appropriate for me to take a back." ”
In the second half of 1961, the Ministry of Culture and the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles decided to shoot a color film for Zhou Xinfang, "Zhou Xinfang's Stage Art". The films "Song Shijie" and "Zhou Xinfang's Stage Art" recorded the wonderful performances and stage images of the master by film means, showing the unique style of Qipai art and leaving an out-of-print treasure for the world.
Article source | Published in Today's Liberation Daily "Chaohua"
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