Luo Jinlan: Three generations of a family go to the road of cultural mutual learning

[The people need such a literary artist (32)]

Guangming Daily reporter Xie Yunkai Guangming Daily correspondent Chen Yinuo

In November 2019, President Xi Jinping published a signed article entitled "Let the Wisdom of Ancient Civilizations Shine into the Future" in the Greek Daily Daily, in which he said: "Chinese translator Luo Niansheng's family has devoted three generations to the translation and research of Greek literature and drama, and has made important contributions to enhancing the friendship between the two peoples. "Three generations, one thing, family and country. Most of the voluminous Chinese translations of ancient Greek literature were written by Mr. Luo Niansheng. His son Luo Jinlan took over the mantle from his father, making the ancient culture vivid and three-dimensional on the stage.

In 1986, when Luo Jinlin put "Oedipus King" on the stage for the first time, his father and translator Luo Niansheng, who was in his 80s, burst into tears, and his 50-year-old wish was finally realized...... Next, Luo Jinlan worked hard to direct dozens of ancient Greek dramas translated by his father. Luo Tong, the third generation of the Luo family, under the influence of two generations of elders, went to Greece to study before graduating from his bachelor's degree. Unlike the older generation, she decided to devote her life to bringing Chinese culture to Greece. To this end, she established the Chinese Cultural Center in Greece, using theater as a medium to allow Greece and Europe to see and understand contemporary China.

When it comes to his father, Luo Jinlan is full of reverence. Before teaching at Peking University, Sichuan University and other universities, Luo Niansheng studied at Tsinghua University and was a public student in the United States. However, he gave up his Xi life in the United States and the degree he was about to obtain, and went to Greece, becoming the first person in China to study in Greece. Luo Niansheng has translated more than 10 million words and more than 50 kinds of ancient Greek literary and artistic works. After returning to China, Luo Niansheng joined the anti-Japanese national salvation team, and together with Zhu Guangqian, He Qifang, Bian Zhilin, etc., he organized progressive publications, and worked hard to awaken the general public. In the process of fleeing from the pursuit of the enemy, in the difficult period of hunger and cold, the ancient Greek tragedy "Medea" and other Chinese translations were born with difficulty.

Luo Jinlan Bright Pictures

Speaking of her daughter, Luo Jinlan is even more proud, she not only reinterprets and translates Greek literature and art, reinterprets a new mission in drama creation, but also devotes her energy to the glorious cause of bringing Chinese culture to the world.

At the age of 87, Luo Jinlan is still full of vitality and is keen to explore how to perfectly express ancient Greek drama in Chinese drama style, so that Chinese audiences can understand and empathize with the world audience.

Since the 90s of the 20th century, Luo has been exploring the use of Chinese opera to interpret ancient Greek drama. "Ancient Greek drama is the source of Western drama, and Chinese opera art also has a history of thousands of years, the former is solemn and full of ritual, and the latter is freehand symbolic and full of imagination. Luo Jinlan believes that this is precisely the result of not making it clear that "fusion" is not "stitching". What the director pursues should not be an external form, but an innovative way to express profound ideas and cultural connotations.

Luo Jinlan focuses on using the aesthetics and techniques of Chinese opera to borrow and absorb from ancient Greek drama to create an expression of the times that integrates the two ancient cultures. After showing King Oedipus confirming that he was the murderer of his father, he used the hard fall of Chinese opera to make King Oedipus fall down on the ladder, emphasizing the great grief of the character and opening the audience's eyes. In Antigone, Luo Jinlan uses the virtual and symbolic means of traditional Chinese theatre to share the stage with people and ghosts, which is inspired by the ghost scenes in the traditional Chinese play Li Huiniang, where the characters ask about the changes in life and death, triggering the audience's philosophical reflections.

Using Hebei Bangzi to interpret "Medea" and "Thebai City", and using Pingju to express the triptych of "Orestes", Luo Jinlan boldly uses various forms of traditional Chinese opera to "cross the line": "Bangzi" instead of "big aria", "gang" and "dragon set" lead to the "song team", "opera mask" replaces "ancient mask", and opera chanting expresses dramatic poetry...... Luo Jinlu uses the Chinese expression of ancient Greek drama with great fluidity.

The ancient Greek plays created and rehearsed by Luo Jinlin have become the repertoire of the theater and have been performed for decades. Luo Jinlan told reporters that among overseas performances, the most popular is the repertoire that is expressed in the style of Chinese opera, which fully demonstrates the charm of Chinese culture. Medea, for example, has been performed more than 250 times, and has sung a "duet" with the world-famous singer Pavarotti – two theaters on the same street at the same time, but Medea is more popular, and even the corridors are full of audiences. Luo Jinlan said with a smile that for a while, there were people singing Hebei Bangzi in the streets and alleys of Greece. Every time I perform overseas, I can receive warm applause and flowers from the audience, and some audiences even take off the "wedding ring" on the spot and give it to the actors, expressing their respect for Chinese actors and their love for Chinese opera.

In fact, this relay of three generations of Greek drama has never neglected to highlight the contemporary value of ancient Greek drama. All the works are about truth, goodness, beauty, and celebrating humanity. In "Trojan Women", Luo Jinlan expresses the accusation of war and the protection of peace through his works, in "Mother Mother Day Women", the call for equality between men and women resounded all over the world, the praise of human dignity in "Antigone", and the reflection on self in "Oedipus the King", all of which convey a strong attribute of the times and humanistic care through Luo Jinscale's director, which has extremely distinct contemporary significance.

The ancient Greek comedy "Birds" by Luo Jinlu and Luo Tong is the representative work of Aristophanes, the father of comedy, and the father and daughter together brought the "chirping" and "colorful" "birds" to the stage of the National Center for the Performing Arts. Luo Tong wanted to express the ancient Greek tragicomedy in a way that was more acceptable to the audience, and she changed the name of the character with more than a dozen words to the familiar "Api" and "Laifu" to Chinese audiences.

The famous Greek writer Nicholas Kazansky once had such an image metaphor: "When you uncover a Greek, you will find that there is a Chinese inside; when you uncover a Chinese, you will find that there is a Greek inside." This has been repeatedly confirmed by the Luo family: back then, Luo Niansheng fell ill in Greece and urgently needed a blood transfusion, due to his special blood type, the hospital blood bank had no blood source to match, and more than 200 Greeks heard the news and voluntarily came to donate blood;

Luo Niansheng died in 1990, but his simple desk and mountains of translation manuscripts were never discarded, and the simple and diligent spirit of the Luo family has been passed on. Just as Luo Niansheng wrote a short poem entitled "East and West" in his early years: "East and West have their own directions, and my imagination is still in the center of the connection." This poem is exactly the dream that three generations of the Roche family have been chasing.

Guangming Daily (December 24, 2023 01 edition)

Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily