"We have to put our thumbs on the cymbals, and when we tap the chopsticks, the sound will 'swing', and if we hold down the cymbals and then knock to see, then there will be no response. In Zhangyan Primary School, teachers from the Shanghai Burlesque Troupe are demonstrating and guiding the performance techniques of the "Cymbal Book" for the students, and also teaching Shanghainese dialect on the spot, laying the foundation for everyone to learn the "Shanghai Rap" Quyi characteristic course.
In the near future, such courses will be held regularly in schools in Zhangyan Township. As the "hometown of Chinese quyi", Zhangyan Town has carried out the activity of "Quyi into the campus" in combination with the local quyi characteristics, and teachers from the Shanghai Burlesque Troupe have walked into the campus to let the children know the traditional culture and understand the quyi, improve the cultural and artistic literacy, and make the excellent traditional quyi inherit and develop through the vivid teaching of "cymbal book" and "Shanghai rap".
In the classroom, the children's laughter came and went, they were attracted by the wonderful lessons, and they were learning Shanghainese, and they were beating cymbals according to the gourd, and they subtly absorbed more quyi knowledge in the teacher's easy-to-understand teaching. "The 'cymbal book' is very difficult to learn, and to achieve the coordination and cooperation of hands, mouth, and brain, it really takes 'one minute on stage, ten years of work off stage'. Student Zhu Chenyi scratched his head and said. "But the art of rap is very interesting, its language is very vivid, and I want to share more Shanghainese with my family in the future!" said student Huang Jiaqi happily.
"Shake, shake, shake to grandma's bridge, grandma calls me a good baby......" The classic Shanghainese rap and nursery rhymes that everyone was familiar with may not be familiar to today's children, but to really step into the threshold of quyi, learning Shanghainese is the first pass. "Many children may not be able to speak Shanghainese, and some can only listen to it, so our first step is to teach children to learn Shanghainese. Ruan Jikai, deputy director of the actor management department of the Shanghai Burlesque Troupe, said.
Not only children have to learn opera, but adults also have to learn. "We will not only open student classes in Zhangyan Primary School, but also open adult classes in Zhangyan Kindergarten, so that children can form a children's art troupe of 'cymbal books' through learning, so that adults in adult classes can become a group of more mature 'cymbal books' professional actors, so that under the leadership of adult class students, quyi can continue to blossom and bear fruit in Zhangyan. Ruan Jikai said.
Zhangyan Town, which has a thousand-year-old cultural accumulation, has a long history of quyi culture and a wealth of genres, such as the popular Allegro book, the peasant cymbal book that is close to the people's livelihood, the folk tales with sound and emotion, as well as the lyrics, flower drum plays, puppet plays, etc. According to the record of "Zhangyan Town Chronicles", there were places for the masses to listen to books in the Qing Dynasty, and there were many talents from Zhangyan, such as Wu Yuchang, a famous player who created the Pingtan "Three Laughing Marriages" in the Qing Dynasty and was known as "the invincible hand in the Jiangnan Lyrics Field", and Wang Chuangen, an artist who rapped in the Jinshan dialect in the Cui Teahouse in Nanhetouyi during the Republic of China, and was deeply loved by the people......
In recent years, Zhangyan Town has focused on the "culture +" strategy, and in accordance with the policy of "protection first, rescue first, rational utilization, inheritance and development", it has formed a diversified way of inheriting quyi culture and promoted the protection and revitalization of quyi art. Constantly excavating the cultural context of the ancient town, paying attention to brand building, editing the "Zhangyan Town Song and Ballad Volume", "Zhangyan Folk Literature", "Jiang Shunlong's Legal Peasant Book Collection", etc., and establishing Jiang Shunlong's Peasant Cymbal Book Studio, so that the older generation of quyi workers can play a good role in passing, helping and leading. Nowadays, there are a large number of opera creators and performers in Zhangyan who are active on the stage of mass culture, such as Xu Qiang, who is good at combining cross talk with music and creating a number of characteristic original works, and Jiang Shunlong, who has relied on a bamboo chopstick, a cymbal and a mouth, and has written, directed and acted in peasant cymbals for more than 50 years.
It is worth mentioning that the entry of the famous studio has also given Zhangyan Town a "treasure land" for the dissemination of quyi culture and the cultivation of quyi talents. In September 2022, Zhangyan Town introduced the "Zhang Zhikuan and Zhao Songtao Allegro Art Studio", and made use of the existing space of the Zhangyan store of Dayin Bookstore to regularly open quyi training classes, carry out allegro book performances and other activities, and strive to build a "quyi inheritance base" integrating "traditional cultural experience, diversified learning center, and interactive communication space".
In May last year, thanks to the unique historical heritage and cultural inheritance, Zhangyan Town was officially awarded the title of "Hometown of Chinese Quyi", pushing the inheritance and protection of Quyi to a new stage. In order to continuously promote the innovation and development of quyi and integrate quyi elements into the daily life of the masses, Zhangyan Town blew the wind of quyi into the countryside, into the community and into the campus. In the school in Zhangyan Town, quyi began to become a beautiful landscape. By promoting the teaching method of "quyi into the campus", taking the classroom as the position and the campus as the stage, more young people can feel the unique artistic charm of quyi, and professional teaching can cultivate more quyi talents, so that the excellent traditional culture can be promoted and developed. At the same time, Zhangyan Town fully mobilizes high-quality resources, relies on the brand of "Guzhen Culture and Art Festival" to carry out quyi performances in various ancient buildings, and sends quyi performances into the community and villages through the "order" method, so that the people can enjoy the cultural feast. Zhangyan Town will also allocate special funds every year for sending quyi to the countryside, protecting quyi and training teams, encouraging quyi creation and residents' self-organized quyi activities, etc., which not only enhances the extensiveness and mass nature of Zhangyan quyi, but also improves the business skills of quyi talents, and promotes the prosperity and development of quyi in Zhangyan.
记者 | 项竹彦 王佩永
Correspondents | Gao Ling
Edit | Zhang Yiqi (Intern)
Editor-in-charge | Cheng Jiayu Yu Luoyin