1. Li Yugang shined on the bright draft stage
At that glorious moment in 2006, the silent but talented Li Yugang bravely entered the finals of the famous talent show "Avenue of Stars". When he took that step, the audience was instantly shocked by his excellent performance, with thunderous applause and cheers.
Li Yugang was dressed in a gorgeous costume, like a noble concubine, showing all kinds of style on the stage. With his unique singing method of masquerading as a woman, he has given a new vitality to the traditional singing passages of Peking Opera, and his singing voice is graceful and intoxicating.
What is even more striking is his stage presence, a pair of eyes sometimes affectionate, sometimes charming, every look, every movement is accurate, superb skills, breathtaking.
The audience applauded warmly, the applause was deafening, and the cheers were endless. The judges also highly praised his wonderful performance and were amazed.
In this way, this young man from the private sector became the focus of national attention overnight and attracted much attention.
After the end of the talent show, Li Yugang's life trajectory has undergone earth-shaking changes. First of all, with his outstanding performance in the competition, he won the highest honor of "National First-Class Actor".
This title, which had to go through many strict assessments, was awarded to him by the judges as an exception.
At the same time, the China Song and Dance Theater, a national-level art team, also extended an olive branch to him, fully proving his extraordinary artistic talent. Since then, Li Yugang has lived a prosperous life surrounded by flowers and applause.
Second, the profound heritage of the Mei family's artistic inheritance
Mei Baojiu was born in the Mei family, a family of Peking Opera. His father, Mei Lanfang, was a highly respected figure in the Peking Opera industry during the Republic of China, and was known as the "Four Famous Dans" along with Xun Huisheng, Cheng Yanqiu, and Shang Xiaoyun, and his influence spread at home and abroad.
Mei Lanfang's family is full of talents, and he and his wife have 8 sons and 1 daughter. As the youngest child in the family, Mei Baojiu was not initially regarded as the heir to the art of the Mei School.
However, the arrangement of fate is always unexpected, and the third son of the Mei family, Mei Baoqi, unfortunately died at a young age, and Mei Baojiu was therefore selected as the successor of the Mei faction.
For Mei Baojiu, his love for the art of Peking Opera has been deeply imprinted in his flesh and blood. Since childhood, he has been passionate about the culture and art that has been passed down from generation to generation.
In the difficult years of family life, the young Mei Baojiu once fell into confusion and indulgence, and missed the precious golden period of 13-year-old learning. Fortunately, in those difficult and confusing days, Mei Baojiu finally made up her mind to devote herself to the study and inheritance of Mei School art.
He worshipped the Peking Opera master Wang Youqing as his teacher, diligently and assiduously studied vocal skills, and finally made the status and reputation of the Mei School in the opera industry to be stable, which is undoubtedly the best proof that the Mei family's art has been passed down from generation to generation in his hands for hundreds of years!
3. Young and vigorous repentance
Just when Li Yugang's career was in full swing and his reputation was rising, an incident that made him deeply introspect quietly happened. One day, when he was performing on the stage with all his might, he suddenly noticed that Mr. Mei Baojiu, a senior artist in the audience, had a solemn face and slowly got up and left.
At this moment, in addition to the stunned audience, only Li Yugang, who had fallen into a sudden embarrassing dilemma, stood alone in the center of the stage, which deeply touched Li Yugang and made him reflect on whether he had done something wrong, whether he had inadvertently offended or offended traditional culture.
Looking back on the past, Li Yugang often thinks of the calmness and ease shown by Mei Baojiu's superior environment of homeschooling, but in order to make a living, he had to rely on various popular works to attract the public's attention.
When he was young, Li Yugang did not have a deep understanding of the art of plum opera, he chose a superficial "innovation" path, trying to regain the audience's attention through pop music, and his masterpiece "The New Concubine Drunk" was launched, although it caused a lot of sensation among the audience, but in fact it was just a subtle change on the basis of the classics of the Mei School.
However, at that time, Li Yugang regarded this adaptation as his "originality", which bred conceit and misunderstanding, and ignored the basic principle that art comes from tradition and carries forward more than innovation.
It is this contempt and superficial understanding of tradition that has aroused strong dissatisfaction and harsh criticism from artists in the same industry.
Fourth, there is no way to make amends and cause resentment
Mei Baojiu was deeply worried about Li Yugang's act of boldly claiming that he was the successor of the Mei faction. At the recording site of a national television station, when the host solemnly praised Li Yugang's many honors, the camera camera suddenly turned, and Li Yugang took the microphone with a smug smile.
However, at this moment, the camera cuts the picture to Mei Baojiu, who is sitting in the audience. I saw that her brows were furrowed, her expression was grim, and her eyes showed deep displeasure. After a long time, a well-meaning bystander cautiously explained to Li Yugang: "In Peking Opera, a temple of art with a centuries-old history, the concept of family is deeply rooted and the hierarchy is strict.
Your rash claim to be the heir of a certain family is undoubtedly an act of transgression, and I am afraid it will be difficult to be recognized by people in the same industry."
In the face of the severe criticism of his peers, Li Yugang suddenly realized the seriousness of the problem. In order to continue to survive on the art stage, he had to bow his head and ask for help from Ms. Wang Kun, a senior in the Peking Opera industry, hoping that she would be able to uphold justice and plead with Mei Lanfang Peking Opera Company for himself.
Although Wang Kun is a senior of the Mei School, she has always adhered to an inclusive and open attitude, and expressed her appreciation for Li Yugang's artistic innovation. After listening to Li Yugang's exposition on her own artistic pursuits and growth experience, she suggested that Li Yugang personally write a sincere apology letter, expressing his deep feelings for traditional art and firm belief in the art of Peking Opera, and at the same time describing in detail the process of continuous exploration and development on his artistic path.
Li Yugang humbly accepted Wang Kun's suggestion, and he paid full attention to writing this letter of apology that had not been sent for a long time. However, fate seems to be deliberately playing tricks on people, and just before his apology letter was delivered, Mei Baojiu, a legend in the Peking Opera industry, has passed away at the age of 82.
Mei Baojiu, who had no children and no daughters in her life, trained 49 disciples all over the world, and witnessed the prosperity and inheritance of Mei School art with her life. Until the last moment of her life, she could not wait for a sincere apology from the "Mei faction descendant" who had publicly insulted her family culture.
As the only descendant of the Mei family, Mei Baojiu has worked hard all her life and passed on the torch from generation to generation, just to ensure that the art of the Mei School can be passed on from generation to generation and never be exhausted.
5. Outcome and Enlightenment: Staying old ways hinders innovation
It is true that Li Yugang's ingenious anti-string performance method has undoubtedly won him warm appreciation and high recognition from the audience and some industry insiders, and he has occupied an important position in the entertainment industry with this distinctive and innovative performance skill! However, when he claimed to be the heir of the orthodox Mei faction, it aroused strong dissatisfaction and severe criticism from many predecessors such as Mei Baojiu.
In the eyes of Mei Baojiu and others, Li Yugang's works have seriously deviated from tradition and have been reduced to vulgar means just to attract the public's attention and gain attention. This kind of concept of blindly resting on the old ways of traditional art has undoubtedly set up many obstacles to the innovation and development of art.
The Mei family's negative attitude towards Li Yugang's "innovation" undoubtedly brought a heavy blow to his career. The once frequent performance opportunities have been drastically reduced, and the income has fallen sharply; What's even more regrettable is that he even missed the golden opportunity to star in the TV series version of "Mei Lanfang", which is really a sigh! .
Mei Baojiu's blind adherence to tradition and lack of deep insight and broad-mindedness for innovation itself undoubtedly set up a huge obstacle to the development of art. However, Li Yugang himself does have the problem of superficiality and excessive pandering to the market, and both sides have something to ponder.
6. In-depth discussion: innovation must be based on tradition
In the shadow of a setback in his career, Li Yugang began to reflect on whether he had touched the bottom line of traditional culture and whether he had offended them. He gradually realized that the reason why he was in such a predicament was precisely because of his lack of deep understanding and reverence for the artistic tradition of Mei Opera.
The blind pursuit of so-called "innovation" often leads us to unconsciously deviate from the original intention and root of art. Li Yuxin deeply regretted the rash behavior of his youth, and carried out random reform and reshaping of the Mei family's art, which was inevitably suspected of blasphemy.
Artistic innovation is definitely not a complete negation and complete subversion of tradition, but should be built on the basis of in-depth study and comprehensive absorption and digestion of tradition. Only by burying the seeds of innovation deep in the fertile soil of tradition can it thrive and bloom with brilliant brilliance.
Without respect for the source of art, any so-called "innovation" will be futile and doomed to fail to take root. This is the painful lesson that Li Yugang learned from this artistic dispute with Mei Baojiu.
After deep introspection, he gradually realized that he was mired in the quagmire of being questioned and criticized by orthodoxy, which in the final analysis was a lack of deep understanding and deep respect for traditional culture.
His masterpiece The Drunken New Concubine, despite being only a minor improvement on the classics of the Mei School, was overconfidently regarded as "original" by him, leading to self-aggrandizement and disregard for the basic principles of artistic creation, which undoubtedly became the trigger for public outrage.
From this incident, Li Yugang finally woke up to the fact that innovation is certainly worthy of praise, but if it lacks a solid traditional foundation, it will inevitably lead astray and fail to truly promote the prosperity and progress of art.
Only by organically combining the spirit of innovation with the essence of tradition can we lead the right path of artistic development.