The tragic "orchid flower" awakens the national consciousness of self-examination

Author: Yu Ping, Vice Chairman of the China Literary and Art Critics Association, Dean and Professor of the Dance School of Nanjing University of the Arts

The national dance drama "Orchid Flower" is undoubtedly a good drama, which makes people feel excited after watching it, and at the same time makes me have a lot of feelings.

One is that the story of the orchid flower has the power of "sadness". "Orchid Blossom" tells a tragic story, and I prefer to think of it as a "tragic" story. The so-called "tragedy", Mr. Lu Xun said, "tore apart the valuable things of life for people to see"; Karl Marx said it more academically, calling it "tragedy is the conflict between the demands of reality and the fact that such demands cannot be realized." Why the "demand of reality" is "impossible to achieve" is, in our everyday words, this requirement is "unrealistic". Here, "demand" is individual and "reality" is social, and the "reality" of society may be social system or social consciousness - the "tragedy" caused by "social consciousness" and the "collective unconscious" of society (or "ethnic group") has the power of "sadness" that deeply moves people!

Second, the story of the orchid flower has reflective significance. The program list reads: The story of the orchid flower is "the eternal long tune of the Chinese nation". I understand that the "eternal long tone" mentioned here refers to the life value of this "tragic" story, and the "life value" in the meantime is the "sadness" that is "torn apart". In other words, the story of the orchid flower as an "eternal long tone" is actually a self-reflection on the "collective unconscious" of our long-established Chinese nation. Because only in this kind of "self-reflection" can the nation be promoted to "live forever"!

The third is the tragic fate of orchids and the liberation of Chinese women. Over the years, the story of the orchid flower has been repeated by many different artists in different art forms. In terms of dance drama alone, in the late 1980s, the version created by Shu Jundu by the National Ballet of China interpreted this "tragic" story very "elegantly"; at the beginning of the second decade of this century, Leung Kwok-shing also performed a version for the Hong Kong Dance Company - unlike Shu Jun's design of the stage in a "paper-cut" style to coordinate the clear movement lines of the ballet, Liang Guocheng emphasized the dance narrative in the combination of contemporary string music and original folk songs. The analysis of the story composition of "orchid flower" mainly includes these basic elements: (1) orchid flower is a pure, kind, beautiful "do not want" country girl; (2) orchid flower has a thick, hardworking, but poor "do not want" country boy; (3) orchid flower also has a father who ignores the daughter's happiness and yearning for various reasons; (4) there is also an old wealth in the country who covets orchid flowers and does not hesitate to accept them as a "child bride" ;(5) There is also an essential poison as the direct medium that ends the life of the orchid flower... The immediate cause of the tragic ending of the orchid flower is poisonous food, and this poisonous thing is the dry food common in the north, the steamed bun. Dissecting the deep cause through this direct cause is the feudal shackles. Why do so many Chinese artists tell the story of orchids and flowers again and again – because this story is not portraying a "typical" chinese woman, but a "metaphor" for the fate of Chinese women. Therefore, we not only need to listen to the story of orchids, but also understand the "orchid flowers" in the context of contemporary stories!

Fourth, Yang Wuwa's dream was also the beginning of a nightmare. Since the story of the orchid flower is a tragic story, it means that the idea and pleasure of the orchid flower, which is not extravagant, will also be deprived. Named the second scene of "Sweet Dreams", the title of the scene suggests that this is a conjecture that it will not "come true". Obviously, this scene further strengthens Yang Wuwa's subjective perspective: the first half is his "dream of marrying a daughter-in-law" in the nap when shepherding sheep, and the second half is when he feels "beautiful dreams soaked up" when dating orchids! As far as the "up, bearing, turning, and closing" of the dance drama structure is concerned, "Sweet Dream", which is the part of "inheritance", is no longer a "positive" continuation of "Love", but we can see it as the tenacity of the next "Marriage". In my opinion, the choreographer has a deep insight into the "tragic" nature of the dance drama and considers the performance of the "sadness" in the first place; therefore, from the overall structure of the dance drama, it is more presented as a "positive, negative and combined" form. Comparatively speaking, the dramatic conflict presented by "rising, bearing, turning, and merging" is a relatively gentle advance; while the dramatic conflict promoted by "positive, negative, and combined" is rapid and intense--because when it states the "right topic" of orchid flower and Yang Wuwa falling in love, it already contains the "reverse theme" of the matchmaker saying orchid flower to Zhou Laocai as a "child bride". Yang Wuwa's "beautiful dream" is actually the beginning of his "nightmare", because in this scene, after the orchid flower his father allowed the marriage matchmaker, he knelt down and begged his daughter to obey... This makes the "inheritance" of the second dance drama story extremely conflicting, and this "conflict" is reflected in the strong psychological contrast between Yang Wuwa's "dream of marrying a daughter-in-law" and "dreaming of soup", and reflected in the psychological gap between Yang Wuwa's "realistic requirements" and "unrealistic requirements"! It can be said that the choreographer quickly brought the audience into a tense dramatic situation!

The fifth is the modern meaning of orchid flowers. The third scene, "Marriage", is a scene that pushes the dramatic conflict to a climax. The so-called "marriage" is the wedding of Yang Wuwa, whose "dream" was shattered, to "make trouble" the orchid flower and was accepted as a "child bride" by Zhou Laocai. This kind of wedding, for Orchid Flower, is a spiritual shackle that becomes a marriage shackle; for Zhou Laocai, it becomes a blessing for the son to become a life for the son - Yang Wuwa, who is drunk because of anger, "gets married", throws a stool at Yang Wuwa's Zhou Laocai, and unexpectedly sends his baby son to Huangquan Road... So he wanted to poison the orchid flower and walk with his son on the Huangquan Road. It was only the choreographer who stepped on the "brake" slightly in the dramatic action advancing towards the "climax", that is, let the matchmaker release the orchid flowers that were tied up by the five flowers and were ready to die because of the discovery of conscience... The choreographer put this part into the fourth "Death", and although the escaped Orchid Flower escaped from the tiger's mouth with her crush Yang Wuwa, she was still killed by the poisonous steamed bun of the Zhou Old Rich Family! In fact, with a "brake" but finally inevitably a death, to let the orchid die in Yang Wuwa's arms. In fact, the choreographer does not want to turn a critique of an old marriage system into a criminal case of "murder"! For such a case as "The Story of the Orchid Flower", what is involved is actually the introspection and criticism of some of the antiquated "moral laws" of our nation. Whenever I see a dance drama that tells the story of an orchid flower, I think of the classical ballet "The Daughter Who Can't Be Shut" (also translated as "Useless Caution"), the female chief Lisa and the male chief Coles of the dance drama, the two fell in love with the same as Orchid Flower and her Yang Wuwa, Lisa's mother was tempted by profit to marry the landlord's stupid son, Lisa completed a "de facto marriage" with her boyfriend with the help of many neighbors, making the dance drama a "human comedy" that everyone was happy with. That is to say, an important criterion for judging the merits of a certain system is to see whether it respects human rights, especially women's rights and interests in life - this is actually the reason why the dance drama "Orchid Flower" should still attract enough attention from us today! (Yu Ping)