Many people have spent their lives trying to break away from the shadow of their parents, but find that they can't escape it, or even can't do without it. This sense of bondage is especially evident in Qiu Jirong— everyone told me that you need to inherit it. But what do I want to pass on?
Wen | Lucisi
Edited | Erling
You're too much like your grandfather
Qiu Jirong, 35, has a face that can make people see the afterglow of glory. When I entered the Beijing Xiqu Vocational Art College at the age of 10, the teacher would be moved to tears when he saw the appearance of his face. You're too much like your grandfather.
You're so much like your grandfather, the elders told him over and over again. Grandpa died early, and Qiu Jirong had never seen him. But he still knew from a young age that his grandfather was the founder of the Peking Opera Qiu School, and the burden of inheritance was on his only grandson. The label of the fourth generation heir of the Qiu Sect has made him bear a heavy burden for a long time, and he will always feel that he can't do it, because he will feel that this thing is not done well. The mountain of the ancestors is always there.
On the last day of 2020, Qiu Jirong appeared at the New Year's Eve party of Station B. Together with several actors from other genres, he performed the show "Shock Hong", which combines opera and dance. At the end of the performance, Qiu Jirong turned to his knees, dipped his pen in oil paint, and trembled to draw on his face that had been judged and controversial.
He thought that perhaps the young audience would not know that this singing voice was played by Grandpa Qiu Shengrong, and the outline on his face was also derived from Grandpa's face. Young people may not know what he is kneeling on and why he is so excited. It doesn't matter, laymen don't understand, it's good to see a hilarity. But he did not expect that this program that seemed to be the furthest away from the young people of Generation Z at the whole party became the best word-of-mouth work after broadcasting.
Grandpa has been dead for 50 years and father has been dead for 25 years. Whether it is pear garden line or the whole society, the changes are earth-shaking. But for Chinese society, some rules are long-standing, such as the influence of the family, the will of the parents - the epidemic prevention situation is slightly stable, the Shanghai People's Park blind date corner is crowded, full of parents who are eager to lock the marriage for their children; in "Sunset Red", whether the work of the children should listen to the arrangements of the parents is still an important topic; near the New Year, Lu Qi, an emotional blogger with more than 26 million Weibo fans, also helps young people analyze as many years ago: Do you want to listen to your family and stay in a small city to take the civil service examination?
Many people have spent their lives trying to break away from the shadow of their parents, but find that they can't escape it, or even can't do without it. This sense of bondage is especially evident in Qiu Jirong. At first glance, he stood at the forefront of the trend, playing games, dancing popping, choreographing the figure of Peking Opera into modern dance, loving Michael Jackson, and listening to Pear's new songs.
But at the same time, he was also in another world that most young people felt strange to. There are clear and clear, the rules are strict, the key words are blood, family, tradition, genre, inheritance of mantle, from one end to the end, one minute on stage and ten years off the stage, passing on men and not passing on women... Once upon a time.
Before the age of 10, his name was not Qiu Jirong, but Qiu Ziqian. Qiu Shengrong had ten children under his knees, but in Qiu Jirong's generation, there was only one boy left in the house. That year, his father Qiu Shaorong became seriously ill with lung cancer and changed his name to Ji Rong, the successor of the inheritance. Since then, he has entered the pear garden line, went to drama school, practiced three nine in winter, and practiced three volts in summer. A year later, his father was gone, and he became the only male descendant of the Qiu family.
Suddenly, 25 years have passed. Qiu Jirong still adds the suffix Ziqian to his WeChat and Weibo names. He remembered that the name had been taken by his grandmother, and that there was no special intention, and it sounded good. When he went to Perform in Fo Guang Shan, Taiwan, he met a nun who said that Zi Qian is good, a thousand meanings a thousand worlds, infinite possibilities.
The nun asked him: Are you under a lot of pressure to change to Ji Rong? He replied: I don't feel much, I just feel that life is very hard.
Just because of the surname Qiu?
In 2016, Qiu Jirong participated in the variety show "Ding-Clack-Dong Choke" and performed "Wukong" with singer Dai Tsuen. Guest Zhao Zhongxiang questioned him: As a descendant of Qiu Pai, you did not open your mouth at all in this performance today. Another guest, Li Guyi, also said that because you are surnamed Qiu, it is different, and the requirements for you are not the same, and we ask you to inherit the art of Qiu Pai.
Similar criticism, Qiu Jirong was not the first time to hear it at that time. Pushing back two years, he and the leaders of the Beijing Opera House proposed to leave their posts without pay, the leaders opposed, he insisted, and went to Shanghai alone. In an interview with Vista Looking at the World, he once said that this is completely broken, and if I can't mix in Shanghai, I may be drowned by the saliva of the Peking Opera Theatre when I come back.
But he did it anyway. His ancestors had drawn a good path for him, and he really didn't want to go.
From the age of 10 to 30, from Ziqian to Ji rong, the world is gone, and he only has an inherited canoe bridge in front of him. In the drama school, every morning at 6 o'clock to get up to practice, sing and do, everything is strict, in addition to eating and sleeping, are learning drama. Family genes, diligent study and hard work, coupled with the attention of the industry and the expectations of the audience, he has also received a lot of affirmation - at the age of 13, he won the Gold Award of the Chinese Children's Opera Little Plum Blossom Gathering, and later won the silver and gold awards of the CCTV National Young Peking Opera Actors Television Competition.
But his inevitable fate was to be compared to his ancestors. Singing "Sitting in the Village and Stealing Horses", critics said that as soon as his face was hooked, it was completely the shadow of Qiu Shengrong. After a performance, Grandpa's fans gave him a banner with four big characters, Qiu Ji yourong.
In the imagination of outsiders, life after the famous door should be comfortable and prosperous, but this is not the case with the Qiu family. Grandpa's property was confiscated during the Cultural Revolution, and the courtyard was sold. When Qiu Jirong was four years old, his parents divorced, and his father took him to reorganize the family, but this new family was not happy, and I was full of quarrels every day. In desperation, his father sent him to Fangshan's apprentice's house, so that he felt the first blow of life to you in his childhood. After her father's death, her mother, who worked in a puppet theater troupe, supported the family with a monthly salary of less than 2,000 yuan. My father left nothing for me and my mother, only sad thoughts.
In the midst of hardship and melancholy, Qiu Jirong entered adolescence. He began to wonder: Why is there only Peking Opera in life and future? Although his voice did not work hard after changing his voice (inverting his voice); although the life of his peers had just begun, his life seemed to be already destined: singing Peking Opera, working with flowers, demanding himself according to the standards of his grandfather Qiu Shengrong, playing his classic roles, learning his appearance, singing voice, body and radiance. The ancient and strict inheritance relationship still lives in this table and two chairs (the traditional collocation of the Peking Opera stage).
So, there was a fatalistic moment: once he went shopping with his mother on the street, and he heard a video store playing Michael Jackson's MTV, "Beat it." Completely different melodies and dances caught him at once. He pestered his mother to buy a VCD and learned to dance mechanical dance and space steps frame by frame in front of the TV every day.
Who am I? After falling in love with dance, this question made Qiu Jirong confused. Once his uncle Yang Zhengang wanted to give him an extra lesson, he excused himself as sick and ran to practice dancing with his classmates. When his uncle found out, he slapped him in the face, beat him to a temporary deafness, and went to the hospital emergency department. Later, the two never mentioned this matter again, but Qiu Jirong always couldn't help but talk about it, and he couldn't forget the anger and pain of the elders who hated iron and steel in his lifetime.
After being admitted to the China Academy of Performing Arts, he skipped class to dance, formed a dance troupe to perform around, had a cold war with his family, and even wanted to drop out of school at one point.
When he was 20 years old, he wrote a letter to his deceased father, confiding in his heart: Why do I have to do peking opera, just because my grandfather is Qiu Shengrong? My dad is Qiu Shaorong? ...... Because my surname is Qiu, is it because of my surname Qiu?
In the Peking Opera world, this is not the fate of Qiu Jirong alone. His good friend Tan Zhengyan, a descendant of Tan Xinpei, the king of the Lingjie World and the great-grandson of Tan Fuying, one of the four major sustenances, has always insisted on acting in Peking Opera. People often compare the two of them and praise Tan Zhengyan for sticking to his door.
Writer Xu Zhiyuan once commented on Tan Zhengyan: You have chosen a path that will always hurt, and you could have chosen another path. Tan Zhengyan was silent after hearing this. He defended the controversial Qiu Jirong: Some people blamed him for not insisting, and I especially understood him... Others envy me, saying that you see that you are born with a halo, but how many people know the weight of this aura.
Man is still there, but the soul is gone
After ten years of learning the craft, I want to lose it, but I can't lose it. After graduating from university, Qiu Jirong still entered the Beijing Peking Opera House where his grandfather and father worked. This was once a splendid hall of Peking Opera, where Mei Shangcheng Xun and Ma Tan Zhang Qiu Zhao were gathered.
But when Qiu Jirong entered, Peking Opera had already entered a decline that needed to be rescued. The actors spent most of their time practicing, only one or two scenes a month, with few audiences and most of their hair white. He asked himself, they all said that they wanted me to inherit, but no one looked at it, what was I inheriting it for?
There are always fans pointing out to him, you sing wrong, your grandfather didn't sing like this. Once he couldn't help but get angry and went back: Have you seen my grandfather perform? Sorry, I haven't seen it, and you haven't seen it either.
In the repression, the love of dance was rekindled. In the eyes of others, he is often single-minded and an outlier. Practice in the morning, dance in the afternoon, and when there is a performance, he hooks his face and runs up to dance when the actors have finished walking on the stage.
Until now, he would hear someone say he was a contrarian. As said in the movie "Overlord Farewell", it is not right for you overlord not to take seven steps. Everything has to be measured with a ruler... Just scold me for abusing the things of my ancestors.
The bronze statue of Grandpa is still placed in the hall on the first floor of the Beijing Opera House. Year after year, walking in front of his grandfather's statue, the elderly Qiu Jirong began to think: Everyone told me that you need to inherit. But what do I want to pass on?
Since childhood, I just heard that Grandpa is recognized as a generation of grandmasters. But I have no idea who Grandpa really is, what kind of a person he is.
In fact, Qiu Shengrong, who was later almost enshrined as a clay sculpture of gold, also appeared as a rebel in the glorious years of Peking Opera - when he integrated the singing methods of Lao Sheng, Qingyi and other professions into the flower face, he was also criticized as a sister flower face; when people named him Qiu Pai, it was also Qiu Shengrong himself, who opposed taking everything as a standard. Everyone says nine of the ten pures, but what exactly is the Qiu Sect? Qiu Jirong felt that it was a spirit.
Qiu Jirong chatted with Guo Baochang, the director of the TV series "The Gate of the Great Mansion", who has studied opera, and told him that rebellion is the foundation of art and the source of innovation.
2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Qiu Shengrong's birth. At the commemoration event, Qiu Jirong made a surprising remark: I described it (Peking Opera) as a brain death art now, that is, people are still there, but the soul is gone. Even if Peking Opera is good, it is useless to stay still.
He broke away from the Peking Opera. In the criticism, he went on "Chinese Good Dance" and "Happy Comedian", combined with the vibrating dance (Popping), plus the theme of the opera, the figure of the Peking Opera, the face, the characters and the recitation, to make his own fusion dance, modern dance. "Yue Ren Song", which is based on ancient songs, "Wukong" and "Sword Like a Dream", which cooperates with pop singer Dai Quan, "Dialogue Fable 2047" with Zhang Yimou, and "Ten Faces Ambush" with Yang Liping, have been completed successively.
Many young audiences were impressed by this, and his friend Li Jun, who was a professional street dancer, said: He is not tall, but the foundation of the Peking Opera flower face can let him release a lot of aura and energy; he has a strong sense of self-confidence in the role on stage, very firm, even if there is no audience, everyone does not like, he will do all the performances.
But some people also say that he does not do his right thing, forgets his ancestors, and humiliates people. While hanging On the side of Peking Opera, while relying on Peking Opera to attract attention, what is the matter? Ji Rong, playing with some side door left way things all day, can he inherit the Qiu Sect?
Yan Xiaoping, a veteran media person and opera researcher, said: All successful performers will face criticism, and Qiu Jirong has crossed this cruel threshold and moved forward. But at any time, the word "Qiu" is still worth thousands of dollars for his image.
In 2019, Qiu Jirong's mother also left. His father gradually withdrew from his still young life. The road has come to this day, and he has no intention of turning back. If my grandfather were alive now, I think I would definitely be a buddy with my grandfather, and I think my grandfather would support me.
In the summer of 2020, he single-handedly played a game called Souls of Tsushima four times. The game is set in ancient Japan, where the male protagonist, who came from a samurai family and was traditionally trained since childhood, found that he and his clan's Bushido could not withstand foreign invasion. At the time of survival, the male protagonist must choose: whether to strictly follow the samurai spirit and persist in a noble but hopeless way; or to go against tradition and abandon the rules and go out of his own way?
He chose the latter, thus being hanged by the invaders and expelled from the family. In the key battle, the male protagonist confronts the patriarch and father who have been revered like gods since childhood, is it to kill or not to kill? The samurai did not cry, but Qiu Jirong did. Because there is no way, you have to take off your head, or we won't be able to account for it.
Be sure to find out who you are
After the broadcast of the B station New Year's Eve party, Qiu Jirong's "Surprise Hong" starring Qiu Jirong received continuous praise, and the entry surprise hong was a dimensionality reduction blow to the aesthetics of the party on Weibo hot search. "Half Moon Talk" magazine commented that when traditional culture combined with new expression methods are once again revealed, when the Eastern and Western cultures, classics and popularities are more boldly explored, can you also feel the power of cultural inheritance and integration?
The origin of "Shock Hong" dates back to the end of 2019 in the B station suddenly popular a Qin cavity paragraph "gradually grumpy". In the excerpt, the two princes Li Yanfei and Xu Yanzhao, the Duke of Dingguo, argue over the succession to the imperial power after Emperor Mingmuzong's death. The relatives of the emperor and the state went from tit-for-tat to slapping each other on the table to shouting at each other to cut it, not to be able to cut it, not to be able to be real, and it made a laugh in the barrage. This allowed the director team to see the possibility of bringing the opera program to the stage of the New Year's Eve party.
But even though "Gradually Grumpy" became an unexpected 4 million-view hit video, the director team still had no bottom in their hearts, with many question marks: How much acceptance of traditional opera do contemporary young people have? What kind of opera program can make young people watch it without violating traditional rules? More specifically, who would be right to perform the show?
Ma Nan, the executive director of the cross-night, remembered Qiu Jirong. I used to like him very much, the Peking Opera thing was always on him, but he was trying to modernize, and his dance was different from others, as if no one was so special as him. And, of course, his family lineage.
As the only descendant of the Qiu Sect, he had never met his grandfather who founded the Sect, but had only heard his story from the mouths of others. This paradoxical fate gave the "Amazing" director team the inspiration to build the program - have not seen it, how to pass it on? No choice, how to love?
Thus, dreams are born. In the dream, Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei can cross life and death to meet, and the grandchildren can naturally travel through time and space and praise and depreciation, and the first sight is divine intercourse. The director team let Qiu Jirong have a dream on the scene, in which he heard the voice of his grandfather, who had never been masked, and then walked into the classic scenes of various operas. Not only Peking Opera, everything can appear here, there is no barrier, he can learn, to try, and to express it in modern dance, he and Opera are similarly separated from each other, and they appreciate each other. At the end, he hooks his face and talks to his ancestors. Ma Nan said that this was his wish.
Can the wish of one person touch everyone? No one is sure. From September to December last year, hundreds of people and Qiu Jirong spent more than 100 days discussing in detail which opera passages to choose—how to connect the music, how to reconcile the atmosphere, how to divide the logic before and after, how to gather the actors, how to retain the original flavor, and how to coordinate tradition and modernity.
From the Kunqu opera "Dream of Visiting the Garden" to the Qin Cavity's "Legend of the White Snake", from the commentary's "Heavenly Girl Scattered Flowers" to the Sichuan opera "Rolling Lights", Qiu Jirong and the director team stumbled down little by little, learning the body, arranging the soundtrack, arranging the lineup, discussing the depth, and gluing the modern and the past. If I only do what I want to do, the audience can't get it, I will say that the level of people is low, I am still tall, can this work? People will say goodbye, goodbye.
In the last 30 seconds on the stage, all the former glory has receded, leaving Qiu Pai's Bao Gong with a look and gesture of entrustment. A lone light hit the stage, hit Bao Gong's black face, and hit qiu Jirong's back with his hand outstretched but no one to hold each other. Bao Gongshui threw off his sleeve and withdrew. And Qiu Jirong's face showed a slight look of mixed tastes.
During the rehearsal and post-editing of the program, at this moment, the director team could not suppress the goosebumps, and even Ma Nan could hardly say why. But Qiu Jirong himself understood: slowly, they left the stage in a state of wandering, and in the end I was a very lonely person. It's hard, but you have to find out who you are.
Note: The pictures in this article are from bilibili's 2020 most beautiful night New Year's Eve party program "Amazing Hong"