Today's Guangzhou Martyrs' Cemetery is full of pines and cypresses, like a solemn defender, and the red flowers are colorful, symbolizing the blood of the martyrs. In the center of the East Lake in the cemetery, there is a "Blood Sacrifice Xuanyuan Pavilion" with yellow tiles and red pillars, and tourists come to commemorate and pay tribute to the martyrs. The objects of mourning in this memorial pavilion are the two protagonists in the famous "Wedding on the Execution Ground" - Zhou Wenyong and Chen Tiejun martyrs.
Statues of Zhou Wenyong and Chen Tiejun in the Guangzhou Uprising Martyrs' Cemetery. Photo by Li Qian
In 1927, Zhou Wenyong and Chen Tiejun, who originally pretended to be husband and wife to devote themselves to underground work, sprouted sincere love in the common life and struggle, but finally they were unfortunately arrested for traitor informants, and they were tortured and still unyielding. Before their execution, they left the only group photo in front of the prison window and publicly announced the wedding. The two people in the photo look firm and calm. The day they died was the 1928 Lunar Lantern Festival, when the two were only twenty-three or four years old.
A photo of Zhou Wenyong and Chen Tiejun before their execution. (File photo)
After the photo was published in the newspaper, Nie Rongzhen, who was then the head of the Military Commission of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, was deeply shocked and called it a "wedding on the execution ground." In 1980, the famous Guangdong writer Huang Qingyun published the biographical literary work "Wedding on the Execution Ground", and the stories of Zhou Wenyong and Chen Tiejun spread throughout the north and south of the great river, and since then they have been continuously adapted into various literary and artistic forms such as radio dramas, film and television dramas, dance dramas, and operas, and have become household names and often perform new red literary and artistic themes.
As Yan Chunde, a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University, commented, the reason why "Wedding on the Execution Ground" has extraordinary artistic appeal is because it is based on a true story that can be sung and wept, "overflowing with the spirit of that era, and merging with the whole era into an epic." ”
A good book that "shines with a lasting and fiery glow"
The deeds of Zhou Wenyong and Chen Tiejun, from the very beginning of their birth, have moved all their contemporaries. Huang Qingyun, a famous children's literature writer born in Guangzhou in 1920 and spent his childhood in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, is also one of them. As early as 1956, she wrote this story that took place in her hometown of Guangzhou into a reportage "Immortal Youth", which was immediately welcomed by readers.
Photographed by Huang Qingyun when he was editing New Child in Hong Kong. (Source: Huang Qingyun Commentary)
Premier Zhou Enlai once said that "the wedding on the execution ground" is "the purest and noblest love in the world" and called on literary and art workers to carry out creations around this theme. Huang Qingyun, who has a special love for children's literature, is determined to find another way to write a biography for children's readers across the country, and by showing the process of the protagonist's spiritual growth, lead the young readers to understand the glorious revolutionary years and feel the lofty ideals and noble integrity of outstanding Communist Party members.
"Collecting the lives of martyrs is like going deep into baoshan, exploring the pearl, and then stringing it together with a red thread." In the creation notes, Huang Qingyun wrote. In order to make her writing faithful to historical facts, she has read relevant materials dozens of times, interviewed and confirmed in many ways, held discussions, and traced the life footprints of Zhou Wenyong and Chen Tiejun from all angles. At the same time, she realized that "biographical literature is by no means a purely objective narrative, and as a literary work, it must be melted into feelings, which are based on the correct understanding of the characters in the pen." Huang Qingyun believes that a good biographical literature should have both the authenticity of history and the literary nature of the novel, the pouring of the author's personal emotions, and the reasonable play of imagination, just like the red line that strings together the scattered beads, which is the key to the success or failure of the work.
Huang Qingyun's biographical literary work "Wedding on the Execution Ground" book shadow.
In July 1979, the biographical literature "Wedding on the Execution Ground" was completed, and in January of the following year, it was published in the inaugural headline of the large children's literature series "Chaohua", which was more than 500 pages thick. Soon after, Huang Qingyun was invited to adapt this work into a radio drama, which was continuously broadcast on the Central People's Radio. From the bustling metropolis to the remote and desolate mountainous countryside, the audience heard this touching story through the leisurely radio waves.
In 1980, the People's Literature Publishing House published a single edition of "Wedding on the Execution Ground"; 30 years later, the Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House listed it as one of the "Youth Inspirational Edition Red Classic Series" and published it again.
"If true literature does not grow directly from the soil of the blood and milk of a country or nation, its vitality will not last long." Xu Lu, the publisher of this series of books, commented that this is a "good book that shines with a lasting and fiery light", which prompts us to look back at the noble lives, beliefs and pursuits that we once had, to seek and obtain the true meaning of certain lives, the passion of creation, and to teach us how to sublimate the small life of the individual in a kind of "great love" and "great virtue".
A beloved classic artistic image that transcends borders
The film of the same name, also shot by Changchun Film Studio, was also released this year, and one of the film's screenwriters, Zhang Yisheng, was also from Guangdong and studied at the Attached High School of Sun Yat-sen University. He participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and after the founding of New China, he worked as an actor, and was a professional writer in the former Guangzhou Military Region, the General Logistics Literary and Labor Troupe, the Bayi Film Factory, and the Creative Studio of the General Political And Labor Troupe. When he was a teenager, he had heard the story of Zhou Wenyong and Chen Tiejun, "There are thousands of revolutionary martyrs in the world who are generous and righteous, but it is rare to end their lives with the execution ground as an auditorium and a wedding." ”
Feeling the tragic and heroic actions and fearless spirit of the two martyrs, Zhang Yisheng had a strong creative impulse in his heart. With "green blood staining loyal bones, iron windows casting loyal souls, red cotton and comforting, communism casting concentricity" as the main line, he created a novel based on "wedding on the execution ground" as the prototype ,"Blood stained kapok red". Later, he interviewed a group of revolutionary predecessors who participated in the Guangzhou uprising and were still alive at the time, and obtained more precious first-hand materials. On this basis, he further enriched the novel and adapted it into a film script "Wedding on the Execution Ground", directed by Cai Yuanyuan and starring Song Xiaoying, Li Qimin and others.
Stills from the 1980 film version of "Wedding on the Execution Ground".
After the film was officially released in 1980, it caused great repercussions, and was later listed by the Central Propaganda Department as one of the 100 excellent patriotic films, and was recommended to be screened abroad. Once, during a visit to North Korea, Jang Yi-sang unexpectedly learned that many young North Korean audiences also liked the film very much. In the article, he recalled: "[The film] expresses the noble character of people, sincere and selfless love, full of faith and pursuit of a better future, such an artistic image can cross national borders to obtain a broader consensus." ”
Subsequently, relying on film and television dramas, Peking opera, Yue opera, opera and other literary and artistic forms, Zhou Wenyong and Chen Tiejun regarded death as a homecoming, and shouted on the execution ground the scene of "Let the gunshots of reactionaries be used as a salute for marriage", which was fixed as a classic artistic image widely known in the history of Chinese red literature and art.
The Cantonese opera red movie "Wedding on the Execution Ground" was screened.
Among them, the modern Cantonese opera "Wedding on the Execution Ground", created by the Hongdou Cantonese Opera Troupe of Guangzhou Cantonese Theatre, is one of the adaptations with the most performances. Since its premiere in 2007, the play has performed more than 600 times across the country with more than 600,000 audiences, and has won the "Wenhua Award Special Award" of the 9th China Arts Festival and the "Five Ones" Project Award of the Propaganda Department of the 11th Guangdong Provincial Party Committee.
In an interview before the Red Line girl, she revealed that the "wedding on the execution ground" is a revolutionary feat that Guangzhou people are proud of, with strong influence and inspiration, and in terms of artistic creation themes, it has distinct uniqueness, landmark, drama and regionality, which is very suitable for exploring the innovative development of modern Cantonese opera.
At the end of the whole play, the "wedding" scene, Zhou and Chen are dressed in white, holding red silk symbolizing blood, faith and love, singing and dancing together, with the sound of gunshots, the red cotton petals in the sky slowly fall, and the applause of the audience is thunderous... Liang Fenglian, director of the Lingnan Cultural Research Center of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, summed up the Cantonese style in one sentence - "a symphony of grand narrative and revolutionary poetry". She believes that thanks to the temperament of the theme selection and the poetic tension, the play sweeps away the limitations of the traditional Cantonese opera theme, reproduces the poetry of revolutionary romanticism with a grand narrative, emphasizes the transcendence of the secular spirit, and the style of its main melody makes the presentation of the stage have a rare open and lofty artistic conception.
Recreate the eternal "red youth" in the language of modern stage
The rich ideological connotation of "Wedding on the Execution Ground" also provides a steady stream of inspiration for subsequent derivative creations. In recent years, more adapted versions of Cantonese opera, Cantonese opera movies, ballet dramas and other adaptations have emerged in Guangdong's literary and art circles, further opening up the artistic expression space of the theme of "wedding on the execution ground". The folk dance drama "Wind and Rain Red Cotton" created by Guangdong Song and Dance Theatre, and the ballet "Haoran Iron Army" launched by Guangzhou Ballet have been performed continuously since their inception and have won many awards.
Ballet "Haoran Iron Army"
Zou Gang, director of guangzhou ballet, introduced that the ballet "Haoran Iron Army", which made a stunning appearance in 2019, was originally intended to let Western ballet art, Traditional Chinese culture, excellent revolutionary spirit and Lingnan regional characteristics blend with each other, and tell Chinese stories with the "language" of the world. Therefore, the audience will see Lingnan buildings such as Chen Clan Ancestral Hall and Qilou in the play, Cantonese embroidery women, Aoyu and other Guangdong elements, and feel the strong Lingnan humanistic characteristics.
At the end of the same year, the opera film of the same name adapted from the Cantonese opera "Wedding on the Execution Ground" was released in Guangzhou. On the basis of retaining the original traditional Cantonese opera performance characteristics, the film uses 4K ultra-high-definition shooting technology and innovative lens language to restore the revolutionary scenes in the play, so that the traditional opera can glow with new vitality of the times, attracting more audiences to relive the "red memories" of "wearing kapok all over the city".
In 2019, the Cantonese opera movie "Wedding on the Execution Ground" premiered in Guangzhou.
Ou Kaiming, the actor of Zhou Wenyong in the film and winner of the Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award "Second Degree Plum", said that as a "person in the play", the most memorable clip in the play was when the photographer asked who sent this photo after taking pictures of Zhou and Chen, and the two could not help but say: "Send it to us Chinese people!" Referring to this drama, he could not help but sigh: "Two enthusiastic young people in their twenties, how worthy of admiration for tying their fate to the country and the nation together!" ”
Posters and stills of the Cantonese opera movie "Wedding on the Execution Ground".
The story of the young martyrs has also attracted groups of young people into the theater. In 2021, the Cantonese opera "Wedding on the Execution Ground" (Youth Version) was staged, and Yu Yong, chairman and secretary of the Guangzhou Cantonese Theatre, remembered that in less than 20 minutes of the performance, the theater was full, which made the entire crew feel excited. Yu Yong told reporters that the age of the protagonist in the play is close to that of the young audience, and the emotions between the male and female protagonists are easy to resonate, combined with the fashionable stage design and the dramatic expression that adapts to the modern context, attracting young audiences to be reasonable.
In 2021, the Cantonese opera "Wedding on the Execution Ground" (Youth Version) was staged in Guangzhou.
In the view of Professor Tao Dongfeng, director and director of the Contemporary Culture Research Center of the School of Humanities of Guangzhou University, "red youth" is one of the biggest charms of the story of "wedding on the execution ground". Tao Dongfeng pointed out that the spiritual core of literary and artistic works with revolutionary historical themes like this exalt the idealism and heroism of the war years is derived from people's sincere pursuit. The combination of Zhou Chen's rush to the revolutionary ideal and the fear of life and death stems from the sincerity and purity of the heart, and the fusion of faith and love, which makes this story have a "charming youthful atmosphere".
Expert Interpretation:
The red literary super IP of "full of drama"
One of the most intriguing phenomena about "weddings on the execution ground" is that it has so many and distinctive forms of art adaptation, which can be called the perfect creative motif in the red literary classics, and in today's popular terms, it is super "IP" (that is, the collective name for the literary and creative derivative works triggered by the same high-quality content). In this regard, Wang Wei, director of the Guangdong Provincial Art Research Institute, pointed out that this story prototype can be said to be "full of drama", and it has just the right conditions for IP adaptation: strong story, strong dramatic conflict, relatively concentrated characters and events, thus forming "a set of character relationships, a story background and the possibility of combining N kinds of stage art".
The red modern Cantonese opera "Wedding on the Execution Ground" was staged in Guangzhou
Wang Wei analyzed that first of all, the theme of "wedding on the execution ground" is based on real events - two revolutionaries disguised as a husband and wife, engaged in revolutionary work under the pressure of white terror, and finally married on the execution ground and both died, which is a unique and extremely unusual story in itself. In particular, the heroine Chen Tiejun, born from a wealthy returned overseas Chinese family and the son of a wealthy businessman who was promised to the door, could have lived a life without worry, but under the inspiration of progressive ideas, she bravely broke through the shackles of family and secular concepts, chose to join the revolution, and fought side by side with the toiling masses. In an emergency, she categorically rejected her family's offer to send her abroad, putting her personal safety at risk until she was arrested and killed. "The ripples in the heart of the protagonist every time he makes a major decision are wonderful clips worthy of being portrayed with great ink and color." For example, Wang Wei said that the ballet "Haoran Iron Army" is from the female perspective of Chen Tiejun, focusing on the awakening of his female autonomy consciousness and the mental journey of changing from a big girl to an excellent revolutionary female fighter.
Secondly, Wang Wei pointed out from the perspective of the characteristics of theatrical art that the conflict of the "wedding on the execution ground" is very intense, including conflict of will, conflict of emotion, conflict of behavior, etc., and the protagonist is facing complex dramatic contradictions in love, career, family and other aspects. At the same time, the relatively concentrated, closed but small and complete story structure, with ample "blank space", allows various forms of adaptation to find a handy space to play, without being bound to each other. "Film directors can add a lot of details through the lens, stage directors have to think about how to tell the story in a limited time and space, and ballet directors have to jump out of the details and extract the most brilliant dance imagery."
More importantly, the "red literary ip" is not subject to traffic and market preferences like ordinary IP, but involves the construction of the value system and collective emotions of the Chinese people. Tao Dongfeng, a professor at the School of Humanities of Guangzhou University and a literary and art critic, concluded that the revolutionary spirit of unremitting struggle for mission and faith, the heroic spirit of courageous sacrifice, and the national spirit of being proactive and self-reliant after being active and enterprising, and making unremitting efforts to improve themselves, which are propagated by red literary and art classics such as "Weddings on the Execution Ground," will become an important part of the core socialist values after literary writing and literary adaptation, undertake the function of irreplaceable ideological education and spiritual shaping, and eventually become the "red spiritual imprint" imprinted on the souls of generations of Chinese sons and daughters.
[Reporter] Huang Chuxuan Xu Ziming
[Trainee reporter] Guan Yuqing
【Coordinator】 Guo Shan
【Planner】Chen Zhi Li He
【Author】 Huang Chuxuan; Xu Ziming; Guan Yuqing
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client
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