Li Shujian: Only after hard thinking and meditation will there be fantastic ideas

Li Shujian recent photo Reporter Liu Ping'an photo /Guangming picture

【Approaching the Writers】

He is one of the leading figures of the "100,000 Army" of Yu opera, with millions of fans on the short video platform. He said, "Artistic creation cannot rely on flower fist embroidery legs, rely on opportunism, rely on self-speculation, rely on large flower palanquins to lift people, only diligence." He believes that sweat is more valuable than tears, and action is more powerful than words.

On February 5, just after the New Year, this reporter met Li Shujian, president of henan yu theater and chairman of the Henan Provincial Drama Association, who was preparing to participate in the rehearsal of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala opera gala in Beijing. In order to ensure the smooth progress and perfect presentation of the Chinese New Year's Eve night performance, Li Shujian had been staying in the hotel next to the CCTV main station for more than ten days. The ephemeral splendor on the Spring Festival Gala stage condensed the sweat of months before and after, and also condensed Li Shujian's decades of research and practice.

"Chinese Yu opera has a history of three hundred years, and is currently spread across thirteen provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country, including Taiwan, with 163 professional theaters and troupes in the country, nearly 2,000 private theaters in Henan, and nearly 100,000 employees, known as the '100,000 army.'" As one of the leading figures of the "100,000-strong army", Li Shujian claims to be "the gatekeeper of Yu opera", and he hopes to guard the gate for Yu opera, base himself on the original, absorb foreign countries, face the future, and strive to avoid impetuosity and produce more fine products.

Li Shujian has a notepad, and every time he thinks of a new idea, he writes it down, which records his thoughts on creation, performance, troupe management, talent training and other aspects. He said that opera is moving forward in a difficult situation, we cannot complain about others, we must find problems from ourselves, and on the basis of practice, "hard thinking and meditation will lead to wonderful ideas."

As an actor, Li Shujian believes that "creation is the central task, and works are the foundation of the body". No matter how impetuous the wind raged, he always insisted, "Artistic creation must be able to withstand loneliness and stabilize the mind in the tide of the market economy; not waver for the sake of temporary profits, not impetuous for the reputation of the moment; slaves who are not in the market must work like cattle and dedicate like land." Although Li Shujian has embarked on the leadership position of the Yu Theater Troupe since the age of 27, he has never stopped creating and performing, and during this year's Spring Festival (from the sixth day of the first month to the tenth day of the first month), he landed at the Shenzhen Grand Theatre with his representative yu opera "Loyalty and Filial Piety and Righteousness" tetralogy - "Cheng Baby Saves Orphans", "Qingfeng Pavilion", "Su Wu Muyang", and "Yi Bo YunTian", and sent New Year blessings to the local audience with the big drama.

"As an opera actor, you have to keep up with the times." Such a proposition is not only reflected in Li Shujian's creation and performance of integrity and innovation, but also reflected in his use of new media. Unexpectedly, Li Shujian, who is nearly sixty years old, has more than one million fans on the short video platform, and he has his own experience in the popularization of opera. "It's important to understand the needs of young people and adapt to their appreciation habits. Use some wonderful singing segments that are both ideological and entertaining to attract their attention to opera, understand opera, and then attract them to the offline. Li Shujian said, "Popularize opera through short videos, videos should not be too long, but they should be combined with lectures." Generally speaking, it is necessary to briefly introduce what the excerpt is, what singing voice, and what ideological content it is talking about, and then sing a few words to stop and share some small episodes in the performance of the countryside or the performance abroad, such as the performance of "Cheng Baby Saves orphans" on Broadway in the United States, Hollywood stars compete to take photos with Yu opera actors, which is not only a kind of opera popularization, but also reflects our cultural self-confidence. ”

As an actor, Li Shujian constantly studied the creation, performance and popularization of Yu opera, while Li Shujian, as the director of Henan Yu Theater, conducted his painstaking meditations on the management of the theater troupe, market operation, and talent training.

Li Shujian knows that if a college is to succeed, unity is crucial. He said that the most important spirit of Henan Yu Theater is unity and hard work, followed by rolling stones up the mountain, getting out of difficulties, and daring to be the first. In order to "travel through thousands of mountains and rivers to find the market, eat the image of thousands of hardships and hardships, and refine the fine products through thousands of hammers and hundreds of hammers", the four regiments under the Henan Yu Theater have a clear artistic positioning: "One is the 'one big banner', carrying the banner of 'Chang Xiangyu', and the performance is mainly based on the traditional repertoire of the Chang school; the second group is 'one horse first', with the newly compiled original repertoire as the mainstay, exploring innovative performance systems, shouldering the heavy responsibility of foreign cultural exchanges; the third group is 'one banner', insisting on performing modern plays such as "Chaoyanggou" and "Little Erhei Marriage". Keep pace with the times; youth groups are 'thriving', allowing young actors to compete together and perform classic plays of different genres to avoid them being buried in other troupes. ”

"According to different audience groups, different performance methods are adopted to meet their aesthetic needs." In order to meet the needs of different markets, Li Shujian put forward "three versions": one is the "classic version" of excellent repertoire, creating a fine product that has been passed down from generation to generation and going to the world; the second is a diversified "resident version", using a diversified repertoire and multiple genre versions to adapt to meet audience groups of different ages, cultural levels and artistic aesthetics, expand the market, and cultivate opera fans; the third is the "touring version" of "going out" and "going down", respectively, arranging plays suitable for the vast number of rural audiences and overseas audiences.

In recent years, the development of Yu opera has been obvious to all. Yu opera not only retains the old audience and old opera fans in more than ten provinces, but also cultivates a new audience among young people through the combination of online and offline. In terms of creating and launching fine products, Yu opera has also shown strong vitality: it has won the "Wenhua" Award of the China Arts Festival for six consecutive years, the "Top Ten Fine Works" Project of the National Stage Art for eight consecutive years, and the "Five Ones" Project Award of the Central Propaganda Department for nine consecutive years.

Yu opera has made some achievements, and Li Shujian is constantly achieving new breakthroughs, but he does not dare to slacken off, and still feels that there is a long way to go. "Artists must cherish their own image and must not lose their way in the tide of the market economy." There is a shelf on the stage, and the shelf is put down offstage, and ordinary people play unusual plays; celebrities must not forget to contribute to people, and be an ordinary actor whose skills are greater than their fame. "That's what he asks of himself, but he also encourages young people.

(Reporter Liu Ping'an)