Mammoth News Oriental Today Chief Reporter Liang Xinhui /Wentu
She is a closed disciple of the Yue tune master Shen Fengmei, an outstanding inheritor of the Yue tune art, as the leader of today's Yue tone art, she has been practicing the "Feng Mei Spirit" of Master Shen Fengmei who loves the people and dedicates herself to art, and strives to make the "Feng Mei Spirit" into the soul of Henan Yue Tune.
She is Shen Xiaomei, deputy to the People's Congress of Henan Province, vice chairman of the Provincial Drama Association, and head of the Henan Yue Tune Troupe. On January 10, in an exclusive interview with a reporter from Mammoth News Oriental Today, Shen Xiaomei revealed that in order to promote the yellow river culture and promote the prosperity of the Central Plains culture, the Henan Yue Tune Theater Troupe will create a "national hero trilogy" to make positive contributions to the development of Henan drama and the creation of an important cultural highland in the country.
"It is a blessing to have such a leading figure"
When it comes to the three major dramas in Henan, many people can blurt out: Yu opera, qu opera and Yue tune. And the iconic figure of Yue Tone is Shen Fengmei. As early as July 1990, the 26-year-old Shen Xiaomei officially worshiped Shen Fengmei as a teacher.
After the death of Master Shen Fengmei, Shen Xiaomei remembered the teacher's teachings and carried forward the art of Yue Tuning. In particular, after she served as the head of the Yue Tune Theater Troupe in Henan Province, she led the troupe to rehearse a series of excellent plays such as "Exhausted Qishan", "Lao Tzu", "Ordered in Danger", "Zhang Boju", "Ji Hongchang" and so on. Among them, she won the Chinese drama "Plum Blossom Award" with the Yue tune "Exhausted Qishan", while the Yue tune "Lao Tzu" starring her won the Chinese "Wenhua Award", achieving a breakthrough of "zero" in the history of Yue tone.
In order to strengthen the performance team of Yue Tuning, Shen Xiaomei constantly helped various localities to establish or restore the Yue Tuning Theater Troupe. At present, Henan Province already has 10 Yue tune troupes. In order to prepare for the Yue Tune Art Festival held last year, Shen Xiaomei ran around, raised funds, organized the academy group, contacted the venue, she has been motivating herself with the spirit of Fengmei, tirelessly working hard, and working hard.
"In recent years, under the influence of the 'Fengmei Spirit', yuetong people have bravely climbed the peak and created a number of high-quality plays that have won national awards, showing the new style of Yuetong art and inheriting the Shenpai art founded by Mr. Shen Fengmei." Shen Xiaomei said that she will always uphold the "Fengmei Spirit", because this is the soul of Henan Yuetuo, always take the study of "Fengmei Spirit" as a compulsory course for all Yuetuo people, build the Henan Yuetuo Troupe into a first-class team in the country, continue to push forward the Yuetuo art, and make greater contributions to the culturally strong province and brilliant Henan.
Chen Yongquan, vice chairman of the Henan Provincial Federation of Literature and Literature, once used "big pattern, big feelings" to describe Shen Xiaomei, "The works she starred in, step by step, rushed to the platform of the whole country; she herself brought a group of students to let the Yue tune spark pass on; she not only accepted apprentices once or twice, but also ran a Shen Xiaomei opera school to cultivate a batch of drama talents." Having such a leading figure as Shen Xiaomei in Yuetong is the luck of Yuetong and the luck of Henan drama. ”
Carry forward the Yellow River culture and create a "hero trilogy"
"As a literary and artistic worker, to prove your worth, you must rely on your works to speak." Shen Xiaomei said that in September last year, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin in Zhengzhou, pointing out that it is necessary to dig deep into the era value contained in the Yellow River culture and tell the "Yellow River Story". This made her and the Henan Yue Tune Troupe feel very excited.
In Shen Xiaomei's view, the Yellow River is the mother river of the Chinese nation, which has nurtured and nourished the earth and created a splendid Chinese civilization. In the 5,000-year-long history of Chinese culture, the Yellow River has an indissoluble origin and inextricable connection with Henan and even the Central Plains. The Yellow River provides a steady stream of living water for the Central Plains, the Yellow River has created a vast, flat and fertile soil for the survival of the descendants of Yan Huang, the Yellow River has cultivated countless heroes and heroes for the Central Plains, and the Yellow River and its culture have laid a solid foundation for the prosperity and development of the Central Plains culture and added rich cultural heritage.
"Since ancient times, Henan has been a place that advocates heroic models, creates heroic models, and produces heroic models. The heroic deeds of national heroes Yue Fei, famous anti-Japanese generals Yang Jingyu and Ji Hongchang, and revolutionary general Peng Xuefeng are well known; and the exemplary deeds of Jiao Yulu, Shi Laihe, Chang Xiangyu, and Wu Jinyin are widely carried forward. This hot land in Henan has bred and cast the spirit of Jiao Yulu, the spirit of Hongqiqu, and the spirit of Yugong moving mountains. These are inexhaustible creative resources. ”
A nation without heroes is unfortunate, and a nation with heroes but no respect and love is irredeemable. General Secretary Xi Jinping once pointed out that "a nation with hope cannot do without heroes, and a promising country cannot do without pioneers" and "to achieve our goals, we need heroes and heroic spirit."
"To that end, we decided to create a hero trilogy." The three heroes Mentioned by Shen Xiaomei are Ji Hongchang, Peng Xuefeng, and Yang Jingyu.
"The three of them are the great heroes of Henan, sacrificing their lives for national liberation and for the founding of New China." Shen Xiaomei said that previously, the Yue tune "Ji Hongchang" has been put on the stage in 2018, and this year began to rehearse the Yue tune "Yang Jingyu", and then, also prepared to put "Peng Xuefeng" on the stage.
Shen Xiaomei said that he hopes that by creating a "hero trilogy", he will provide strong spiritual support for the realization of the decisive victory and the overall well-off and make the Central Plains more brilliant.
Actors can't break, and audiences can't break
Henan Yue Tune Troupe was founded in 1949, and it can be said that she came together with New China and grew up together. On December 16 last year, the special performance of "Growing With New China - Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Establishment of Henan Yue Tune Art Protection and Heritage Center" was held in the Provincial People's Hall, and the Yue tune artists of Henan Province reviewed the development process of Yue Tune with wonderful performances, and comprehensively displayed the excellent creative achievements of Yue Tune art in recent years.
Shen Xiaomei said that in the past 70 years, the Henan Yue Tune Opera Troupe has formed a situation in which traditional dramas, historical dramas, and modern dramas go hand in hand. The traditional repertoire is mainly based on the Three Kingdoms drama, which the audience is familiar with; the revolutionary historical themes "Zhang Boju", "Ji Hongchang", "Flying to Seize luding bridge", etc.; while the modern drama has "Flowers Blossom and Fall Flowers", and the current rehearsal is also "Nostalgia", which reflects poverty alleviation.
Like many other theater troupes, the Henan Yue Tune Opera Troupe performs in the fields all year round and is deeply loved by the people, performing nearly 300 times a year.
Domestic audiences like it, and foreign audiences also favor yue tone.
"On August 3 last year, we went to Belgium to perform the Yue tune play "Mouse Mother Marries a Girl". On September 6 last year, we went to South Korea to perform Yue Tune "Lao Tzu" and two martial arts plays. Both the Belgian and Korean audiences gave a positive review to our performance, and the response was very good. Shen Xiaomei revealed that a few days ago, they received another invitation to perform in South Korea.
In the theater circle, it is often said that opera actors cannot be broken, and Shen Xiaomei believes that opera audiences cannot be broken.
"In most performances in China, if you look down, most of the audience is middle-aged and elderly. For the long-term development of opera, it is necessary to cultivate young audiences. Shen Xiaomei said that in December 2016, they went to Taiwan to perform "Lao Tzu", and the audience was basically college, middle and primary school students, and there were many young audiences. Taiwan's opera into school activities has been carried out more than a decade earlier than the mainland.
"In 2018, we entered Tsinghua University and communication university of China to perform "Lao Tzu", and after the performance, the students pulled us to take pictures for a full hour. Our love of opera was very touching to us. ”
Shen Xiaomei said that Henan has also carried out the activity of bringing opera into the campus, with provincial-level academies and troupes entering colleges and universities, municipal-level academies entering middle schools, and county-level academies entering primary schools. "In our group, the total number of operas entering the campus every year is less than 20. Therefore, at this NPC meeting, I suggest that we should implement the "Several Policies on Supporting the Inheritance and Development of Opera" issued by the General Office of the State Council, increase government procurement, establish a normal mechanism for opera to enter the campus, increase the frequency and frequency of opera entering the campus, and truly let opera, an excellent traditional Chinese culture, enter children, influence children, and cultivate talents for the future of opera. ”