New Year visiting famous artists: Lian Liru, the "Iron Lady" of the book critics

Lian Liru profile photo

【Chinese New Year Visit】

The famous "Iron Lady" in the book critics circle is tired and sick.

In recent days, in an ordinary ward of Beijing Friendship Hospital, people from literary and art circles and book fans from all walks of life have been in an endless stream. Master Lian Liru, who was lying on the hospital bed, greeted everyone one after another.

"I was born to review books. In 2018, the TV station resumed the "Beijing Book Critics Conference" program, and I recorded several big books in a row, and also wrote books and published books. Lian Liru confessed that if it were not for the occasional infection, she really couldn't stop.

Lian Liru, a famous storytelling performance artist, is a representative inheritor of the Beijing Commentary, a national intangible cultural heritage. On January 13, 2019, Lian Liru was named the 2018 China Intangible Cultural Heritage Person of the Year.

In Beijing's cultural and artistic circles, there are only a few female artists who are revered as "Mr." Lian Liru is one. There are three reasons for this: first, Mr. Storyteller's honorific title as an actor who has been a storyteller has a long history; second, everyone's recognition and respect for Lian Liru's inheritance of Beijing storytelling for decades; third, Lian Liru has been tireless and willing to serve as a ladder for many years, constantly cultivating students, and contributing to the development of the storytelling cause.

Nowadays, when mentioning Lian Pai's commentaries and mentioning Lian Liru, many old book fans will invariably mention another master of book reviews, Lian Liru's father, Lian Kuoru. Literary critic Dai Hongsen once said that Mr. Lian Kuoru can be called a big storyteller. His artistic conception was cheerful and noble, and he was the first artist to associate storytelling with the media and speak on radio stations.

Lian Liru told reporters that the difficulty in evaluating books lies in a "comment" word, and it is also expensive in a "comment" word. Books are not easy to say, and the word "commentary" is gold. The biggest feature of Lianpai Commentary is that it has made great efforts in the word "commentary."

As the earliest book critic actor to become famous in the country after the reform and opening up, Lian Liru has interpreted countless popular book critics in her decades of artistic career. If Lian Liru had been mentioned more than a decade ago, people would have associated her name with famous books such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Kangxi Micro-service Private Interview", and "Eastern Han Dynasty". In recent years, when lian liru is mentioned, people will not only blurt out a series of famous works, but also express their sincere admiration for Lian Liru's practice of pushing Beijing commentaries back to the small theater library.

In the "Collection of Essays commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the Xuannan Library in Beijing", an audience member vividly recounted the excitement of listening to Lianpai's commentaries for the first time on the spot—it was an early spring afternoon, and the library was full. Mr. Lian Liru, who is heroic and full of silver and gray, is full of color as soon as he comes on the field. With a thick, atmospheric, magnetic sound, the listener is transported to a distant ancient time, unable to extricate themselves from the scenes that Mr. Lian painted in vivid language. The characters in the book come to life, and the plot is even more gripping... Unconsciously, an hour has passed quickly, and when the wake wood rings again, the applause and cheers are endless. The person who applauded late must be like me, and his thoughts are still in the story told by Mr. Lian for a long time.

"It's not easy to return to the small theater. I have successively founded a number of small theater bookstores such as Chongwen Library, Dongcheng Bookstore, Xuannan Bookstore, etc., and my wife, daughter and son-in-law, apprentices, and a large number of people are all making contributions to these libraries. Lian Li said emotionally that in the past 10 years, Xuannan Bookstore has been rain or shine and started on time. Through the library, a large number of young actors have stepped onto the bookshelf, growing and maturing. There are more and more young audiences in the library, and excellent traditional music and art can be spread and promoted in the library.

Friends who are familiar with Lian Liru know that in recent years, Lian Liru has always said that she hopes that the whole society will vigorously support young music and art workers, so that they have better conditions, ponder art without distraction, and say good books. In Lian Liru's heart, there is an unchanging belief, that is, the book is bigger than the sky, and the audience is bigger than the sky. Her decades-long persistence has infected countless people.

A small book fan named Sun Qinghan wrote in a letter to Lian Liru: "Grandma Lian, you said that it is a book to say that it is a book. Storytelling has changed my life, and I hope that more children will listen to the storytelling and feel the charm of storytelling in the library. ”

"The rich Chinese culture is an inexhaustible source of storytelling actors, and the inheritance of Chinese oral literature for thousands of years has made the art of storytelling always brilliant; the previous generations of artists have watched in front of them, and countless book fans and friends are looking forward to it." Talking about the experience of inheriting the storytelling, Lian Liru took the reporter's hand and said, "I have been talking about books for decades, and I will tell all the young people who love the art of storytelling about my understanding of storytelling until the end of my life." ”

(Reporter Dong Cheng)