From the beginning of the appointment to visit Teacher Li Boxiang to his home for an interview, more than a month passed, not because he was particularly busy, but because of illness. Teacher Li, who was always talking during the performance, seemed to have no strength in speaking on the phone, and it turned out that he had shingles and needed to rest in bed for a period of time, which was inconvenient for interviews. When I saw him at his home in early April, I learned that during his illness, he still insisted on participating in the performance that had been promised, and after eating the painkiller, he endured the pain and insisted on performing on stage for 40 minutes.
Like many older generations of cross-talk actors, Teacher Li lives in an ordinary unit, the home area is not large, and the furnishings are relatively ordinary. After seeing us, Teacher Li showed the style of fast talk on the stage when he spoke, and the past was vividly remembered, and he did not forget to add a small baggage when talking about some fragments. Teacher Li has a very prominent feature in speaking, loving examples. I don't know which of these examples he usually thinks about, which ones are improvised, and they are so appropriate to say.
Many old actors like Teacher Li, I have not seen their live performances, because some people say goodbye to the stage when they are old, and Teacher Li is not like this. It seems that his spiritual head is always so full, and he has still been active on the stage over the years, so I have seen his live performance more than once before, and the old actor in his eighties still spares no effort to perform through the mouth, and at the same time, from the atmosphere of the scene, I can feel the popularity of his "Li Kuaizui" in the audience.
After the interview, in the guestbook I brought, teacher Li Boxiang wrote, "Speaking and singing, the audience is on it." ”
Li Boxiang was interviewed. Yang Ming photographed
Interview with Li Boxiang
Li Boxiang: Born in 1938 in Beijing, he later lived in Tianjin. Since childhood, he studied cross-talk with his father Li Jiechen, and at the age of 6, he took the stage and was nicknamed little prodigy. Later, he took Zhao Peiru as his teacher. In 1979, he was transferred to the Tianjin Qu Art Troupe as a cross-talk actor. He is good at working through the mouth, fast and not chaotic, slow and continuous, and is praised. In the late 1970s, he began to cooperate with Du Guozhi, which can be called a golden partner. Representative works include "Reporting the Name of the Dish", "Geographical Map", "The Great Drama Demon", "Chat", "Two-Faced Man" and so on. There were apprentices Zheng Jian, Dai Zhicheng, Wang Ping, Lü Xiaopin and so on.
Interview date: April 8, 2019
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "My cross-talk is neither Beijing nor Tianjin, I am public"</h1>
Q: Recently I have talked to a lot of old cross-talk actors and young actors, some people are on stage and what kind of offstage, love to joke and love to smash and hang, and some actors are another person offstage, quiet and don't like to talk much, do you belong to the latter?
Li Boxiang: I'm an old man.
Q: What was your youth like?
Li Boxiang: I don't make a fuss, it's the same thing as on stage.
Q: You weren't feeling well the other day, but you were still sick to the show, weren't you?
Li Boxiang: Standing for 40 minutes, saying three paragraphs, the audience just won't let me go down, what do you say I do?
Q: In situations like this, would you perform on stage a little more than usual?
Li Boxiang: Forgot. I can't explain. Let me give you an example, if you are a warrior, once you go to the battlefield, will you still consider itching your ears and uncomfortable eyes? That would be desperate. Of course, my cross-talk can't be so serious, but it's the same. On March 16th, why did I take the sick performance this time? The small theater group performs at the Chinese Grand Theater every anniversary, and the head of the theater says that you'd better have a more famous actor in attendance. The head of the small theater group came to invite me, I had not found shingles at that time, I promised people, and when I was unwell and got a little cold, my wife advised me not to participate in the big theater performance. Chinese afraid of losing credit, since I promised people, and the ticket has been sold 80%, tianjin people know me, in case there are a few low level in the refund of tickets is not good, unless I lie down and can't walk, I will grit my teeth. The doctor also prescribed me a few painkillers.
Q: Were you in particular pain at the time?
Li Boxiang: It hurts, I scratch my heart, I can't sleep. But as soon as I arrived on the stage, as soon as the audience welcomed me, I forgot, talked for more than 40 minutes, and came back to my body even more uncomfortable. The specific reason is not very clear, as if it is a vocation.
Q: In the past, there was a situation where an actor could return to the play if he was unwell.
Li Boxiang: It was really impossible to get on stage and had to stop performing, and there was another situation that this troupe was his, such as Ma Lianliang's troupe, and If Ma Lianliang couldn't sing that troupe, he would be responsible. I was in this situation where someone asked me to perform, and the tickets had been sold. In case I can't play a troublemaker, I'll cause trouble for the other team. I'm 82 years old, and I think that's a kind of morality that old cross-talk actors should have. I was in real pain, but I could still stand, and I said that day on the stage with one hand on the table.
In 2019, Li Boxiang and Xu Xiulin performed cross-talk
Q: You are a Tianjin actor, did you perform a lot in Beijing in the 1980s?
Li Boxiang: I am not a Tianjin actor, I am not a Beijing actor, I am a cross-talk actor. Let's talk about Peking Opera, Beijing has Peking Opera actors, Shanghai also has Peking Opera actors, you can't say that Peking Opera is Beijing Peking Opera or Shanghai Peking Opera, because Peking Opera is Beijing's "Beijing", not Tokyo's "Beijing", Tokyo's that is Japanese opera. The birthplace of crosstalk is Beijing, the birthplace is in Tianjin, the development is in Jinan and Northeast Shandong, and I have been apprenticed from primary school in Shandong.
Q: Morning Light Tea House.
Li Boxiang: Right. I can only say that I am a cross-talk actor, I work in Tianjin, but it is not only the art of Tianjin that has trained me.
Q: Now when it comes to cross-talk with jin and beijing, your cross-talk belongs to it in terms of style...
Li Boxiang: I am from Volkswagen, I am neither from Beijing nor Tianjin. I'm not saying that, too.
Q: I understand. Is it also because of your style that is not limited to a certain place, so you show that the Beijing audience also recognizes, and the Tianjin audience also recognizes?
Li Boxiang: So I'm a popular cross-talk actor.
Q: You can eat in both Beijing and Tianjin, which is a bit special.
Li Boxiang: Please understand, I am not raising a bar or anything, I am not Beijing and Tianjin, I am popular in Shanghai, Dalian, Anhui, Seattle and Chicago in the United States.
Q: I understand, then you are international crosstalk.
Li Boxiang: That's not true, and when I go to foreign countries, I also see it by Chinese audiences. Why is it welcomed everywhere? Let me give you an example, such as the Arabic letters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, as long as the number of words are known, so it should be popularized, but it should be delicate above the popularization. The macroscopic audience has to understand it, and the microscopic aspect of the area I have to liven up. For example, when I go to Beijing to perform, I rarely speak the Tianjin dialect, and when it comes to attractions, I mention that Beijing has Huguo Temple, Guangji Temple, and Lama Temple, saying that these are more familiar to Beijing audiences. In Tianjin, we will say that tianjin people are familiar with the scenic spots, when we go to Jinan, we will say Jinan, and when we go to Shanghai, we will say Shanghai. Who taught this? The teacher can only teach you one program, and the outline is very broad. Just like driving a car I taught you, "first gear push, second gear drag, third gear and four gear are particularly fast, one to five gears eighty miles." This is the general method, the teacher can not teach you to see the child so hide, see the old man so hide. I speak Mandarin everywhere I go, and I don't speak Beijing dialect, including the words I'm talking to you now. Performing in a place can add a little local color, and the program is eye-catching, or it serves the program. That's how I was, winning the liking of some viewers for me. It's not easy to do that, you have to accumulate experience performing in a number of different regions.
Q: This experience has something to do with the fact that you went south and north with your family at that time.
Li Boxiang: There is a relationship, breaking into the rivers and lakes. You still have to remember to break through the rivers and lakes, and you have to use it in the right place. For example, if I go to college tomorrow to perform, I will resolutely not say anything about love.
Q: Afraid of misleading.
Li Boxiang: Morally speaking, the teacher has an opinion on you.
Q: You guys talk about getting the dots alive.
Li Boxiang: Right. If I send the People's Liberation Army to the front line tomorrow, I absolutely cannot talk about homesickness and side effects; if I go to the hospital to perform, I try not to say that I lack arms and legs. There is a saying called oral transmission of the heart, the master is oral transmission, and the heart teaching is not the master, it is the disciple himself who accepts it with his heart. When I was a child, I didn't quite understand it, and slowly I realized it as I got older. I am in Shanghai or good, in Shenzhen performance said three paragraphs, to Donald Duck dubbing Li Yang to me to host, he sighed, how do you popular every day?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "Liu Baorui taught me to say "Open Porridge Factory"</h1>"
Q: Then Old Li, let's start with that. You came from a cross-talk family, learned cross-talk with your father, Mr. Li Jiechen, since you were a child, and you started to appear on stage at the age of 6, right?
Li Boxiang: There is a reason why you are on stage at the age of 6. I said that crosstalk is not voluntary, Japanese devils invaded China, we can't buy noodles in North China, didn't Mr. Chang Baokun have a crosstalk talk about tooth powder bags? After saying that, he also let people give a stinky beating. Crosstalkers and opera singers all ran to the south, where the situation was slightly better, where they could still eat. My father led me to Xuzhou, that is, to escape the wilderness, where there was a performance venue, and Gao Yuanjun was there.
Q: Shandong Kuaishu.
Li Boxiang: At that time, it was not called Shandong Kuaishu, this was a term that existed after liberation, at that time it was called Wu Lao'er, he was considered to be singing Wu Lao'er, or he was singing a big man, wasn't Wu Song tall? Why was the name changed after liberation? Comrade Gao Yuanjun joined the People's Liberation Army, and it cannot be said that this soldier sang about the second elder of Wu and the big man, which is not good, which is why he gave such a name. At that time, Gao Yuanjun was in Xuzhou, and my father, Guo Quanbao and Liu Baorui performed together, and I made change on the ground, when I was four or five years old. I listened to everything they said. By 1943, Shandong Jinan Grand View Garden had set up a cross-talk conference, just like the Qiming Tea House in Beijing's Xidan Mall. It is called the cross-talk conference, which means that cross-talk is not allowed to wear strange clothes, but must wear robes, because that is the Chinese dress. On September 2, 1943, the cross-talk conference in Jinan opened, and my father was invited to Jinan. There is a rule when the new cross-talk field opens, and the first performer must be a child, a child man, who has never been married. I was 6 years old and didn't know how to fall in love, they asked me to go on stage to open, I said the first cross-talk called "Six People", I was 6 years old, said "Six People", it indicates six six big Shun. That was my first time on stage, and I was in crosstalk circles from the beginning of the game.
Q: I didn't formally learn it before I took the stage, and I listened to it mainly on my own, did I?
Li Boxiang: My father taught me that I learned "Six People" sentence by sentence. Later, I mainly talked about small paragraphs, such as earning 200 yuan a day, and everyone left 10 yuan and 20 yuan in one point, so they bought me candy to eat.
Childhood Li Boxiang and father Li Jiechen
Q: Where was your nickname "Little Prodigy" left during the performance?
Li Boxiang: Nanjing. Nanjing Confucius Temple has a teahouse called Jingu Opera Tea Hall, and the audience buys tea and comes in to listen. I was on the stage there, when I was 9 years old.
Q: Isn't that the opening?
Li Boxiang: Save the bottom. I said it with my father. The money earned is also a little more, can't always say "Six People", what do I say? When I say that the passage of marriage is not like words, I say that "Article Will" and "Batch of Three Kingdoms" are even more different. Then we have to talk about the kung fu type, like "Reporting the Name of the Dish", "Eight Fan Screens", "Open Porridge Factory".
Q: Live through the mouth.
Li Boxiang: Through the mouth. That's how I practiced.
Q: Actually, you weren't particularly articulate when you were a kid, were you?
Li Boxiang: I am a big tongue.
Q: How did that overcome?
Li Boxiang: Fight. Old beaten.
Q: According to our usual experience, the big tongue is not easy to change, right?
Li Boxiang: To put it superstitiously, I am also a cross-talk grandmaster who appreciates rice and eats.
Q: You also mentioned Mr. Liu Baorui just now, Mr. Liu taught you "Open Porridge Factory", right?
Li Boxiang: He is my father. We played in the Golden Valley Opera Tea Hall, and there was a Golden Gate Opera Tea Hall opposite, and he performed there. My father and Liu Baorui are good, and they are also familiar with Wang Changyou and Wang Shichen, and they always come to my house to visit. Don't be afraid of your jokes, that's the old society, they all smoke a lot in my house. Once my father told Liu Baorui that there was a cross-talk called "Open Porridge Factory", brother, you said this paragraph better than me, you told my son about this paragraph. Liu Baorui said to me, I will teach you 20 sentences first. The next day, he read 20 more sentences, and after learning them, he asked me to read them from beginning to end. The first time you forget it's okay, the second time you forget to warn you, and the third time you have to fight.
Q: Did he hit him or did your father hit him?
Li Boxiang: He played.
Q: 9-year-old child, really fighting?
Li Boxiang: Kick. The two of them were smoking a big cigarette there, and the third time I made a mistake, Liu Baorui "poofed" and kicked me in the doorway.
Q: Isn't your father upset when he's around?
Li Boxiang: No, thank you, people are too serious about teaching their sons. Just like saying that crosstalk is a rice bowl, hitting his son is equivalent to adding rice grains to his bowl, he is such a logic. An article in the newspaper also said that I would hit Liu Baorui.
Q: Urgent.
Li Boxiang: I want to take revenge when I grow up. I thought to myself, you two are there drinking tea and smoking, the 9-year-old child is carrying a school bag to school, I am going to raise a family at that time, you beat me and kicked me, and when I grow up, I will teach you a lesson. Many years later, when we talked about Mr. Liu Baorui, I said that I had to bow to people and thank them, without his strict education at that time, I did not have today's skills. The bowl of rice I ate today said that the specific one was passed on to me by the old cross-talk artist. Among these old cross-talk artists, there is a force of Mr. Liu Baorui.
Crosstalk master Liu Baorui
Q: When you were beaten like this when you were a child, you learned the kung fu kung fu of passing, and in such an era, can young children still practice your kind of mouth piercing?
Li Boxiang: It is against the law to fight again now. At that time, there was no better way to educate, only to use the method of playing. Now I don't hate Mr. Liu Baorui, that year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mr. Liu's birth, I also went to Beijing to participate in the performance.
Q: At the National Palace Theater, I was there for that performance. Teacher Tang Jiezhong they all performed on stage, ma Dong hosted.
Li Boxiang: Yes, I'm talking about "The Great Drama Demon". Although the passage "The Great Drama Demon" was not taught to me by Mr. Liu himself, it also belongs to the kung fu type paragraph.
Q: Now there is a word called muscle memory, and many of your mouths from elementary school have taken root in your brain and will never forget it?
Li Boxiang: There are two conditions, one is hard work, and the other is talent. If you are good material, you will always be waste without work; you will always work hard, but you are born a soldier and will never be president. I'm not necessarily right about this explanation. Just say me, I like to play basketball, the action point is good, but I'm not that tall, so...
Q: That's why yao ming can't be made.
Li Boxiang: Right. On the other hand, I want to be as tall as Yao Ming, but I can't practice well, and I still can't beat other people's clever little men.
Q: When Mr. Liu Baorui taught you the skills, you never thought of worshipping the master, did you? You later visited Mr. Zhao Peiru.
Li Boxiang: Paying homage to Mr. Zhao Peiru is not considered to be later. My father and Zhao Peiru are good, when I was over a hundred years old (a hundred days), Chang Baokun and Zhao Peiru all came to give my father a congratulations, and my father hugged me, a big fat boy, and told Zhao Peiru that if he did anything else in the future, such as being a president and becoming a mayor, but if you say xiangsheng, it is your apprentice. I didn't speak at the time, and as soon as I spoke they scared away. Mr. Zhao Peiru agreed, saying that if this child will come to crosstalk, it will be my eldest apprentice. Mr. Chang Baokun is my guarantor. It was not until the spring of 1949 that we held a ceremony at the Qunying Theater in Nanshi, Tianjin, where I was Mr. Zhao Peiru's eldest apprentice.
Q: At first, it was considered a mouth alliance, and in 1949, it was officially worshiped.
Li Boxiang: Right.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "Li Boxiang can't always be on the second line, this is a general"</h1>
Q: They all say you can have hundreds of cross-talks when you're 15, is that right?
Li Boxiang: Hundreds of paragraphs are nonsense, there are dozens of paragraphs, even large paragraphs with small paragraphs. Since the day there was crosstalk, there have been more than 300 traditional cross-talk segments, and later with social changes, some of the passages can no longer be performed.
Q: By the time you're 15, you're supposed to be very mature, right?
Li Boxiang: Because I have been practicing through the mouth since I was a child, I am more familiar with the mouth work. You see I'm so old now, I still speak faster.
Q: You actually sang very well at that time, but then your voice...
Li Boxiang: During the Cultural Revolution, my throat was destroyed, and my stomach, and my waist, and my body was hurt.
Q: During the Cultural Revolution, Mr. Ma Sanli was on the outskirts of Tianjin, where were you at that time?
Li Boxiang: I was in Anhui at that time, and after being fired, I returned to Tianjin as a temporary worker. At that time, there was a city construction team in Tianjin's Hedong District, building a house, I was small and had thin arms, so I was asked to build a house, dig a ditch, and do the hardest work. You see my fingers are curved, I don't have the strength to force nu.
Q: During the Cultural Revolution, you were also...
Li Boxiang: I was 34 years old and worked for seven or eight years until I defeated the Gang of Four.
Q: What I've been doing in the past seven or eight years has nothing to do with crosstalk.
Li Boxiang: There is a relationship. Wasn't Mao Zedong Thought propagated at that time? I also criticize Lin Pingkong, engage in line struggle, and also engage in Confucian struggle, and in my spare time I sing allegro. The engineering team looked at my file and found that I had engaged in literature and art in the past, and the heavy physical work would not let me do it, let me go to the gate, and participate in publicity activities when there was an activity. Later, the literary and art groups were restored, and I originally returned to Tianjin from Anhui, so I did not want to return to Anhui. The Tianjin Qu Art Troupe also recovered, there was no teacher, they invited me to be a teacher, let me teach young actors, like Dai Zhicheng, that was my apprentice, and Zheng Jian. But I was only in my 40s at the time, and at this age, I was a little bit condescending in the second-line teaching, and then I was arranged to take the stage, and the result was this time...
Q: It's on fire.
Li Boxiang: Thank you to the audience in Beijing and Tianjin. For more than 40 years now, I have not fallen. Mr. Guo Rongqi and Mr. Li Runjie said at that time that Li Boxiang could not always be on the second front, that he was a general, that this man could not always be a staff officer, that he had to go to war.
Q: He's got to the front line with his marksmanship. That time between 1949 and the Cultural Revolution in 1966 you were...
Li Boxiang: In Anhui. Worked as a cross-talk actor in Hefei Qu Art Troupe.
Q: How did you get to Anhui?
Li Boxiang: For various reasons, I can't say more. Some Peking opera actors are in Beijing, some Peking opera actors have fallen to Jinan, and some have fallen to Wuhan, and the reason is that I fell to Anhui as a cross-talk actor. Anyway, I said very little crosstalk in Tianjin at that time.
Q: Since 1978, you have been working with Mr. Du Guozhi.
Li Boxiang: That's after I joined the qu art troupe. When I was a teacher, he accompanied me, and I wanted to demonstrate that when I was a while, someone had to measure my work, and when we were spare time, we also went out to talk together, and made a little income, two dollars, half a pound of food stamps or something. Before entering the qu art troupe, after the end of the Cultural Revolution, cross-talk was allowed, and the two of us performed at various cultural centers and some small evenings in our spare time.
Li Boxiang and Du Guozhi performed crosstalk
Q: Before that, was Mr. Du Guozhi a professional cross-talk actor?
Li Boxiang: He was not, he was originally a worker, he belonged to the halfway monk, and he said crosstalk in and around in the northeast of Andong (now Dandong). There are many cross-talk actors who did not say cross-talk at the earliest, and I am not depreciating anyone, for example, Ma Ji was the first to sell books.
Q: Xinhua Bookstore.
Li Boxiang: Jiang Kun is an agricultural worker.
Q: Heilongjiang Corps.
Li Boxiang: I am not a degrader.
Q: Can you say that your crosstalk is still mainly speaking?
Li Boxiang: There are many passages by saying. And crosstalk mainly depends on talk.
Q: Speaking and singing, "speaking" is the first.
Li Boxiang: Yes, and proportionally speaking, most of them still have to be said. Mr. Hou Baolin often sings, but each time he sings only a few words, most of the time he still speaks. "Speaking" does not solve the problem, how can it lead to "singing"? For example, a plate of stir-fried vegetables, there is meat and eggs, order a little salt, a little vinegar, but meat and eggs are the main thing, without these two things is blind. An actor can't say that he can only sing, that's not called crosstalk, and once he goes on stage, he can only sing without saying it, that's a neurosis. In fact, it is the most difficult to say good, but people often ignore it, which is not OK.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Li Boxiang and Du Guozhi performed cross-talk
Q: I forgot my original intention.
Li Boxiang: Yes, one said that he jumped high and jumped well, jumped long jumped well, and fell down the aisle, that is not OK. Walking and jumping are good, walking is the foundation. You see I didn't go to school, I can give an example.
"The audience is good to me, I can't be sorry for the audience"
Q: Tell me about your work "Chat", which is a piece tailored for you and is also your masterpiece.
Li Boxiang: Wang Minglu. I'm the same age, 82. At that time, the social atmosphere was to advocate practical work and real work, and to oppose empty talk and misleading the country, and Mr. Wang Minglu wrote such a work. The protagonist chats all day long, this and that, the sky is north and south. He thought, who is suitable for performing this paragraph? Li Boxiang, one is fast-talking and clear-tongued, and the second, although I have not been to school, I am an acrobatic.
Q: There is indeed a lot of chat involved in this paragraph.
Li Boxiang: There are some things that I made up, and he first wrote a box, like the things about football in it, and the things about Peking Opera that I added to it.
Question: That "Li DaBai Dan" is the original saying in the work, right?
Li Boxiang: It turned out to be. The paragraph says that there are four famous Dan in Peking Opera, which speaks of "vernacular birth", which is actually written about the absurd birth. There is a saying in Tianjin that if you don't practice, you are a "vernacular birth". In the paragraph, it is said that Cheng Yanqiu is a boudoir Dan, Shang Xiaoyun is a knife and a horse dan, xun Huisheng is Hua Dan, and finally came a "vernacular birthday".
Q: When was this passage first said?
Li Boxiang: 1982.
Q: Did you have another nickname since then?
Li Boxiang: Yes, just like Ma Sanli's "Ma Daha".
Q: This nickname in the work is a kind of irony and criticism, but when it is put on you as an actor, it reveals a kind of love and closeness to you from the audience.
Li Boxiang: Right. Later, I did not act in this paragraph, just like driving, after driving to the high-end 80 miles, it should be sliding for a while, and then speeding up, this paragraph has been 80 miles from beginning to end, and I can't act for a year or two, too tired, there is no time to slow down.
Q: It should be relaxed.
Li Boxiang: Yes, later everyone gave me a nickname called "Li Kuaizui". But this passage is also left behind.
Q: It has typical characters. Now many of the passages sound very lively but everyone can't remember, there are no characters in them. Let's talk about your "Look at the Red Rock", in fact, it is a praise-type work, which is difficult to write and perform.
Li Boxiang: I didn't write this passage, it was written by someone from the Wuhan Rap Group in the past six years, and I looked at the book, and some things I processed and adapted. This passage is more difficult to perform than "Chat" because it is a praise type, and at the same time, it is also necessary to find jokes, and I used some old paragraph methods, and also used a commentary method. Ma Sanli later put the book to go, acted several times and did not act, ma old man is of course everyone, but he is older than me, the strength is not as strong as mine, the mouth is not as fast as me.
Q: Your performances are particularly good at mobilizing the emotions of the audience, such as when performing a small part of "Hire Three Wheels", you turned over on the stage and the audience exploded. Is it a real flip?
Li Boxiang: True translation, I practiced kung fu when I was a child.
Q: How old do you say this little kid is?
Li Boxiang: Until the age of 69, I still talked and fell. Later, my wife gave me an order not to turn over again, for fear that I would fall. I was not allowed to ride a bicycle since last year, for fear that I would touch it.
Q: Seeing an actor in his fifties and sixties still performing so stage, and even turning his head, the audience on the one hand is distressed, but on the other hand, it is certainly welcome, how do you see the scale of the actor to meet the audience's appreciation needs?
Li Boxiang: The audience and the actors are friendly to each other, the audience is good to me, I can't be sorry for the audience, this is called drama.
Q: What is your comment on the cross-talk style and local audiences in Beijing and Tianjin?
Li Boxiang: Broadly speaking, whether it is the audience in Beijing, the audience in Tianjin, or the audience in Jinan, Shanghai and Nanjing, as long as the performance is on the right path, you will be welcome.
Q: How often have you performed in recent years? How many performances per year?
Li Boxiang: In the past, when the troupe did not retire, I had to act all year round. Last year, I was on TV footage, and I did more than 20 performances.
Q: What does crosstalk stage mean to you? Always willing to meet the audience is it?
Li Boxiang: Of course. The audience is friends.
Q: Your decades-old partner, Teacher Du Guozhi, passed away in 2014, and Mr. Du is your most important praise.
Li Boxiang: The cooperation time is the longest.
Q: Your teasing is known for being fast.
Li Boxiang: Fast, explosive, crisp, accurate.
Q: Yes, It's quite difficult for Teacher Du to "catch" the rhythm of your performance in your fast-paced performance, right?
Li Boxiang: At the earliest time, he was not adaptable, he couldn't catch up with me, there was a run-in. Later we worked together for 36 years, too familiar, and then I left him awkwardly.
Q: How do you rate his praise art?
Li Boxiang: Although he was originally an amateur cross-talk actor, after all, he still has a cross-talk foundation, without which he can't measure my work, plus our 36 years of cooperation, he and I can tacitly cooperate. He said that Li Boxiang was not always fast, slower than anyone else, slower than anyone, slower speaking, and constant emotions. This is called fast and not chaotic, slow and continuous. I also recognize him, and I am very sad that he has gone.
In the 1980s, Li Boxiang and Du Guozhi performed cross-talk
Q: In recent years, tea house cross-talk has risen all over the country, and what you are more familiar with is the theater era and television era of cross-talk, how do you view the changes in the current cross-talk performance environment?
Li Boxiang: For the audience, it is more convenient to listen to the tea house crosstalk, and it is also the popularity of crosstalk for the actors, but I rarely participate in the teahouse crosstalk performance, and my car rut has been transferred to that side, and there is no need to turn back.
In 2006, Li Boxiang, Li Lishan, and Li Jindou performed a group cross-talk
Q: You were a judge at the cross-talk competition last year, do you have any views on the performance of young cross-talk actors in the competition?
Li Boxiang: From a macro point of view, participation is victory, and from a micro point of view, I will not go into detail. In addition, this move is very correct, because in May 2017, the leader said at a meeting that foreigners coming to China can listen to Chinese Peking Opera and listen to Chinese cross-talk, so CCTV has held such a contest this time. Specifically, it's very lively. I am also grateful for inviting me to go. Speaking of young actors, they will all be good in the future, and they are better than me.
Q: Are you optimistic about the future of crosstalk?
Li Boxiang: I have a wait-and-see attitude, I am not good at making decisions. To quote Sun Yat-sen, the world trend is vast and unstoppable. But there are some old traditions of crosstalk that must be preserved no matter how much society changes. The surrounding buildings are 200 stories high, and Tiananmen Still has to be in the middle of the day, and it is impossible to move the Great North Kiln. Just like the tower in France, the Goddess of Liberty in the United States, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia, it must not be moved.
Q: You are 81 years old this year, and you are still active on the cross-talk stage, do you have a love for the stage and love for cross-talk?
Li Boxiang: I love crosstalk, and I am happy to say it well.
Li Boxiang greeted the audience with a fist bump
Q: Are you going to say that crosstalk is said to be unmoving, right?
Li Boxiang: Let me give you another example. When I was in my 60s, once my lover and I went to Hebei Provincial Television Station, the TV station held a press conference for me, and a reporter asked me, Teacher Li, your memory is so strong, when will you forget these passages? I said I can't say 85 or 86 years old, I give you an example, if really a hundred years later I am lying in the coffin, the coffin lid has not been covered, someone came to me and asked me, old Li, don't go first, what does that paragraph say? I told him to say so. Finished asking? The one who said that he was finished asking, I would go again. I give this example to say that it will not be forgotten. When I was a child, I hated crosstalk, and I learned crosstalk when others went to school, and then I slowly felt that I couldn't do without it. This is my job, my revolutionary work, marrying and having children to support my family, tens of millions of viewers like me, I rely on crosstalk, so I love it.
Note: Unless otherwise noted, the pictures in this article are from the Internet
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