It is often said that there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people.
Experience and position are the most important factors affecting our view of something, experience determines a person's habits and angles of looking at things, and positions "influence" the direction of personal understanding.
The elders cannot understand the practice of the younger generations to "seek freedom and covet the world"; the younger generations cannot agree with the elders' idea of "being content with one place, stable and boring", and no one can persuade anyone, and the generation gap and differences will arise from then on.
Not only did it cause quarrels and arguments, but it also created irreparable "loopholes" in the relationship between the elders and the juniors, just like Xiao Xiangyu and her grandmother Chang Xiangyu.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" >01, from like to acceptance: once she was also very resistant to the name "Xiao Xiangyu"</h1>
Xiao Xiangyu's real name is Chen Bailing, born in 1965 in Zhengzhou, Henan, her family is a pear garden family that has been engaged in Yu opera for generations, so Chen Bailing has been deeply influenced by art since childhood, and inexplicably fell in love with this industry.
When she was a child, she was very naughty and arrogant, and she was a "little princess" in the eyes of others. Her step-grandmother was Chang Xiangyu, a Famous Chinese Opera Master at that time.
Therefore, when people around them look at Chen Bailing, they will always unconsciously bring the "filter" of "Chang Xiangyu's granddaughter", and subconsciously think that Chen Bailing's bones have the "pride" from the opera everyone, and habitually "hold" her, which causes Chen Bailing to become more squeamish.
Not only does the teacher like to call her "arrogant and delicate", but the classmates also have no way to "take" Chen Bailing.
When Chen Bailing was in school, she once agreed with her roommates to contract a day's work of cleaning everyone's socks. When it was Chen Bailing's turn, she was the youngest and refused to fulfill her promises, which caused a headache for her roommates.
Occasionally, everyone gets together to make dumplings, and Chen Bailing has to "take charge" of the dumpling filling. But the dumpling filling she concocted was so unpalatable that others "complained" about why she didn't add a little more salt.
Chen Bailing retorted with a look of "taking it for granted": "My grandmother said that drama actors eat a little lighter, which is good for the throat." Everyone was instantly "dumbfounded."
At the age of 6, Chen Bailing and her parents lived in the Yu Opera Troupe Family Hospital; at the age of 10, the little girl who had always been very assertive secretly applied for the Henan Provincial Art School without her family.
When the family learned of this, they were furious. Her parents drank to make her "give up", and Grandma Chang Xiangyu also did not approve of Chen Bailing taking the "old road" of the elders, saying that these people who engaged in art had been "whole" afraid, and it was better to study well, master a "technology", and become a doctor in the future.
Chen Bailing did not listen, and the following year secretly applied for an art school. This time, the elders seemed to feel Chen Bailing's determination to study Yu opera and did not stop it anymore.
In 1980, 15-year-old Chen Bailing graduated from school and entered the Zhengzhou Yu Opera Troupe to become a Yu opera actor. Two years later, she became famous for her drama "Mulan Joins the Army" and won the first prize of Young Drama Actors in Henan Province.
Later, Chen Bailing recalled the beginning, laughing and saying: "I think Mulan can be red, first, the role image is good, and second, it is related to my grandmother, immersed in my grandmother's painstaking efforts... One of my favorite sentences is that my grandmother sang "Who says women are inferior to men", which is the best one in my eyes. ”
It was probably because of this that Chang Xiangyu saw the "talent" and "potential" of her stepdaughter, and she proposed to let Chen Bailing change her name to "Xiao Xiangyu" and inherit her "mantle".
But Chen Bailing was very puzzling: "I am obviously known to everyone in Chen Bailing's name, why do I have to change to a small Xiangyu without a surname?" ”
The young and vigorous little girl is very resistant to "staying in the shade" of the elders, being "illuminated" by them, and she is eager to "fight" herself to find a path of her own.
However, the Zhengzhou Municipal Party Committee attached great importance to this matter and personally came forward to persuade Chen Bailing to think about the future and inheritance of Changpai Singing, and not to let this classic Yu opera genre "disappear" from now on.
Chen Bailing could not resist everyone's persuasion and expectations, and finally accepted the name of "Xiao Xiangyu" and officially worshiped under the door of her grandmother Chang Xiangyu and became her own disciple.
At that time, she did not know that from the compromise of "stage name", grandma Chang Xiangyu would become an "insurmountable mountain" that occupied most of her life, making her original "free" life "bound" and "controversial".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" >02, from acceptance to abandonment: she said she stopped doing it, she didn't act, she didn't learn</h1>
After visiting the teacher, the first "contradiction and disagreement" that appeared between Xiao Xiangyu and Chang Xiangyu was that Chang Xiangyu wanted Xiao Xiangyu to live in her own home, so she could teach and train Xiao Xiangyu nearby.
But Xiao Xiangyu, who has always been "free and accustomed", "can't stay" at all, and she often takes advantage of the night to climb the wall to "escape", which makes Chang Xiangyu extremely distressed.
After a long time, Xiao Xiangyu talked about the beginning, and she couldn't help but shake her head and sigh for herself at that time, she said: "Fortunately, Grandma recognizes my talent and ability very much, and also attaches great importance to my works." Every time I perform, she will point out some of these problems and problems... She didn't like to praise me in person, she was afraid that my 'tail' would 'cock', and from time to time she asked me if I 'pressed the tail'. ”
Under the "tuning" of the master, Xiao Xiangyu's singing skills really improved slowly, presenting one classic work after another. At the same time, her reputation gradually spread throughout China, and her career became more and more prosperous.
In 1987, Xiao Xiangyu became the leader of the 1st Troupe of the Provincial Yu Opera Troupe;
In 1988, she won the first place in the national Yu opera competition; in the same year, Xiao Xiangyu participated in the Spring Festival, New Year's Day and Lantern CCTV galas, and performed at the Asian Games Arts Festival;
In 1989, Xiao Xiangyu led a delegation to Hong Kong as a descendant of the "Chang Sect" to hold an opera exhibition, which won the favor of Hong Kong and Macao people;
In 1990, she appeared at the Spring Festival Gala three times and performed drama sketches;
In 1992, Xiao Xiangyu won the first prize of the Plum Blossom Award of the Chinese Opera Awards;
In 1993, the TV series of the same name based on her grandmother Chang Xiangyu won the "May Day Project" award; in the same year, Xiao Xiangyu once again "won" the Plum Blossom Award.
What Yu Opera brings to Xiao Xiangyu is not only fame and honor, but also "vision" and "thinking". As she grew older, the "rebellion" buried in Xiao Xiangyu's heart also began to "emerge".
In 1995, Xiao Xiangyu took out hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings she had accumulated over the years and founded China's first Art Hope Primary School. The first students enrolled were all children from poor families who could not afford to read and learn art, so Xiao Xiangyu gave them full tuition-free treatment.
This work is easy to say, but it is extremely difficult to implement. Xiao Xiangyu also thought about "giving up", but the support of her family and her hopes for the future of Yu Opera finally made her grit her teeth and persevere.
Grandma Chang Xiangyu was very supportive of Xiao Xiangyu's practice of "running a school", and despite her illness, she personally ran to Shaanxi to help Xiao Xiangyu and won the assistance of one relevant department after another for her. However, Xiao Xiangyu still "lived up" to her grandmother's high expectations.
In 2004, the school's last students graduated. Xiao Xiangyu began to think, is there any need for the school to continue to run? Or could she start an art troupe dedicated to stage performances and present works that audiences like to see?
The development of the times has caused the ancient industry of drama to be "hit", and it has also made Xiao Xiangyu confused.
Reason told her that sticking to the Yu opera industry has no future and will be eliminated by "society" sooner or later; emotions "pull" her, making it impossible for her to make decisive choices.
In the end, Xiao Xiangyu, who "surrendered" in the "real substance", decided to abandon Yu Opera. She said: "I don't learn, I don't act, I don't do it. ”
Her choice really disappointed Chang Xiangyu, and the old man lying on the hospital bed called a lawyer to "keep" a special "will" for Xiao Xiangyu.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" >03, which is right or wrong: the persistence of old artists and the "future" of young people</h1>
Yu opera is a career that Chang Xiangyu insisted on all her life, and she pinned all her hopes for the future of Yu opera on Xiao Xiangyu's body, but Xiao Xiangyu, who only acted in a few plays in 10 years, obviously violated the old man's pursuit of Yu opera.
The nostalgic old man did not directly "judge" Xiao Xiangyu, she planned to give Xiao Xiangyu another "chance" to use her own death to "awaken" Xiao Xiangyu's love for Yu Opera.
Therefore, she did not immediately issue the "statement", but handed it to her son and asked him to "observe" Xiao Xiangyu for herself.
But Xiao Xiangyu failed to "understand" the meaning of the old man, and still went his own way. Therefore, Chang Xiangyu's son Chen Jiakang consulted with the old man's lawyer for a long time and decided to disclose the statement that "deprived Xiao Xiangyu of his stage name and inheritance rights" to the public.
As soon as the statement was released, it immediately attracted widespread attention. Some people accuse Xiao Xiangyu of "lusting for profit" and "tarnishing" the "purity" of Yu opera and art, saying that she blames herself and herself, which is purely "deserved"; some people "blame" Chang Xiangyu's "fierce heart", can't see the reality clearly, and is an "old stubbornness" who is "immersed in the art of the past".
In fact, from this incident, we can once again deeply feel the "generation gap" that belongs to the two generations of old and young:
The persistence and love of the elders for art and drama, unwilling to use any "worldliness" to "destroy" its "purity", and even regard it as more important than life, "drama is greater than the sky" is the concept pursued by the old artists all their lives, worthy of everyone's respect and admiration.
Young people's considerations are more based on the "future" and "future", which is no longer the case in the past, and today's society is no longer the environment of the past when "the car is very slow and can love for a lifetime".
The preference of "fast food" is destined to "wither" countless old traditions, and the dazzling human world has also given people "countless choices", elimination has become inevitable, how to "seek" a "way of life" on the road of possible elimination, but also become a problem that young people continue to think about.
We are not qualified to judge whether the old man is too old-fashioned and inflexible; nor is there a position to accuse Xiao Xiangyu of turning Yu opera into a "means of making money". Their choices and persistence, in a way, are not "wrong".
The age of Chang Xiangyu's life determines that her vision is not as vast as Xiao Xiangyu's, but that is not the reason why people accuse her of "old tradition"; Xiao Xiangyu is not to blame herself, nor is she self-inflicted, she just stands in her perspective and the times, and chooses a direction that is more suitable for the development of drama.
Conformism and convention-breaking are correct in their respective positions: the former retains the essence and spirit of the artistic tradition; the latter "struggles" for them to create a path more in line with the context of the times, so that they can be loved by young people and continue to be passed on.
Text/Li Qingyu