This group photo freezes the 11 energetic members of the cultural and labor troupe, and their faces cannot hide their heartfelt joy at the rebirth of Shanghai. They used their youth to paint a magnificent picture of revolutionary literature and art seizing the beach of Shanghai. Looking back on that historical moment today, it is still fierce and emotional.
Group photo of the Forward Literary Corps of the Twentieth Army in front of the Mawson Mansion
A hundred thousand troops slept on the road
The Forward Literary Corps entered the Mawson Mansion
History often inadvertently leaves a foreshadowing for future generations with strong contrasts.
In early June 1949, the 100,000 troops who had entered the city after the liberation of Shanghai by the East China Field Army were still sleeping on the road, but the forward cultural and industrial regiment of the Ninth Corps and the 20th Army, which had entered the city from Meilong Town in Minhang, received an order from the Military Management Office to immediately stay at No. 25 Gao'an Road.
PLA fighters camped on the streets of Shanghai
A group of members of the cultural and industrial troupe rushed straight to Gao'an Road and found that No. 25 turned out to be a garden villa.
The young members of the literary troupe looked at this beautiful mansion in the rich area in amazement, but they saw that the white three-story building was hidden in green trees and red flowers, and the birds and flowers sent by the early summer japanese wind were pleasant. However, the iron general of the mansion closed the door, and no one could enter. It turned out that the Military Control Office had designated a house, but did not give the key.
When there was nothing more to do, suddenly someone shouted, "Climb the window and go in!" The man pointed to an air window on the first floor of the villa with a slit and said, "You can climb in from here!" ”
"Here I come!" The volunteer was a small member of the regiment who was only 14 years old. Everyone couldn't help but be happy, it seemed that only this thin and thin warrior could drill the air window! There was already a fat pier lying down, and the two of them helped the warrior on the shoulder of the fat pier, and when the fat pier got up, the warrior took advantage of the situation to open the window, shrugged and jumped in. As soon as the gate opened, the members of the literary and labor troupe rushed in.
What a spacious bungalow! The members of the literary troupe looked upstairs and downstairs with joy, but they saw the steel window wax floor in the house, magnificent, the reception room, the living room, the bedroom, the dining room, the study, the bathroom, the smoking room, the storage room... Readily available. However, except for the master bedroom on the second floor, which has a large bed, there are no beds in the other rooms. But why not? Accustomed to sleeping in the "big bed" (floor bed) and covered with "golden wire quilt" (straw), and then compared to the officers and men of the combat troops who slept on the road, the floor bunk in the villa was already a heavenly treatment! Everyone happily carried their backpacks into the allocated room, ready to play the sardines in the can again, sleeping side by side on the floor.
"Come and see!" Everyone was busy cleaning the room when another exclamation came from the second floor. People ran upstairs to find a broken frame on the floor of the master bedroom, and the frame was set with a bust of a man wearing the rank of lieutenant general, and the seemingly elegant face was full of murderous breath. Everyone looked at each other and couldn't help but ask, "Who is this Kuomintang lieutenant general?" ”
At this time, someone whispered in a corner, "This is Mawson." Although the voice was very slight, it could be heard by all the members of the literary troupe who were crowded in the room.
Mao Sen, a well-known "giant tyrant of military command" in Shanghai, served as the chief of the Shanghai police for only 80 days, killing Chen Erjin, chief of staff of major generals of the Third Theater, and his wife Zhang Manxia, liu juncheng and Jia Yunchao, commissioners of the Beijing-Shanghai Special Commissioner of the People's Liberation Army, Zhang Chengzong, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee, Zhang Wuzhai, director of the Shanghai underground party radio station, and Li Bai, a reporter, and more than 400 other communists and benevolent people, and cruelly buried Mr. Huang Yanpei's son alive in his cell.
People couldn't help but take a breath of cold air: it turned out that we were staying in the Mawson Mansion! Then he turned his eyes to the person who spoke—he was Shen Xiongfei, who was in charge of logistics in the cultural and labor corps.
"How do you know he's Mawson?"
"My sister used to find him through relationships for my business."
Everyone was stunned: If a person who has something to do with the head of the secret service appears in the literary and labor corps, will it be the internal line installed by the enemy? Everyone stared at Shen Xiongfei together, and they couldn't help but be full of doubts. But seeing his clear as water eyes, I was relieved again. Where is the inside line of public self-disclosure? Thinking that Xiao Shen worked quietly and quietly, no matter how arduous the task was, he could do it with all his might, and instead of climbing Mao Sen's patron to find an official and a half-post, he went to the poor mountains and mountains to join the army led by the Communist Party to suffer hardships, and everyone felt some respect in their hearts.
"The White-Haired Girl" occupies Greater Shanghai
The Twentieth Army made a beautiful red business card
The task was quickly clarified. The commander of the Twentieth Army asked the Forward Literary and Labor Corps to "occupy the Shanghai stage with revolutionary literature and art." It seems that living in the mansion is not to enjoy the blessings of Qingqing, but to prepare for a strong battle!
At that time, most of the stage performances in Shanghai were costume plays by talented women, and the cinema was screened with the American movie "Izumi Hibiscus". The military chief used his killer skills and decided to let the opera "The White-Haired Girl", which showed great power in the Liberation War, enter Shanghai, and this was precisely the specialty of the forward literary troupe.
Enthusiastic Shanghai citizens are giving directions to the People's Liberation Army
In the early winter of 1946, the Shandong University Cultural and Labor Troupe performed a condolence performance to the first column of the Shandong Field Army, the predecessor of the 20th Army, and brought a large-scale mimeograph of the opera "White Haired Girl". The literary troupe copied the script overnight and put "The White-Haired Girl" on the stage with a single blow. At that time, the troops were fighting a sports war in Lunan "advancing in a big stride and retreating in a big stride", and every day before the troops set off at dusk, the cultural and labor troupe first performed a "White Haired Girl" to make the troops march with high morale. The next evening, the troupe performed for another unit at the new station. In order to ensure that the marching performance is not wrong, the stage of the cultural troupe and the backstage personnel follow the night march of the troops, arrive at the camp at dawn to set up a stage to borrow props to prepare, and the actors stay overnight and travel day, make up and perform as soon as they arrive at the destination, unload the stage, return the borrowed things and then rest. Once, the heroine Chen Ronglan performed in the Fifty-ninth Division, because of her outstanding performance and the audience into the play too deeply, when the Xi'er she played escaped from the Huang family after being humiliated, a soldier in the audience stood up violently and raised his gun to shoot Huang Shiren in the play, fortunately, the squad leader quickly lifted the gun in his hand, and the division political commissar Zhang Wenbi stopped it with a broken drink. A similar thrilling scene reappeared during the performance of the Second Brigade Brigade. Since then, the column has stipulated that the gun must be inspected before watching the play, and it is strictly forbidden to carry bullets in the gun. In the famous Battle of Laiwu, the officers and men of the first column shouted the slogan of "avenging Xi'er", fought repeatedly with the Kuomintang Forty-sixth Army and the Seventy-third Army, and together with the brother column, completely annihilated the headquarters of Li Xianzhou Group, two military headquarters, and 7 divisions, totaling more than 56,000 people. On March 29, 1947, Ye Fei and other column leaders issued a commendation order to record a great contribution to the column's literary and labor corps.
The Forward Literary troupe performed the opera "White Haired Girl" in Shanghai at the Liberation Theater on Zhapu Road in Hongkou. The regiment put advertisements in the newspapers and put up posters on the street. Who knew that on the first day of the performance, the synagogue with nearly 1,000 seats was only 7 poor baba audiences. Is the play unpopular, or is it not well publicized? The members of the literary troupe were not discouraged, and they carried forward the spirit of performing a play for a soldier when they were on the front line, not sloppy in word or song, not out of style in one move, and conscientiously finished the play. They believe that "The White-Haired Girl" can conquer the Shanghai audience.
On June 27, 1949, it was published in the Liberation Daily for the performance of "The White-Haired Girl"
Sure enough, with the first 7 spectators as the yeast, the people from all walks of life spread word of mouth, and the word-of-mouth fermentation effect of "The White Haired Girl" began to appear the next day, and the tickets sold 80%. After the third day, tickets were sold out one after another, and some viewers were even willing to buy tickets to watch the play. In later performances, not only the corridor of the synagogue was full of spectators, but even the window of the theater was also surrounded by air. Many spectators refused to leave for a long time after the performance.
"The White-Haired Girl" from the door to the scene is full, a ticket is difficult to find, attracting celebrities in Shanghai's literary and art circles to come to see the grand situation. They marveled, and they really couldn't imagine that the military cultural troupes coming from the battlefield could perform such a wonderful large-scale opera. What surprised them even more was that many of the actors were students who joined the New Fourth Army from Shanghai during the War of Resistance. The cultural troupe that entered Shanghai planned to upgrade the simple props learned from the Caotai team during the war years to a decent set. However, poplars, Shangguan Yunzhu and other movie stars proposed that it was still good as it was, which could increase the local flavor.
After performing in Shanghai for a month, the troupe was ordered to move to Jiading. Audiences who did not have time to watch the play wrote to each other to retain them, asking for an extension of the performance time, even if it was an extra week. Fortunately, since then, Shanghai opera and Peking Opera and other literary and art groups have staged "White Haired Girl", and the Shanghai Film Studio Actors Troupe has rehearsed "Red Flag Song" that reflects the lives of female workers. The new repertoire and forms of performance brought by the opera "White Haired Girl" have left a deep memory for the newborn people of Shanghai.
Li Min of the 20th Army Cultural and Labor Corps wrote an article about "The White-Haired Girl" in the Liberation Daily
On May 30, 1949, Shanghai's "Liberation Daily" published a photograph of the twenty-army troops sleeping on the streets west of Nanjing Road and Xizang Road, captured by Lu Rensheng, a reporter of the Xinhua News Agency, and after being broadcast by Xinhua News Agency, it was forwarded by many news agencies around the world, becoming a conspicuous symbol of the People's Liberation Army's entry into Shanghai and a beautiful business card played by the Twentieth Army. The Forward Literary troupe successfully performed "The White-Haired Girl", which naturally became the second business card played by the Twentieth Army.
During the performance, costumed literary warriors Chen Ronglan (first left in the back row of the group photo), Zhu Zhaozhang (first left in the second row, as Dachun), Bai Hao (first from the left in the front row, as Huang Shiren), Yao Zhengren (standing, as Zhang Er's aunt), etc., met in front of the residence for a group photo. On May 2, 2015, the author and Liu Shi'an, president of the "Shajiabang" Troop Research Association of the Shanghai New Fourth Army Historical Research Association, arranged for Chen Ronglan's daughter Ruan Weilan to take a photo at her mother's photo studio 66 years ago, trying to find the shadow of the literary and artistic light cavalry marching towards the Haipai culture from her. Helpless times change, things are not human, today's lens can not find the breath of yesterday. After all, history cannot be replicated.
Group photo in front of the mansion freezes the history
The story outside the photo is emotional
"The White-Haired Girl" was a hit in Shanghai, and the Liberation Daily and Wen Wei Po reported in a timely manner, and also invited literary and artistic masters to write articles and comments. Critics believe that "The White-Haired Girl" has a strong revolutionary content and a perfect form of expression, and the actors' performances, musical accompaniment, and stage design are very successful.
The plot performed on the stage has just ended, and the story off the stage has appeared one after another. After watching "The White-Haired Girl", Lan Ma, a famous actor under the Shanghai Kunlun Film Production Company, hugged Ge Xin, deputy head of the Forward Literary troupe, and said: "Great, the revolution is great!" I'll go with you as a soldier!" ”
Before joining the army, Ge Xin was an actor in a Chinese traveling theater troupe, and was known as "Living Lugui" for participating in the performance of the drama "Thunderstorm". He calmly examined the same industry blue horse that he was familiar with in the past, considering that he was living in Zhao Dan's house in a contradiction with the movie star Shangguan Yunzhu, and asking to be a soldier was likely to be impulsive, so he hit haha and said: "You are a big star, I can't put this little temple down!" ”
Blue Horse's eyes widened: "I surrender to the workers, peasants, and soldiers, and to proletarian literature and art. ”
"What surrenders and surrenders, how can an old friend say that?" Ge Xin laughed.
"I'm sorry I mispronounced the line, but I'm serious. My enlistment in the army is ironclad! ”
Ge Xin bluntly told him that he could not decide this matter. Lan Ma simply followed the literary troupe to Jiading. After approval, Lan Ma finally enlisted in the army and became an actor who enjoyed battalion-level treatment, and was soon transferred to the General Political Repertory Theatre, and later played the protagonist in the drama "Ten Thousand Waters and Thousand Mountains".
What was the fate of Chen Ronglan, who shined in "The White-Haired Girl"? In 1953, Chen Ronglan returned to China after participating in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and transferred to Shanghai as the deputy head of the People's Shanghai Opera Troupe, and then concurrently served as the secretary of the party branch. Taking off her military uniform, she still marched forward with the spirit of performing "White Haired Girl" on the battlefield, organized and created a number of excellent modern dramas, and wrote a new chapter in revolutionary literature and art to seize the beach in Shanghai. In 1958, Chen Ronglan occasionally received a feature "Blood-Stained Name" written by Cui Zuofu, an old comrade-in-arms of the Twentieth Army, reflecting the story of the struggle of the wounded and sick in Yangcheng Lake, and took the screenwriter to visit Liu Fei, the founding lieutenant general who came out of the wounded and sick in Yangcheng Lake, and won his memoir "Tinder", and created the Shanghai opera "Ludang Tinder", which was later adapted into the modern Peking opera "Sha Jiabang".
Stills from the Shanghai opera "Ludang Tinder"
Shanghai opera, which is known for performing "suit cheongsam dramas", has become a "crab eater" of theater reform, and Chen Ronglan is undoubtedly the vanguard of China's theater reform. However, this lark that flew from the flames of war had a bad fate, and when it was at its most brilliant artistic age, it suddenly encountered a long street of misfortune. On November 27, 1973, Chen Ronglan went to the Shanghai People's Grand Stage for a meeting, rode a bicycle to the lantang leather shoe store at the intersection of Nanjing West Road and North Shaanxi Road, suddenly encountered a teenager rushing out of the mouth, she fell to the ground after braking sharply and injured her brainstem, and died after being sent to the hospital, at the age of 43. When Chen Ronglan died, it was exactly 30th anniversary of her going to eastern Zhejiang to join the New Fourth Army, and it was exactly 20th anniversary of her return from liberation to participate in the creation and performance of modern Shanghai opera. In the long river of history, everyone's life is a fleeting wave. Although Chen Ronglan's life was short, this flower, which has the background of the iron army and has been flying for the literature and art of revolutionary fighting all his life, has been integrated into history because it reflects the magnificent light of dramatic reform.
On June 21, 2015, when I visited Zhu Ren, a key member of the Forward Literary and Labor Corps in Hangzhou, I learned that Shen Xiongfei, who had revealed his identity at the Mao Sen Mansion, was a newspaper boy before joining the army and had been arrested and imprisoned for helping the underground party deliver intelligence, and his sister had found Mao Sen to release him on bail. After the Forward Literary troupe went to Shanghai to perform, Shen Xiongfei left the team to return to his hometown as a primary school teacher. After Following Chiang Kai-shek to escape from Taiwan in 1949, Mao Sen lost his position in the power struggle and fled to Hong Kong, and in 1958 he was wanted by the Taiwan authorities and fled to Okinawa for 10 years, and in 1968 he moved to the United States. In his later years, Mao Sen was homesick, and often wrote letters to the people's government of Jiangshan City, Zhejiang Province, and set up a Mao's scholarship, praising "the Great Communist Party and the Great People's Government", and saying to the local historians' records of his crimes: "This is a fact!" This is a fact! In May 1992, Mawson and his wife and children flew from San Francisco to Shanghai for 43 years, and after visiting friends, they returned to Sangzi but had a long-cherished wish to return to the United States.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Huang Wei Text Editor: Xu Yunqian Inscription Source: Title Image Shanghai Citizens Welcome the People's Liberation Army near Jiujiang Road
Source: Author: Gao Jianguo