【Famous Dialect Culture】
Enhance cultural self-confidence and strive to inherit Meipai art
——Interview with Hu Wenge, a male dan of Meipai at the Beijing Opera House
Author: Lu Luxing
Hu Wenge, male, Han ethnicity, born in 1967, from Xi'an, Shaanxi. Peking Opera master, famous Mei (Lanfang) Sect Qingyi, the third generation of inheritors, male Dan Chuan disciple, Beijing Peking Opera House male Dan head card, Mei Lanfang Peking Opera Troupe leading actor, national first-class actor.
Reporter: What made you choose to engage in Peking Opera performing arts in the first place?
Hu Wenge: First of all, I did not choose to engage in Peking Opera performances by accident. If someone is only exposed to all kinds of arts at the beginning, and then suddenly becomes interested in Peking Opera as an adult, it is almost impossible to engage in Peking Opera, which is also a point that I always emphasize now. I grew up in the Qin Cavity Theater Troupe in Xi'an to study opera, laying the most basic child skills that opera actors should have, and laying the most critical foundation for me to engage in the art of Peking Opera in the future.
The second reason for choosing Peking Opera was the influence I received when I was a young student. In the early 1980s, I went to a drama school to study drama, and after graduation, I was assigned to the Qin Lu Theater Troupe, where there was an old artist Li Defu, who was once a Peking Opera male Dan and later became an opera educator. In the 1980s, more than 30 Danjiao actors who won the Plum Blossom Award asked him to be a tutor, and later these people became famous artists, including the now famous Peking Opera artist Liu Changyu, who now often mentions her experience of studying drama with Mr. Li Defu. At that time, I watched Teacher Li rehearse for the actors in the troupe, and eventually I was deeply attracted by his male Dan art. In my heart, in addition to having such reverence for Master Mei since I was a child, that is a kind of heroism in the heart of a child. In reality, it was Teacher Li Defu who had the greatest influence on me. At first, Teacher Li didn't want to teach me to learn drama, because he felt that I was learning Qin Dialect and acting as a small student, and it didn't seem appropriate to teach me Peking Opera Danjiao drama. But I have always been very interested in this, silently studied with Teacher Li for many years, and laid the foundation for Peking Opera Danjiao performance in addition to the Qin Cavity.
The combination of these two reasons made it possible for me to embark on the road of Peking Opera performance later. Peking opera has a high artistic standard, singing and sitting and playing requires profound basic skills, not who wants to sing Peking Opera can do it, the premise of changing careers is that you must have a foundation laid from an early age, there is no foundation, and it is useless to have enthusiasm alone. When I was young, I finally made preparations for the later stage performances, and I think this is the best arrangement of fate. When I was almost 30 years old, I finally felt that I should still choose the path of Peking Opera Danjiao, whether it was because I was intoxicated with her artistic value or in order to pursue a higher artistic realm, Mei Pai's male Dan art became the career I wanted to engage in most in this life. In this way, out of love for Meipai art, I finally changed my career to learn meipai's Danjiao.
Reporter: Later, when you came to Beijing to work, on the Peking Opera stage in the capital, what impact did you think the atmosphere of Beijing had on you?
Hu Wenge: Before I officially came to Beijing to work, I also came to Beijing from time to time to record a program, which is not a newcomer to Beijing. My first visit was in 1993 when I came to Beijing to record "Variety Show". At that time, I was recording a program on CCTV, and Teacher Yang Shaohua introduced me to my master Mei Baojiu. So before I was transferred to Beijing, I would come to Beijing every year, sometimes to record programs, sometimes to learn drama from Master, but I did not live or work in the city of Beijing for a long time. In the end, when I decided that I must study Peking Opera, and this goal must be achieved in Beijing, because Beijing is the place where Peking Opera will eventually take shape, it is the center of Peking Opera art, and all the excellent resources, talents and stages are concentrated in Beijing. That's why I ended up choosing to stay in Beijing.
After really working and living in Beijing for a while, my feeling is that as the ancient capital of Beijing, its historical and cultural background is very deep, there are too many things worth learning and inheriting, and many of its contents and values are also reflected in Peking Opera. Therefore, engaging in Peking Opera performances is itself a personal practice of historical and cultural inheritance; modern Beijing is an open and inclusive international metropolis, the characteristics of the capital have made it the undisputed cultural center of our country, and the cultural trend of Beijing leads and influences other regions, which is not only the vane of national literature and art, but also can take this as a starting point to export our cultural ideas to other countries in the world.
Reporter: With the enhancement of national strength in recent years, there are more and more opportunities for Peking Opera art to perform abroad, how do you think about this phenomenon? What is the lack and room for effort?
Hu Wenge: Peking Opera is the essence of China's traditional culture and the representative and symbol of traditional Chinese art. Although there are many opportunities for Peking Opera to perform abroad, it has risen to the level of artistic understanding, and the understanding of Peking Opera by foreign audiences is still very shallow. Many foreign audiences only know about Sun Wukong, Chinese martial arts, Peking Opera faces through performances... But Chinese art is by no means just the content of these expressions, but has a deeper artistic aesthetic connotation.
Conversely, when we talk about Western ballet, symphony, and opera, we are no strangers to them, because these artistic disciplines have become common arts not only in Europe and the United States, but also in the whole world. But our Chinese art has not yet formed a commonality with the outside world, and her influence has always been limited to the East, and to be more specific, it is only within the scope of China. Master Mei Lanfang has already brought Peking Opera out of the country in the last century, and no matter how much influence it has reached, at least it has taken this step. As a successor, Peking Opera art is now developing well in China, but it has not yet been able to truly present China's most nationally representative art to the world. At present, the proportion of Peking Opera we perform in the world is not directly proportional to our economic development and national strength, so our country's cultural output to the world is far from enough. Our cultural exchanges with foreign countries need to be strengthened, and all of our artists need to make more efforts.
Some people say that our films are good, our songs are good, our plays are good, and we have won awards internationally. However, filmmaking, singing, and acting in dramas are not traditional Chinese art styles, but belong to the category of entertainment. Chinese tradition is what best represents nationality. Traditional art will also carry forward the main theme and carry forward the central government's propositions, and now Secretary Cai Qi has proposed that the four cultures in the construction of our Beijing cultural center: ancient capital culture, red culture, Beijing flavor culture and innovative culture have always run through the art of Peking Opera. This is what our artists should strive to do. But what we are talking about is the national spirit that can truly represent the chinese cultural temperament, or the essence of our 5,000 years of traditional culture, which is Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera and other art forms that can make foreigners breathtaking.
Reporter: What is the current development of Peking Opera in Beijing or the whole country, can you evaluate it? Are there any difficulties in cultivating young audiences in traditional arts, and what policy support is needed?
Hu Wenge: I think the current opera and opera actors are very lucky to catch up with this prosperous era of development.
From the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, after the restoration of traditional opera, it experienced a period of about 10 years of prosperity, and by about 1985, it was obvious that opera was declining again. At that time, I was still in Xi'an, and the attendance rate of Qin Cavity began to be very good in all aspects. The middle-aged audience at the end of the 70s almost entered the old age after 2010, but the young audience behind did not keep up, forming a fault line. In the 1990s, Xiqu entered a trough period, not only Peking Opera, but also many local operas have appeared in a particularly deserted situation, the audience is few, the actors have lost confidence in the development of the industry, and many opera actors have gone abroad or changed careers in that period. I happened to be about 20 years old, still singing Qin in Xi'an, and it was also during that period that I changed careers and went out to sing and dance.
Another reason for the decline of opera at that time was that economic development became the main goal of that era, and cultural development, including opera, was neglected. A large number of foreign trends poured in, not only the penetration of film, television, theater and other cultural fields, clothing, eating and other habits are also gradually moving from the west, like KFC, McDonald's has become a food fashion that people chase. Everyone pays less attention to their traditional culture, and gradually loses cultural self-confidence over time. Now the state attaches great importance to the development of opera, whether it is a strong policy or support, the media is also very developed, and the publicity can be described as unprecedented. In the past, when you opened the Internet, you could rarely see content related to opera, but now the news and singing sections of opera on the Internet abound. The attendance rate of theater performances has also risen, and opera has been carried out in Beijing for many years, and some variety shows have also begun to plan from the perspective of opera.
In the past few years, the popularity of opera has also led more audiences to further appreciate opera, I think I also have a credit, I sing the opera song "I love you China" was sung by many people, in fact, these are all promoting the development of opera. But I am now reflecting that it is unlikely that the traditional art of opera will be made too popular. Everything has its own positioning, and art is even more so. At the audience level, the most traditional high art is often the most ungrounded, which may also be the contradiction. Through the song can attract the young audience first, but this is only a means, can not really do the opera as a profession. My duty is still to inherit more, to act more on the stage, to learn more classics handed down by Master Mei Lanfang, and to restore as many traditional plays as possible. The other task is to pass on what I have learned to the next generation of young people. These two aspects are the most urgent things I have to do right now. However, as an opera celebrity, I also have the responsibility to help promote, and in the way of promotion, I must use various means. In the past two years, many fans have also said to me on the spot or on the Internet: You can't take your master's "Ode to the Pear Blossom" endlessly after Jiu Ye is gone. In fact, this is not the case, for example, I want to participate in some rural performances, or social welfare performances, singing very traditional and partial singing segments, the audience may not be easy to accept. On TV, they asked me to sing "Noble Concubine Drunk" and "Ode to pear blossoms", which are familiar songs. We opera workers, in addition to doing our own work, should also use the influence to do more publicity, through a simple form to let everyone understand the beauty of opera, by knowing how to make them interested in opera, and then interested in your play, so as to be interested in you personally, and finally they will enter the theater for you as a person, which requires a long guidance process.
At the opening ceremony of the first Xiqu Festival held by Peking University in May this year, I brought four Peking University students to sing the opera song "I Love You China" as the finale program. Once when I went to Tsinghua for a lecture, I brought the guqin to the scene. The guqin was not originally an instrument of Peking Opera, but the use of the guqin with the flute and the flute is very elegant, which can not only allow students to fully appreciate the essence of Meipai art, but also a means of trying to promote opera.
Everyone always says that opera can't work because the impact of tv is too big, in fact, now tv is almost no one to watch, as long as a mobile phone is all done. If you want to learn drama, you don't need to put on a CD if you want to watch Master Mei's plays, and you can watch them anytime and anywhere on your mobile phone. With the development of the media today, we should also strive to adapt to the advanced communication methods of this era and consider more how to use the advantages of the communication platform to do a good job in publicity and promotion. The network platform is to give everyone something short and fast, first let everyone like, infectious content can arouse their interest, and finally pull them to the theater. Directly to the theater is a fixed fan, more audiences still want us to attract them through a variety of means, once they get started, they will generally go to the theater to watch the performance.
At present, the development of opera is facing very real problems, and there is a shortage of talents in various aspects such as drama, music, actors, and stage artists, which is also an indisputable fact. Although each troupe is trying to turn things around, the effect is not obvious. In addition to the lack of talent, to really play a play, you have to take into account various factors. At present, even if you can create a very good work, because of various factors such as the ticket market, the attendance rate is not very optimistic, and there is still a long way to go in China to really rely on ticket sales to make money.
Reporter: After studying Meipai art for so many years, as the only descendant of the third generation of Meipai Nandan, what is your understanding of Meipai art?
Hu Wenge: As a descendant of the Mei Sect, why add the word "male Dan"? That is also a point that I would like to highlight. Because there are many actresses in the third generation of Mei Pai now, but usually everyone feels that for Mei Pai, male Dan is the most representative and authentic in the sense of inheritance. However, Mei Pai's sisters and sisters are numerous, saying that I am the only descendant, which is also very unfair to them, so it is more accurate to add "male Dan" to show the difference. As the only descendant of the third generation of Meipai Male Dan, I can only strive to learn the essence of Master Mei's various stage performances and strive to better inherit the art of Meipai.
In 2014, when we held a world tour to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Mei Lanfang's birth at Lincoln Center in New York, the New York Times published an English article written by a senior Italian reporter, which included a very objective evaluation: "Today I saw the real Chinese art at Lincoln Center." The play we toured was called "Mei Hua Xiang Yun", which was a special performance of Mei Lanfang's classic folding play, I played "Noble Concubine Drunk" a fold, in addition to "Overlord Farewell", "Heavenly Girl Scattered Flowers" and several other Meipai classics, the whole performance is not only based on singing, but the combination of song and dance, singing and dancing.
In fact, Master Mei's stage artistic expression has never been single, including his "Liang Hongyu" arranged during the War of Resistance Against Japan, which also has some martial arts plays. His plays are all involved in mythology, Buddhism, and history, which can be said to show the breadth and profundity of Chinese culture in an all-round way. Foreigners watch our plays, want to see acrobatics can see acrobatics, want to see martial arts in our plays; Western opera is mainly singing, Peking opera is also based on singing; Peking opera is strong in terms of confession and character understanding, although the audience can not understand, but can feel what the characters are saying, thinking, so italian journalists have such an objective evaluation after watching the tour, it is also very fair.
Artistic aesthetics can transcend the existence of language and bring the hearts and minds of all human beings together. At that time, Master Mei went to the United States to perform not so big theater, and there were not so many people, so the bands he used were very small, which is now the so-called ten major pieces of Peking Opera. But we considered the performance at Lincoln Center very thoughtfully, and deliberately added the Chinese national symphony to match the Peking Opera, which is a very national expression method and also very heavy. When performing, the symphony and the stage scene shine together, and there is a strong sense of breakthrough. Therefore, what we presented to the audience at that performance was the most quintessential part of our national tradition, and naturally it also achieved a very warm response.
National culture is the root of self-confidence. As the only portrait of a person in the 32 main drawings, my "Noble Concubine Drunk" costume was selected as the "Cultural Confidence" page of the People's Daily's "Forge Ahead" postcard collection, thus showing the historic achievements made in the five years since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. This is a great honor for me and inspires me to continue to explore the characteristics of Meipai art. Opera actors may have different professions, but as traditional artists, the first thing we must realize is the world, which is also the driving force for us to continue to persevere. Artists must practice this purpose to do a good job in art inheritance and do a good job. The four cultures proposed by Secretary Cai Qi are specific requirements for our work, and every art worker can have the confidence to do one of them well and do a particularly good job, and the contribution to the entire cultural construction of Beijing has been great.
Reporter: In view of the current development of Peking Opera or the whole opera, what other good opinions or suggestions do you have for promoting the inheritance and development of traditional arts?
Hu Wenge: In terms of inheritance, what I am most concerned about now is how to pass on the art of Meipai Male Dan. Our opera has undergone development and change, and now basically dan characters are performed by actresses. After the 1970s, the traditional drama of opera was basically gone, and there was no performance stage for men. After the traditional drama is restored a little, because the talents in this area are gone, there is no one who wants to play the male Dan. Although the drama school has also resumed the recruitment of male Dan, but because there is no teacher, this piece is broken. So now I'm often faced with the same question: Where is my successor?
Of course, this successor is not something I alone can choose and decide. Peking Opera art has come to this day, and the inheritance of Male Dan art is actually the most representative and meaningful thing in Peking Opera. In addition to Mei Pai, several other famous genres have long since lost their male dan, and I am a special case of existence. Master said that the Mei Pai male Dan descendants should have been cultivated from within the family, and if there was no one in the family, they should also find one from the special schools such as Chinese drama schools. He finally accepted me as an apprentice because after the male Dan art was restored, he was also old, the heirs of the drama school were all women and no men, and in that case he happened to meet me, so he took me in, treated me with special care, and hoped that I could take over his class. He also knew that the foundation of my Peking Opera was not good, so he taught me desperately, and wanted to teach me the best. He said to me: I am good to you, not just good to you, I hope to come to you at least Mei Pai Male Dan has a third generation, then I have seen my father and have an explanation, but you still have to pass it on.
But what I'm confused about now is, where to find the second Hu Wenge? It's too difficult. The student I had accepted a while ago, Battle, was very talented, but he and his family had a concern: what if the primary school drama did not work in the future? First of all, the head, after growing to 1 meter 8, can you still play a woman on stage? Will the voice change in the future? Bartle's school problem I specifically sought out Batu, the former dean of the Chinese Opera Academy, and the dean of Batu said that he had no problem going to the drama school attached to the middle school, he had already explained it, and finally their families gave up, so I couldn't force other people's children to learn drama with me. Now that he is studying culture classes well, at least in the future he will be able to choose to do something else. Learn drama directly, if there is no drama to act in the future, survival will be a problem, which is really difficult to choose. The media is also very concerned about this issue, and even the People's Daily has published an article concerning this matter.
We have been promoting Mei Lanfang's art and know that Mei Lanfang is known as the four famous Dans instead of the four male Dans. Therefore, in terms of inheritance, it is necessary to let his very pure male Dan art be passed on. To appreciate traditional art is to look at the traditional side, Mei Pai is first of all to play women as men, to show the beauty of women from a male perspective, which is his most representative feature. The actress is not good enough, but from the perspective of inheritance, it lacks the purity of this art. Therefore, I am also calling for this question in the media now, is it possible to let the drama school accept some special students, and pick out a few small voices with good conditions and show a little bit among some small students, so that they can transfer to Xuedanjiao, so that the inheritance problem of male Dan will be solved. It doesn't need to be much, but at least there must be a few, even if only one or two people can pass it down. So this question is the thing that I am most anxious about and most worried about at the moment.
Reporter: The state's positioning of Beijing as the cultural center of the whole country, so for the construction of Beijing's cultural center, then for Beijing's construction of a national cultural center, from your point of view, do you think there are still deficiencies and needs to be improved? What else should be done?
Hu Wenge: For example, if Beijing is a cultural store, what is its main product? Of course, it is a culture with Beijing characteristics. The most important representative of Beijing's cultural characteristics is Peking Opera, Hutongs, City Walls, Roast Duck, etc. How to run these contents through to form Beijing's cultural business card is an important development idea.
As far as the current opera performance venues in Beijing are concerned, they are concentrated in the Chang'an Grand Theatre, the Mei Lanfang Grand Theater and the National Centre for the Performing Arts, as well as some theaters of colleges and universities. But for Beijing's population and the large number of visitors from outside, the capacity of these theaters is too limited. In fact, we can use some famous theaters in Beijing as performance venues, perform some relatively simple plays in them, and build them as cultural tourism brands. These opera houses are mostly located in various large and small hutongs in Beijing, and are usually a microcosm of Beijing culture, integrating the traditional essence of Beijing culture and Peking Opera into the performances of the opera houses, which can serve local residents and foreign tourists, and can also preserve and inherit the art of Peking Opera.
The Opera performances of the Chang'an Grand Theatre and the National Centre for the Performing Arts have a fixed time, and for many people who come to Beijing for tourism, if he wants to see opera performances, because of the time problem, there are very few choices. If there are these theaters, you can regularly perform some classic folding plays of major genres, on the one hand, so that the genre art of Peking Opera can heat up through this form, and there is no need to wait for our actors to perform a play in the Chang'an Grand Theater until the holidays. The folding drama is performed in the theater building, so that everyone can see the classics when they go to the theater building on weekdays. For example, Mei Lanfang Grand Theater, you can also set up a small theater building inside, the essence of Mei Pai art extracted, every New Year's Festival or holiday, Saturday and Sunday from 2 pm to 3 pm, 1 hour, this is very good. If the foreign tourist has limited time, he may go in and watch it for ten minutes and come out, but by watching the performance clips, he can also learn more about the traditional culture of our country. Around these theaters, small exhibition halls can also be set up to systematically introduce these theaters and the repertoire staged, which is also a means of publicity. Tourists can visit the hutongs in Beijing, eat roast duck, watch Peking Opera, and deeply experience the city's city culture and life, which also forms a business card and a landscape of Beijing culture. Theaters and exhibition halls do not need to be large, but as long as these small places are alive, like streams flowing together, they become a great river of art.