The 85-year-old performance artist Jiao Huang was awarded the title of "Lifetime Achievement Dramatist of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles", and in the face of this well-deserved honor, the old man was as humble as ever, saying that the reward was an affirmation of the partners who had worked with him in the past 60 years.
Jiao Huang is a great hero in the drama industry, but it is familiar and loved by most audiences because of the emperor he played, especially the Kangxi Emperor, who is the most fascinating, so that the audience has remembered for many years and has been remembered.
After playing the emperor, Jiao Huang received many invitations from film and television dramas, but he was known for being "picky about taking over the drama", basically away from the screen.
Jiao Huang said that he loves the drama stage more than film and television, and his love for the drama stage began in his childhood.
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Jiao Huang was born in 1936, which was the golden age of the literary and artistic drama industry.
At the age of 8, Jiao Huang saw Chen Baichen's "Prohibition of Urinating" and Song Zhi's "National Supremacy" on the Stage of Chongqing, and was immediately brought into the world of drama.
At that time, Jiao Huang followed his parents to study in Chongqing, and there would be drama performance activities in the school, and the teacher saw that he was clever and let him be the protagonist in a play.
Because the words were not recognized, Jiao Huang took the script and read "forgive her" as "Hara Kyo her", which caused a burst of laughter.
After his parents moved to Shanghai to study, Jiao Huang was selected by his teacher to perform dramas in the drama club with a standard Mandarin, which made Jiao Huang overjoyed.
In high school, Jiao Huang set his mind to enter the Shanghai Theater Academy, and his father felt that his literary and artistic work was unstable, hoping that he would apply for a polytechnic college and strongly opposed him to studying theater performance.
Jiao Huang was determined to take the road of art, and he tried to persuade his father, and finally his father respected his choice.
Jiao Huang read a lot and exercised his body, and eventually became one of the 18 students enrolled by the Shanghai Theater Academy in 1955.
Fortunately, Ms. Leptovskaya from the Leningrad Academy of Drama and Performance came to teach at the Shanghai Theater Academy, just in time with a scorched class.
With advanced teaching methods, Leptovskaya opened the door to their drama performance, immersing them in the world of drama, and their expression and imagination were enhanced as never before.
In 1957, Jiao Huang ran a dragon suit in the drama "Nothing Happened", and the following year he starred in the role of Jin Hao in Xie Jin's director "Wind and Grass", officially entering the performance world.
Unfortunately, Jiao Huang's two-year-long rehearsal of "Chincha Minister" was killed for special reasons, which made his heart ache for a long time.
After graduation, Jiao Huang was assigned to the Youth Drama Troupe, began a career in running dragons, and also began his first marriage.
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In those years of running the dragon set, Jiao Huang met his first wife, Aunt Chen, and the two people fell in love, and after the romance under the moon before the flower, they walked into the palace of marriage hand in hand.
If there had been no movement, if Jiao Huang had not gone to the mountains and the countryside to become a young man, their marriage might not have come to an abrupt end.
His wife left him, there was no drama to shoot, and Jiao Huang spent all his spare time reading and enriching his knowledge, which played a very big role in his later interpretation of the role.
Jiao Huang did not forget the improvisation that Lepkovskaya taught him, he did not forget to perform, often coming to the previous section, immersed in his own drama world.
In those years, he not only did not waste, but precipitated his acting skills, accumulated a lot of materials, and enriched his performance level.
When he returned to the stage again, Jiao Huang was nearly 40 years old, and his second marriage was also faltering.
He and his second wife, Ms. Zhou, came together because of similar circumstances and spent several difficult years together.
It was difficult to usher in the dawn, but because of the difference in values and lifestyles, ideas often quarreled, both people are very painful, and finally had to end the marriage.
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After the divorce, Jiao Huang threw himself into the drama, and others called him a "drama idiot".
In 1984, Hu Weimin directed Shakespeare's famous tragedy "Anthony and Cleopatra", Jiao Huang became the unyielding male lead, but the female protagonist made a mistake.
At that time, the Shanghai Youth Repertory Theatre had a shortage of talented actors, and the outstanding actresses were older, and finally Hu Weimin invited Li Yuanyuan, a young teacher who had just stayed in school for three years, from the Shanghai Theater Academy to be the female lead actress.
Jiao Huang and Li Yuanyuan rehearsed for six weeks, working from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, after others left work, Li Yuanyuan would take the initiative to stay and rehearse with Jiao Huang until about 10 o'clock at night, and Jiao Huang would rehearse alone until 1 or 2 a.m. after Li Yuanyuan left.
When they were officially performed, their performances caused a sensation, from the Yangtze River Theater to the Liberation Theater, before and after four months, their stage charm not only conquered the audience, but also conquered their peers.
Jiao Huang on the stage seemed to embrace Anthony with his life, and after each performance, he would sweat profusely, and a well-known artist also went to the backstage and quipped to Jiao Huang: "Jiao Huang, you eat people every day to participate in the play." In fact, Jiao Huang's best daily nutrition at that time was two sausages and two eggs.
In the most than half a year of rehearsal and performance together, Li Yuanyuan's dedication, enthusiasm and beauty and cheerfulness touched Jiao Huang, and they wiped out the spark of love from knowing each other to falling in love.
Once, Jiao Huang and Li Yuanyuan were shopping on the road, they were encountered by acquaintances, at that time the mind was still very imprisoned, friends kindly advised Jiao Huang to "pay attention to the impact", he was very angry and said: "We are shopping on the street in broad daylight, is there any place that violates the law?" We are both single, so why can't we interact normally? ”
Although they love each other, the age gap of up to 20 years old makes Li Yuanyuan's parents very dissatisfied, and under the intervention of her parents, the traditional Li Yuanyuan listens to her parents' opinions and breaks up with Jiao Huang.
After that, Jiao Huang had a third wife, Chen Xiaoli, and Li Yuanyuan also had her own home.
Chen Xiaoli is a journalist, and although the two have a big age difference, the three views are unanimous.
After marriage, Chen Xiaoli gave birth to a daughter and became Jiao Huang's assistant to work and live, she understood Jiao Huang's artistic pursuits and never asked him to make much money.
Jiao Huang and Li Yuanyuan still maintain a pure friendship, they will go to watch each other's plays, and they will also exchange ideas on artistic matters.
Later, Li Yuanyuan unfortunately suffered from cancer and died at the age of 41, and Jiao Huang went to bid her farewell.
Jiao Huang said that the "An" drama co-starring with Li Yuanyuan was the most important stage performance in his life, and the relationship with Li Yuanyuan was also an eternal feeling hidden deep in his heart.
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In 1997, Jiao Huang played the "Kangxi Emperor" in "Yongzheng Dynasty", which was well received by the audience.
"He is not playing Kangxi, he is Kangxi", such an evaluation is the biggest praise for the actor.
Jiao Huang has starred in the TV series "Yongzheng Dynasty" in the Kangxi Emperor, the Qianlong Emperor in "Qianlong Dynasty" and the Han Jing Emperor in "Han Wu Emperor", so he is known as the "Emperor Professional Household", his interpretation of the emperor has both gods and gods and is not the same, and his description of the three emperors shows his artistic heritage.
Jiao Huang said that among the three emperors, Kangxi was like the "Zhengda Guangming Plaque in the Qianqing Palace", firmly holding the dynasty with two feet; Qianlong wrote more than 40,000 poems in his lifetime, and this emperor held the exquisite imperial garden with two hands all his life; and the life of emperor Jingdi of Han was like a broken step leading to a majestic palace.
Jiao Huang's seriousness about art is also far from being reached by many film and television actors today.
Playwright Zhao Yaomin once talked about such a thing:
When the TV series "Emperor Wu of Han" was broadcast, he accompanied Jiao Huang to watch the episode that was broadcast that day, and Jiao Huang was suddenly dissatisfied with his performance and had to tell him one of the scenes. After talking about it, Jiao Huang re-enacted the scene to him alone.
After watching it, Zhao Yaomin said that if he could perform according to his current ideas at that time, it would indeed be more exciting.
As a result, Jiao Huang was even more annoyed, and cried out bitterly: "At that time, the time was too tight, the time was too tight!" If you could give me another ten minutes, I'd definitely remember! The peculiarity of the character's movements... I'm specifically here! ”
Jiao Huang once humbly said: "Acting is a profession that cannot be lived in peace, and acting has no end." ”
When Jiao Huang was 80 years old, he participated in the filming of "No War in Peking", and the production team did not consult with him in advance, so he used dubbing, and he knew that he would later express "shock and heartache, and it was difficult to sleep and eat." ”
The audience also questioned because they could not feel the charm of Jiao Huang's voice, and the chief producer Liu Heping personally came out to explain and apologize, and his wife Chen Xiaoli said that Jiao Huang was a "drama ascetic monk".
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In February 2012, after a lapse of 28 years, the 76-year-old Jiao Huang starred in "Anthony and Cleopatra" again.
His performance won endless applause, and Jiao Huang said: "In these decades, I have not stolen a day of laziness. In terms of energy, I can lift, act, and have the confidence to take back 40 years to the stage. No problem performing Anthony! ”
Jiao Huang has always believed that life is inseparable from drama, and if a city does not have theater and aesthetics, it will be extremely lonely and boring.
There is one thing that, after many years, Jiao Huang still feels proud when he thinks about it: after watching the drama "Red Room, White Room, Black Room" starring him, a pair of young lovers in Shanghai walked all night on the road and chatted all night. Early the next morning, they decided to get married.
In Jiao Huang's view, this is the charm of drama and the embodiment of his own value.
"If you can't act, there's no happiness to speak of." I am old and in poor health, but as long as possible, I am still willing to make a contribution to the construction of Chinese culture. ”
"After so many years of acting, I didn't think about making money for a minute, and the joy of being on stage was greater than anything else."
This is the real old drama bone, this is the old artist who deserves respect, and his wind bone deserves more honor, respect and applause.