Born on April 23, 1946 (March 15 of the lunar calendar), Peng Denghuai went from a teenager with only primary school education to a master of Chinese Sichuan drama that spanned two centuries through decades of diligent study and hard work, and repeatedly accompanied Chinese art troupes and national leaders to visit more than 20 countries and regions such as Britain, the United States, Japan, Brazil, Italy, etc., and was received by 36 heads of state in the world, and successively held the hands of 9 heads of state to change his face at close range; His feature film "Chinese National Treasures – Peng Denghuai" recorded on Japanese television is well-known among audiences from all over the world; Andy Lau, the king of hong Kong's music scene, worships him as a teacher and respects him; He used the stunt of changing 14 faces in 25 seconds to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. As a sichuan art school "China's one must" Sichuan drama face change eighteen avatar stunt performers, with filial piety, loyalty and kindness as a lifelong standard of life, he not only founded the "Chinese Extraordinary Arts Troupe" and "Sichuan Star Federation", but also served as "Sichuan Province Charity Ambassador", "Sichuan Province Large-scale Rescue Activity Image Ambassador", "Dujiangyan City Image Ambassador", academician of the American International Academy of Cultural Sciences, director of the World Dramatists Association of the American Oriental Academy of Culture and other public welfare positions, deeply loved by the majority of audiences at home and abroad.
When Peng Denghuai was a child, he often rode on his father's neck to watch the dam play. The miraculous Sichuan drama changed his face and left a deep imprint on his young mind. Peng Denghuai often went down to the river to bathe naked, grabbed a handful of yellow mud and smeared it on his face, and held a homemade "official knife" in his hand and shouted in front, "Rush, kill!", followed by a group of children who listened to his command, becoming a complete little drama fan and a doll head. At the age of 8, he began to learn to sing the Sichuan opera "Nanyang Guan", "MuHu Head", and "Fight the Tiger to Collect Filial Piety". At the age of 12, he was admitted to the Ziyang County Sichuan Opera Troupe to learn to act as a martial artist, and when he saw the change of face in "Nine Changing Bodies", "WangniangTan" and "The Legend of the White Snake", he felt so magical! Unfortunately, the teacher who taught him did not change his face, and the teacher who changed his face did not teach him. At that time, there was an unwritten rule: "Pass on men and don't pass on women, pass on inside and don't pass on outside", and when the technology was passed on, there was no teacher's job. Listen to the teacher: Some teachers are willing to give you money, rather than teach you a trick. Fortunately, people are small and inconspicuous, he often peeks at others to change their faces, and after a long time, the teacher is old, and he has grown up. There are more opportunities to learn drama, and gradually figure out their own methods of changing faces. As a young man, he practiced three volts in summer and three nine in winter, and finally practiced a hard kung fu, won the favor of teachers and peers, and began to learn screenwriting, composition, directing and multi-instrumental performance at the age of 18.
In 1976, he served as a teacher of basic skills and drama lessons in the training class of ziyang Chuan Opera Troupe, and adapted the music of Sichuan opera into piano accompaniment training songs such as basic skills and body, which were widely promoted. Due to his outstanding work, Peng Denghuai successively served as the deputy head and head of the Sichuan Opera Troupe in Ziyang County. During his tenure as the head of the troupe, he took the lead in implementing the reform of the troupe system throughout the country, and his experience was promoted on a trial basis in some troupes across the country, and was commended by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and the Ministry of Culture. In 1983, Peng Denghuai transferred Neijiang Art School as the chief of the academic affairs section and a teacher, and wrote 7 subject textbooks such as basic skills and stature for the Sichuan opera major, which were well received by teachers and students; In 1990, he transferred to the Sichuan Provincial Art School as a teacher of basic skills and drama lessons, and served as a screenwriter, composer, deputy director and band conductor in Tian Mansha's special play "Yang Qiniang Shooting", and won the "Plum Blossom Award", the highest honor of Chinese drama. Gao Zhanxiang, vice minister of the Ministry of Culture, gladly wrote an inscription for him: "Heaven rewards diligence"! The four-year art secondary school syllabus and multi-disciplinary teaching materials edited by him, which integrate screenwriters, directors, composers and actors, Sichuan opera "Golden Mountain Temple" (overseas program), "Appeal for Grievances", "Program Impression - Gui Yingbing", modern drama "Tusi Ye Moving", "Strange Couple" and other works have won national and provincial teaching exhibition outstanding music awards; His lyrics "Peaceful Spring Breeze Blowing the World" and his composition "Sending the Red Army on the Long March Road" were broadcast to 38 countries in the world on the Central People's Radio (Channel 4). His paper "Changing With The Heart - I Change My Face with Sichuan Drama" was published in the national journal " Chinese Drama " magazine , and became the first Sichuan opera paper to be reprinted in full text by Xinhua Digest , laying the foundation for "Peng's Face Change". In 2002, he served as a screenwriter, composer and director in the acrobatic program "Happy Little Shami - Drill Barrel", and won four awards such as the "New Miao Cup" Choreography Award and the Performance Award of the World Acrobatic Arts Festival in China.
The so-called face change of Sichuan opera, as the name suggests, is the change of the face of the characters in the play, is a kind of performance technique used on the actor's stage to enrich the plot and shape the character, often called a special skill or a special performance skill, known as "China's unique", "the world's best"! It is a strange change technique used by actors in special repertoire in the prescribed situation, and it is an artistic technique used to portray the character of the character, reveal the inner activities of the character, and enrich the expressiveness. Through these performance techniques, the invisible, unsentimentable, and abstract things are turned into visible and perceptible concrete things. From the perspective of performance, it is a visually strong, interesting, magically stimulating, amazing romantic expression method, which plays a role in setting off the atmosphere of the plot and is an exaggerated art that has been amplified. Definitely not in any play, any character can change his face at will. Actors must change their faces in strict accordance with the prescribed situation and the changes in the inner emotions of the characters, which is the "change of heart" of performance theory. This is also one of the characteristics of Sichuan's dramatic face change. When did the face change of Sichuan opera appear, and who was the first inventor? It has been impossible to verify, let alone specific literature records, the face is mostly horizontal eyebrows, fierce gods and evil spirits, although the face is vicious, but it represents justice. To truly understand the face change of Sichuan opera and Peng Denghuai's contribution to the face change of Sichuan opera, it is necessary to understand the three stages of development of Sichuan opera face change:
The first stage of development dates back to the 1920s. At that time, there were two types of Sichuan drama face change methods: wiping the face and blowing the face. Face smearing: that is, the actor smears some red makeup paint on the face, and then covers the black for the second time, or smears black on the eye hall and the corner of the mouth, even if the face is changed several times; Blowing face: The actor will have a thick foam of color, such as black paper ash, grass ash, gold powder, etc., into a wine glass, or placed in a bowl, placed on the stage to perform the necessary place, the face is smeared with cooking oil in advance, or some simple patterns, with the mouth to blow the breath, those powder foam stuck to the oily place, even if the face is changed once. Although it is very simple, in some scenes and in some plots, it can play a special performance role. According to Sichuan opera performance artists, in the 1920s there was a Kang Zhiling, who called him "Kang Shengren". He invented the use of kraft paper to make a face, using paste from the inside to the outside, from the largest to the smallest one by one on the face, and unveiling it in turn during the performance. If the timing is not good, there will be leaks and wear gangs: sticky early, the paste will dry when it has not yet played, the face cannot be removed, and sometimes the face that should not change will be glued down; Sometimes the paste will be sticky late, and the face should not be revealed when the face should not be changed, and it will be ugly in public. Later, he used a yellow face to support his face shape, used straw paper paste into a hard face shell, and then used a pig urine bag (small belly) to blow in the air, and dried to make a face sheet that was not easy to rip. Kang Zhiling invented the third type of face change method - pulling face, it is he who opened a new chapter of face change. He concentrated all the face-changing techniques, and showed his skills in the traditional drama "Nine Changing Bodies", where Kang Zhiling acted, no matter how far away, everyone had to rush to see the acting, to see him change his face, Kang Zhiling became the face changing master at that time. This invention of his, in that society where spiritual civilization and material civilization are extremely poor, can be described as a precedent for opera to change its face, and to create a miracle of Sichuan opera face-changing stunts.
The second stage of development, the 1950s, was the intermediate stage of the healthy development of Sichuan opera and face change. In 1954, Sun Decai made a new reform of changing his face. He changed his face shell to silk cloth, exposed some of his facial features during production, and made new changes to the old drama "Nine Changes of Body", the righteous thief Bei Yong robbed the people of the tribute to the emperor, and after the incident, he was chased and killed by the officers and soldiers. To this day, the Sichuan opera industry recognizes that Sun Decai has greatly advanced the face change, and he is the grandfather of modern face change.
The real historic climax of the Sichuan drama change of face was the autumn of 1959. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a literary and art show was held in Beijing, and Sichuan sent a strong lineup, a troupe to Beijing to participate in the National Day parade, and a troupe to perform in Europe; Entering Beijing to perform the traditional play "The Legend of the White Snake", the then mayor of Chengdu Li Zonglin attached great importance to Sichuan opera, when watching the play, Peng Denghuai saw That Fahai using three magic weapons: the Green Dragon Zen Staff, the Big Red Robe, and the Purple Gold Bowl, and the White Snake was escorted into the Leifeng Pagoda, but the climax of the play could not come out, so he had a clever move, and suggested why not use the face change on the bowl. So the bowl changed its face in the fight with the white snake, and fought in the face change, and received unexpected results! Sichuan drama change face suddenly became famous in Beijing! "The Legend of the White Snake" has since become a representative drama of Sichuan drama changing its face. At the same time, the performances in Europe were also very successful, they remembered the face change, but also remembered the Sichuan opera. The development and influence of face change at this stage has laid a solid foundation for the development of sichuan drama face change art in the future!
The third stage of development was the 1980s and 1990s. After 20 years of long development process, Sichuan opera and face change has been a shotgun for a cannon: from the stage lights, props, choreography, etc., have introduced modern means, the use of houses, fireworks to cover the face of the performance method has long been eliminated, blowing face, face wiping techniques are rare. The face change of Sichuan opera, after the painstaking study and development of many people with lofty ideals, from the exquisiteness of face production, from the change of quality to quantity, from the operation method to the means of expression, etc., has been greatly reformed and has achieved great success. At this time, the sichuan drama change face has entered a new high-level artistic realm.
In the Spring Festival of 1997, Peng Denghuai and the "Plum Blossom Award" winners Tian Mansha and Xiao Demei went to Beijing to participate in the CCTV Spring Festival Opera Gala, performing Sichuan opera living water sleeves, folding zigong and changing faces in the opera unique section. In February 1999, Mr. Peng Denghuai was invited to visit Singapore for academic exchanges, and his face-changing technique "Twelve Changes of Body" attracted great attention from Singaporeans. The four largest newspapers and publications in The Lion City have preemptively published articles, published stills, and local radio and television stations frequently invited live broadcasts, and arranged to spend the Spring Festival Gala with Taiwanese stars and Singapore celebrities on the same stage. Peng Denghuai's face-changing technique aroused great interest from the officials of the Guinness World Jury, and was scheduled to break the record of twenty-five seconds to change twelve faces held by Peng Denghuai himself at the Clarke Quay Theatre in Singapore on February 12, 1999: to set a guinness world record for another astonishing speed of changing fourteen faces in twenty-five seconds, revealing their faces, and then changing back to four faces. When Mr. Peng finished this difficult performance, the applause in the venue was thunderous, the flowers were flooded, and the queue of people to ask Master Peng for signature was endless. At the request of the organizers, Peng Denghuai's signature took a full 1 and a half hours, and all television, radio, newspapers and publications in Singapore prominently published the next day: "Face Changing Master Peng Denghuai set a new record". This performance was a complete success and won the glory of Chinese opera! Add color to Sichuan opera!