【Biography】
Zeng Xiaomin, born in October 1977, is a national first-class actor, winner of the Wenhua Performance Award and the Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award, and is currently the Party Secretary and President of Guangdong Cantonese Theatre. As the first female director of Guangdong Cantonese Theatre, Zeng Xiaomin is intoxicated with Cantonese opera performing arts, specializing in boudoir Dan, Dao Ma Dan, Hua Dan and other professions, and is both literate and martial arts, and his representative works include large-scale Cantonese opera repertoire such as "Youth companion", "White Snake Legend", "Lady Chenguo" and other large-scale Cantonese opera repertoire, as well as Cantonese opera films such as "Legendary Yuanlun Wenshu", which are deeply loved by opera fans.
In Zeng Xiaomin's view, "The Legend of the White Snake" can show the actor's comprehensive skills in singing and playing Zheng Xun
Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Gong Weifeng
Just this past Chinese New Year's Eve night, Cantonese opera once again sang on the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Cantonese opera master Zeng Xiaomin once again appeared on the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala after a year, interpreting the fresh and feminine "White Snake Legend • Love" lake tour clip, showing the unique charm of Cantonese opera to audiences around the world.
Zeng Xiaomin has a series of titles and honors, from 2005 to the present, she has been acting, administrative work "shoulder to shoulder". These two roads, she is getting smoother and smoother - as an actress, she is the leader of the new generation of Cantonese opera; as the dean, she is leading the Guangdong Cantonese Opera to boldly reform and move towards spring.
From dragon set actor to dean
From a dragon set actor to the director of Guangdong Cantonese Theatre, Zeng Xiaomin's career advancement has gone through three stages.
In 1997, Zeng Xiaomin graduated from the Cantonese Opera School and was assigned to the Guangdong Cantonese Theatre. As a "top student", her stage debut stood in the protagonist position, and cooperated with Ding Fan in the big drama "Hanjiang Guan". Zeng Xiaomin recalled: "This was the first play I made my debut, and it was also a play that made me 'wrestle'. Forget words, drop pendants... All the mistakes I shouldn't have made, I made! ”
The failure of the performance brought a blow to Zeng Xiaomin and also stimulated her energy. "After falling from the 'high place', I started laying the foundation again, running dragon sets, being a supporting role... Usually, as soon as I have time, I watch the seniors act on the stage and study the performance methods. Over the past few years, Zeng Xiaomin's artistic level has continued to improve, and she has gradually regained her confidence by being recognized by the industry.
In 2005, Guangdong Cantonese Opera Prepared to Establish the Guangdong Cantonese Opera Youth Troupe and openly competed for management posts. In the end, Zeng Xiaomin was elected as the deputy head of the troupe, in charge of art production and marketing, which was also the beginning of her acting and administrative "double shoulder picking".
A few years later, she led these young people to open up a new world in the field of literary and martial arts: "We polish the text, arrange the play according to the characteristics of the actors, and continuously open up the market with solid basic skills and the overall image of youth." Our troupe has won the most performances in the whole industry, and has also become the group that has won the most awards in the previous youth performing arts competitions. ”
During this period, Zeng Xiaomin also accumulated management experience: "I feel that the cohesion of the team is very important, everyone's heart is together, and they can play a greater combat effectiveness in order to work together." She has been deputy head of the group for 3 years, assistant to the dean for 5 years, and vice president for 5 years.
In 2019, Zeng Xiaomin became the first female director in the history of Guangdong Cantonese Theatre. She sighed: "The colleagues who worked hard with me in the youth league at that time have become the backbone of the theater. The theater has also come to a lot of post-90s and post-00s newcomers, and the overall age structure is young, but we still have a strong cohesion. ”
There is still room for growth in the business
After entering the administrative position for many years, Zeng Xiaomin has never abandoned the business. There is no doubt that Zeng Xiaomin is a new generation of leading talents in the Cantonese opera industry today, she is also good at boudoir Dan, Dao Ma Dan, Hua Dan and other professions, and she is also a master of literature and martial arts. She has been practicing for many years, creating and accumulating a number of widely acclaimed plays such as "Youth Companion", "Dream Red Boat", "White Snake Biography and Love", "Lady Of the Kingdom", "Red Turban" and so on.
The theater industry also recognized Zeng Xiaomin's business ability. Some experts joked that she was a "professional household with awards": in 2017, she won the 28th Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award; in 2019, she won the 16th Wenhua Performance Award... She not only won an acting award, but also crossed the border to win a film award. Like the newly edited Cantonese drama "White Snake Legend and Love", which has just appeared on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, it was also made into the first 4K panoramic Cantonese opera film in China, and won the Most Popular Film Award at the 3rd Pingyao International Film Festival , Window of Genre , and the Nomination For Best Drama Film at the 32nd Golden Rooster Awards of Chinese Cinema.
"The Legend of the White Snake" is Zeng Xiaomin's masterpiece, which has attracted a large number of young audiences into the theater. In Zeng Xiaomin's view, this film has a comprehensive embodiment of several trades such as Boumen Dan, Dao Ma Dan, and Qingyi, and the plot has ups and downs, which can show the actor's comprehensive skills in singing and playing. Zeng Xiaomin revealed that the film is scheduled to be released nationwide during this year's Dragon Boat Festival.
Zeng Xiaomin admits that he has been making progress along the way, and there is still room for improvement until now: "Administrative work occupies a lot of my time, but it is also my life accumulation. My concept, vision, and positioning are different, which is of great benefit to the aesthetic judgment of art. Today, Zeng Xiaomin still insists on practicing, and when she can't open her body to go to the rehearsal ground, she goes home to practice, practicing steps, breathing, and singing on the treadmill. Zeng Xiaomin said: "I am now in the golden age of professionalism, but I must demand myself with high standards, and steadily inherit and promote Cantonese opera. ”
Cross-border promotion makes Cantonese opera "out of the circle"
In recent years, Zeng Xiaomin led the team to launch a number of new screenwriters: first of all, the fusion of Cantonese opera and online games, the production of Cantonese opera "Decisive Battle of TianceFu"; then put Cantonese opera on the screen, launched the first 4K Cantonese opera movie "White Snake Love"; and also "purified" classic plays such as "Mulan" and "Jade Hairpin", on the basis of respecting the original work, packaged in a fresh and beautiful style. It is worth mentioning that Zeng Xiaomin and rapper Tizzy t Xie Ruitao cross-border cooperation this year to adapt the song "Emperor Girl Flower's "Fragrant Dream"" and became popular on social networks. "Cantonese opera should be upright and innovative, and keep pace with the times." We must make Cantonese opera younger and younger, and let more young people accept Cantonese opera. This is Zeng Xiaomin's voice, and it is also the criterion she has been practicing.
The work is good, not only applauded but also applauded. Zeng Xiaomin personally organized a series of reforms of the Guangdong Cantonese Theatre, launching performance activities to benefit the people, such as "New Year's Watch Drama", "Weekend Watch Drama", "Famous Artists Performance Week" and "New Year's Grand Party". Zeng Xiaomin laughed and said: "In 2017, the attendance rate of 'New Year's Watch Drama' was 30%. However, in the past two years, the average attendance rate of the 'Famous Performance Week' has reached 95%, and 'one ticket is difficult to find' has become the norm. This is enough to show that the promotion of Cantonese opera is effective. ”
Answered:
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Dig to promote local culture
Yangcheng Evening News: Please talk about it from the perspective of your own industry, after the change of the communication environment, what are the requirements for communication work?
Zeng Xiaomin: The more traditional, the more fashionable. Young people have cultural roots in their hearts, and we must package Cantonese opera well and embrace young people in order to better promote the inheritance of Cantonese opera. In addition to internal reforms, we have strengthened the integration of Cantonese opera with society: operating the Cantonese opera socialization examination, opening a Cantonese opera cultural experience hall, cooperating with Xinghai Conservatory of Music and the School of Chinese Language of Jinan University to create the first compulsory courses and elective courses of Cantonese opera, and doing 500 "Cantonese opera into the campus" activities in the past three years. We in Guangdong Cantonese Theatre are also taking the road of cultural industry, successively creating Cantonese opera cultural and creative products and opening Cantonese opera book bars.
Only by building a good play and building a good talent team can we expand and spread outward. At present, the national policy is very supportive of the development of traditional opera, but now is the era of "wine is also afraid of deep alleys", we must take the initiative to promote Cantonese opera. We have a lot of media resources, I believe that as long as there is good content, there is naturally no shortage of communication channels. We hope that in the future, the media can give Cantonese opera more inclines in terms of reporting length and depth; public service advertising spaces such as airports, subway stations, bus stations, and Canton Towers can also leave more exposure space for traditional culture, intangible cultural heritage, and Cantonese opera, so that more people can pay attention to the local culture here when playing in Guangdong.
Yangcheng Evening News: What suggestions and expectations do you have for Yangcheng Evening News Group?
Zeng Xiaomin: In recent years, Guangdong Cantonese Opera has also cooperated extensively with mainstream media and new media platforms, and Yangcheng Evening News has cultural feelings and similar temperament to Cantonese opera, and has been sparing no effort to promote Cantonese opera culture. The "Weekend Drama" activity was strongly supported and promoted by Yangcheng Evening News, and the publication of Cantonese opera examination textbooks was also undertaken by Yangcheng Evening News Publishing House. It is expected that the Yangcheng Evening News will do more local cultural publicity with greater efforts, and report more in-depth local traditional culture, celebrities, and customs. In addition to Cantonese opera, Guangdong has too much cultural content worth excavating.
Source: Golden Sheep Network