(New Year's visit to the grassroots level) Inheritance and perseverance of a shadow puppeteer in "Deng Ying Opera"
China News Service, Tangshan, February 8th (Baiyunshui Wei Qingxian) On the 27th of the twelfth lunar month, the Chinese New Year is approaching. Li Jianzhang, a 70-year-old shadow puppet artist in Luanzhou, Hebei, has just returned from a performance in Tangshan. ".
It turns out that the traditional shadow puppet play "Wu Song Fighting the Tiger" is very popular among local children. More than a dozen students who love shadow puppets are looking forward to "Grandpa Li" giving them shadow puppet lessons.
"Looking at the lights from afar, looking up close is like a temple, with people shouting inside and laughing outside." In the Tangshan area of Hebei Province, friends who are familiar with shadow puppetry know that this riddle vividly depicts shadow puppetry: the lights are dim and the figures are charming.
The small silhouettes, through the manipulation of the pair of skillful hands, deduce the various forms of life in the square inch.
Using the Spring Festival holiday to teach primary school children to learn shadow puppets has become Li Jianzhang's "repertoire".
According to reports, the shadow puppet show, also known as the "deng shadow show", has a history of more than two thousand years. It is a silhouette made of animal skins or cardboard. It is performed with bright cloth under the illumination of a light source. Integrating opera and opera, it is known as the "living fossil" of Chinese traditional culture.
Tangshan shadow puppetry, which features the language and rhyme of Luanzhou and Leting in Tangshan area, is one of the most influential types of shadow puppetry in China and is a national intangible cultural heritage.
Li Jianzhang is a native of Zhangmazhuang Village, Luanzhou City, and the head of Luanzhou Shadow Play Troupe.
Li Jianzhang has been a "shadow plaster" since he was a child. He hummed after watching the shadow puppet show. From the age of twelve, he learned to carve shadow puppets on paper, using the windows as a stage, and he learned to sing when he found the umbra scroll. Whatever you think about, you think about it when you sleep.
Li Jianzhang, who fell in love with shadow puppets, often went to the shadow puppet lovers from his hometown to play and sing.
Li Jianzhang teaches children to learn shadow play
In 1976, Li Jianzhang formed the Luanzhou Shadow Play Troupe, which performed free performances for the villagers in nearby villages. It was not until the early 1990s that they started charging performances in order to maintain the troupe's livelihood.
Now there are more than 300 performances a year, almost every day, the footprint has also developed from Luanzhou and surrounding areas to Tianjin, Jingtang and other parts of the country. In 2015, he also performed shadow puppets in the United States and Portugal.
"At that time, shadow puppets had a solid mass foundation in the rural areas of our region, and they were mainly affected by ears and eyes," said Li Jianzhang.
Li Jianzhang's hands are covered with calluses because of scraping and carving shadows all the year round.
"After the donkey skin is soaked in cold water for three to four days, the outer hair and the inner oily meat are processed, and it is polished with a scraping tool thousands of times, and it is treated as thin as paper before it can be carved and colored. Say.
Nowadays, traditional shadow puppetry, like many traditional intangible cultural arts, encounter difficulties in inheritance and protection.
In order to protect this ancient folk art, Li Jianzhang is committed to cultivating a new generation of inheritors of shadow puppetry.
"Older people love to watch shadow puppets, while young people love to see shadow puppets less. The heyday of shadow puppetry has passed, and they are facing a dilemma that is almost'sweet sing.' The veteran artists are old and need to cultivate reserve forces urgently."
At present, Li Jianzhang insists on teaching children to learn shadow puppets for free at school. He hopes that he can continue to carry forward the shadow puppet culture in his lifetime and let children feel the charm of traditional culture.
"Although the venue is small, the world is big. As long as the children like and are interested, I will stick to it until I can't sing." (End)