Zhongxin Wanghai, March 3 Topic: Shanghai Great World "Butterfly Change": The former "Far East First Club" and today's small theater new performance
Reporter Zheng Yingying
The 106-year-old Shanghai Great World (hereinafter referred to as "Great World") opened its "doors" for the first time, and it does not charge tickets.
Instead, there are small theaters in the big world, and if the audience wants to watch the play in the small theater in the big world, they will buy tickets separately. The big world has thus become a "small show business world".
"Butterfly change for a living" under the new cultural trend
Small theater performance in the big world Photo by Zheng Yingying
Founded in 1917 by Shanghai businessman Huang Chujiu, Great World was once known as the "First Club of the Far East", which was described by some old Shanghainese as "Disney of childhood". In fact, 38 years after the Great World was built, in 1955, the first Disneyland opened in California.
At that time, the big world was the largest indoor playground in Shanghai, with many small theaters, various amusement juggling, northern and southern operas, Chinese and Western restaurants, various shops, etc., often crowded with tourists.
Over the years, the Great World has been renamed several times, and it has also been renovated behind closed doors, and reopened to the public in 2017, the centenary of its completion.
In recent years, Big World has been "thinking" about how to keep up with the trend of the times, while retaining the "original taste", it has established a firm foothold and survived in the cultural market.
Xu Li, deputy general manager of Great World, introduced that Great World has long been a playground, and after this repositioning and adjustment to a "performing arts consumption gathering area", it will focus on performing arts, and it is expected to stage more than 1,100 performances and welcome more than <> million audiences in the next year.
Balanced rebirth in "white and black" mode
Haha mirror in the big world Photo by Zheng Yingying
It is not an easy task to renew the century-old Shanghai cultural landmarks.
"The transformation of the big world is really not easy", Xu Li said, some audiences hope that the big world will return to its original appearance, and some audiences hope that the big world can have new ideas.
Go? Xu Li said that the big world chose the "white and black" model, leaving the night for young people, and the day for parent-child families and middle-aged and elderly people who are full of memories of the big world. "At different times, the big world you see may be different, like parallel time and space." She said.
Nostalgic audiences can still see the "big world by day". In the entrance hall, the 12 large haha mirrors that made the world famous are still standing. These haha mirrors were custom-introduced from the Netherlands in the second year of opening of the big world, and became taller, shorter, fat, thin and even upside down in front of the haha mirrors, which are unforgettable happy childhood memories in the hearts of many old Shanghai.
Xu Li introduced that in the big world during the day, you can see traditional burlesques, full-fledged shadow puppets and magic shows, which are reserved for the "daytime audience" and the prices are relatively favorable.
But she said the big world also has to survive in the market and "catch up with the new." Therefore, Big World has adjusted its format in a targeted manner, launching small theaters, introducing resident musicals, immersive game dramas, urban concerts, etc., to attract young people in the evenings and weekends.
The century-old world ushered in a new Zheng Yingying photo
When the reporter visited, he saw that the upstairs of the big world is already a small theater, including the Happy Twist Theater on the second floor, the box theater on the third floor, the drama bar on the fourth floor, and so on. When the night grew darker, spectators came one after another in the lobby on the first floor, went to the automatic ticket machine to pick up the tickets, and went upstairs to watch the play.
It is worth mentioning that as it was more than a hundred years ago, the renovated world closely links performing arts and consumption. Now the big world, the front door of some shops on the first floor faces the bustling Shanghai downtown street, and the back door directly leads to the open-air atrium of the big world, people in the store, quite "sitting in the big world, overlooking the big Shanghai" atmosphere.
More than 100 years ago, at the beginning of the establishment of the Great World, the introduction of northern and southern dramas, amusement and juggling, aiming to play a hundred plays and a hundred schools of thought. Now after the renovation, this century-old Shanghai cultural landmark is also looking forward to witnessing that in another century, everyone has a show. (End)