"The radio noise is very loud, very unclear, and intermittent. But I still heard some famous characters and some new dramas, and then I was very excited."
In a cross-strait opera exchange forum, I happened to meet Wang Anqi, a professor of the Department of Drama at National Taiwan University and the artistic director of Taiwan’s "Guoguang Theater".
During the interview, I habitually asked when Mr. Wang Anqi began to understand mainland opera and participate in cross-strait exchanges. I did not expect to ask about a "history of eavesdropping" that lasted more than 40 years.
In July this year, the "Guoguang Opera Troupe" version of "The Female General of the Yang Family" was staged in Taiwan.
The picture shows Wang Anqi (left) and Huang Shiya, played by Mu Guiying.
Photo courtesy of Wang Anqi
The spread of Peking opera to Taiwan is generally believed to have started when Liu Mingchuan, the governor of Taiwan in the twelfth year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1886), invited Peking opera troupes from Beijing to perform on her mother’s birthday.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, troupes from Shanghai and Fuzhou had toured Taiwan's cities and towns each year, with performances ranging from several months.
Peking opera has gradually become familiar and loved by the people of Taiwan.
In 1949, the two sides of the strait were separated due to political reasons. By 1987, Taiwan was "lifted" and the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe became the first mainland Chinese opera troupe to perform in Taiwan. The cultural exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were suspended for more than 40 years.
Wang Anqi’s mother is from Suzhou and is also a theater fan. She lived in Tianjin when she was a child and used to visit famous Peking opera actors backstage as a reporter. He also has a signed photo of famous Peking opera artist Li Shaochun.
That photo followed Wang Anqi's mother all the way to Taiwan, but unfortunately it was destroyed in a fire.
Wang Anqi was born in Taipei in 1955. Under the influence of his mother, he loved to listen to opera since he was a child. Mother and daughter often mentioned opera in chatting.
She said that there were only a handful of dramas that could be seen in Taiwan at the time. She barely missed a drama with her mother, but she still felt that it was not enough. As a result, she "eavesdropped."
At that time, the Taiwan authorities banned the introduction of new dramas from the mainland after 1949, and the mainland's "drama reform" was in full swing, with a large number of new dramas, new roles, and new accents emerging.
The two sides of the strait seem to be "isolated", but they cannot withstand the diligent pursuit of Taiwanese drama fans, and Xinsheng New Drama secretly "smuggled" across the strait.
Through radio, opera fans can sometimes listen to mainland opera programs.
"The noise on the radio was very loud, very unclear, and intermittent. But I still heard some famous characters and some new dramas, and then I was very excited." Wang Anqi said, such as "The Female Generals of the Yang Family" starring Yang Qiuling and Wang Jinghua. In the film recording, Bi Yingqi, who plays "The Old Man Collecting Medicine", has a very good singing voice. He always remembers his name and listens to it repeatedly.
"Even a supporting role is a lover for a lifetime."
There are also many professional actors and fans who secretly brought new film recordings and records from 1949 to Taiwan through friends in Hong Kong.
At that time, the two famous opera record stores in Taiwan, "Queen" and "Mingfeng", were responsible for the semi-public sale of "prohibited items."
The picture shows a group photo of Wang Anqi (first from left) and the younger sister (middle) of the famous Peking opera screenwriter Fan Junhong (middle) when the "Guoguang Opera Troupe" performed "Spring Grass Crash" in 2016.
"Crossing the Grass in the Spring" is a Peking opera compiled and adapted by Fan Junhong and Zou Yiqing. Wang Anqi said that he "overheared" the play compiled by Mr. Fan, and then when "Guoguang" acted in this play, it happened that Mr. Fan's sister turned to watch. There is this group photo.
Photo courtesy of Wang Anqi
In order to pass the review, the record shop put a little "disguise" on the packaging.
Wang Anqi later wrote an article and recalled that the first record of the record was to slightly change the title of the play, some of which were changed to the protagonist or key scenes in the play. "Li Hui Niang" was renamed "Red Plum Pavilion".
These plays are of ancient background. Only by looking at the title of the play, the supervisory unit cannot distinguish between the old play and the new play.
The keen drama fans know the drama with insight, and spread word of mouth among the friends whenever they find it, and the new drama record sells immediately.
Opera actors are also the subject of review.
Famous actors such as Zhang Junqiu and Ma Lianliang belong to the so-called "bandit actors" registered in Taiwan.
The record shop could not print the actor's name directly, so it changed the note "a faction".
Wang Anqi joked that the emerging talents of Zhao Yanxia, Li Yuru, Tong Zhiling and Du Jinfang were all "canonized" by the owner of the Taiwan record shop as Zhao Pai, Li Pai, Tong Pai, and Du Pai.
Because of this, Taiwanese theater fans who only saw the surname could not figure out whether the "Du Pai" was "Du Jingfang" or "Du Jingfang." Occasionally, the small pieces of information from Hong Kong and the United States are very precious.
Wang Anqi learned of the correct writing of "Du Jinfang" when he bought the "Chinese Opera and Opera Dictionary" from overseas in 1981.
Professional opera actors in Taiwan also follow the sound clues and put some new choreography onto the stage, half-arranged and half-guessed.
Singing can be pondered, the inaudible lyrics can only be played by oneself, and the invisible figures and steps can only be created by yourself, but many good works are also produced.
When the new dramas "Red Plum Pavilion" and "The Story of the Jade Hairpin" were staged in Taiwan in 1963 and 1964, they performed several times in succession and caused a sensation. The "scalpers" were so rampant that they had to use police force.
Wang Anqi said with a smile that when the troupe was questioned "who taught the play", the answer was "record teacher" and "the tape recorder taught it!"
The picture shows the catalog of mainland Chinese opera programs compiled and presented to her by Taiwanese opera fans in the "Eavesdropping" era collected by Wang Anqi.
Photo courtesy of Wang Anqi
After the 1980s, video tapes became popular.
People who have been listening to them for many years can finally see the truth.
Wang Anqi said that the mainland video tapes secretly "smuggled" by the Taiwanese movie fan circle at that time were extremely vague and distorted.
During the playback, the picture was often paused for three minutes. Everyone held their breath. After three minutes, the picture jumped out again, and there was no picture for three minutes.
"But in this way, I saw Li Shaochun's "Wild Boar Forest". It didn't last for a while, and the actor's entire face turned and turned. So my first impression of Li Shaochun was that his mouth was crooked." Wang Anqi smiled Said: "But we are full of excitement and respect, to watch these scenes that we have heard but have not seen."
In 1987, Taiwan's "liberation", cross-strait art and cultural exchanges gradually restarted.
Since the end of 1992, the Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe, Beijing Peking Opera Theater, and China Peking Opera Theater have successively performed in Taiwan, creating a "mainland fever".
The mainland theater troupe unexpectedly discovered that Taiwanese audiences have such a high level of opera literacy that for a time there is a saying that "the best actors are in the mainland, and the best audiences are in Taiwan."
Wang Anqi recalled that when Du Jinfang came to Taiwan in 1993, he played "The Legend of the White Snake", which was "familiar" by Taiwanese audiences. As soon as he exited the Jinshan Temple, a voice came from the audience-"This is the Du Pai!" "
The picture shows the report (fragment) of the grand performance of Beijing Peking Opera Theater and China Peking Opera Theater in Taiwan in the seventh issue of "Chinese Drama" in 1993.
When Wang Anqi talked about going to see the performance of the Chinese Peking Opera Theatre, “I was so excited and moved. When I watched it, my tears burst and my contact lenses fell out.”
"But when I saw that the old man picking herbs was not Bi Yingqi, they asked Bi Yingqi everywhere? They told me that he had passed away a long time ago. I was so sad, and I felt sad when I remembered it later." Wang Anqi talked to me more than 20 years ago. Here, tears welled up again.
"I think I have been obsessed with a person for a lifetime from sound to image. How could he have passed away so long when I was able to see him."
Today, Wang Anqi is 65 years old.
Since opening up for exchanges, she has been traveling across the Taiwan Strait theater, enthusiastically participating in opera exchanges, and cooperating with mainland counterparts to arrange plays.
She said that mainland Chinese opera has an uninterrupted heritage, and its famous characters are like clouds and endless views; Taiwanese opera is good at breaking through traditional innovations and its actors have strong comprehensive capabilities.
The same kind of performing arts must be exchanges, observations, and mutual inspiration. Without profound and broad cultivation, they must be exhausted.
But she also said that now, when she finally waited for the formal exchange, she felt the vicissitudes of life unconcealed.
The enthusiasm for watching dramas on both sides of the strait is not as good as before, and there are few milestone masterpieces that can compete with the past.
Looking back on the history of "eavesdropping" and "smuggling" for more than forty years, I feel that there is a momentum of "unstoppable force".
In recent years, Wang Anqi has created a lot of experimental new dramas: the new Peking opera "Golden Lock" adapted from Zhang Ailing's novel, "Wang Youdao Divorced His Wife" from the old drama "The Royal Stele Pavilion" adapted from a female perspective, and tells about the actors in the great changes in the past 100 years The "Hundred Years Opera House" encountered... She said that Kunqu opera cannot always be "The Peony Pavilion", and one generation must have the creation of another generation.
Xiqu, a traditional art shared and cherished by both sides of the strait, hopes to continue to be new in the hearts of people and opera artists on both sides of the strait.
Author: Lee Han Xue