(East and West Questions) Dialogue | Whose home is Mei Lanfang and world drama enjoy?
China News Service, Beijing, November 12th, title: Whose home will Mei Lanfang and world drama enjoy?
Author Zhao Xu Han Chang
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the death of Chinese Peking Opera artist Mei Lanfang.
In more than 50 years of stage life, Mei Lanfang has developed and improved the singing and performing arts of Peking Opera, forming a unique "Mei School" with far-reaching influence.
His visits to many countries in Asia, the United States, and Europe enabled the first real exchange and dialogue between Chinese opera culture and world drama.
How does Mei Lanfang's opera art affect the development of contemporary world drama?
Famous Sinologist and Honorary Professor of Griffith University in Australia, Colin Mackerras, Professor of the School of Philosophy of Wuhan University, China, and Executive Director of the Chinese Opera Society, Zou Yuanjiang, recently opened a dialogue in the China News Service "Question about East and West" column and interpreted.
Data map: People visit the Mei Lanfang Memorial Hall.
Photo by Yang Bo
China News Agency reporter: Compared with Western dramas, what are the unique features of Chinese opera represented by Mei Lanfang? How to influence and move the world?
Maclin:
Mei Lanfang's contribution is still very influential, and the essence of his Mei school has been continued.
Compared with Western drama, Chinese opera represented by Mei Lanfang has many unique features:
First, clothing, gestures, makeup, singing, and stories all have their own styles, and they merge with each other to form a sensitive, beautiful, and profound way of expression.
This combination of art means that if the voice and singing skills are good enough, Western theater performers can ignore some of them (detailed requirements), which is impossible in Chinese opera, because it emphasizes "singing and playing". , These basic skills are indispensable.
Second, Mei Lanfang is a male who performs female roles.
He has mastered the skill of imitating female voices in Peking Opera performances, making the performance exquisite and gorgeous.
Third, almost all traditional Chinese operas are based on Chinese history and legends, and they exquisitely showcase Chinese culture for thousands of years.
In the West, although several operas are based on China, the image of China presented is rigid and completely unrealistic. Even if they have beautiful melody, the story is very exciting.
Zou Yuanjiang: The Chinese opera art represented by Mei Lanfang has the triple expressiveness of narrator, performer, and critic.
In terms of narrative style, it is different from the "playing" of western drama art, which takes "performance" (representing and acting) as the core of performance.
The performance of opera actors is not a "performance role" but a "performance business". This is also the fundamental difference between Chinese opera art and Western opera art.
In terms of composition mode, the art of Chinese opera is based on a special "order" of various operas, and the stage presentation is extremely complicated and complicated.
From the perceptual perspective, Western drama is the imitation of foreign objects with objectified appearance and perception as the main body, while Chinese opera is the image perception of non-objective and non-substantial "pure creations".
The essence of Mei Lanfang’s performing arts spans the extremely difficult levels of singing, reading, doing, hitting (dancing), mouth, hands, eyes, body, and steps, and presents the body in a “must be sung with sound, dance without movement”. , The "spatiality of the body itself" is imaged.
He used Peking Opera to promote the historical encounter between Eastern and Western dramas, and brought many changes to the practice of Western drama.
Data map: Mei Lanfang's costume sculpture in Mei Lanfang Memorial Hall.
Photo by Yang Bo
China News Agency reporter: How does the western world interpret traditional Chinese opera? How to evaluate Mei Lanfang's artistic achievements? Has Chinese opera influenced the construction of the image of China in the West?
Maclin:
Although Mei Lanfang is not as widely known in the West as it should be, he is highly regarded by Western theater circles.
During his lifetime, he traveled to many places in the world, internationalizing Chinese Peking Opera in a way that no one can match.
At that time, audiences all over the world were full of praise for Mei Lanfang's performance. Part of the theory of the German dramatist Brecht's representative work "The Alienation Effect" was derived from his performance.
The "separation effect" is very complicated. It refers to the way that Mei Lanfang uses pantomime to perform different actions such as opening a door or riding a horse, using performances to show the essence of the action, and distinguishing characters with clothing and makeup.
Brecht once said: "The alienation effect exists in Chinese opera." After seeing Mei Lanfang's performance, Brecht said that his performance was much better than that of the Germans.
Traditional Chinese opera is different from Western drama.
Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare are representative figures of Chinese and Western dramas, and belong to contemporary drama masters.
But obviously, Chinese opera is not as widely known in the West as Shakespeare's plays in the East or even the world, and Westerners have very little understanding of Chinese opera.
Westerners who are really interested in Chinese opera regard it as a beautiful and comprehensive art form.
They usually don't like listening to some unfamiliar music melody, but they love the exquisite costumes, makeup, gestures and storylines of Chinese opera very much.
In addition, I really appreciate the familiar skills in the fighting scenes.
At present, the Western world has a negative impression of China, and some American politicians slander and smear China.
But this cannot stop the outside world's curiosity and love for Chinese culture.
In the external image display, Chinese culture left the best impression.
Chinese opera, especially the Mei Peking opera, is one of the best representatives.
So I want to say that Western audiences’ impressions of Chinese opera have influenced the shaping of China’s overall image.
Data map: Mei Lanfang's costume.
Photo by Yang Bo
Zou Yuanjiang
: Mei Lanfang and his Peking opera have subtly influenced Western drama.
Mei Lanfang was the first person to bring Chinese opera overseas and the first to introduce Peking Opera to the world theater scene.
He has communicated with many world drama masters, and his Peking opera has attracted the attention of European drama circles.
Russian director Sergey Eisenstein once commented that Mei Lanfang's performing arts are the "purest drama" with "pureness".
After watching Mei Lanfang's performance, Brecht immediately realized that theatrical performance should not be an experiential performance but a demonstration.
He feels that what he has pursued for many years but has not yet achieved, has been developed to a very high artistic level by Mei Lanfang.
Chinese opera is different from western drama, opera, and dance drama. Its shaping adaptability is extremely strong, and the performance ability of actors' bodies is also sought after by western dramatists.
George Barneu, a professor at the School of Drama at the University of Paris III in France once commented: "Western actors abandon the resources of the body and limit their performance to expressions. On the contrary, Eastern actors develop his art from the entire body. "
With his outstanding performance in stage art, Mei Lanfang has made Western theater lovers re-acquainted with Eastern opera and felt the unique charm of Chinese culture.
It can be said that the Chinese opera art represented by Mei Lanfang has reshaped the image of China in the hearts of Westerners.
Data map: Performed by the famous Peking Opera artist Mei Baojiu.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Li Jiajia
China News Agency reporter: Mei Lanfang's performance has provided a rare and fresh and powerful reference and inspiration for Western dramatists. Could you please talk about his influence on the development of Western drama? Which Western artists have been affected?
Zou Yuanjiang:
The influence of Mei Lanfang and Peking Opera's overseas dissemination is extensive and far-reaching.
Since his visit to the (former) Soviet Union in 1935, there has been a trend of Western drama that is constantly looking eastward.
In 1935, Mei Lanfang's performance in Moscow was highly praised by the outstanding ballet artist Ulanruva. She admired Mei Lanfang's hand posture for "representing the complex feelings of characters" and realized the powerful expressive principles of her posture.
The "tracing drama" explored by the Polish dramatist Grotowski comes from his "Journey to the East", that is, what he calls the encounter with the East.
In 1962, he visited and studied in China. He believed that Chinese opera had greatly inspired the creation and innovation of his own dramatic art. The study experience in China became a watershed in the transformation of his thoughts and concepts, which made his theatrical concept more to the east.
British theater and film director Peter Brooke is the representative of modern stage plays in the 1950s and 1960s, and is also one of the most important directors in the Western theater today.
His drama theory work "Empty Space" is a must-read for students of the Drama Academy, and the formation of his concept of "Empty Space" is also influenced by Chinese Peking Opera.
Maclin:
Speaking of influential Western artists, I want to share the story of a promoter of the internationalization of Peking Opera.
Her name is Wei Lisha. She is a Peking Opera actor and scholar in the Department of Drama at the University of Hawaii. From 1979 to 1981, she studied at Nanjing University, specializing in Peking Opera art. She was a teacher of the famous Dan Shen Xiaomei by Mei.
She received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Hawaii with her thesis on Peking Opera music, and brought English Peking Opera performances to the Western stage.
Now, as a professor of the Department of Drama at the University of Hawaii and the director of the Department of Asian Drama, she teaches her Peking Opera skills extensively in the United States.
This is just one example. In the West, the academic literature on Mei Lanfang and the art of Peking Opera is quite abundant, and it continues to grow.
Data map: Chinese folk music appeared at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, USA.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Shuo
Reporter from China News Service: In the context of globalization, how can traditional Chinese culture, taking opera as an example, better communicate with the world and realize the cross-cultural aesthetic realm of "beauty of beauty and mutual beauty"?
Marklin:
In the current globalization context, I think it is very important to maintain the relationship between cultures.
Regardless of political relations, cultural relations must be maintained.
The image of traditional Chinese opera is more positive than the overall image of China in the world.
Therefore, both China and the West need to continue their efforts to allow Chinese opera to be understood and appreciated in the Western world.
In order to better communicate with the world, the innovation of traditional culture such as Chinese opera is necessary.
In the past, people have tried to change, but it didn't work well.
Westerners appreciate the traditional parts of other cultures, especially those from China.
On the road to innovation in Chinese opera, there may be some people who like more westernized melody, action and storyline, but I don’t think there are many such people, and I don’t recommend this (changing the essence of traditional culture).
The best way is to retain Chinese cultural traditions and maintain the original characteristics as much as possible.
Zou Yuanjiang:
The penetrating power and influence of culture should not be underestimated.
Mei Lanfang spread and inherited the great art of his own nation to the world.
So far, there have been many Western dramatists who have traveled far and wide to learn and inherit "cross-cultural" in China because of the pursuit of the charm of Eastern opera.
The tendency of Western drama to "look eastward" has not stopped, and even become more apparent.
Therefore, we should think calmly and improve our ability to appreciate our national culture. Especially in the theater, creative and theoretical circles, we need to build our own cultural self-confidence. This is very important.
(over)
About the interviewee:
Colin Mackerras, a well-known sinologist, an honorary professor at Griffith University in Australia, and an academician of the Australian Federal Academy of Humanities, won the "Friendship Award" of the Chinese government in 2014.
Research directions mainly include Chinese ethnic minorities, Chinese opera, Chinese history, China-Australia relations, and China's Western image.
Representative works include "My View on China-The Image of China in the West since 1949", "The Image of China in the West", "Modern Chinese Drama: From 1840 to Today" and so on.
Zou Yuanjiang is a professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Philosophy of Wuhan University, a director of the Chinese Aesthetic Society, an executive director of the Chinese Traditional Opera Society and the vice president of the Tang Xianzu Society. He mainly studies Chinese aesthetics and drama aesthetics.
Published more than 200 papers at home and abroad, including more than 130 in A&HCI and CSSCI journals.
Invited to give lectures in more than ten universities in Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Japan and other countries.
The main research direction is Mei Lanfang's performance aesthetics, the 20th century Chinese and Western drama aesthetics, etc.