China News Service, Nanjing, March 7th (Reporter Shen Ran Tangjuan) Play makeup, water sleeves, water mill tune... The Kunqu Opera, a Chinese "national treasure", which is more than 600 years old so far, has long been famous at home and abroad and has become a unique Chinese cultural label. It is a delicate and beautiful representative of Chinese classical imagery in the eyes of many foreigners.
However, after more than 600 years of changes, whether this "ancient beauty" can get rid of the heavy colors and gorgeous dresses and board the modern stage, and even the international stage, is still a lifelong issue for generations of Kunqu Opera artists.
Ke Jun, deputy to the National People's Congress, is the third-generation inheritor of the Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre and a Kunqu performing artist.
For more than ten years, Ke Jun has been devoting himself to exploring the experiments of Kunqu Opera and contemporary audience's aesthetic methods, trying to create pioneering Kunqu Opera in addition to performing and creating traditional Kunqu Opera. A series of works such as The Book of Ghosts, the experimental version of Night Run, and the Chinese-English version of Dream of Handan have gradually established his "most traditional and pioneering" view of Kunqu Opera.
For more than ten years, Ke Jun, a representative of the National People's Congress, has been devoted to exploring the experiment of aesthetic collision between Kunqu Opera and contemporary audiences in addition to performing and creating traditional Kunqu Opera.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
At the same time, Ke Jun took the lead in creating the Kunqu Opera website "Global Kunqu Opera Online", which enables all performances and important artistic activities of Jiangsu Kunqu Opera Theatre to be broadcast live on the website, expanding the spread and attractiveness of Kunqu Opera on the Internet.
Recently, the "Foreign Anchors Watching the Two Sessions" column of China News Service and China News Service invited Zein, an international student who has studied and lived in China for many years, to talk to Ke Jun.
The Syrian guy whose Chinese name is Latin is currently studying for a doctorate at Nanjing University of the Arts. He is a "China Hand" who loves Chinese language and Chinese culture very much. He will have an immersive dialogue with Ke Jun and walk into China. The world of art creators, to understand the historical and humanistic feelings of the Chinese nation behind Kunqu Opera.
Ke Jun's "Sukun" creation, which removes the make-up and faces the audience with no makeup.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
Latin: I am standing in the courtyard of the Jiangsu Kunqu Opera House, and I can vaguely hear the beautiful music from outside the door. Kunqu Opera was included in the first batch of human intangible cultural heritage list by UNESCO, and it is a treasure of Chinese art with a history of more than 600 years. How can Kunqu Opera be so good, let's walk through the door and take a look.
Ke Jun:
Hello, Latin.
What we've just been doing is working on the lines before the show.
The play currently being rehearsed is called "Huan Sha Ji", which is a very important turning point in the entire history of Kunqu Opera.
Although it tells the love story between Xi Shi and the literati Fan Li, one of the four beauties in ancient China, the creator and drama writer Liang Chenyu of the Ming Dynasty expresses the literati's deeper meaning through a story that people like to hear about a talented person and a beautiful woman. Homeland sentiment.
It was also from this work that Kunqu Opera went wider and wider on the road of literati opera, becoming the most elegant type of Chinese drama.
However, what we are now rehearsing is different from the traditional "Huan Sha Ji". A piece of Liang Chenyu's own experience has been added to the play, forming a play-in-play structure in which the creator and the characters he created reflect each other.
Try an innovative Kunqu Opera that incorporates Western theatrical scenes and characters, with a unique flavor.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Latin: Is this show also your innovation?
Ke Jun:
Yes.
I once played the roles of Liang Bolong, Fan Li, and Wu Zixu alone in this play, and now I will guide the young actors to continue the play.
Through the hand-in-hand inheritance of old actors and new actors, both the traditional part and the innovative part of the trick are passed on.
In fact, as an ancient art with a history of more than 600 years, the preservation, inheritance, development and innovation of Kunqu Opera has always been a motif that generations of Kunqu Opera artists cannot escape.
Next, let me show you and talk.
Latin: Teacher Ke Jun is going to show us the "Practice Martial Arts Field", which is the place where the actors practice their exercises. We saw that along with the melodious music, some young people practiced standing, sitting, sparring and somersaults here. These kung fu are somewhat similar to Chinese martial arts, but they are not very similar, which surprised me a little. The Kunqu opera actors on the stage didn't look like they had "martial arts", they were all very elegant. What's going on?
Ke Jun:
Kunqu Opera is actually divided into Southern Opera and Northern Opera. Southern Opera is graceful and delicate, and good at lyricism; Northern Opera is high-pitched, passionate, pathetic, tense, and good at narration.
Therefore, there are both literary and martial arts in Kunqu Opera, including beautiful girls like Du Liniang and Cui Yingying, and heroes like Lin Chong and Yue Fei.
In the Northern Song, there are many scenes depicting war, which requires the actors to have a solid foundation in martial arts.
In fact, as long as you enter the Kunqu Opera class, you will have to practice for more than ten years, whether it is body shape or eyesight, whether it is literary or martial arts.
In my recently published autobiography, "Nan Bai: Ke Jun's Kunqu Opera Diary", I found that I unknowingly wrote down "pain" more than 180 times. This pain is the pain of practicing for more than ten years, and it is also the pain of perseverance.
Only a few props are used to reproduce Ke Jun's performance of the classic Kunqu Opera.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Latin: It's amazing to have such a heritage in traditional art. There are also some traditional operas in Syria. Of course, no makeup is required, and the actors do not sing in a high-pitched voice, nor do they wear beautiful costumes. However, how to make the younger generation love these traditional things and maintain the "activity" of traditional art is still a long-term consideration for Syrian artists. For example, myself, I don't know much about traditional art in Syria. What kind of work did Mr. Ke Jun do to attract young people to love this traditional art?
Ke Jun:
This may be a common topic among art workers all over the world, how to bring young people closer to ancient art.
More than ten years ago, I was also very resistant to innovation. At that time, my idea was, "Traditional plays are classics that have been tempered, why should they innovate?"" Introducing traditional plays into modern theaters will attract more young audiences to love traditional plays. Is that enough? Why should the traditional repertoire be changed?"
In the collision of ideas with more and more art workers, my thinking has changed.
Therefore, I have my first pioneering attempt at Kunqu Opera, which is "Aftermath". This work was born out of Kong Shangren's "Peach Blossom Fan" and is one of the most beloved and familiar classic works by Chinese audiences.
In this play, I only wore a water jacket, no makeup, and faced the audience with a plain face. This is my first "Sukon".
Without makeup, it means that the actor's body is preserved, while the water jacket is the character's logo. The mask between "I" and the character has been removed. Kunqu opera actors are no longer just characters, but can express their own voices as modern people. sound.
This attempt is very shocking to the traditional Kunqu Opera community.
Since this play, my main work has been to experiment with the various possibilities of Kunqu Opera, including Faust, which was later adapted from Western drama themes, and the Chinese and English version of Handan Dream, which incorporated scenes from Shakespeare. The attempt not only expands the range of Kunqu opera fans, but also hopes to change the state of Kunqu opera people who lay on their heritage and become self-contained.
The Sukhum performance, which stepped out of the theater and entered a new scene, attracted more fans and fans with a new look.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Latin: I have seen Chinese opera in Syria, and I have had several opportunities to enjoy Kunqu Opera in China. Frankly speaking, the singing and soundtracks of ancient Chinese opera are too complicated for us foreigners. The heavy makeup and gorgeous clothes are of course mysterious and beautiful, but they also create a thick layer of separation. Seeing Su Kun in Kunqu Opera today gave me a different feeling. Is this your original intention to innovate Kunqu Opera?
Ke Jun:
I always feel that Kunqu Opera should not be divided into traditional and contemporary.
Whether it is Tang Xianzu or Shakespeare, their works play the human soul, human emotion and human spirit.
Really good works are ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign.
Kunqu Opera is an intangible cultural heritage, a living art, not an "antique" that cannot be touched in a museum.
This is also the reason why I encourage the younger generation to boldly create modern dramas, Su Kun.
Last year, our Kunqu Opera House also created a modern drama "Jiangjiang City" with the theme of anti-epidemic. At the beginning of the creation of this play, I proposed, "Whoever said that Kunqu Opera can only interpret the stories of the past, who said that Kunqu Opera can only shape the characters of the past, Who said that Kunqu opera people can only express the feelings of people in the past. Kunqu opera's expression method can completely shape a modern doctor facing the epidemic."
In my opinion, for the treasure house of art created and left by our ancestors, our contemporary people should not only have a sense of responsibility to "follow the words", but also have the courage and responsibility of how to "follow the words".
This is also the direction that I, as a representative of the National People's Congress, have been working hard to promote over the years.
Latin:
I am very grateful for this rare opportunity, which allowed me to really get close to Kunqu Opera, and put on a costume to experience how Kunqu Opera actors perform.
(over)