(East and West Questions) Wu Lingyun: How to Make Traditional Operas "Cross the Ocean" by Borrowing the Image of Guan Gong
China News Agency, Taiyuan, May 19th: How to make traditional opera "cross the ocean" by borrowing Guan Gong's image - Interview with Wu Lingyun, "Chinese Jin Opera Living Guan Gong"
Author Yang Peipei
Guan Gong has a high reputation and influence in the overseas Chinese world.
For thousands of years, Guan Gong has gradually evolved from a historical hero to the incarnation of "loyalty, righteousness, benevolence and bravery".
Today, in places where there are Chinese people all over the world, stories about the public are circulated.
When Wu Lingyun, vice president of the Jinju Art Research Institute of Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, and an artist of Jinju Opera, performed Jinju Opera in many overseas places, Guan Gong Opera has always been the main focus.
In his more than 40-year career as an artist, he has played Guan Gong for more than 30 years and won the reputation of "Chinese Jin Opera Living Guan Gong".
How to make traditional opera "go out" with Guan Gong's image so that it can be better spread overseas?
Recently, Wu Lingyun accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Questions".
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Service reporter: What kind of development process and cultural value does Jin Opera have?
Wu Lingyun:
Jin opera is one of the four major Bangzi operas in Shanxi, and it is a traditional Chinese opera.
In the early Qing Dynasty, Puzhou Bangzi flowed into Jinzhong, Shanxi, and it was gradually formed with the participation of Shanxi merchants and local literati by combining with Qi Taiyangko and Jinzhong folk tunes.
Because it originated in Jinzhong, Fenyang, Xiaoyi, Qixian, Taigu and Taiyuan, it is called "Zhonglu Bangzi".
After it spread to other places, it was called "Shanxi Bangzi". After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was renamed Jin Opera, which is still in use today.
The singing and performance of Jin Opera are unique in northern China. It presents the rough, heroic and intelligent wisdom of Shanxi people in an artistic form.
The show scene.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
The soundtrack of Jin Opera is closely related to the text and plays a role in setting off. It is an indispensable and important part of Jin Opera.
Since China's reform and opening up, the musical instrument performance of Jin Opera has also been constantly innovated and changed.
During this period, Jin Opera borrowed the soundtrack form of other operas, and introduced Western orchestral and percussion music to integrate with national musical instruments.
The costumes of the characters in Jin opera are bright in color and complex in patterns, bearing the distinctive features of ancient Chinese opera costumes and containing artistic value.
The content of Jin operas are mostly selected from real historical stories. After years of accumulation and artistic polishing, their ornamental, philosophical and literary qualities have reached a certain height, showing the cultural heritage of San Jin.
China News Service reporter: What difficulties and challenges are faced by the spread of Jin dramas overseas?
Wu Lingyun:
With the development of society, the impact of multiculturalism has brought great challenges to the dissemination of opera.
Although the combination of new media and traditional opera can win higher ratings and recognition, compared with comics, entertainment and other cultural communication methods, the attractiveness of Jin opera and the integration of the times are still slightly behind, which is also the reason for the limited spread of Jin opera. one.
Jin opera performance is a stage art, performers express their emotions and thoughts through vocal dance, reciting language, and morphological movements in limited space and time.
Due to the limitations of geographical and artistic expression, it can only use new media mode for overseas communication.
The combination of new media and Jin Opera enriches Jin Opera performances through camera switching.
But at the same time, the audience's eyes are affected by the lens, which will dilute the integrity of the stage, the sense of presence and the perception of the main body.
The disciples of Professor Wu Lingyun pretended to be Guan Gong.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
In my opinion, there is insufficient innovation in the way, method and content of Jin opera dissemination.
To this day, the overseas dissemination of Jin opera still relies on the promotion of government agencies, the form of dissemination is single, and the cultural perspective is also limited.
Folk performance groups at all levels, media and cultural forces have failed to play a greater role in the cross-cultural dissemination of Jin Opera.
Due to the language barrier and the strong local characteristics of Jin opera, the local dialect makes it difficult for overseas people to understand the meaning of Jin opera.
Secondly, the values are different, and the way of thinking of some stories may not be recognized by overseas people.
Although there are various communication channels and means, the translation, introduction and communication activities around Jin opera have not kept pace with the times in terms of subtitle translation, script adaptation, dialect retention and improvement, etc. The communication activities cannot keep the characteristics of classical dramas and meet the needs of overseas audiences. Aesthetically balanced.
China News Service reporter: When did Guan Gong's image appear in Jin dramas? Guan Gong has a high reputation and influence in the overseas Chinese world. How to spread Jin drama overseas with his image?
Wu Lingyun :
My father Wu Zhong and my mother Yan Huizhen are both performers of Jin opera, and they are the apprentices of the famous Jin opera "Master Xu Sheng" Ding Guoxian.
The image of Guan Gong in Jin dramas originated from my parents.
In 1982, her parents put Guan Gong's story on the stage in the form of Jin opera, which was well received, and her mother became the first female Guan Gong player in the history of opera.
Two generations of three Guan Gong, Wu Lingyun, his father Wu Zhong, and his mother Yan Huizhen.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
I started acting at the age of 8 and entered the theatre at the age of 12.
When I was 21 years old, my father taught me Guan Gong opera in Jin opera.
My father often said that one must learn from Guan Gong's conduct and be like Guan Gong in order to perform Guan Gong's spirit on the stage.
This role of Guan Gong is more than 30 years.
Guan Gong is very well-known overseas, and I have always wanted to spread Jin dramas through Guan Gong's image.
On October 18, 2019, the Malaysian International Guan Gong Culture Festival was held in Kuala Lumpur. The second experimental troupe of Taiyuan Jin Opera Art Research Institute from Shanxi Province, the hometown of Guan Gong, performed an excerpt from the Jin opera Guan Gong "Qianqiu Guan Sheng". This is the first Guan Gong I played. An overseas appearance.
Where there are Chinese people all over the world, stories about the public are circulated.
Guan Gong's public base, inheritors and inheritance range are unparalleled, and overseas Chinese worship Guan Gong for a long time.
Because of this, the first overseas performance in Malaysia was very successful.
When performing in Malaysia, overseas Chinese worshipped Guan Gong.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Since then, the troupe has been invited to perform in Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, Japan and other countries.
Today, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, it is impossible to go overseas, but we are constantly invited to perform Guan Gong opera online, inheriting the culture of Guan Gong and Jin opera.
After the epidemic is over, we will still go overseas to perform, so that the local people can experience the stage charm of Jin Opera.
According to incomplete statistics, today, more than 30,000 related temples have been built around the world.
Up to now, I have been to more than 500 temples, and every time I go to a Guandi Temple, there will be performances of Guan Gong plays such as "Ancient City Meeting", "Hua Rong Road", "Single Sword Meeting", and more than 2,000 performances are very popular.
I hope I can walk into more Guandi Temples and play Guan Gong plays well.
China News Service reporter: How is the spread of traditional opera overseas at present?
Wu Lingyun:
In 2006, the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" performed by Bai Xianyong was performed in the United States.
Professor Li Linde, the translator of the English subtitles of the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion", taught at the University of California, Berkeley, teaching singing and performing demonstrations. This unprecedented course attracted a large number of young students.
The youth version of Chinese Kunqu Opera, The Peony Pavilion, was performed at the University of California, Berkeley, in September 2006.
The picture shows an American woman admiring the hand-sewn costumes worn by the actors.
Photo by China News Agency by Chen Gang
The performance was also reported in detail and highly praised by the American media. For example, the Los Angeles Times published an article praising this version of The Peony Pavilion as a rare and great performance.
The process of Chinese traditional opera being accepted by overseas people is from misunderstanding to understanding, one-sided to comprehensive, characteristic to essence, passive to active.
During this process, overseas people have come to understand Chinese traditional opera works and their artistic features.
More profoundly, the Chinese traditional culture carried in the works has been widely disseminated.
However, in the process of communication, there are still problems such as insufficient communication channels, methods, and content innovation, no special translation theory has been proposed and constructed, and China's local evaluation terminology system has not yet been established.
China News Service reporter: How to use Guan Gong's image to make Jin dramas shine overseas?
Wu Lingyun:
Based on Guan Gong's quality of "benevolence, righteousness, loyalty, courage and trust", we should continue to work hard in highlighting character images, artistic innovation and presentation forms.
Constantly excavate and find the point of convergence between the spirit of Guan Gong and the inner pursuit of overseas people and overseas Chinese. While showing Chinese culture with traditional operas, the image of Guan Gong is established with plots, language and ideas, and more overseas people are encouraged to worship and admire Guan Gong. .
Promote Guan Gong culture in Daguandi Temple in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
At the same time, a multilingual translation system was established to effectively expand the audience of Jin opera.
According to the cultural characteristics of different countries, regions, ethnic groups, groups of people and social classes, Shanxi Opera performances and exchange activities are carried out in a targeted manner.
Especially in the research and design of the simultaneous subtitle translation of the performance, by setting and backing up a variety of different translations, the directness, colloquialization, and dialectization of the language are consistent with the aesthetic thinking and language expression style of different overseas regions, to the greatest extent possible. Let the people understand and resonate.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Wu Lingyun, Vice President of Shanxi Province Taiyuan Jin Opera Art Research Institute, Shanxi Opera performing artist, representative inheritor of Shanxi Province's first batch of intangible cultural heritage Jin Opera, and a national first-class actor.
For many years, Wu Lingyun has been playing the image of Guan Gong in Jin dramas, and enjoys the title of "Chinese Jin drama living Guan Gong" in the industry.
He has won the 17th China Drama Plum Blossom Award and the 8th National Drama Culture Award Performance Gold Award.