Jimu News reporter Guan Qianyu
Correspondent Xiang Jihua Zhang Yunchao Xu Dan
Chen Zhongxiang is performing a shadow puppet show
In recent days, the 83-year-old shadow puppet artist Chen Zhongxiang has been active at the shadow puppet performance scene in Zhuping Township, Zhushan County, Hubei Province. He sometimes sings loudly. Sometimes he bends the bow and pulls strings, sometimes plays with shadows on the scenery, sometimes swings hammers and beats drums... Although he has a gray beard and hair, his voice is still clear and loud, the tunes of flower drums are well-organized, the high notes are exciting and high-pitched, the shadows are played nimble and light, and the erhu plays melodiously.
Chen Zhongxiang has been on the shadow puppet stage for half his life. Although he has reached an old age and the years have carved deep wrinkles on his forehead, the power hidden in his tongue and the dream of inheriting the art of shadow puppetry have never changed. Now, he performs about 30 times on stage in person every year.
Shadow puppetry is an ancient traditional Chinese folk art. It began in the Warring States Period, flourished in the Han Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, and spread to West Asia and Europe during the Yuan Dynasty. It has a long history and a long history. In 2011, Chinese shadow puppetry was selected into the "Representative List of Human Intangible Cultural Heritage", which is China's 29th intangible cultural heritage of mankind.
html Nearly half a century of studying shadow play
"Zhong Shuer, in the living room, giving advice to his father! In worldly matters, loyalty, filial piety and righteousness are the three most important things. In the court, he is an official and works hard to protect the dynasty; in 369, he goes to face the saint and is loyal To the best of my ability..." On March 30, 83-year-old Chen Zhongxiang sang a few lines from "Three Generations and Four Number One Scholars" while packing up his shadow puppet props at home. When he sang to the emotional point, he shook his head, danced, and his whole body and mind were immersed in the artistic conception of the shadow puppet story.
After a while, he turned on the tape recorder again and listened carefully to the audio of Master Zhou Yanyun's singing recorded that year. This took his mind back to the 1980s.
In 1989, Li Dabing, a musician who played the erhu and trumpet in the Zhuping Township shadow puppet troupe, suddenly fell ill, and the shadow puppet troupe urgently needed to find a replacement. After Chen Zhongxiang, who resigned as secretary of the brigade, learned about it, he volunteered to learn to play the erhu and trumpet. He humbly learned the high tunes, Kuping, Xipi, Yue tunes, minor tunes and other tunes that are necessary for the erhu soundtrack of shadow puppet shows. He often performs in Zhushan, Zhuxi, Hubei, Xunyang, Baihe and other counties in Shaanxi. As soon as
started, he was deeply shocked by the profound artistic charm of shadow puppetry, and he set his ambition to pass on this folk art forever. This lasted 35 years.
In the process of learning from musicians, he also humbly learned high-pitched singing techniques from "Blocker" Zhou Yanyun. When Zhou Yanyun sings shadow puppets, he never needs a script. He sings entirely based on memory or improvised lyrics.
In order to deepen his memory, he bought a tape recorder and tapes, and used the tape recorder to record Zhou Yanyun's lyrics during shadow puppet performances. When it snows and rains and it becomes impossible to do farm work, Chen Zhongxiang turns on the tape recorder, listens to each sentence, and writes down each sentence. After several years of hard work, we finally completed the writing and recording of 15 classic shadow puppet drama scripts such as "The Yang Family General" and "Three Generations and Four Number One Scholars".
Chen Zhongxiang sings and plays percussion instruments
Unswervingly pass on his skills
In 2011, "Blocker" Zhou Yanyun passed away, which brought a heavy blow to the Zhuping Shadow Puppet Troupe. It is very difficult to find a good "blocker". Chen Zhongxiang lobbied everywhere but failed. Some were tired, some were tired, some were afraid of staying up late, and some were not savvy enough to learn. In desperation, Chen Zhongxiang mobilized Zhou Chengzhi (Zhou Yanyun's son), who was working in other places at the time, to return to his hometown to take over and learn "Block the Door".
Although Zhou Chengzhi is ambitious and wants to inherit shadow puppetry from his father, he has never learned it before, so it was still very difficult at the beginning. Chen Zhongxiang took out the tapes he had recorded for Zhou Chengzhi to listen to. He showed Zhou Chengzhi the script he had recorded and asked him to sing according to the script. He taught him to learn to play shadow puppets and sing high tunes. Gradually, the shadow puppet theater troupe became prosperous again. stand up.
As soon as he had time, Chen Zhongxiang taught Zhou Chengzhi the performance rules of shadow puppetry and taught him to master the characteristics of the characters such as Sheng, Dan, Jing, Chou, Guan, Helmet, and Lin in ancient times.He said that Sheng represents civilians, Dan represents women, Jing represents young students, Chou represents villains, Guan represents officials, helmet represents generals, and Lin represents the thieves gathering in the mountains and forests. He carefully taught Zhou Chengzhi how to perform character movements and how to rationally arrange language in conjunction with the storyline to achieve a lifelike and emotional performance.
Props for shadow puppet performances
He also spent money to buy audio, headphones, microphones, gongs and drums, erhu, speakers and other equipment. In order to depict modern characters, he forged plastic bottles containing shampoo into carving raw materials by burning, roasting, hammering, etc., then drew characters on them, then carved and polished them, and finally painted them with different colors of paint. , pigments, etc.
In order to pass on the art of shadow puppetry, Chen Zhongxiang often teaches other apprentices how to play erhu, trumpet, percussion and other skills. He also goes to schools to explain the performance skills of shadow puppetry to students.
Chen Zhongxiang (right) and Zhou Chengzhi are showing off new performance props
The old man is getting stronger and never stops
On April 15, 2023, he led the shadow puppet team to the final competition site of Shiyan City’s first charming township (street) selection event and performed a shadow puppet show clip , show the charm of Zhuping Township, Zhushan County, and cheer for Zhuping Township’s election as a charming township.
"Don't forget that I am 83 years old this year, but I travel all over the country singing shadow puppet shows and work non-stop in agricultural production, so I am in good health. I can sing high-pitched tunes without being out of breath, without panic, and with a loud voice. I will perform for another ten years and eight "There is no problem at all," Chen Zhongxiang said confidently while carving the shadow puppet image.
The scene where Chen Zhongxiang led his apprentices to perform
"In the first month of last year, Master Chen went to Shaanxi with us to perform three shadow puppet shows in a row, each of which lasted five or six hours. Master Chen's spirit was stronger than us, and he always performed You are in high spirits," 56-year-old Zhou Chengzhi said with a thumbs up.
When talking about the inheritance of shadow puppetry, Chen Zhongxiang was worried. He said that the most difficult thing is to train young people to learn to "stop the door", play the erhu and play musical instruments. "We are all old, especially those who play the erhu and the trumpet. They cannot learn it in three or four years. We cannot let the Gaoqiang, Xipi and Kuping tunes be lost."
"Shadow puppetry advocates loyalty, filial piety, righteousness and other Chinese traditions. It teaches people the traditional virtues of being good, teaches people the principles of life, and teaches people to establish new trends in civilization." Chen Zhongxiang said that as long as he is in good health, he will continue to work hard and contribute his whole life to the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage shadow puppetry. In order to show the artistic charm of Duhe Shadow Puppetry and carry forward folk art,
has never changed his original intention no matter what difficulties he encountered in the past 35 years. He has spent money many times to buy shadow puppet props scattered among the people, and repairs the aging and damaged shadow puppet props every year. Whenever his disciples were discouraged, he always cheered them up and encouraged them to move forward. "For the sake of artistic inheritance, we do not seek fame or profit." He often taught his disciples this way.
In order to adapt to the needs of the times, Chen Zhongxiang guided Zhou Chengzhi to create "Gold at Dusk", "Together to Create a Beautiful Homeland", "Village Old Man Changes Bad Habits and Strives to Create Ten Stars", "Raising Awareness to Prevent Fraud", "Create Ten Stars to Enter Thousands of Homes", etc. More than a dozen new scripts full of contemporary flavor. Take advantage of the opportunity of local people to sing traditional shadow puppet shows to sing new scripts, deliver good voices and promote positive energy.
Chen Zhongxiang went to the school to introduce the shadow puppet performance skills to the students
He is willing to be a ladder to help his disciples fly
In 2023, Zhou Chengzhi, the fourth generation successor of the Zhushan Duhe Shadow Puppet Team, won the Best Actor Award at the "Fifth Hubei Province Shadow Puppet Performance" event. Chen Zhongxiang Overjoyed.
In order to allow the traditional art of shadow puppetry to ride the express train of technological development and adapt to the development needs of the new era, in recent years, Chen Zhongxiang has not only integrated traditional light and shadow art with modern sound and light art to promote the development of old art, but also supported Zhou Chengzhi and others Participated in intangible cultural heritage performances organized by provinces, cities and counties and won awards. He is always willing to serve as a ladder for others and tries his best to build a platform for his apprentices so that they can show the artistic charm of Zhushan shadow puppetry and carry forward folk art.
In November 2023, with his help, his apprentice Zhou Chengzhi was fortunate enough to become a student in the fifth phase of the Hubei Opera Artists Inheritance Training Course at Jianghan University. He gave Zhou Chengzhi 500 yuan and encouraged him to successfully complete the learning task. During the
training, Zhou Chengzhi kept Chen Zhongxiang's teachings in mind, studied hard, discussed skills with other students humbly, and tried his best to show off his talents, which won unanimous praise from the students and professors in the training class. Hanjiang University plans to further explore the shadow puppet art of Duhe River and let the shadow puppet art in Duhe Basin bloom.
In December 2023, Wuhan Textile University sent a special team to Zhushan to conduct an exclusive interview with Chen Zhongxiang on the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage shadow puppetry.
On March 29 this year, a group of professors from Hubei Institute of Automotive Industry went deep into the Gao Family Flower House in Zhuping and witnessed Chen Zhongxiang’s shadow puppet performances "Civil and Military Stars" and "Ten Stars Created to Enter Thousands of Families" on the upper floor of the centuries-old flower house theater. , on-site investigation of the artistic charm of shadow puppetry.
Chen Zhongxiang took a group photo with the experts and scholars who came to inspect
