On the morning of June 13, Liu Jinyun, the famous playwright and second director of the Beijing People's Art Theater, passed away due to illness at the age of 86. What is very sad and regretful is that June 12 is the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the Beijing People's Art Institute. On that day, the theater also carefully planned commemorative activities in the form of online live broadcast and offline meetings with many artists to meet the audience.
Liu Jinyun, the old dean of Beijing People's Art Institute and screenwriter
People change over time, and exchanges become ancient and modern. Just this May Day, Beijing People's Art Theater's annual original Beijing-style drama "Yongdingmenli" was staged at the Capital Theater. This is Liu Jinyun's sixth play for the People's Art Theater, and it was also the play he remembered most during his lifetime. Now that his wish has finally come true, it is also a consolation for the deceased.
Stills from the 2024 premiere of "Yongding Gate" Stills Yang Mingxin (right) plays Xiao Dali and Miao Chi plays Feng Jingbo.
Liu Jinyun was born in Xiong County, Hebei Province in 1938. After finishing primary school in his hometown, he went to middle school in Beijing and was admitted to the Chinese Department of Peking University in 1958. It is said that he has been a theater fan since he was a child. When in his hometown, whenever a theater troupe came to the village to set up a stage to sing an opera, he would always run to watch every performance. After watching, he would also learn to sing with his friends. Over time, I can memorize many lyrics. After he went to middle school in Beijing, there was an overpass near the school. At that time, the overpass was a gathering place for a large amount of traditional folk culture. As a young man, he became a frequent visitor there to see the new things and the excitement, and he was also nourished by the art of folk rap.
In the Chinese Department of Peking University, Liu Jinyun, who specialized in literature, not only read a lot of books, but also learned to write poems and lyrics, thus laying a solid foundation in Chinese studies. After graduation, he obeyed the state's assignment and worked as a teacher in a middle school in Changping, Beijing. He also worked with local farmers planting crops and doing farm work. Later, he became a grassroots leader and worked hard for 16 years. The long and arduous years gave him rich feelings about life. In his own words, these feelings "unintentionally turned into a pile of materials for writing novels and screenplays."
After the reform and opening up, he accumulated a lot of experience. Liu Jinyun began to enter the literary world, and received the attention and care of Cao Yu, the old director of the People's Art Institute, and the famous artist Su Zhi, and was transferred to the theater in 1983. In the 1980s, the Chinese theater scene showed an open trend of diversified and multi-track development. A new style structured between "realism" and "freehand brushwork" - neo-realism drama gradually matured and took shape, Liu Jinyun "The Nirvana of Dog Master" created in 1986 has become one of the symbols of the maturity of this type of drama style.
Stills from the 1986 performance of "Gou'er Ye Nirvana"
"Gou'er Ye Nirvana" tells the story of the farmer Gou'er Ye's ups and downs in his life. Gou'er Ye's real name is Chen Hexiang. As a farmhand, Gou'er Ye was oppressed by landlords in the old society. Finally, he became a master during the land reform. He was divided up the land and lived in the old landlord's house. Gou'er Ye had a taste of everything. The sweetness of a good life. Unexpectedly, the good times did not last long. First, the people's communes, the "Great Leap Forward", and later the "Cultural Revolution" caused Mr. Gou'er to lose his wealth and money, and eventually he went crazy because of his desire for land. When history entered the early 1980s, the joint-production responsibility system was implemented in rural areas, and the land and property lost by Gouerye came back. At this time, the younger generation had turned their attention beyond the land, looking forward to a broader world. and renewed life. But Mr. Gouer couldn't understand it at all, so he fought for his life and threw a fire at the gate tower that symbolized the reincarnation of his life...
It is said that after watching the rehearsal of the play in the Renyi rehearsal hall, Cao Yu tightly He took screenwriter Jin Yun's hand and said, "Thank you for writing a good play for the theater. When I watched the play, I felt that time was passing by. 'Nirvana' is just the name of the play." Later, the play participated in an art program When the knot was blocked, Cao Yu was very excited when he heard this. He held something in his hands and shouted: "This is a piece of jade!"
Liu Jinyun once mentioned in a creative statement that there is a saying in Beijing called "A personal dream. "Everyone does it individually" means that each one has his or her own approach to how to write a play, and no one can replace the other. “The themes I write about depend on my experiences.I have spent most of my time in the countryside and am more familiar with farmers, so when I create, the accumulation of my past life naturally becomes the material for my writing, such as "The Nirvana of Master Gou'er". For example, plays such as "Ruan Lingyu" and "Boundless Love" are about artists. After I came to Beijing People's Art Theatre, I carefully observed these artists and the group of artists, and found that this is a very distinctive group. Those characters
moved in front of my eyes, which aroused my creative interest. "
Stills from the 1994 performance of "Ruan Lingyu"
The drama "Ruan Lingyu" performed in 1994 is Liu Jinyun's masterpiece in the 1990s. He wrote about Ruan Lingyu in his mind, both as an independent individual and as an artist of the old era. A symbol of a unique group. Actor Xu Fan played Ruan Lingyu in the play for nearly thirty years and became a stage legend. It was also in the early 1990s that Liu Jinyun began to take up leadership positions and took over as the first vice president and director of the People's Arts. On his third day as party secretary, he went to visit Cao Yu, who was already on the hospital bed. At that time, the old dean said to him half-jokingly, "People and art matters are not easy to handle, so don't cry when the time comes." oh. "
Liu Jinyun became the second dean of the People's Art Theater in 1997 and stayed until he resigned in 2007. Speaking of the old dean's reputation in the theater, listen to what current dean Feng Yuanzheng said about him at the press conference of "Yongding Gate" This can be seen in the title, "In the theater, we all call the old director 'Uncle Jinyun'. "That media meeting was also Liu Jinyun's last public appearance. As the biggest focus of the meeting, the 86-year-old man came to the scene in a wheelchair and won a standing ovation from all the creators. .
Liu Jinyun came to the Capital Theater in a wheelchair to observe the stage design of "Yongding Gate". Photographed by Wang Zheng
On that day, Liu Jinyun reviewed the creative process of "Yongding Gate" on the spot and expressed his wishes that he would be able to perform in his beloved theater. The theater once again staged a new play created by himself, which can be called "a great blessing in life". He specifically mentioned that he saw many vivid faces of young people in the theater crew, and left 12 words of blessing for the theater to "become better and better" in the future. Good, the future is boundless, carry it forward."
