Text/Jinyang.com reporter Song Yi, correspondent Li Danhong
Photo/BabaylanHe Zhijian
“There are no good guests when people from Fenglou leave, and the rich people are lonely behind CinemaThe setting sun”, Chen Baoying, the female character in the Cantonese opera “Purple Phoenix Tower”, sings the words of the correct and crying, and the audience applause is thunderous. On the evening of September 8, nearly a thousand audiences were crowded with people in the Cantonese Opera Cultural Plaza in Guangzhou Cultural Park. Everyone was deeply attracted by the teacher-student concert of Li Yueling, a Cantonese opera singer, was being held here. Mr. Tan Peiyi, the master of Komiks, also visited in person to observe. Li Yueling and Cinema disciples hope to use their voices to promote the Cantonese opera culture and carry forward the Lingnan culture.
For this performance, Li Yueling and her disciples prepared for half a year. Behind this performance is the cultural confidence flowing in the blood of a Cantonese opera singer and the totem of Guangdong rhyme. This performance is the spiritual agreement between a Cantonese opera singer and a group of ignorant college students who know nothing about Cantonese opera. What kind of story is behind this performance? Li Yueling retreated and continued to continue her dream of inheriting the Cantonese rhyme?
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Seeking dreams, and the origin of CUHK
In 2009, Guangdong musical song singer Li Yueling retired from the Guangdong Music and Music Art Troupe. That year, the Cantonese Opera and Guangdong Opera Cultural Studio of the Center for Historical Anthropology Research at Sun Yat-sen University was established. The following year, the work room opened a Cantonese opera workshop for college students. Li Yueling and famous performer Chen Zhongyan served as instructors, aiming to cultivate young students’ interest in Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera and improve their perceptual understanding of the study of Cantonese culture. The workshop hopes that more years will be available.Youth can join the ranks of understanding Cantonese opera and Chinese traditional culture.
As soon as the workshop started, it quickly attracted a large group of young people with similar aspirations from major universities. Unlike students majoring in Cantonese opera, almost all of these college students have never been exposed to Cantonese opera, nor have they seen the sequel score, let alone pronunciation or rhyme. From voice sucking to music theory, from demonstration to teaching one by one, the two teachers of Komiks led this group of students to learn from scratch.
The workshop also attracted the attention and support of many famous Cantonese opera artists and enthusiasts. On April 17, 2011, the female teacher of the Cantonese Opera Babaylan Master Red Line came to the teaching site in a thunderstorm to communicate with the students in the workshop. The female teacher of Red Line not only listened to the students practicing famous sings such as “The Fen Ge’s Love and Revenge” and “The Flower Fields’ Misconception”, but also gave them the intention to improve their words, singing style, and emotions, but also sang “Red Candle Tears” on the spot and expressed their high expectations.
The 7th (Guangzhou) Cinema College Student Drama Festival has opened a special session on Cantonese opera, inviting workshops and Cantonese opera enthusiasts from brother colleges and universities such as Guangzhou University Quyi Club to perform together. This is also the only Cantonese opera special session established by Cinema so far. This group of students used their superb performances to repay the concern of all sectors of society and sang the dream of spreading and inheritance with Cantonese rhyme.
Continue your dreams, continue your fate with teachers and students outside the school. Time flies is like an arrow. In a blink of an eye, students graduate and go to society and start working. Different from students from Cantonese opera or art majors, the school in the seminar has left the original learning platform after graduating from the school and has almost no chance to learn Cantonese opera. With the busy work, they slowly put their Cantonese Opera aside, and they had not sang a song for several months or even a year.
“As the saying goes, ‘The fist is always inseparable from the hand and the mouth’, if this continues, the students will definitely forget what they have learned before.” Li Yueling alwaysAfter chatting with the students, I felt moved. She often wondered: “How can students always maintain their love for Cantonese opera, Cantonese opera, and persist in learning, and even go to a higher level?” After thinking about it, Li Yueling decided to use the resources around her to build a platform for students and create opportunities for them to continue learning Cantonese opera.
She and Chen Zhongyan first found a few private games to let the students start the game from time to time to practice. Later, Li Yueling, in order to ensure that the students can start the game once a month, achieved the goal of practicing continuously. She went to the Beijing Street Cultural Station to find Webmaster Zhao Yuhua and talked to Webmaster Zhao about her deep concerns about the loss of skills of this group of students. When webmaster Zhao Yuhua heard that there were such a group of young people who loved Guangdong opera, he was very moved. He immediately arranged for Li Yueling to meet with Chen Jinglin, the head of the Folk Art Troupe of the Guangzhou Cultural Hall of Beijing Street to discuss the students’ practice of Komiks.
In order to facilitate everyone to practice music, the Cultural Association has changed the starting time from Monday to Friday and closed on weekends. It has specially arranged to bring the accompaniment master back to work overtime on Saturday afternoon to start the game for the students.
After Li Yueling implemented the venue for the start of each month, she assigned the task of each student to learn a song, hoping to use pressure to drive students to take the time to learn the song. Every time the student starts, Li Yueling will come to the scene no matter how busy she is, listen carefully to each student’s singing, and after listening to them, she will help them analyze and improve word by word.
In addition, Li Yueling also invited her master, “Zi Du Wang”, to participate in the private affairs of the students. Teacher Tan Peiyi not only shared the creation process of her first famous song “Cai Wenji Returns to Han” with the students, but also taught everyone to sing “Jinjiang Poetry Couple” word by word, which gave the students great encouragement.
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They became the messenger of Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera communication
In addition to teaching students to sing, Li Yueling is notAlways focus on tapping students’ potential. For students with artistic talent, she will encourage them to learn Cantonese music accompaniment instruments and playing the palm of the board, hoping that after they have finished learning, they can form their own accompaniment band, which can integrate singing and accompaniment; for students with writing skills, she will encourage them to write lyrics. Under her earnest teaching, many students have made breakthroughs, stepped onto different art stages and gained recognition.
Li Yueling often said to her classmates: “I taught you to sing Cantonese opera, turning you into die-hard fans of Cantonese opera, but in terms of inheritance and communication, I hope you can one day take the initiative to shoulder the important task of spreading Cantonese opera culture. Let more people know Cantonese opera and like Cantonese opera.”
Li Yueling’s Cantonese students back then, now some of them have stepped onto the podium and become teachers. They will use Cantonese opera as class material in a timely manner, so that children can accept Cantonese opera in a subtle way. Some people joined the bank and added a special Cantonese opera opera in the bank’s feedback activity, which gave many customers who never entered the Babaylan theater to come into contact with Cantonese opera for the first time and became enthusiasts… Under the words of Teacher Li Yueling, the students consciously took the spread of Cantonese opera as their obligation. They did not have any great deeds, but they used ordinary practical actions to sow the seeds of Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera into the hearts of more people.
Realize your dreams, they become the messengers of love
Li Yueling often says: “We have received strong support from many groups along the way and the help of enthusiastic people. We must learn to be grateful. In addition to learning Guangdong opera, in addition to being able to entertain yourself, I hope you can bring more people happiness with what you have learned.”
In recent years, Li Yueling has led students Wu Guanxian and Li Yingtong to participate in the “Belt and Road” charity exhibition on the inheritance of Guangdong folk art. Chen Zhongyan and Li Yueling personally led the students to more than a dozen nursing homes in Guangzhou, Foshan, Jiangmen and other places for condolence performances. In addition, they also gave nearly 20 scenes for free to Foshan, Dongguan, Taishan and other places, allowing Cantonese opera to enter people’s daily lives, allowing people to feel the charm of traditional culture, and enrich the cultural life of local residents.
Li CinemaYueling is a folk artist who regards the inheritance of Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera as his responsibility. Li Yueling’s disciples are the batters who make the Guangdong rhyme reverberate in the new era.