Cross talk is an important part of traditional Chinese culture, and Hou Baolin, as a master in the cross talk industry, has left an indelible mark in this century-old art field.
He injected new vitality into cross talk and left a valuable legacy for future generations.
Hou Yaowen, as the son of Hou Baolin, is undoubtedly the best candidate for the Hou family's cross talk inheritance. He not only inherited his father's skills, but also won a high status and prestige in the cross talk industry with his talent and hard work.
In that era, when it came to cross talk, the first thing people thought of was Hou Yaowen.
However, the development of art is not static. At the beginning of the 21st century, a young cross talk actor named Guo Degang began to emerge. His performance style is unique, and his language is sharp and humorous, which quickly attracted the attention of a large audience.
However, in the circle of cross talk, which is very particular about his background, Guo Degang faces a serious challenge - he has no formal mentoring background.
Although Guo Degang's cross talk is good, because he has no formal teacher, it has always been difficult for him to be truly recognized in the cross talk world. What's worse is that he also set up his own door and established the Deyun Club, which made many of his peers suspicious of him.
Just when Guo Degang's career was in a desperate situation, Hou Yaowen reached out to him. After listening to Guo Degang's cross talk, Hou Yaowen deeply felt that this young man had unlimited potential. So, he overrode public opinion and accepted Guo Degang as an apprentice.
This decision not only changed Guo Degang's fate, but also won him a place in the cross talk world.
Guo Degang is deeply grateful to Hou Yaowen for his kindness. He cherished this rare opportunity and studied the art of cross talk more diligently. Under the careful guidance of Hou Yaowen, Guo Degang's acting talent has been fully displayed, and Deyun Club has gradually embarked on the right track.
In this way, with the support of Hou Yaowen, a respected cross talk master, Guo Degang and his Deyun Club began to emerge in the cross talk world. This is not only Guo Degang's personal success, but also indicates that the art of cross talk is about to usher in an important inheritance and change.
In 2007, a thunderbolt from the blue shocked the entire cross talk industry - Hou Yaowen, a respected cross talk master, died suddenly at home due to a heart attack. When the bad news came, Guo Degang was working, and when he heard the news, he almost fainted.
Putting down all the affairs in his hand, Guo Degang rushed to his mentor's side non-stop, and his heart was full of indescribable grief.
At Hou Yaowen's funeral, Guo Degang and the other apprentices cried very sadly. The death of this highly respected cross talk master is a huge blow to the cross talk industry and Guo Degang himself, especially for Guo Degang, this teacher is not only a master-apprentice relationship, but also his confidant and benefactor.
Now that his teacher has passed away suddenly, Guo Degang's heart is full of endless sorrow and gratitude.
However, Hou Yaowen's death was too sudden, and he did not leave a will, which became the fuse of family disputes. As the elder brother, Hou Yaohua presided over the overall situation at the funeral, and everyone felt that it was reasonable.
Hou Yaowen's eldest daughter Hou Zan and stepmother also expressed their willingness to let Hou Yaohua arrange matters related to the inheritance.
However, the peace within the family did not last long, and a split broke out in an instant. Shortly after the funeral, Hou Chan suddenly took Hou Yaohua to court. The reason was that when she confirmed her share of the inheritance, she found that she did not get her fair share.
At first, Hou Zhan thought that his stepmother and sister had taken the inheritance, but after questioning, he learned that they also knew nothing.
This battle over heritage lasted four years. During this period, Guo Degang made it clear that he supported Hou Zhan, which made Hou Yaohua deeply angry. As a result, the originally harmonious master-apprentice relationship became strained.
There is a lot of discussion about this matter. Some people think that Guo Degang's behavior of supporting Hou Zan is very righteous and will not disappoint the master. But some people speculate that the reason why Guo Degang stood up against Hou Yaohua was because after the death of his master, he didn't want to be under Hou Yaohua anymore, and Deyun Club had matured and took this opportunity to draw a line with the Hou family.
Although the outside world has different evaluations of this turmoil, it is undeniable that it has caused waves in the cross talk world. The original situation of harmonious relationship between master and apprentice and harmonious family affection has become fragmented in the conflict of interests.
The housework of the Hou family is no longer a matter of individual families in this turmoil, but has become the focus of attention of the entire cross talk industry, which also lays the groundwork for the contradiction between Guo Degang and Hou Yaohua in the future.
The dispute over the inheritance between Guo Degang and Hou Yaohua has not completely subsided, but the contradiction between the two has intensified. Hou Yaohua, the Hou family who has not made achievements in the field of cross talk, suddenly apprenticed to Chang Baohua after the death of his younger brother and began to get involved in cross talk.
This move itself is incredible, and what is even more surprising is that Hou Yaohua, who is already in his 60s, squeezed the original eldest disciple Niu down by virtue of his status as a famous member of the Hou family, and his behavior of becoming a senior brother not only made Niu Qun dissatisfied, but even caused him to not even attend Chang Baohua's funeral later.
Hou Yaohua's series of actions are obviously provoking Guo Degang. Not only did he proclaim himself the "head" of Hou's cross talk, but he even invited Yang Zhigang, Guo Degang's former master, to a performance.
Taking this opportunity, Hou Yaohua insinuated that Guo Degang was "disloyal" and claimed to apologize for his younger brother, but in fact accused Guo Degang of betraying his teacher.
What's even more surprising is that Hou Yaohua openly said in a program: "I want to find an opportunity to conduct a formal cleanup of my father's apprentices, my apprentices, and Yaowen's apprentices."
These words were obviously aimed at Guo Degang and tried to expel him from the division.
In the face of these provocations, Guo Degang adopted an attitude of not showing weakness. On stage, he skillfully used jokes to satirize Hou Yaohua. For example, when introducing the master's brother, he mentioned that Hou Yaohua only said "look at the newspaper".
Another time, Guo Degang told a joke about bidding farewell to his master, and mocked Hou Yaohua's inappropriate words and deeds at Mr. Chang Baohua's funeral.
Guo Qilin directly questioned Hou Zhen on stage: "Did the second uncle Hou Yaohua give you the inheritance?" Although Hou Zhen simply replied, "Don't say it," this open provocation has reached a contradictory climax.
This quarrel between you and me not only made their contradictions public, but also divided the entire cross talk world. The former friendship between master and apprentice is gone, replaced by endless fights and attacks.
What's even more embarrassing is that in 2010, He Yunwei and others announced at Guo Degang's birthday party that they would quit Deyun Club and switch to Hou Yaohua's disciples. Their betrayal has deepened the contradictions between the two sides.
This turmoil not only affected Guo Degang and Hou Yaohua, but also affected the entire Hou family and members of the Deyun Club. can't help but sigh: the deep love between master and apprentice has long become a thing of the past, when will the grievances between the rivers and lakes be resolved? .
In this protracted dispute, the choice of the two young people of the Hou family, Hou Zhen and Hou Zhan, has attracted much attention. When facing the grievances between Guo Degang and Hou Yaohua, they need to make a difficult choice: whether to stand firmly on the side of their relatives Hou Yaohua, or choose to support their mentor Guo Degang.
As Hou Yaowen's daughter, Hou Zhan's choice does not seem to be surprising. During the period of competing with his brother for his father's inheritance, Guo Degang stood firmly on her side, and even sincerely bought Hou Yaowen's house for her to solve her urgent needs, and this friendship deeply touched Hou Zhan.
Even after the dispute ended, Guo Degang still gave her meticulous care in life and work, and in the face of such a loving and righteous Guo Degang, Hou Zhan's choice seemed to be a matter of course, after obtaining her share of the inheritance, she rarely appeared in public, and she almost cut off contact with Hou Yaohua.
However, Hou Zhen's choice was quite surprising. As the eldest grandson of Hou Baolin and the only heir of Hou's cross talk, he should have stood in the same camp as Hou Yaohua, but he didn't know that in the "inheritance dispute", Hou Zhen became the only Hou family member who publicly expressed support for Guo Degang.
It turned out that Hou Zhen's joining Deyun Club was arranged by Hou Yaowen before his death. This decision can not only protect the future of his nephew, ensure that Hou's cross talk is inherited, but also support his protégé Guo Degang.
In the Deyun Society, Hou Zhen enjoys a high status and is called "intangible cultural heritage" by Guo Degang.
Guo Degang cares about Hou Zhen very much. Even if Hou Zhen sometimes delayed his work because he was addicted to games, Guo Degang only reminded him in a low voice to take care of his eyes and never scolded him.
What's more, Hou Zhen's status in Deyun Club is extremely respectful, and it is rumored that when Guo Degang is away, some important matters require his nod to decide, and even the important task of taking care of Guo Degang's water cup has been handed over to Hou Zhen.
This kind of warm master-apprentice friendship, based on the half-brother relationship between his father Hou Yaozhong and Hou Yaohua, made Hou Zhen stand by Guo Degang's side without hesitation in this dispute.
The choice between Hou Zhen and Hou Zan between family affection and kindness makes people sigh that the affection is stronger than the blood relationship. The sentence "With Lao Guo and forgetting the Hou family", the sentence may express the true portrayal of their hearts.
Their choices not only affected their personal fate, but also changed the landscape of the cross talk world to some extent, adding more drama to this dispute.
With the passage of time, the personal grievances between Guo Degang and Hou Yaohua gradually turned into a dispute between the old and the new in the cross talk world. Guo Degang and his Deyun Club represent the innovative power of cross talk, while Hou Yaohua has become a representative of defending traditional cross talk.
Under the leadership of Guo Degang, Deyun Club has been developing in full swing. Although it has been criticized by some people from time to time, accusing it of not being a "mainstream cross talk", there is no doubt that when it comes to cross talk now, the first thing that comes to people's minds is Guo Degang and Deyun Club.
Guo Degang's cross talk style is unique, which not only retains the essence of traditional cross talk, but also integrates modern elements, attracting a large number of young audiences, and his apprentices not only shine in the cross talk industry, but also have achievements in other fields, injecting new vitality into cross talk.
In stark contrast, Hou Yaohua began to recruit a large number of apprentices soon after his apprenticeship, including even female apprentices with hot bodies. This practice has caused a lot of controversy in the traditional cross talk world, because cross talk has always been dominated by men.
What is even more questionable is that Hou Yaohua's frequent gift of bags to female apprentices has made many people suspect that his intentions are not pure.
These controversial behaviors have caused Hou Yaohua's reputation to plummet, and he is even inferior to Guo Degang, whom he once looked down on. Although Hou Yaohua is known for inheriting Hou's cross talk, his behavior is really unconvincing.
At the same time, people who call Guo Degang "non-mainstream" carry forward the art of cross talk through practical actions.
This battle between the old and the new is not only reflected in the performance style of the actors, but also reflects the attitude of the entire cross talk industry towards traditional art and innovative expression. The successful youth works of Deyun Club reflect the importance of innovation, but at the same time, they also raise concerns about whether traditional cross talk will be lost.
Although Hou Yaohua has always taken the inheritance of cross talk as his own responsibility, some of his practices have caused many controversies and are difficult to convince.
How can cross talk, a traditional art, keep pace with the times while maintaining its authenticity? This is a thought-provoking question. Whether to stick to the old rules or to try and innovate may not have a definitive answer.
But in any case, this has undoubtedly promoted the continuous development of cross talk art.
In this battle between the old and the new, the audience not only saw two completely different performance styles, but also intuitively felt two different artistic concepts and development paths. No matter who the final winner is, this showdown will add a strong color to the long history of cross talk development and become an important event in the history of cross talk development.
There will always be an end to the strife, but the development of cross talk art never ends. After this turmoil, Deyun Club has become the mainstay of the cross talk industry, but traditional cross talk is facing unprecedented challenges.
However, as lovers and viewers of cross talk art, what we expect is by no means mutual denigration between cross talk actors, but healthy competition for the better development of art.
Whether it is the "new school" or the "old school", whether it is Guo Degang or Hou Yaohua, the most important thing is to devote himself to the study of cross talk and carry forward this traditional art.
Cross talk is an art that can bring joy and provoke thinking, but it also has the potential to become a battlefield for personal grievances, but it is a stage that is recognized by the people. In the fast-paced era, how to maintain its unique charm and attract a new generation of audiences is a question that every cross talk artist should ponder.
We prefer to see cross talk actors engage in healthy competition in order to further their art, rather than denigrating each other. Whether it is the Deyun Club of the "new school" or the Hou cross talk of the "old school", their ultimate goal is to make the traditional art of cross talk rejuvenate in the new era.
Let's hope that after the turmoil, the cross talk industry can learn lessons and work together to write a new chapter for this ancient and young art.