Fujian Daily, July 30, 2024, page 01
In 1983, Huang Zhenfang, a villager in Houyang Village, Zhouning County, who was more than half a hundred years old, resolutely took out a loan of 80,000 yuan and took his family up the mountain to plant trees. In three years, 1,207 acres of afforestation were planted, and he became a well-known "afforestation king" in the local area.
For more than 40 years, three generations of Huang Zhenfang's family have continued to pass on the baton and deeply cultivate forestry; Zhouning County continued to promote afforestation and greening, forest tending, and mountain closure and afforestation, and the county's forest coverage rate increased to 72.96%, winning the honor of "national brand" such as the National Ecological Civilization Construction Demonstration Zone.
When this story goes to the drama stage, what kind of excitement will it present?
At 8 o'clock in the evening of July 28, Zhouning's "Sanku" Performing Arts Center was full, and the original drama "Tree Soul" ushered in its public premiere.
Based on Huang Zhenfang's family forest farm, this play is composed of three acts: "Deforestation", "Afforestation" and "Forest Guarding", showing the moving story of three generations of Lin Shougen's family who have adhered to it for more than 40 years, going up the mountain to afforestation, and continuing to protect the green water and green mountains, and deeply practicing the important concepts of "green mountains and green water are priceless treasures" and "three banks + carbon pools".
When the curtain opens, the blue-gray side backlight is sprinkled, and the dense forest picture scroll slowly unfolds, which have nourished the water and soil of Houyang Village for generations. Between light and shadow, the protagonist Lin Shougen slowly walked out, recalling his indissoluble bond with this woodland.
In those years, the Red Army guerrillas sacrificed their young lives to protect Lin Shougen's father and villagers. Everyone buried the martyrs on the Qilin Mountain behind the village, erected a monument and inscribed it, and could not cut down the trees on the mountain at will.
But later, it backfired. By the end of the 70s of the 20th century, the mountains of Houyang Village had become "bald mountains". "The poorer you are, the more you cut down trees, the poorer you become", poverty envelops the mountain village, and a mudslide takes the life of Lin Shougen's wife, and his daughter-in-law is also disabled for life. In the face of natural and man-made disasters, Lin Shougen made an oath to the Red Army Tomb: to open up the wasteland and plant trees and protect the mountains and forests.
In 1983, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee was issued, "It is clearly announced that whoever grows the forest owns it; Individuals have the right to inherit the trees they plant". Lin Shougen took the lead in responding, resolutely resigned from the job of the master of the village collective brick and tile factory, took up the hoe, and started the journey facing the barren mountains.
"Who turns youth into the rings of a tree, and who moistens the mountains with sweat." Under the moonlight, Lin Shougen caressed the trees he had maintained, and the obsession of "can't cut down a tree for me" rose in his heart. In the years of perseverance, he has been criticized by the outside world, and he has never been confused and hesitant under the heavy pressure of the economy. Fortunately, with the support of He Jianqiao, secretary of the county party committee, the two went hand in hand on the road of forest farm development, planting "witness trees", "trouble-solving trees" and "future trees" together, and finally kept the clouds open and saw the moon.
Then, the eldest son Lin Changqing, the second son Lin Changmao, the eldest daughter-in-law Wu Mei, the granddaughter Lin Miaomiao, and the She girl Lan Jingjing, who worked in the Lin family's tea garden in her early years...... Several generations of people have "walked the road to open the mountains and forests", and Houyang Village, which was once bald on the top of the mountains and white on the green hills, has turned into a reckless forest sea with fir trees!
The reporter learned that "Tree Soul" was produced by the Propaganda Department of the Ningde Municipal Party Committee, the Ningde Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the Zhouning County Party Committee and County Government, and the Fujian Vocational College of Arts, and jointly produced by the Shanghai Theater Academy and Tongji University.
This is a modern drama in which local culture, red culture, She culture, and ecological culture are blended with each other. As Lu Ang, the chief director of "Tree Soul" and the director of the directing department of Shanghai Theater Academy, said, if you want to summarize the overall style of this play in 8 words, it is "vast, affectionate, poetic and bright". The endless thousands of acres of forests and lush jungle flowers and trees cast its vastness; The hard work day and night, the unremitting perseverance for decades, interprets its deep affection; The beautiful landscape tea garden, the life picture scroll of ethnic customs, writes its poetry; The joyful and cheerful tea-picking ballads, the She culture that can sing and dance, shine with its brightness.
At the end of the play, a tree of the future rises from the ground, and the visual effects of the stage's multimedia art characteristics of "virtual and real, dynamic and static, and simple tension" are fully revealed. "The tree has a beautiful meaning, it is the wealth of history, and it is also a symbol of the intention of neural networks in the era of artificial intelligence, and this future tree represents the symbiosis of people, nature, and technology." Zhang Yinan, director of multimedia design and media and communication design at the School of Design and Innovation of Tongji University, said.
"This time, from the perspective of an ordinary farmer, we will tell the story of how he used tenacity and perseverance to lead three generations of his family and villagers to plant trees and create miracles and great causes. This is a 'Song of the Earth', and we hope that this work can go beyond Zhou Ning and go further, and bring inspiration to everyone." Huang Changyong, artistic director and screenwriter of "Tree Soul" and president of the Shanghai Theater Academy, said.
Source: Fujian Daily