Jimu news reporter Xu Ying
On the afternoon of October 16, Chen Yan, an award-winning writer of the Mao Dun Literature Award and a famous playwright, visited Wuhan Zhuoer Bookstore to talk with Zhou Xinmin, a literary critic and second-level professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, about "small stage for opera, big qiankun for novels". Chen Yan's "stage trilogy" - "Protagonist", "Stage" and "Comedy" have become the focus of dialogue. In Chen Yan's pen, there is a play on stage, and life offstage is even more a play. Through the dialogue between the two big celebrities, the reader quickly "got to know" the characters in Chen Yan's "stage trilogy"----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chen Yan's newly edited realist drama "The Second Bowl of Chang'an" is participating in the 17th China Drama Festival in Wuhan. There were also fans on the scene who came to exchange views with him, "I think this play is well written, but the second half is better written than the first half." Chen Yan quickly grasped the point with his writer's acumen, "You may say that the first half of the rhythm is too slow, because the time span of this play is more than 40 years, so there are indeed many places that need to be laid out in front." ”
The reporter of Chutian Metropolis Daily Jimu directly attacked the whole process of Chen Yan and Zhou Xinmin's literary dialogue on the spot, and interviewed Chen Yan's perception of Wuhan in the interval before the event (Chen Yan's impression of Wuhan can be scanned to watch the video).
Talking about the identity of writers and playwrights —
After more than 20 years of "immersion" in the opera industry, writers must write about areas they are familiar with
Zhou Xinmin: Novels that express the lives of opera artists in the form of novels are rare. The chic and novel themes add a lot to the novel. It has something to do with your life experience, right?
Chen Yan: I have been "immersed" in the opera industry for more than 20 years. I was in the Shaanxi Provincial Academy of Opera, first as a professional screenwriter for 7 years, and then the academy set up a youth league, wanting me to be the leader of the group, I actually hesitated. At that time, I was 32 years old, I had already written a 32-episode TV series broadcast on CCTV, and I also wrote a stage play, I thought I might have more prospects in creation, but the leader encouraged me to say, first be a while, no, then say. As a result, after being the head of the regiment for more than 4 years, he was promoted to the vice president in charge of creation, and later served as the dean for more than 10 years.
Our Shaanxi Provincial Opera Research Institute is a compound, there were 647 people at its most brilliant time, and when I saw the people in various trades in the troupe, my brain spun quickly, thinking about how to turn the characters in my life into my own characters.
I think that writers must write about areas that they are familiar with, and in the fields that they are familiar with, a writer can find unique ideas in them, and only through this kind of life can he perceive and observe the hearts of the world. If you are not familiar with it, after the interview work and data collection work of the writer are completed, it is only a skin, and it is difficult to reach a richer connotation.
Zhou Xinmin: I can feel that your novel draws on some elements of stage art in its narrative, such as attaching importance to the story, being good at grasping the key points of the fate of the characters, being good at using dialogue to portray the character image, and changing the structure of the scene step by step. Are you interested in trying to explore the fusion of the two genres of opera and fiction?
Chen Yan: In the West, playwrights, writers, and poets are actually inseparable. Usually a writer writes both plays and novels and poems. Samuel Beckett, author of the play Waiting for Godot, also wrote novels like The Death of Malone, which is also full of dramatic structures.
Today's fiction writing has a "stream of consciousness" tendency, which is difficult for the average reader to read. Of course, I also admire proust, a writer like Proust, who wrote such a rich and vast work as "Remembrance of The Years of Water", and the creation of literature and art is diverse, but personally, I prefer writers like Hugo, Dickens, Cao Xueqin, and Pu Songling to write the story of the novel so wonderfully, beautifully and profoundly.
Talking about the prototype of the work ——
After "Loading The Stage" was adapted into a TV series, Zhang Jiayi's "Diao Shunzi" prototype came to me
Zhou Xinmin: Your novel has created artistic images such as protagonists, stage bearers, and clowns, adding luster to the gallery of literary characters. As a reader, my first feeling is to wonder if these characters and their lives are useful archetypes.
Chen Yan: Everyone I portray when I write a novel, I will have a specific image of a character popping up in my mind. The people I meet here today may one day write these images into the novel. However, the characters in the novel and the characters in reality do not correspond to each other, and a character may be spliced together from several prototypes. Otherwise, it will cause a lot of trouble.
The protagonist of "Loading Stage" "Diao Shunzi" actually has a novel prototype, when the novel was published, he did not look for me, "Loading Stage" was adapted into a TV series, "Diao Shunzi" was interpreted by Zhang Jiayi, he found me, thinking that I wrote it was him. I said there is your shadow in it, but it's not all about you.
Why am I so familiar with mounting tables? My office is on the third floor, and under the back window of the office, there is the backstage entrance. Every day, I listen to the people who install the stage talk and chat below, and sometimes I scold people, such as working for a certain group, not paying the bill, and so on. Sometimes, they come straight to me. I found the regimental commander below and asked why, and one of the regimental leaders said that they had not done a good job. I said that if you don't do a good job, you can rework, and you can't owe money. I asked the regimental commander to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning and show me the work of their stage--they lived an upside-down life, installing the stage all night, and at 6 o'clock in the morning, the backstage mouth was lying flat, and sometimes in the winter, they would bow down and surround themselves in a circle next to the heating manhole cover for warmth. Seeing such a scene, can you bear to owe them wages?
Zhou Xinmin: You also created an inclusive leader in "Loading the Stage", and I am still wondering if it is based on yourself.
Chen Yan: To do management work in the art academy group, you need to be tolerant. Everyone in the art academy has a lot of personality. From actor to actor, it takes a long time to grow. If a person wants to do a big thing, there are usually places that are different from ordinary people, and there are places that are not normal. Just like the great mathematician Chen Jingrun, he lacks self-care ability in life. The famous Qin Lu in "The Protagonist" recalls that Qin E can only act, and she knows nothing about life and feelings. If they are not tolerated in society and in the workplace, it may be difficult for them to survive.
On the Tradition and Modernization of Opera——
In the process of change, we must have the strength to pull the tradition back
Zhou Xinmin: Xiqu is a traditional art form, and in the process of inheritance, it is also constantly adapting to the development of society. What do you think of tradition and modernity?
Chen Yan: The transformation from tradition to modernity is a gradual process, not a process of violent tearing. I think the more we transition to modernity, the more we have to remember tradition. In the process of inheritance, Qin Cavity has also been adapting to the transformation and changes of society, the audience's preferences and tastes have changed, and the opera is constantly renovated. This process is like the tidal force and traction force of celestial movement, and the two forces are constantly pulling and competing. If it is completely unchanged, then opera will be in danger of becoming a "museum art", but in the process of change, there must be the strength to pull the tradition back, so as to preserve the most important things in the tradition.
When we go to the future, we must go to the future with the countless experiences of our predecessors, and no "modern" and "postmodern" can exist separately, they must be together with tradition.
Zhou Xinmin: There used to be a saying that "art should have an educational function and be entertaining and educational." When you wrote about the "clown" line in "Comedy", it seems to involve this topic.
Chen Yan: We send WeChat to say "I wish you happiness", we don't say "I wish you heavy". In life, we also like to deal with humorous and happy people, and we don't like to deal with people with sad faces. Humor and happiness are very important. We are not as good at writing drama as the ancients, who paid special attention to the blending of comedy colors. In such a big tragedy as "Dou E'er", there are also many clowns in it, which makes people feel good and funny, and finally reveals the biggest tragedy. While making the audience happy, they get a very profound life inspiration.
Literature and art must bear a certain function of social thinking, otherwise they will become "playthings". We are now in an era of complete entertainment, and in Comedy I have a reflection on the age of entertainment. When everyone is asking the actors for comedy to laugh, to produce two baggage in 1 minute, several comedians in the novel go further and further on this entertainment road, and finally ruin themselves. So, when we criticize why comedy is becoming more and more vulgar, do the audience also have to pay for the vulgarity of comedy?
Profile: Chen Yan, a famous contemporary writer and playwright, lives in Beijing. He has created dozens of theatrical works such as "Late Blooming Rose", "The Tree Moves West", "Xijing Story" and so on, won the "Cao Yu Drama Literature Award" and "Wenhua Screenwriting Award" three times, and his works have been selected as "Top Ten Fine Plays" of the National Stage Art Fine Arts Project for three times, and won the national "Five One Project" Award five times. Created a long-form TV series "Big Trees and Small Trees", which won the "Feitian Award". He is the author of novels such as "Xijing Story", "Loading Stage", "Protagonist" and "Comedy". "Loading The Stage" won the 2015 "China Good Book" and the first "Wu Cheng'en Novel Award", and was selected into the 70 Novel Collection of 70 Years in New China. "Protagonist" won the 2018 "Chinese Good Book", the third "Shi Nai'an Literature Award" and the 10th Mao Dun Literature Award.
(Some of the pictures in this article are taken by the reporter of Jimu, and some of the pictures are provided by Zall Bookstore)
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