How does the Central Media See the ＂Old Trees Grow New Buds＂ of Henan’s Intangible Drama

　　Henan is an important birthplace and development place of China opera, with splendid and rich opera culture, and is recognized as the "hometown of opera". Historically, there have been more than 60 kinds of traditional Chinese operas widely circulated in Henan. Since 2006, 18 operas, including Henan Opera, Quju Opera, Yuediao Opera, Wanbang Opera and Mulian Opera, have been included in the national intangible cultural heritage list, and more than 30 operas have been included in the provincial list.

Photo courtesy of Zhang Qiuli, stills of "Lao Zi" in Yuediao

　　These non-legacy operas are the products of farming civilization, which have been active among the people for a long time. They are typical representatives of the traditional culture of the Central Plains, bearing rich cultural connotations and historical memories. After the founding of People’s Republic of China (PRC), Henan opera ushered in a new glory, and many excellent works such as Mulan’s Henan opera "Mu Guiying in command", "Chaoyanggou", Yuediao’s mourning for Zhuge Liang, and Quju’s "Juan Xi Tu" emerged, which swept the country.

　　However, with the diversification of people’s leisure and entertainment methods, Henan opera, like most non-legacy operas, is inevitably affected and impacted, and gradually declines. However, after entering the new century, with tenacious vitality and rich historical details, with the joint efforts of the government and the people, Henan opera has regained its vitality and produced a number of excellent works with high ideological, artistic and ornamental value, such as Cheng Ying’s Saving the Orphan, Jiao Yulu, Hongmei in hay cutter, The Soul Girl, the Quju, the Marriage Event and the Yuediao Laozi. In particular, "Cheng Ying Save the Orphan" has been sung from the fields in Henan to the Broadway stage in the United States, and has been performed in more than 20 countries and regions. There are nearly 20 kinds of dramas transplanted in China, with more than 20,000 performances.

　　The key to the success of Henan opera lies in: always adhering to and inheriting the essence of excellent traditional culture, at the same time keeping close to the pulse of the times and real life.

　　Drama Creation: Paying Attention to Little People and Showing Great Feelings

　　In terms of material selection, Henan operas inherit and carry forward the inherent local and grass-roots characteristics, mainly paying attention to and reflecting the daily life of ordinary people, and paying attention to expressing "great feelings" with "little people", reflecting "great times" with "small stories" and presenting "great themes" with "small incisions", highlighting the brilliance of human nature and feelings of home and country in the fireworks, and exerting efforts to show the national spirit and the spirit of the times.

　　Cheng Ying’s Saving the Orphan is a model work. The play was adapted from the Yuan drama The Orphan of Zhao. On the premise of retaining the basic plot of the original play, Cheng Ying, a civilian doctor, replaced the orphan of Zhao as the protagonist, transforming the feud and struggle between nobles into a contest between justice and evil, kindness and cruelty, and explaining the national spirit of righteous people represented by Cheng Ying, such as sacrificing their lives for justice, kindness and justice, honesty and responsibility, tenacity and tenacity. The drama deeply digs and expands the cultural connotation and human nature connotation of the original drama, and looks back on historical figures from a contemporary perspective, realizing the creative transformation from traditional famous dramas to contemporary fine works.

　　Adhering to the creative concept of "attaching importance to small people and showing great feelings", Henan opera also pays attention to depicting characters with vivid and simple life details in English model dramas, reducing lofty and great English model characters to ordinary people, and revealing their life trajectory from ordinary to great, so that English models can be true, credible and sensible.

　　For example, "Red Plum under hay cutter" changes the heroic narrative mode of similar themes in the past, and starts from the small aspects of daily life, showing the course of Liu Hulan’s growth from a lively and childish, frank and stubborn country girl to a staunch and unyielding communist party person in a delicate and true way, and making her short and magnificent life vivid and tear-jerking. Since it was put on the stage, the play has performed more than 2,000 times and has been transplanted by many operas.

　　Expression: keep the old essence and create new programs.

　　On the stage presentation, on the basis of retaining the characteristics and essence of traditional art, Henan opera follows the artistic laws and the requirements of the times and constantly explores new ways of expression. This is mainly reflected in the innovative development of traditional programs.

　　Program is the essence of traditional Chinese opera art, and it is also one of the most eye-catching identity signs of each non-legacy drama. However, the traditional program is extracted from the life of ancient opera artists, which is far from modern life. Nowadays, when it is used in new plays, especially in modern plays, it is often divorced from the plot. How to make the program get rid of the "showy" performance and become a means to shape characters and promote the plot has troubled many modern drama creators. Henan opera is upright and innovative. After artistically treating the characters’ gestures in real life, it creates new programs, which can reflect modern life more flexibly and serve the plot. For example, the "cart-pulling dance" in Li Tiancheng, a village official, the "snow dance" in Chongdugou, and the "flood-fighting dance" in Jiao Yulu, etc., successfully show the specific situation of real life through the recombination and application of traditional program actions; The "paddle dance", "kiln opening dance" and "kiln losing dance" in "The Soul Girl" not only blended the dance elements in the traditional program, but also skillfully integrated into the rural life, which provided a possibility for the diversified interpretation of modern local drama.

　　In addition, Henan opera also boldly carried out the innovation of singing. For example, the musical "Faith" adjusts the singing tone of the traditional qupai, and the male and female voices adopt different modes. On the basis of the traditional qupai, a new qupai with a faster rhythm is created, which gives the audience a refreshing feeling.

　　Mode of communication: keep the main position firmly and use the media skillfully.

　　In terms of the mode of communication, Henan opera attaches great importance to the live performance in rural areas, and actively expands multi-channel and multi-form publicity and promotion to stabilize and expand the audience.

　　Live performance is the most traditional way of communication of traditional Chinese opera, which can bring the audience the most intuitive feelings and experiences, and it still has an irreplaceable position. Henan opera has always paid attention to live performances, and the government and the people hold a large number of multi-level and diversified performances every year. The vast rural areas have always been the main positions for performances because of their broad mass base.

　　In 2008, Henan Province launched a public welfare cultural performance activity of "stage art sent to the grassroots", and adopted the operation mode of "government pays the bill, the troupe performs and farmers benefit", which has been adhered to for more than ten years. Later, relying on this activity, Henan Province launched the "Action of Sending Thousands of Plays to Thousands of Villages to Help the Poor", giving priority to the viewing needs of poor counties and villages, and giving no less than 1,000 performances for the benefit of poor counties throughout the year.

　　With the advocacy and support of the government, some private theatrical troupes, represented by Little Empress Henan Opera Troupe, have long insisted on performing in rural areas. The Little Empress Henan Opera Troupe has performed more than 8,000 performances since its establishment 30 years ago, and nearly 90% of the performances are in rural areas.

　　In addition to guarding the main position of live performance, Henan opera is also actively promoted and promoted through radio, film and television, animation, museums and other ways and channels. After the rise of new media, Henan Opera has used new media platforms, such as opera professional websites, WeChat and Tik Tok, to create more diversified communication channels, which not only broadens the survival and development space of some non-legacy operas and inheritors, but also attracts more young audiences.

　　Take the live broadcast in Tik Tok as an example. According to "2023 Tik Tok Performing Arts Live Data Report Henan", in 2022, the number of live broadcasts of Henan operas increased by 109% year-on-year, nearly twice the increase of the number of live broadcasts of national operas. Among them, Henan Henan Opera has the largest number of live broadcasts among all operas in China, and the number of live broadcasts of rare operas such as Taoist drama, Dapingdiao, Erjiaxian and Sipingdiao has also exceeded one million, and there are many people in the audience.

　　(Author: Wang Meng, Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Literature, Henan Academy of Social Sciences)