Text/Jinyang.com reporter Song Yi, correspondent Li Danhong
Photo/He Zhijian
“The people of Fenglou are gone without a good guest, and since then the rich people are lonely and cover the setting sun.” Chen Baoying, a female actor in the Cantonese opera “Purple Phoenix Tower”, sings the words of Chen Baoying, as if she is crying and complaining, and the applause is thunderous. On the evening of September 8, nearly a thousand audiences were crowded with Cantonese Opera Cultural Plaza in Guangzhou Cultural Park. Everyone was deeply attracted by the singing of the Cantonese Opera and Cantonese Opera singer Li Yueling, a teacher and student of Cantonese opera singer, was held here. Teacher Tan Peiyi, the master of Zishou, also visited in person. Li Yueling and his disciples hoped to promote the Cantonese Opera and Cantonese Opera culture with their own voice 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 singer and the totem of Guangdong rhyme. This performance is the spiritual agreement between a Cantonese music singer and a group of ignorant college students who know nothing about Cantonese music. What are the stories behind this performance? Li Babaylan Yueling retreated and continued her dream of inheriting the Cantonese rhyme?
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Seeking dreams, originated from the CUHK
In 2009, Guangdong music singer Li Yueling retired from the Komiks Guangdong music music 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 studio opened a Cantonese opera workshop for college students. Li Yueling and famous performer Chen Zhongyan served as instructors, aiming to cultivate young students’ Cantonese opera.The interest of the songs has improved their perceptual understanding of the research and development of the country’s culture. The workshop hopes that more young people 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 lifting to music theory, from demonstration to teaching one by one, the two teachers led this group of students to learn from scratch. The workshop also attracted the attention and support of many famous artists and enthusiasts in Cantonese opera. On April 17, 2011, the female teacher of the Cantonese Opera University, Hongshi, 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 singing famous passages such as “FengCinema‘s “Flower Fields” and “Flower Fields Meet” and gave suggestions on their improvements in their lyrics, singing styles, and emotions. She also sang “Red Candle Tears” on the spot and put forward high expectations.
The 7th (Guangzhou) College Students’ Drama Festival has opened a special session on Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera fans from studying the Komiks class and Guangzhou University Quyi Club and other Cantonese opera fans. This is also the only Cantonese opera special event established until the College Students’ Drama Festival. 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 relationship with teachers and students outside the school. Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, the students have graduated and entered the society and started working. Unlike students from Cantonese opera or art majors, students in the seminar have left the original learning platform after graduation and have almost no chance to learn Cantonese opera. With the busy work, they Cinema slowly turned Guangdong songsI put my studies aside, and I haven’t sang a song for several months or even a year.
“It is said that ‘The fist is always inseparable from the hand and the mouth’. If this continues, the students will definitely forget what they have learned before.” Every time Li Yueling chats with students, she feels moved. She often wonders: “How can students always maintain their love for Cantonese opera, persist in learning, and even go to a higher level?” After thinking about it, BabaylanLi 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, in order to ensure that students can start games once a month and achieve the goal of practicing all the time. She went to Beijing Street Cultural Station in Beijing to find webmaster Zhao Yuhua and talked to webmaster Zhao that she was deeply worried about the loss of skills of this group of students. When the 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 music.
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, no matter how busy Li Yueling will come to the scene, 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 students’ private affairs. 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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Dream broadcast, BabaylanThey transformed into Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera communication messengers
Teaching students to sing, Li Yueling also pays great attention to 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 and Cantonese opera in the bank’s feedback activity, which gave many customers who never entered the theater to come into contact with Cantonese opera for the first time and became enthusiasts…
Under the words and deeds 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 their 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 you can entertain yourself, I hope that you can use what you have learned to bring joy to more people.”
In recent years, Li Yueling has led students Wu Guanxian and Li Yingtong to participate in the “One Belt One” charity exhibition on the inheritance of Guangdong Quyi. Chen Zhongyan and Li Yueling personally led the students to more than a dozen old Babaylan 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 and Cantonese opera to enter people’s daily lives, allowing people to feel the charm of traditional culture, and enrich the local residents.unnybookish.com/”>Komiks‘s cultural life.
Li Yueling is a music artist who takes the inheritance and communication of Cantonese opera as his responsibility. Li Yueling’s disciples are the successors who make the Cantonese rhyme reverberate in the new era.