1, there is drama in history, and there is history in drama.
I am glad to see the drama "The Face of Jiang Gong" during the celebration of Nanjing University 1 10, which is a spiritual feast dedicated to the celebration. Most universities in China were established at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, and have a history of 100 years. Since 1998, people have been mobilized all over the country to commemorate the anniversary. However, it is no exaggeration to say that the anniversary has developed into a strong official and commercial flavor today. The official taste refers to the official standard, which strengthens the school's dependence on power by accepting powerful people. It was normal for schools to raise funds through school celebrations, but here we often add commercial factors. On the anniversary of our school this year, the school put forward a slogan called "order is long, not ranking", which is really good. But I'm afraid it's not enough to say "sequence length". I think the purpose of the celebration should be to sum up the experience and lessons of running a school in the history of the school, find its own cultural tradition and carry it forward. It is the core value of the celebration to increase academic and spiritual exploration and provide reference for our current road to running a school.
From this point of view, I think the drama produced by the Department of Drama, Film and Television Arts of the College of Literature has just realized this appeal. This drama excavates some details in the history of our school from the spiritual point of view, which is very academic and ideological and enlightening to us. The drama, titled The Face of Duke Jiang, is based on the historical fact that Chiang Kai-shek was the president of Central University in 1943. In the past, we dared not touch this history from left or right. But the author of the play bravely handled it and handled it very well.
From the perspective of treating history, this play is more realistic. First of all, the author did not simply insult Chiang Kai-shek. During the Cultural Revolution, we totally denied Chiang Kai-shek for political reasons. As written in the play, we call him "damn Chiang". However, historically, Central University still made progress and achievements when Chiang Kai-shek was president, which cannot be simply denied. Secondly, she truly described the different political inclinations and ideological states of the three professors of Central University at that time. At that time, Tao was an intellectual with left-wing tendency and strongly criticized Kuomintang politics. Chiang Kai-shek once ordered the killing of his students. He was very angry with Chiang Kai-shek's autocratic rule and could not accept it. Xia Xiaoshan, on the other hand, is another typical person. He studies hard, eats well and drinks well, and is neither opposed nor interested in Chiang Kai-shek. Many such prototypes can be found in our professors of NTU Chinese Department. Although Xia Xiaoshan admits that Jiang is a national leader, academically, he thinks that Jiang is not qualified to be a principal. He still wants to go to the party in the play because he wants to eat a dish at the party. The character's character is very detailed and true. Bian Zhoucong is a more official professor. He supports the government and hopes to have dinner. But he is not the official lackey who ignores the facts and has no conscience. He can still be regarded as a right-wing intellectual. The author describes the different attitudes of the three professors towards Chiang Kai-shek as the principal, and depicts their respective images by whether they attend the banquet or not.
What is more valuable is the playwright's grasp of the true intellectual spirit. No matter how different these three professors are, whether they support or oppose Chiang Kai-shek, on the whole, they all share a common value, that is, the independence of intellectuals' personality. They don't treat Chiang Kai-shek's invitation to dinner as an emperor's treat. Even the official Professor Bian has no such inclination. This is precisely the most important spiritual tradition in the history of our school, but unfortunately it has been ignored by us for many years. After 1949, intellectuals experienced various movements, and the spiritual tradition in universities was greatly impacted. For example, in the 1950 s, there was a professor in the biology department of NTU, and one of his projects was very successful. Just as Mao Zedong came to Nanjing to meet intellectuals, he went. When he came back, he said excitedly, "My hands can't be washed. Come and shake my hand. This is the hand that Chairman Mao shook. " His feelings are sincere. Not long ago, I read that some intellectuals recalled their state of mind in the 1950s, and that kind of happiness was just like sitting in the spring breeze. These feelings are true, but how ridiculous and pathetic they are. However, in 1943, we can't see this sense of personal attachment, even from Bian who has a good relationship with Chiang Kai-shek. The author grasped this point, wrote what we lost in real life, and wrote the independent thought and free spirit of university intellectuals, which is very rare. At the same time, the performance of this theme is not through abstract preaching, but through a series of details, full of life breath. In particular, the portrayal of Professor Xia Xiaoshan is very vivid. He wants to eat ham and tofu, so he wants to eat, but he doesn't approve of Jiang as the principal, so he asks Jiang to change his identity in the invitation, which is very vivid.
From these three professors, we can see that as professors, they have their own personalities, they attach importance to their posts, they can maintain their own value judgments in front of the rulers and adhere to the spirit of freedom and independence. Using such a play to recall the history of Nantah, I feel that there is a play in history and a history in the play.
2. Talent and free spirit
The author of the play, Wen, is only 2 1 year old. He is an undergraduate in the drama, film and television art department of the College of Liberal Arts. Now he is in the third grade. It's really not easy to write this play. On the day of the performance, Professor Lv Xiaoping quoted what I said about talent. I did talk about this. In my opinion, as far as drama major is concerned, both research and creation are inseparable from talent. But research and creation need different proportions of talents. I'm afraid that if you do research, you can get results with eight efforts and two talents, but the proportion of talents needed for script creation and stage practice is much larger.
So what is talent? It's hard to tell. Talent means not only cleverness, although it includes cleverness. Smart people are not necessarily talented. In my opinion, talent is like this: a smart person finds a natural and regular value from his feelings about life. There are some smart people who know the skills of screenwriters and can write plays, but they can't find this kind of values, or they find a wrong kind of values, and the effect is completely different. Drama is different from other arts. In the final analysis, drama is an open collective appearance of a free spirit in front of the public. This spirit of freedom will not naturally follow the existing cultural and moral norms. Simply put, drama is "making waves" in the spiritual field. A clever thing is not worthy of acting at all. I am afraid that the "carnival" mentioned by Russian literary theorist Bakhtin can also be understood in this way. What he emphasized was the people's denial of the government and a spirit of resistance. People like to quote Napoleon's saying that "soldiers who don't want to be marshals are not good soldiers", but people don't remember Napoleon's other saying that "soldiers without free spirit can't fight well". In fact, people without free spirit can't write a script well. From the works of this 2 1 year-old student, we can clearly see this spirit of freedom.
In the play, she wrote about two periods of her life, both 1943 and the Cultural Revolution, which were far away from her. But by reading some materials, according to the memories of some teachers, she really mastered these two periods of history. What's more commendable is that in addition to expressing the truth of history, Wen can also use his feelings about today's life to observe those two periods of history and make them collide with today's reality. The sparks generated by this collision make us feel very cordial. What we see is history, but what we think of is today's reality. During the performance, I noticed the audience's reaction. They used laughter to express their acceptance and recognition of the content in the play. The most typical example is that when there are lines attacking government corruption in the play, the audience reacts very strongly. The reason why this response is caused is actually a feeling of the audience for the current reality. The audience's feelings about today's corruption echo the history of the play. Therefore, I believe that talent is that an author can successfully express his feelings about life through his own values while grasping history. It can be said that Wen did it.
Technically, students who can write plays may be found in many schools. However, not every university can find such talented students. Some people are smart and can write neat plays, but they may not have such strong spiritual strength. At this point, I think Nantah has provided her with a good background. The historical tradition, cultural atmosphere and present situation of Nantah provided impetus for her creation. If such a subject is written by a new leftist professor at Peking University, I'm afraid it will be something completely different.
I think it is necessary to reorganize the tradition of Nantah. At the beginning of the 20th century, Nantah was more conservative than Peking University. At that time, the Xue Heng School had many debates with New Youth, so people might think that Nantah lacked the spirit of freedom. In fact, one thing must be clarified. Although Xue Heng School is different from Peking University intellectuals in some radical slogans, it is consistent in the overall requirements of modernization. Xue Heng School is proficient in classical Chinese, familiar with foreign countries, and advocates openness, especially the independent spirit of intellectuals, which is consistent with Peking University. When I celebrated the centenary of the school, I wrote an article "The Foundation of People-oriented University", which talked about the tradition of Nantah. Although we don't have founders like Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, we are never different from Peking University in terms of the spirit of freedom and China's modernization and enlightenment.
Since 1949, this independent and free spirit of China University has been destroyed five times. The first time was the faculty adjustment of 1952. Nantah suffered the most. Subjects considered dangerous, such as law and sociology, were all cut off, engineering was separated, and the whole was dismembered. The second time was the anti-rightist struggle in 1957. Anyone who adheres to the spirit of university, once publicly expressing such views, will be labeled as Rightists. The third time was the Cultural Revolution, when the country was in crisis, and Nantah was not spared. The fourth trip was from 1989 to 1992 before Deng Xiaoping's southern tour, and I was deeply touched by my personal experience. In recent years, a more left-leaning practice has undermined the basic spirit of scientific research and teaching in Nantah; The fifth time is the influence of the economic tide that began in the mid-1990s and continues to this day. Many colleges and universities began to engage in industrialization, from an educational institution to a tool to circle money. After many schools were destroyed, the university spirit disappeared. However, Nanjing University still retains this clue and can still adhere to the spirit of independence and freedom and show itself in some details.
In the article in memory of Gao Hua, I mentioned the contradiction between NTU's independent research position and relevant authorities five times: the first discussion was about the "truth standard", which, as we all know, is not discussed here; The second time was1980s when Li Xue (Jiang Guang) criticized agricultural co-operation, which was "investigated" at that time, and now it seems to be Nantah; For the third time, Xu Zhiying wrote that 19 19 was an inaccurate dividing line between old and new democracy and was severely criticized. Many academic colleagues are under pressure to "encirclement and suppression", but now Xu's point of view has become common sense in academic circles. For the fourth time, Martin (Song Longxiang), a philosophy student, talked about market economy and was criticized. Now Martin's statement has become common sense. The fifth time was from 1990 to 1992, and Nanjing University resolutely resisted the act of "cleaning up liberal arts". At that time, Nanjing University was under great pressure, but the liberal arts in Nantah were guaranteed. In hindsight, this boycott was completely correct, and no one was ashamed to talk about "cleaning up the liberal arts" in those days. These five conflicts are the embodiment of Nantah's spiritual tradition. Even though the university spirit is generally depressed, Nantah can still have such students to write such scripts and perform such performances, which is accepted by everyone, which just shows that the spirit of freedom in Nantah still exists.
3. Comparison between the two periods.
The play constantly shows what happened in two periods through a dark turn. One is to discuss whether to give Jiang Gong face to eat, and the other is to show 1967 the state of intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution. In terms of weight, the handling of this period of the Cultural Revolution is not sufficient.
When the author visited me, I suggested that describing this history should be compared with the spiritual loss of current intellectuals. We can see to what extent the spirit of today's intellectuals has degenerated, not to mention the top leaders, even a ministerial-level cadre will feel infinite glory when receiving it. I once wrote an article criticizing myself. As an intellectual, I used to have a vase complex and felt it was an honor to be a vase for the government. In a word, I like the attention of the leaders. I remember that in the late Cultural Revolution, I began to be reused. Jiangsu provincial party committee's publication "The Masses" asked me to write a manuscript. I wrote an article in the spirit of "judging water and red" The editorial department of the magazine told me that this was personally reviewed and finalized by Xu Jiacun, secretary of the provincial party committee, and that my article was well written. I was flattered. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the appreciation, praise and attention of leaders were very important spiritual motivation for intellectuals, and that was my state at that time.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, intellectuals changed from the initial spirit of independence to the worship of "leadership", which was a gradual evolution process and was not completed at once. This dependence of intellectuals is a cultural characteristic of China, which is hard to see in today's western society. I once read a report that French President Nicolas Sarkozy attended a meeting and tried to shake hands with a young man, but the young man flatly refused. In China, this dependence of literati has a long cultural tradition. In the past, no matter how bad the emperor was, it was a great favor to intellectuals. But in 1943, the situation is completely different. Chiang Kai-shek invited him to dinner, but the professors began to discuss whether to give him this face. This is a very proactive action. It can also be seen that China society experienced decades of modernization at the beginning of the 20th century, and intellectuals made great progress.
So I thought, can you compare the drama of 1943 with the faces of intellectuals today? Such a request, from the perspective of scriptwriting skills, I am afraid it is somewhat difficult. The professors of 1943 have all died up to now. Now this book chooses the time in the Cultural Revolution, and I think the comparison is still not enough, and it is too simple and superficial. If we can change this better, it may be more beneficial for us to carry forward our university spirit in real life. A brief comment on the first time I went to Nanjing by train from Beijing, in fact, it was for a play, The Face of Duke Jiang, which was definitely worth seeing in any way. From the writer's point of view, The Story of China, a well-educated and vivid script, was only seen in recent years, but it was written by a girl in the third year of college. It's amazing, amazing! This play, which is only performed in Nanjing, is the loss of China's drama.
Second, the system review
Critics: Crystal
■ Title: "Jiang Gong's Face"
■ Screenwriter: Wen
■ Director: Lv Xiaoping
■ Time:165438+1October 23rd-65438+February 3rd.
■ Venue: Auditorium of Gulou Campus of Nanjing University
■ Index: ★★★★★☆☆
■ Comments: I haven't seen such a cultural, vivid and interesting story of China for a long time. It's not funny at all, but the audience keeps laughing and laughing sadly.
As a commemorative work of Nanjing University since its founding 1 10, Jiang Gong's face is far from the words "main melody", but it is close to the essence of drama. The play was inspired by an anecdote circulated by the Chinese Department of Nanjing University. 1943, Chiang Kai-shek became the first president of Central University. In order to win people's hearts, he is going to invite three famous professors from the Chinese Department to have dinner together. Among the three people, some people hate Chiang's dictatorship, but they need Chiang's help because the collection of books is difficult to guarantee in wartime; Some people devote themselves to learning, not to talking about national affairs, but to delicious food. It is difficult for them to restrain their excitement when they hear that there will be a rare good dish on the table. Some people support the government's willingness to go to dinner, but they can't put down their airs and want to drag the other two into the water. More than 20 years later, the three met again and talked about whether to go to the banquet. No one can convince anyone.
Such a rare stage literati drama, social debate among three intellectuals, philosophical dialogue and inner veils are intertwined with the trivial life of daily necessities, soy sauce, vinegar and tea. The flow of words is so smooth that several different types of literati of the Republic of China came to power. On the other hand, 20 years later, all three were labeled as reactionary academic authorities and gathered in the bullpen to talk about the past. Those Rashomon memories disappeared, and their flying spirit was exhausted.
I haven't seen such a cultural, vivid and interesting China story for a long time. It's not funny at all, but the audience has been laughing very sadly. However, such a drama was born in Nanjing, where even dramas were rarely performed in recent years. Directed by Lv Xiaoping, deputy dean of the School of Literature of Nanjing University and director of the Department of Drama, Film and Television Arts of Nanjing University, the play has been staged for nearly 30 times in a row, creating a miracle on the stage of Nanjing drama in the past decade.
What's even more amazing is that the screenwriter of this work was written by a third-year undergraduate in the drama, film and television art department of Nanjing University College of Literature who was only 2 1 year old at that time. She accurately and clearly described the words of intellectuals in the play, the poor life of poor teachers during the Anti-Japanese War and the frightened literati who were knocked down during the Cultural Revolution. The dialogue between the characters in the play often seems confusing, but it is always properly pulled back to the core of the play. Philosophy and cookbook Qi Fei, ancient books and mahjong dance together, the topics are intertwined, and the plot is ups and downs. The carefully laid plot, like peeling onions, is more pungent and exciting when you get to the back, making people laugh and think with tears.
"Go to church to find swallows and kiss seagulls in the water." These two poems of Du Fu are used as couplets on the stage. "Go and come" is the ideal of literati, and "being as close as brothers" is the ideal of literati. However, literati are also ordinary people. In the face of war and displacement, poor life and all kinds of difficulties of completely losing freedom, people's deepest desires and ideas, no matter how deep they are hidden, will eventually surface.
The Face of Duke Jiang shows the poor and arrogant side of the literati in the Republic of China with a light performance, which makes people see their lovely and simple side. In the face of turbulent times, personal care seems so pitiful. Whether it is eating a bowl of noodles or keeping 9 boxes of peerless ancient books, it is equally difficult.
Moreover, this drama did not stop at the "Republic of China". Although there are not many scenes, the scene and plot of the "Cultural Revolution" on the other side of the stage are equally important. Three white-haired old men were arguing about the past, but they completely lost their spirit and ideals and fell into the desperate situation of homelessness. This kind of homelessness is not only the loss of physical "home", but also the reflection of "spirit". The audience sitting under the stage, through their own watching and inner reaction, supplemented the connection between the "present" and the two eras in the play.
Since the premiere of Face of Jiang Gong, not only teachers and students of Nanjing University and local audience have gone to watch the play, but also audiences from other cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. I personally took a special bus from Beijing to Nanjing to see the play. Director Lv Xiaoping said: This kind of school "student drama" is so popular "because it has returned to the art of drama, surpassed preaching and reached the height of comedy".
In my opinion, this play is by no means a simple summary of the word "comedy". Compared with all kinds of hilarious comedies in China drama market, The Face of Jiang Gong is a comedy with real nutrition and oxygen, and every laugh it causes is not caused by simple jokes or vulgar baggage tickling. Its smile is a thoughtful smile, a knowing smile, and a smile after the audience's heart and the stage role really understand each other.
This smile is more powerful than tragedy.