Bringing the flavor of Jiangnan smoke and fire, the night scene of Pingtan in the bookstore in Shanghai | Pingtan | Fireworks
On the evening of the 24th, during the Shanghai June 6th Night Life Festival, the Shanghai Pingtan Troupe and the 1925 Bookstore jointly launched the "Late Night Bookstore Festival" Pingtan Night Theater. The entire young cast, represented by "Shuanglu" Lu Jinhua and Lu Jiawei, shared summer time with citizens and tourists, restoring the old Shanghai scene of enjoying the cool and listening to Pingtan in the Old Dizi Alley. Despite the stormy weather that night, the bookstore still had high popularity, full of Jiangnan flavor and fireworks.
"The light rain wets the dusk. At noon, the golden hour closes the door alone." Young actor Gu Juntao was the first to bring ancient poetry and sing "Nanxiangzi - Dragon Boat Festival". This song is the opening work of the Shanghai Pingtan Troupe, adapted from the lyrics of Li Zhiyi, a poet from the Northern Song Dynasty. It depicts a leisurely and sorrowful scene during the Dragon Boat Festival.
Subsequently, the selected piece "White Snake: Duanyang" was performed by Hou Xiaosheng and Sheng Biyun. The Tanci "White Snake" is a classic and lengthy book on Pingtan, with Yang Renlin's performance being the most famous and hailed as the "Snake King". In the 1950s, the Shanghai Pingtan Troupe revised and organized some traditional books. "White Snake" was consulted by Yang Renlin, written by Pingtan writer Chen Lingxi, and performed on stage by two famous artists, Jiang Yuequan and Zhu Huizhen. Chen Lingxi and Jiang Yuequan are close friends in art, well versed in the artist's performance skills and singing style. They have created many widely circulated selections of Jiang and Yu tunes. The "Duanyang" section was sung by Zhu Huizhen in Yu tunes, fully utilizing the sweet, high yet not loud, low yet not flashing characteristics of her voice. After waking up from drinking realgar wine by mistake, Bai Niangniang expressed her feelings of hatred, pity, and love when seeing Xu Xian faint on the floor. Coupled with the accompaniment of Jiang Yuequan's three strings, the aftertaste is profound. At the 1925 Book Company, the performance of this selected song by the new generation of actors from the Shanghai Pingtan Troupe showcased the generational inheritance of the Pingtan people.
Lu Jiawei and Hou Xiaosheng teamed up to perform the classic opening and selected piece "Baoyu Night Exploration" by Jiang Diao. In the lyrics, a series of "I advise you..." are sung with a gentle and profound flavor, showcasing the characteristics of Jiang Diao's lyricism and strength. Jiang Diao has a beautiful melody and a rich flavor, making it the most widely sung and influential style of Tanci in Pingtan tunes. The live audience was mesmerized, and the two actors added a segment of "Yingying Playing the Qin" to the applause.
Lu Jinhua gave the final performance of the selected piece of Tanci, "Exploring Love: Boudoir Thoughts", selected from the mid length Pingtan's "Wang Kui Loses Guiying". It was a mid length work adapted by Ping Jianya and Liu Tianyun in the early 1950s based on Zhao Xi's original work "Incense Burning". This passage elegantly laments the longing of Jiao Guiying for Wang Kui after she sponsored him to go to Beijing for the exam.
The predecessor of the 1925 Book Company was the Hongkou branch of the Commercial Press, which had previously worked for Comrade Chen Yun. Comrade Chen Yun loved Pingtan throughout his life and was known as the "old listener" in the Pingtan industry. More than 40 years ago, he wrote a seven character guideline for the art of Pingtan, which included "producing people, publishing books, and taking the right path". After the opening of the book store in 1925, he scrolled on the first floor display screen. Last August, Shanghai Xinhua Media Chain Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Pingtan Troupe jointly created the "Jiangnan Culture in Pingtan" series of performance brands, which were regularly performed at the 1925 Bookstore and were welcomed by the public, gradually gaining a fixed audience. The head of the Shanghai Pingtan Troupe, Gao Bowen, stated that Pingtan has been exploring the market and performing fields, listening to and reading books in bookstores, and creating an atmosphere of bookish and Jiangnan culture. He hopes to make young people and teenagers understand and enjoy Pingtan.
