Protection and Development of Lantern Opera in North Sichuan

Qinggan Longchuan North Lantern Festival has been developed for more than 200 years, and its humorous performances and distinctive fat music are still deeply loved by the general public in North Sichuan, East Sichuan and Chongqing. Today, the Lantern Opera in North Sichuan is still widely circulated in Jialing River in North Sichuan and East Sichuan, and has become a beautiful landscape of local folk art.

Bashu has such rich folk art resources, but have we made good use of them? In 2005, Nanchong held a seminar aimed at protecting and developing the Lantern Opera in northern Sichuan. Scholars and experts from Chengdu and Chongqing gathered together to discuss the present situation, protection and development planning of Lantern Opera in northern Sichuan. It is reported that Nanchong is preparing to invest huge sums of money and manpower, integrate relevant resources and effectively protect and develop local operas. Chengdu, Chongqing and other cultural departments and related research institutes are also stepping up their work. It is believed that a new situation in the protection and development of Bashu local opera will soon take shape, and local opera, as a landscape that complements tourism and cultural exchanges, will be more beautiful and charming.

Based on the affirmation of the tourism, culture and economic value of Sichuan-Chongqing Bashu local opera, I think that in order to truly protect and develop the art of Bashu local opera, we must first break the traditional functional concept of Bashu local opera and examine the social function of Bashu local opera with a new eye, so as not to be confused by the old refined and popular concept, so as to dare to protect the excellent Bashu local opera. At the same time, it is necessary to break the regional restrictions, explore and develop the living space of Bashu local opera, and make Bashu local opera a more charming landscape of Bashu.

First, break the traditional concept and examine the social function of local drama from a new angle.

Bashu local opera generally refers to the local opera that is active in Bashu area and tells stories by means of rap, dance, opera and other performances. They include Kunqu Opera, Gaoqiang Opera, Huqin Opera, Lantern Opera, Wenchuan Tibetan Opera, Northern Sichuan Lantern Opera and so on. They are active in Bashu folk, and their initial social function is to entertain themselves, to entertain gods and people, to emphasize the entertainment function of drama and to communicate with gods through drama. After the old regime was overthrown by China's * * * production party, the old social function of Bashu local opera changed from self-entertainment to entertainment, propaganda and agitation, and its social education function was obviously strengthened. For a long time after that, Bashu local operas, both in creation and performance, put more emphasis on the social propaganda function of "cultivating new social styles and educating new people in society". Although, on the surface, people pay more attention to the utilization and development of drama propaganda function at this time, in fact, people have a stronger affirmation and development desire for drama communication function. So it can also be said that at that time, for quite some time.

North Sichuan lantern show

Although the drama in folk places does not necessarily know clearly that the communication function of its own drama is a kind of communication function, at least it no longer stays as a work of art for people to enjoy and entertain themselves. Regrettably, for a long time, people's understanding of the social function of traditional local operas is still based on the observation of the social function of a work of art and ornamental products, but they have not regarded it as a medium that can communicate with each other, thus losing many opportunities to make use of it and give full play to it.

With the advent of the global information revolution, today, people are no longer bound by the traditional concepts of entertaining the gods, entertaining themselves or entertaining with education, and people are more aware of the importance of local drama as an intuitive information exchange platform; People are not satisfied with taking traditional drama as an artistic tribute to amuse themselves and pray for blessings, nor are they satisfied with taking drama as a propaganda material for publicity and education. People emphasize its intuitive communication function, and local opera is becoming the best platform for people to gain new feelings and new psychological experiences in communication. Therefore, intuitive communication has also become a touchstone to re-examine the new social functions of drama. When we re-examine the social function of Bashu local opera today, we find that protecting and developing the communication function of Bashu local opera will reduce social barriers, social contradictions and social pressures, and make Bashu local opera a new economic growth point and an important breakthrough for the development of Bashu culture and tourism. Second, break the stale concept of elegance and vulgarity and cherish the protection of Bashu local operas.

The old concept of elegance and vulgarity is often guided by the personal preferences of a few dignitaries, celebrities and scholars. Any local opera with straightforward descriptions of sex and rough and complicated daily life is considered vulgar. What's more, sometimes some people think that what most people like and what is popular is vulgar. On the contrary, what is sought after and loved by a few people has less content in food, color and sex, while what is reflected more in ideology is considered elegant. Obviously, the number of food, color, gender and ideology does not necessarily determine the nature of elegance and vulgarity, but determines the number of people you like, whether it is.

North Sichuan lantern show

Popular, but it is impossible to judge the essence of elegance and vulgarity. It is unscientific and imprecise to judge the protection scope or value of Bashu local opera with the old concept of appealing to both refined and popular tastes. Therefore, the old concept of elegance and vulgarity actually hindered the survival and development of local operas.

Today, with the increasing interaction, conflict and integration of global cultures, Bashu local operas with unique style and real content are more likely to attract people's attention. Although it is still in a weak position in the global competition, this kind of media has not been despised because of its small influence, less media attention and less use. Although it still has some weaknesses, it is the most direct and vivid media due to the limitation of time and space. Therefore, people also cherish the "weak" local operas, strive to protect the original features of Bashu local operas, try to explore new ways and methods for the dissemination of local operas, break the outdated concept of elegance and vulgarity, and cherish the popular, true and intuitive social life content with local characteristics and the "flying white" and supporting voices established from it, which will become another important content for the protection and development of Bashu local operas.

Third, break the "regional" restriction of Bashu local opera and expand the performance scope of Bashu local opera.

Like the Lantern Opera in northern Sichuan, Bashu local operas are generally circulated in their own dialect areas, that is, they are generally performed in fixed urban theaters and rural "grass platforms". However, with the impact of foreign drama, film and television, as well as the popularity of Mandarin and English, the space for local drama activities in Bashu is constantly being squeezed. If Bashu local opera still stays in its own dialect area and performs on the traditional theater and "grass platform", its performance and venue will become narrower and narrower, and the restrictions will become greater and greater. Obviously, if you don't advance, you will retreat. The expansion of the activity area of Bashu local opera will mean that Bashu local opera will gain new space for survival, protection, development and improvement in people's intuitive two-way communication. Therefore, to expand the performance area of Bashu local opera, we should include the following three ways: 1, do a good job in creating newsreels and short plays that are easy to spread, and dare to get out of the theater and "the grass-roots team". Entering thousands of tea houses, commercial and entertainment places, let more people experience the charm of drama communication at home, in shopping malls and entertainment places. 2. Go into shopping malls, temple fairs and schools, so that more people can understand the charm of the intuitive and two-way communication of local operas in a more effective time and in a larger space. 3. Strengthen the communication between the music and body language performances of Bashu local operas and the audience, weaken the narrative of unfamiliar dialects, and increase the task of subtitle translation, thus expanding the communication targets and people of Bashu local operas. Obviously, the expansion of local folk drama not only expands the performance scope of Bashu local drama in the communication area, but also expands the performance scope of Bashu local drama from the communication crowd and ethnic group, so that Bashu drama can take root in a wider area and crowd, thus achieving the ultimate goal of protecting and developing Bashu local drama that we expect today.