“Are you free? There is another show tonight.” On the morning of the 11th, 74-year-old Chen Yingqin called all his partners, looking for a partner to go to Guanqiao Town to perform the Donkey Show together.
With the development of society, the number of donkey play performances has decreased in recent years, so he cherishes every opportunity to perform.
Wearing a pair of layered bottoms, red trousers, black clothes, a thin belt around the waist, and a hexagonal hat on the head; the mustache under the nose is thick and long, holding a long pipe… Chen Yingqin, who was dressed up, clapped The calf, rapping in Hokkien: “Donkey, male, I have nothing to do today, I am going to take my wife to play with my mother-in-law…” Folks who are familiar with the plot know that next, a humorous donkey show combining rap, singing and dancing Coming soon.
Fascinated by the donkey show, one glance is a lifetime
Recently, when the reporter saw Chen Yingqin, he was dressed in ordinary attire, no different from other rural old men. When talking about his academic experience, he always passes it by in a few words. But when the reporter asked him to sing a few lines, he immediately became full of energy and easy to use, his hands shook slightly involuntarily, and his head shook slightly with the lyrics.
Chen Yingqin is a native of Liantang Village, Ximei Street, Nan’an City. When he was 13 years old, the village invited a master to teach Nanyin. Since then, he has fallen in love with traditional culture. In 1969, after enlisting in the army, Chen Yingqin saw the donkey play performance for the first time in Shaanxi. The humorous rap and funny movements made Chen Yingqin instantly fall in love with the donkey play. I thought that after leaving Shaanxi, I would bid farewell to the donkey play. Unexpectedly, after retiring and returning to his hometown, by chance, Chen Yingqin discovered that there is also a donkey play in Quanzhou.
At that time, Chen Yingqin was already in his early 30s, but he still chose to learn donkey play from scratch. The donkey play does not require a fixed performance venue, nor does it have standardized routines, and it is all improvised by the performers on the spot. At the beginning, Chen Yingqin followed the local performance hall to learn while performing. When others were performing, he watched quietly from the sidelines, silently remembering every move, word and deed of the performer, starting from imitation, and slowly groping until he mastered the performance skills.
Soon, being diligent and studious, he learned all kinds of skills, he could sing Nanyin, play allegro and play erhu…
It is worth mentioning that the donkey play is an image program that combines actors and props. Chen Yingqin believes that learning donkey play also requires learning to make donkey props.
Chen Yingqin said that when he first started learning, he couldn’t remember how many times he had to endure failures before he could successfully make a prop donkey. He only remembered that his hands were riddled with holes from being pierced by bamboo.
In Chen Yingqin’s home, the reporter saw a lifelike “donkey”: wearing pure-colored velvet clothes, wearing a small red flower, a pair of big round eyes staring straight ahead, the most realistic, but the pair on the top of the head Donkey ears. “Donkey ears used to be shaped with iron wire and then sewn with cloth, but now they are made of tire inner tubes, so they are more realistic.” Chen Yingqin said.
In the past few years, Chen Yingqin has been continuously improving the props of the “Donkey Boy Show”. In the past, white cloth was used to sew and then paint the color, and the production was divided into two parts; After putting on the “skirt”, the image of the donkey becomes more vivid.
Chen Yingqin’s wife is responsible for all the mending work. “It’s like my clothes, which can be used as donkey clothes if you don’t wear them.” Chen Yingqin’s wife took out a coat, turned it over and said with a smile. When she buys clothes every day, she always thinks unconsciously Is this piece of fabric suitable for a prop donkey?
There are fewer performance teams, and I hope to have more inheritors
Now, every major festival, Chen Yingqin will take his partner to travel all over Nan’an. From liking to learning, from learning to love, from love to persistence, Chen Yingqin, who has been associated with Donkey Opera for more than 40 years, has not only made a name for himself in singing, but also brought out many talented students. His daughter is more than 10 years old. Follow him on stage.
In the early morning of the 11th, after Chen Yingqin received the invitation from Guanqiao Town, he began to call his partners to find a partner who was free to perform together. “There are fewer performances now, and I can’t fix a partner to perform with. I greet them temporarily when I have something to do, put on makeup for half an hour, exchange a few words at the scene, and start the performance as soon as the music is played.” Zaixi also serves as the master of ceremonies, like the event on the 11th, he set off at 5:00 pm and arrived home after 10:00 pm.
Recently, Chen Yingqin has received more and more performance invitations, but it is still not the same as before. “In the past, there were more than 10 performances in a month. At the busiest time, we had to catch up with two performances a day. Now there are only nearly a hundred performances a year, and the income is extremely unstable.” Chen Yingqin said, with personnel changes, opera replacements and other factors, people are now more Most of the performances are supplemented by acrobatics and stunts. Basically, the donkey show is only played when other performance teams are not available.
Although Chen Yingqin’s donkey troupe traveled all over Nan’an, there were still very few young people who were willing to learn opera, and his daughter changed her career after she got married. “Nowadays most of the donkey show performers are in their 60s and 70s, and the number of performers is getting smaller and smaller.” Chen Yingqin lamented that the donkey show mainly uses Hokkien jingles to describe life, and it needs to be recorded in words. It is more difficult. At present, almost all the libretto of the donkey play he performs is based on his own experience.
In the list of the ninth batch of representative non-heritage projects in Nan’an City announced recently, the donkey play declared by Chen Yingqin was selected. Chen Yingqin said that the purpose of his declaration of intangible cultural heritage is to hope that more people will pay attention to the donkey play and pass on this traditional culture. (Wang Liqing, reporter of Haisi Business Daily; Hong Yingchun, correspondent of Li Xiang)
Original title: He has been associated with Donkey Boy Opera for more than 40 years and he took his partners all over Nan’an
Editor in charge: Lian Peihuang