Home Is Where The Heart Is
Home Is Where The Heart Is: From 2017 to 2018, the contemporary Chinese national opera You Ai Cai You Jia (《有爱才有家》，Home is Where the Heart is) has been onstage via a long tour all the way in every great theatre all through the country, especially in Beijing, Henan, Hunan and Hubei. The leading actress Prof. LIU Danli(Chair of School of Arts, Wuhan University) does not only play the leading role LIU De’fen, but also participates as Art Director(艺术总监) in the whole process. This is a fascinating contemporary play: it’s biographical based on true story, narrating the legendary life-trajectory of a very kind dean De’fen in a local welfare institute. Each scene is curiously engaging and the whole play is more than fascinating with the inspiring central belief “home is where the heart is”, trying to blend both China’s glorious tradition and its present achievements of reform and development.
A brief introduction of Prof. LIU Danli: Being the direct disciple of Du Jinfang (杜近芳,1932-）and a third-generation descendant of the Mei school founded by Mei Langfang (梅兰芳, 1894–1961), one of the major four dan schools, Liu Danli is considered a national first-class xiqu (Chinese theatre or Chinese opera) actress of dan (a female role, usually with an elegant air and poetic qualities). In 1990s, Liu Danli won Meihua Award (the Plum Performance Award, the top award in Chinese theatre arts) and Wenhua Award for her performance of Si Qing Ji(《思情记》) in the field of xiqu. Later she stepped into the field of national opera and won Meihua Award again in 2005 with her performance in the modern Chinese national opera Hong Hu Chi Wei Dui（《洪湖赤卫队》）. In 2018, her representative work You Ai Cai You Jia has been selected as one of the nine most significant performing works in the repertoire dataset of Chinese National Opera Festival by the Ministry of Culture (During a very short performance interval from July 27th to August 10th, the stage script is currently under revision for better performance on stage later this year). Her theatre productions respectively express people’s deep feelings in different phases of contemporary China during the last three decades, revealing the comprehensive big picture of the Chinese Dream. Since 2012, she has been appointed as Chair of School of Arts, Wuhan University. And since 2016, she has also been working as Head of Centre for Arts Education, Wuhan University.
Prof. LIU Danli's General View on Arts and Humanities: holds the opinion that performing arts should adopt various advantages from different fields so as to be enriched and thus inclusive (博采众长，兼容并包). Her view has further developed the cultural policy proposed by Mao Zedong in 1956 and 1957 that “we should allow every beautiful flower to bloom in full and every kind voice to be heard by all” (百花齐放，百家争鸣). For rejuvenating and building our own culture, this is very important. Liu has provided a rather concrete way of thinking towards the Chinese Dream based on her own understanding of performance art and Mao Zedong’s thought.
Collected Reviews on Prof. LIU Danli's arts:
“Liu combines what’s daring in northern art and what’s delicate in southern art, thus has formed her own unique style”
“Not only does her singing style match perfectly with the melody, but also does it embody the elegant air and poetic quality deriving from the classic Book of Songs; people are hypnotized by the mellow tone of her voice which depicts the role’s inner world to the deeps of people’s imagination”
“She is so good at psychoanalysis that she reaches an exact understanding of the role’s actions, motives and personality. And based on this, she precisely grasps the characteristic traits of the role on stage by means of distinctive and typical style in action design and voice appropriateness.”
In an in-depth interview on You Ai Cai You Jia, Prof. LIU Danli talked about her secret tips based on her personal performance experience through all those years’ great efforts: a. a theatre production, either xiqu or national opera, should contain a thematic melody based on a simple folk tune yet repeated in different and more complicated forms at different time point, especially at certain plot twists. This is vitally significant for any theatre production, especially for contemporary Chinese theatre. In You Ai Cai You Jia, the music theme of the same name repeatedly appears for several times, sung by De’fen (acted by Liu Danli), Qiu Hong (acted by Lei Yuan) and the chorus, so that it’s easy for the spectators to remember. b. we should pay more attention to the action design for the role’s very first appearance onstage. This action must be selected and extracted from real life to make a strong impression on the audience. And also the voice at first appearance must be appropriate to the age and psychological state of the character. In You Ai Cai You Jia, De’fen’s voice appropriateness helps a lot in the characterization of her at different phases or at different ages. It differs a lot from her mid-age to the last minute of her life. c. a wonderful unique aria composed by great talent and artistry is a must. De’fen’s solo aria, “the Last Words”(最后的嘱托), has won her great honor and respect at the Chinese opera festival this year. She has made a slight impromptu adaptation according to the atmosphere on live. d. a performer must convey the specific emotion in specific situation through every detail, including the slight changes of the shoulder movements, leg muscles, and even from behind in silhouette. e. Techniques and methods from ballet, xiqu and opera art should be an organic combination all through your performance. This belongs to her unique feature with her own style. f. be natural and smooth in the performance, especially in the transition part. Be aware of the gradations. g. grasp the delicate details to express something glistening in human nature. h. take control of the breath, use the subtle changes to express the underlying emotion and deep feeling. i. as a performer, you must entre the mental world of your role, do what s/he does, feel what s/he feels, think what s/he thinks, like in spirit possession. j. focus on accuracy and cubicism. For accuracy, use the appropriate form to express your experience and deep feelings, and make the audience feel what you would like to convey. This communication process must be like a beam of torchlight shining all the way through the bridge between the performers and the spectators, making the whole theatre a field of psychological linkage and common aesthetic taste. For cubicism, it mainly refers to the multiple facets inside the character’s mind. There may exist some contradictory aspects simultaneously in one’s personality. A performer must dig them out and make them shown. For instance, Er’mei (in Si Qing Ji) is brave most of the time but feels embarrassed when she meets her beloved; the revolutionary heroine Han Ying (in Hong Hu Chi Wei Dui) is strong in general but becomes gentle in the face of her mother. Liu says, accuracy and cubicism may be regarded as a golden law or a principle of vital importance which we should follow in theatre performance.
Reception: The theatre company of You Ai Cai You Jia consists of several professional singers in folk song and bel canto and about 80 students from School of Arts, Wuhan University. With the symphony orchestra, the theatre is now on tour all over China, mainly in Beijing, Henan and Hubei. The performances are widely accepted that they have given rise to large amounts of performance reviews in mainstream press and media, especially in People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, Chinese Culture, China News, China Society News, and China Arts. Those artistic criticism are mainly written by scholars and critics from research institutions, playwrights and directors from national theatre, editors-in-chief of opera magazine and theatre journal, and also celebrities from China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, officials from Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Education. These reviews are a major contribution to current debate over whether to choose pure aesthetic drama or ethic theatre production in Chinese academic circle. And one thing that characterizes this play’s breakthrough is that it is able to combine these two logics, and therefore it reaches out broadly. And that’s probably an extremely important part to its success, and in that way Liu has contributed to reforming the contemporary institutional theatre. “In performance, you must first of all move yourself aesthetically and ethically from deep down inside before you try to move your spectators.” Liu says in an interview with the chief editor of Journal of Opera, YOU Weizhi. This may be why her artistry keeps appealing to Chinese people. Her beautiful, reposeful, effusive, expressive, quietly yet infinitely inflectionable voice has been arousing people’s deep feelings with a sense of confidence they feel in their identity, making people feel proud and fortunate as Chinese, and also showing another way to visualizing and approaching the ideal of the Chinese Dream through contemporary Chinese theatre.
References[edit]
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS (CHINESE NATIONAL OPERA 2018)[edit]
Home Is Where The Heart Is: From 2017 to 2018, the contemporary Chinese national opera You Ai Cai You Jia (《有爱才有家》，Home is Where the Heart is) has been onstage via a long tour all the way in every great theatre all through the country, especially in Beijing, Henan, Hunan and Hubei. The leading actress Prof. LIU Danli(Chair of School of Arts, Wuhan University) does not only play the leading role LIU De’fen, but also participates as Art Director(艺术总监) in the whole process. This is a fascinating contemporary play: it’s biographical based on true story, narrating the legendary life-trajectory of a very kind dean De’fen in a local welfare institute. Each scene is curiously engaging and the whole play is more than fascinating with the inspiring central belief “home is where the heart is”, trying to blend both China’s glorious tradition and its present achievements of reform and development.
A brief introduction of Prof. LIU Danli: Being the direct disciple of Du Jinfang (杜近芳,1932-）and a third-generation descendant of the Mei school founded by Mei Langfang (梅兰芳, 1894–1961), one of the major four dan schools, Liu Danli is considered a national first-class xiqu (Chinese theatre or Chinese opera) actress of dan (a female role, usually with an elegant air and poetic qualities). In 1990s, Liu Danli won Meihua Award (the Plum Performance Award, the top award in Chinese theatre arts) and Wenhua Award for her performance of Si Qing Ji(《思情记》) in the field of xiqu. Later she stepped into the field of national opera and won Meihua Award again in 2005 with her performance in the modern Chinese national opera Hong Hu Chi Wei Dui（《洪湖赤卫队》）. In 2018, her representative work You Ai Cai You Jia has been selected as one of the nine most significant performing works in the repertoire dataset of Chinese National Opera Festival by the Ministry of Culture (During a very short performance interval from July 27th to August 10th, the stage script is currently under revision for better performance on stage later this year). Her theatre productions respectively express people’s deep feelings in different phases of contemporary China during the last three decades, revealing the comprehensive big picture of the Chinese Dream. Since 2012, she has been appointed as Chair of School of Arts, Wuhan University. And since 2016, she has also been working as Head of Centre for Arts Education, Wuhan University. Prof. LIU Danli's General View on Arts and Humanities: holds the opinion that performing arts should adopt various advantages from different fields so as to be enriched and thus inclusive (博采众长，兼容并包). Her view has further developed the cultural policy proposed by Mao Zedong in 1956 and 1957 that “we should allow every beautiful flower to bloom in full and every kind voice to be heard by all” (百花齐放，百家争鸣). For rejuvenating and building our own culture, this is very important. Liu has provided a rather concrete way of thinking towards the Chinese Dream based on her own understanding of performance art and Mao Zedong’s thought.
Collected Reviews on Prof. LIU Danli's arts: “Liu combines what’s daring in northern art and what’s delicate in southern art, thus has formed her own unique style” “Not only does her singing style match perfectly with the melody, but also does it embody the elegant air and poetic quality deriving from the classic Book of Songs; people are hypnotized by the mellow tone of her voice which depicts the role’s inner world to the deeps of people’s imagination” “She is so good at psychoanalysis that she reaches an exact understanding of the role’s actions, motives and personality. And based on this, she precisely grasps the characteristic traits of the role on stage by means of distinctive and typical style in action design and voice appropriateness.”
In an in-depth interview on You Ai Cai You Jia, Prof. LIU Danli talked about her secret tips based on her personal performance experience through all those years’ great efforts: a. a theatre production, either xiqu or national opera, should contain a thematic melody based on a simple folk tune yet repeated in different and more complicated forms at different time point, especially at certain plot twists. This is vitally significant for any theatre production, especially for contemporary Chinese theatre. In You Ai Cai You Jia, the music theme of the same name repeatedly appears for several times, sung by De’fen (acted by Liu Danli), Qiu Hong (acted by Lei Yuan) and the chorus, so that it’s easy for the spectators to remember. b. we should pay more attention to the action design for the role’s very first appearance onstage. This action must be selected and extracted from real life to make a strong impression on the audience. And also the voice at first appearance must be appropriate to the age and psychological state of the character. In You Ai Cai You Jia, De’fen’s voice appropriateness helps a lot in the characterization of her at different phases or at different ages. It differs a lot from her mid-age to the last minute of her life. c. a wonderful unique aria composed by great talent and artistry is a must. De’fen’s solo aria, “the Last Words”(最后的嘱托), has won her great honor and respect at the Chinese opera festival this year. She has made a slight impromptu adaptation according to the atmosphere on live. d. a performer must convey the specific emotion in specific situation through every detail, including the slight changes of the shoulder movements, leg muscles, and even from behind in silhouette. e. Techniques and methods from ballet, xiqu and opera art should be an organic combination all through your performance. This belongs to her unique feature with her own style. f. be natural and smooth in the performance, especially in the transition part. Be aware of the gradations. g. grasp the delicate details to express something glistening in human nature. h. take control of the breath, use the subtle changes to express the underlying emotion and deep feeling. i. as a performer, you must entre the mental world of your role, do what s/he does, feel what s/he feels, think what s/he thinks, like in spirit possession. j. focus on accuracy and cubicism. For accuracy, use the appropriate form to express your experience and deep feelings, and make the audience feel what you would like to convey. This communication process must be like a beam of torchlight shining all the way through the bridge between the performers and the spectators, making the whole theatre a field of psychological linkage and common aesthetic taste. For cubicism, it mainly refers to the multiple facets inside the character’s mind. There may exist some contradictory aspects simultaneously in one’s personality. A performer must dig them out and make them shown. For instance, Er’mei (in Si Qing Ji) is brave most of the time but feels embarrassed when she meets her beloved; the revolutionary heroine Han Ying (in Hong Hu Chi Wei Dui) is strong in general but becomes gentle in the face of her mother. Liu says, accuracy and cubicism may be regarded as a golden law or a principle of vital importance which we should follow in theatre performance.
Reception: The theatre company of You Ai Cai You Jia consists of several professional singers in folk song and bel canto and about 80 students from School of Arts, Wuhan University. With the symphony orchestra, the theatre is now on tour all over China, mainly in Beijing, Henan and Hubei. The performances are widely accepted that they have given rise to large amounts of performance reviews in mainstream press and media, especially in People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, Chinese Culture, China News, China Society News, and China Arts. Those artistic criticism are mainly written by scholars and critics from research institutions, playwrights and directors from national theatre, editors-in-chief of opera magazine and theatre journal, and also celebrities from China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, officials from Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Education. These reviews are a major contribution to current debate over whether to choose pure aesthetic drama or ethic theatre production in Chinese academic circle. And one thing that characterizes this play’s breakthrough is that it is able to combine these two logics, and therefore it reaches out broadly. And that’s probably an extremely important part to its success, and in that way Liu has contributed to reforming the contemporary institutional theatre. “In performance, you must first of all move yourself aesthetically and ethically from deep down inside before you try to move your spectators.” Liu says in an interview with the chief editor of Journal of Opera, YOU Weizhi. This may be why her artistry keeps appealing to Chinese people. Her beautiful, reposeful, effusive, expressive, quietly yet infinitely inflectionable voice has been arousing people’s deep feelings with a sense of confidence they feel in their identity, making people feel proud and fortunate as Chinese, and also showing another way to visualizing and approaching the ideal of the Chinese Dream through contemporary Chinese theatre.
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