Fan Cuiting

Fan Cuiting

Fan Cuiting (1905-1966), formerly known as Fan Yu. He was born in Suiping, Henan Province. The famous writer, reformer and educator of Henan Opera is known as "the father of modern Henan Opera". He once served as vice chairman of Shaanxi Branch of Chinese Dramatist Association, vice chairman of Xi'an Federation of literary and art circles, member of Standing Committee of Xi'an Municipal Committee, representative of Xi'an Municipal People's Congress, etc.

He graduated from Henan University in 1929. Because of his love for Peking Opera, he set up a national opera (Peking Opera) team at school, took the post of team leader, and made his debut.

In 1934, he founded the Yusheng theater. He was the president, screenwriter and director of the theater. Together with master Chen Suzhen, the queen of Henan opera, he reformed the performance, music, costumes and make-up of Henan opera.

In 1935, he began to write plays. In more than 20 years, he has created and adapted 58 plays. Most of his plays have rigorous structure, tortuous plots, novel techniques, healthy and progressive ideological content, which has certain practical significance.

Life of the characters

Early activities

In 1919, when he left home to study in the preparatory school for Europe and America in Kaifeng, he set up a national opera (Peking Opera) team with several students who loved literature and art, regardless of his father's rebuke and teacher's dissuasion. Organize students to rehearse in spare time, and perform on stage in holidays. He once played Cheng Ying in Zhao's orphan and justice worship in Nu Qi Jie. During this period, he also worked as an adjunct professor in the Art Department of Henan rural training department founded by Feng Yuxiang for more than a year.

After graduating from Henan University in 1929 with a master's degree in arts, he was invited to serve as a drama teacher in Henan Minmin Normal University. The next year, he also served as the director of Social Education Promotion Department of Henan Provincial Department of education.

In 1934, Henan Provincial Department of education accepted fan's proposal of "breaking the stereotypes and improving Henan Opera", established Yusheng theater in Henan Province, and appointed fan as president. From then on, he devoted himself to the cause of Henan opera, recruited famous actors from all over the world, abolished all kinds of stereotypes and established new stage discipline, which greatly changed the appearance of the troupe. He paid attention to learning the advanced management and creative experience of brother operas. When he learned that Shaanxi Yisu society ranked first in the country in terms of management system and script creation, he went to Xi'an to watch the performance in person. He transplanted dozens of Qinqiang zaizi operas such as "sanhuitou" and "cuizhongyuan" into Henan opera, which made a sensation in Kaifeng.

In February 1935, in the year of Yihai of the lunar calendar, Yusheng theater opened. Fan Cuiting invited Chen Suzhen, Liu Chaofu, Zhang Zilin, Zhao Yiting and Huang ruxiu, who were known as Mei Lanfang in Henan Province at that time, to transform the original Yongle theater in Kaifeng into Yusheng theater, which officially opened in early February. He drew lessons from some successful experiences of Beijing Opera and modern drama, reformed theater management, troupe management, performance rehearsal and many other aspects, abolished some stereotypes in troupes, personally compiled chronicles, and devoted himself to the reform of Henan opera. Soon, Henan opera, which has been regarded as vulgar art for a long time, gained a good reputation, especially some intellectuals began to pay attention to it Henan opera. In order to further enrich the performing skills of Henan opera, he invited Jia Yintang, a Beijing opera fan with real talent and learning, to teach martial arts to the actors in the theater. At the same time, he constantly absorbed some young actors with real talent and learning and promising cultivation into the theater, which soon brought together a large number of influential artists in Yusheng theater.

In 1938, Wuyin year of the lunar calendar: Yusheng theater was renamed lion roar troupe

Fan Cui Ting changed the Yusheng theater into a lion roaring troupe. He publicized the Anti Japanese war in the form of travel performance, stimulated the patriotic enthusiasm of the masses, and absorbed young people to learn drama with the troupe. The troupe moved to Xi'an and almost stopped.

In 1942, Renwu year of the lunar calendar: lion roar children's theater was founded

Fan Cuiting recruited some difficult children from Henan, hired Han Shengxiu, a Peking Opera actor, as a coach, and set up a lion roar children's theater troupe in the form of a section class. He persisted in training in the slums and resumed performance. In the next few years, training and performance went hand in hand, and most of the plays were edited and directed by fan Cuiting, who made continuous improvement and innovation in performance, music, clothing and make-up. The performance is serious and well-known for martial arts, forming a rigorous and vigorous stage style and unique artistic style.

In order to improve the performance quality of Henan Opera and create the style characteristics of Henan opera, he spent a lot of effort. From 1935 to the eve of the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, he produced dozens of anti feudal, anti evil and anti traitor dramas for Chen Suzhen. At that time, dishonor blood, which caused a sensation, was a good play to publicize patriotism with the plot of father's desire to be a traitor and daughter's firm opposition. Cheng Yanqiu, a famous Peking Opera performer, watched a performance in Kaifeng. He was so excited that he visited fan. As soon as he entered the house, he was honored as "teacher" and took the script back to Peking. Later, due to the current turmoil, fan changed the name of Yusheng theater to lion roar travel troupe, and was forced to start a wandering life. Most of the troupes stopped performing in Sifeng to make a living. In order to keep the backbone of the art team, fan fled to Mashankou, Nanyang, with ten actors, including master Chen Suzhen, Queen of Henan opera, and Huang ruxiu. He lived in a broken temple and called on the old opera troupe to continue to make plays, rehearse and perform in a mobile way. At this time, full of Anti Japanese passion, he created patriotic plays such as "conquering the enemy and returning to glory", "good wife" and "heroine" with the theme of reflecting the Anti Japanese war. Under the condition that the Japanese army invaded step by step and Nanyang was hard to get a foothold, he led the performers to live in the ancient city of Xi'an in July 1939. The lion roar troupe, which arrived in Xi'an, relied on the cast with complete professional skills and solid foundation, grasped the pulse of the times and the excellent repertoire with progressive and healthy content, as well as the care and support of Qin opera troupes such as Yisu troupe and Sanyi troupe, and finally stood on its feet. It was supported by the masses, especially the people of Henan nationality. However, many times, the drama words touched the dark side of the people in power and caused great concern Because of the dissatisfaction of the troupe, it was difficult for the troupe to survive. In addition, with the soaring prices, the actors left the troupe one after another to make a living, making the troupe paralyzed or closed down. On the eve of the victory of the Anti Japanese War, fan's father and a powerful ally urged him to "know where to go when he lost his way", but he vowed never to turn back. During the war of liberation, fan recruited more than 50 children from the refugees who fled from Henan Province to Xi'an, set up the lion roar children's theater, and hired many famous Peking opera artists to step up the training. At the same time, we have compiled and adapted more than 30 excellent dramas suitable for children's performance, such as "Meng Xiang Ping", "Jian Du Ji", "Lei Feng Ta". On the eve of the liberation of Xi'an, the lion roar children's drama troupe led by fan has become a famous literary and artistic group in Xi'an and Northwest China. However, at this time, fan was put in the underground prison of the bell tower by the Kuomintang reactionaries because of his "attack on the government". After the rescue of Chen Zijing, an underground worker of the Communist Party of China, he was released from prison.

After the founding of the people's Republic of China

After the founding of the people's Republic of China, fan created a series of excellent plays reflecting the suppression of counter revolution, the "three evils", "five evils" and the land reform movement with the sense of responsibility as the master.

In 1955, he went to Beijing screenwriting workshop for further study, and then wrote such excellent plays as "Wang Zuo's broken arm", "Yang Mantang", "Lei Zhenhai's expedition to the north" and "hydraulic engineering Zheng Guo". Wang Zuo's broken arm won the first prize in the adaptation, performance and director of the play in the first Shaanxi opera watching and observing meeting in 1956. During this period, he also served as deputy to the first people's Congress of Xi'an, member of the Standing Committee of the second Xi'an Municipal Committee of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of Shaanxi Branch of China Dramatist Association, vice chairman of Xi'an Federation of literary and art circles, etc.

On the eve of the "Cultural Revolution", traditional dramas were forced to stop performing. Fan was also denounced as "right leaning backward" and "pure business viewpoint serious", and was forced to leave the company's idle home.

He died of coronary heart disease on January 1, 1966. His plays were published as fan Xi Ji.

Main works

Representative plays

From 1935 to 1936, Mr. Fan Cuiting produced seven plays for master Chen Suzhen, including Ling Yunzhi, Yi liefeng, San Fu Xiu, Liu Lvyun, Xiao rang hen, di shameful blood and Ligustrum lucidum.

From 1937 to 1941, Mr. Fan Cuiting wrote eight heroine dramas for the Anti Japanese War, which were premiered by master Chen Suzhen: Hua Meiniang, Jian Du Ji, good wife, relieving the country's difficulties, heroine, Meng Xiangping, couple's arrow and conquering the enemy.

There are also the traditional plays "Luoyang Bridge" adapted by Mr. Fan Cuiting for master Chen Suzhen, also known as "fanwanggong", "tooth trace", also known as "taohuaan", "sanhuitou", "juzhongyuan" and "the legend of white snake".

Personal Anthology

Collection of fan Cuiting's works

The anthology of fan Cuiting (volume 1-6), which took seven years to compile, has more than 3 million words and was published by Henan University Press. The book contains 50 drama texts edited and directed by fan Cuiting, and also includes his autobiography, diary, thesis, essay, drama review, letter and other words of 40 years' artistic career, with precious pictures and materials attached. It holographically depicts the dynamic track of maturity of Henan opera, interprets the Era Connotation of fan Cuiting as "the founder and pioneer of modern Henan Opera", and fills the gap This paper analyzes the blank of drama literature in the process of transformation from early Henan Bangzi to modern Henan opera.

artistic characteristics

One of the characteristics of fan Cuiting's repertoire creation is that in his nearly 60 works, the majority of them are women. The reason is that on the one hand, he knows that Henan opera has developed to the stage center of "eat steamed stuffed bun, eat stuffing, listen to opera, listen to dan'er". On the other hand, he has a strong sense of responsibility

Chinese PinYin : Fan Cui Ting