Curtain call after the performance. Photo courtesy of the interviewee for this article.
The guqin depicted in Ji Kang's poems, "Huahua carving, cloth algae and vertical text", its shape, craftsmanship, inscription, etc., is destined to be not only a first-class tool, but more often used as a desk to play, to avoid the hustle and bustle of the world. Nowadays, this originally unattainable seven-string music has quietly integrated into our daily life. In the melodious music of the Zide Qin Society, we can even hear the new charm of the guqin and Western musical instruments. Although the sound and spiritual meaning of the guqin have been presented to us in such a rich manner, the Zide Qin Society still throws an eternal question to the audience: what is the qin?
"Qin" is a word of infinite things, only for the audience's heart-warming song.
"What is the piano" is the theme of the tour of the Zide Qin Society, and more than ten special performances like this have been held in the past year. "We invite the audience to think about this issue together, and hope to have the opportunity to hear more feedback from them, that is, what traditional art is really like, and what kind of attitude should we contemporary people should adopt to innovate and carry forward. Zhu Liyue, president of Zideqin Society, has always thought about this question, which is both profound and difficult to answer perfectly. At the same time, whenever the musicians of the Zide Qin Club appear in front of the audience, they are always like ancient paintings unfolding, and the lively scenes born by the brushes are also extended. Let's see them play music to their heart's content, needless to say, their solid folk music performance skills, and their costumes are reproduced according to the literature.
Looking at the audience again, they usually give feedback that moves Zhu Liyue. Zhu Liyue mentioned that for example, when I went to Beijing for the first time last year, whenever the team took great care to prepare or paid great attention to the details, the audience could join in the interaction with understanding, "They were enthusiastic and professional, so we felt very good when we performed." Asked about the audience's good quality, Zhu Liyue said frankly, "I hope the audience can really like ** and can always enjoy it in the live ** meeting." Perhaps it is this kind of heartfelt enjoyment that can release the greatest kindness and spiritual connection to the stage and the musicians.
We often encounter some audiences wearing exquisite traditional costumes to participate in the ** meeting, which has become a flowing landscape. There are also audiences who bring children to watch, and the children are watching attentively throughout the whole process, not noisy at all, which makes me very moved, and the cultural and artistic literacy of generations of children is getting higher and higher, and I feel that there are successors to our traditional culture. Looking at all this auspiciousness, Zhu Liyue still initiated ancient thoughts, "Where should our traditional folk music go, in the current era, we have spent several years presenting this way, so in the future, will we still innovate in this direction?" ”
Ten years of re-translation and interpretation, originality does not follow the stream.
Nowadays, the national style is prosperous, and this question is not groundless, but a kind of salvation to break free from excessive commercialization. Zhu Liyue founded Zide Qin Club in 2014, and this year just celebrates its 10th anniversary, and he has grown the original small team of three people all the way to the scale of more than 20 people who have signed contracts for the first time, the first offline performance, the first time on TV, and the first overseas ......performance this yearIn his view, every new step is like a milestone, "we have no similar experience to learn from this model, everything has to rely on our own learning and trial and error, although it is a headache, but all aspects are relatively balanced development, and there is no excessive commercialization, I am still quite proud." ”
Obviously, sticking to originality is the best way to avoid over-commercialization. Zhu Liyue is such a person, he will not morally kidnap his team without a bottom line, nor will he follow the market trend. The more popular something is, the more superficial and homogeneous things are, and the same is true of national customs. "There are not too many teams that can perform offline from the initial creation to the end, and I hope that more art teams will be developed in the market in the future, and I also hope that everyone will not simply follow the trend or superficially participate in the ancient trend. Zhu Liyue believes that studying hard, researching hard, and strengthening one's original ability are the most fundamental things.
"We can play a relatively small role as a small team, and the revival of elegant traditional arts such as guqin is inseparable from many factors, such as the development of national strength, and the improvement of everyone's living standards to have leisure to pay attention to traditional culture; At the same time, guqin and kunqu opera have been recognized by UNESCO as the oral and intangible cultural heritage of humanity, which has played a great role in promoting them, including the introduction of guqin performance at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, which is of great significance. "In my opinion, this is already a great progress, and in the future, our team will also pay attention to the promotion and popularization of the guqin, and try to translate and interpret it in a way that is more acceptable to everyone." Zhu Liyue said that lowering the threshold for appreciating elegant art can effectively attract more people to have a preliminary understanding of art, and in this development process, some people will inevitably become senior fans, and even further study, so this has also become an important task for the team.
This year, Zhu Liyue plans to hold some more interactive small meetings and aesthetic education lectures, leaving enough time to communicate with the audience more closely. Aesthetic education lectures have been held from time to time since the establishment of the club, but they are busy with creation and performances, and the number has not reached the ideal, so with the opportunity to ask the question "what is the piano", Zhu Liyue wants to get a face-to-face answer from the audience.
Traditional culture is receiving more and more attention.
Chinese New Year Q&A ==
Let traditional culture be reborn in the new era.
On the day of the interview, Zhu Liyue was busy giving a condolence performance in the hospital, which was the last event of the Zide Qin Society before the Lunar New Year. He affectionately called the team members "children", thinking that they had been performing all year round, so he took a holiday early and waited for the special ** meeting in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province on the day of the Lantern Festival. But during the Spring Festival, we can still see their pre-recorded TV shows and evening parties, how can the Spring Festival be separated from the ancient style?
Youth Daily: How does the Zide Piano Club convey the New Year's atmosphere in public?
Zhu Liyue: I deeply feel that cultural tourism everywhere hopes to provide cultural and artistic activities of a national style for everyone during the Spring Festival, especially this year. The Spring Festival is a traditional festival, so everyone wants to see programs with traditional elements, which are more appropriate. I believe that in the future, everyone will like it more and more, and will pay more and more attention to traditional culture, traditional festivals, and traditional folk customs, which is the trend of the times.
Youth Daily: Please recommend one or two songs that are suitable for listening to during the Spring Festival.
Zhu Liyue: We hope that through **, we can let everyone experience the renewal of all things in spring, and everyone can meet the challenges of the new year with a good mood, and I hope that our ** meeting can cheer for the audience and let them devote themselves to the work of the new year in a better state. We filmed a while ago that the Western "Radetzky March", that is, the exclusive ending song of the Vienna New Year's Party, plus our youth song "Flowers and Full Moon", and mixed them together, the audience is interested in listening to these two songs, including our adapted version.
Youth Daily: What achievements has the Zide Qin Club made in the past year, and what are your plans for the new year?
Zhu Liyue: In the past ten years, I didn't expect to survive for so long, but every year I can steadily climb a small level, as far as last year is concerned, the biggest progress is that our tour has been slowly formalized, including our creative process has gradually been standardized. In 2024, I think there will be a sign that we are going to Malaysia in March, starting with the opportunity to tour abroad for the first time, and we need to try to increase the pace of going out, and it will be a new test. In April, we will also participate in the performance of "Shanghai Spring", which is a ** meeting "Jiangnan Good" with the theme of Jiangnan silk and bamboo and the Ming Dynasty modeling, which will premiere in "Shanghai Spring".
Youth Daily: "Breaking the Circle" is the highlight of your frequent coverage, and in terms of your experience, what do you perceive to be more needed by young people today?
Zhu Liyue: I don't think we deliberately "break the circle", compared with ancient times, the audience of guqin has changed, compared with ancient times, the number of our educated, even highly educated people has increased many times, then these people can become lovers of traditional and elegant art. In addition, we have the Internet and other means of communication to publicize and popularize, and art is more convenient than before. At the same time, I really didn't notice any obvious circles or barriers, because the current generation of young people are educated, and they spontaneously pay attention to the traditional culture of their own country, and we just need to provide them with the most suitable channel to experience and love the traditional culture. So I'm still quite confident, but we have to keep working hard and hopefully have more teams to do it together.
Youth Daily: As the president, what do you look for when recruiting new members?
Zhu Liyue: First of all, there must be professional considerations, for example, he is an undergraduate or graduate student or graduate student in the performance department of ** college, and we will test his technical level and image temperament through interviews. For me, I think the most important thing is to see if he has aura or not, and whether there is much potential for subsequent growth. Many of the things we do now need to be self-taught and innovative, because the changes are too fast and too big now, and I think only young people who can learn by themselves, self-motivated, and talented can go further in the future. We also hope to have such high-quality young talents to join our team. (ENDS).