Before deciding to start this live broadcast, there were originally only two people left in the Anyang Youth Yu Opera Troupe in Henan Province, the head of the troupe, Fan Shengnan, and her lover and the chief conductor of the troupe.
Since 2020, the troupe of forty or fifty people has no performances, no income, and no opportunities to meet and rehearse offline. The fog was thick in front of me, and I couldn't see the distance.
A stage built by the troupe.
Fan Shengnan's ** sounded again and again, and more and more members of the league told her: I might as well go out to work first, right?
No matter how much Fan Shengnan wants to keep them, he can only choose to let go. In 2020, the first winter of the troupe's hardship, she and her lover drove back to their hometown from Zhengzhou for the New Year. When leaving the toll station, the high-speed fee was 18 yuan, and the husband and wife couldn't make it up by scanning the code, so they could only temporarily call ** to ask for help from their younger brother.
In the spring of 2021, the troupe was almost gone. Everybody has to move on.
Shi Hongtao couldn't remember how long he waited in the same place, until one day, he felt like a wasted person, and finally realized that he was temporarily out of performance and unemployed.
He began to study drama as a teenager and spent half of his life on the stage. The Anyang Youth Yu Opera Troupe in Henan Province has been established for 8 years, and Shi Hongtao has been in the troupe for 8 years. At nearly 40 years old, he had to find another way to make a living.
His first stop was Guangdong, where he made mobile phone screens in an electronics factory. In the special period of the factory, after entering the door, I can't even go out of the door, I put on one-piece dust-free clothes and shoes every day to enter the workshop, stand in front of a fixed position, and work continuously for 11 hours, during which I can only go out for meals and toilets. When you go to the toilet, you also need to find someone to help you go to the post and go back quickly.
The actors of the troupe are scattered to work Source: Xinhua News Agency Life is monotonous and boring every day, forever repeating the three points and one line of eating and sleeping work, commuting to and from work, and workers don't even have the strength to chat with each other. In Shi Hongtao's view, those three months were no different from going to prison.
That was the first time he had been silent since he sang. There is no time to practice your voice, and there is no place to practice. Once the voice is opened, it will affect the rest of the others.
As soon as the three-month contract arrived, he immediately returned to Henan to wait for the news of the troupe's performance, but it was empty again.
After that, he went to the factory in Chongqing and then to Kunshan.
At that time, Fan Shengnan and a friend in the group set up a baked cake stall at the entrance of the village in their hometown, and there was a long queue in front of the stall every day, earning nearly 20,000 yuan a month.
Fan Shengnan thought about it, so it was better to continue to make this baked cake stall. But she couldn't let go of Henan Opera, and she practiced her voice every day when she set up a stall. Later, he simply closed the stall and sang in the live broadcast room. She found that singing in the live broadcast room also has a very stable income every day.
She thought maybe she could get everyone back.
When the deputy head Wang Hao received **, he was also doing a live broadcast of Henan Opera. Two days later, he drove 300 miles from his hometown to Xinxiang, Henan, where Fan Shengnan's mother-in-law was located.
Before the reunion of the troupe, Wang Hao Fan Sheng's mother-in-law had an empty yard that no one lived in, and they set up a live broadcast room in the living room on the second floor, arranged the equipment, and waited for everyone's return.
When I received Fan Shengnan**, Shi Hongtao was still in the factory in Kunshan, which was the easiest job in his part-time career for more than a year. Only one point, not his favorite job.
Brother Tao, we're going to start a live broadcast. ”
Okay, when will it start? ”
Eleven of this year. ”
Then I'll quit my job. ”
He didn't even bother to listen to the head of the regiment, Fan Shengnan, talk about the salary and package, "Don't talk about this yet, my heart is already there with you now." ”
Shi Hongtao ignored the dissuasion of his colleagues in the factory and immediately went through the resignation and handover procedures. In Guangdong, Henan, and Shandong, more troupe actors received Fan Shengnan's **, left the electronics factory, popsicle factory, construction team, takeaway site and security posts, and rushed to the same location, Xinxiang, Henan.
In October 2021, Shi Hongtao stood on the one-meter-wide stage in the live broadcast room, surrounded by the actors of the troupe who had been separated for more than a year.
The change occurred after the half-time delivery. Shi Hongtao sang "Hitting the Golden Branch" on stage, pardoning the princess's concubine. message area, but no one "pardoned" the troupe that brought goods for a few minutes at the end of the live broadcast mid-play.
Shi Hongtao is still singing the Henan opera of "Hitting the Golden Branch", but almost no one cares about it. The number of people in the live broadcast room went from 20,000 to 2,000 to 200, and Fan Shengnan remembered that the number finally stopped at 181.
Comment after comment. "Eyeballs", "It's nothing, I just want to make money", "I'm not worthy of being an actor", and later escalated to personal attacks, "old" and "ugly". As long as there is one such comment, there will be many similar statements.
Shi Hongtao's eyes couldn't take his eyes off the overwhelming comments in the live broadcast room, and he almost forgot his words. He signaled to his colleague in charge of the live broadcast: "I can't sing anymore, I really can't sing anymore." ”
In the next second, the live broadcast was interrupted, and Shi Hongtao cried directly on the table. Not far away, Fan Shengnan was also crying.
Before that live broadcast, their idea was: as long as everyone can get together, as long as the troupe does not disband, and can still stand on the stage and sing for everyone, they will do it, and it will be a big deal to start all over again. Before bringing the goods, the actors of the troupe were ready to be criticized. But such a situation is still beyond everyone's expectations.
There was a comment in the live broadcast room that they could answer. Netizens asked: "Can't your troupe survive?"Why bring goods?”
The answer is obvious.
All the actors of the troupe who came here had a basic salary of 100 yuan a day, and they worked on the ground at night to eat a big pot of rice cooked by Fan Shengnan's father. If you want to improve your food, you can buy your own groceries and cook your own meals.
The live broadcast space is limited, in order to prevent the martial arts actors from acting too much. Away from the camera, the ropes are pulled up on both sides, and the narrowest distance of the actor's performance is less than one meter, and the widest part is only more than two meters.
The number of actors is also not enough. Originally, the troupe had forty or fifty people, but in the small house, there were about 20 people sleeping at most. This means that each Henan opera actor has to sing more roles and even learn new plays.
There is also the issue of spending. The equipment in the live broadcast room cost nearly 100,000 yuan, all of which Fan Shengnan paid out of his own pocket. Since then, she has been responsible for the salaries, food and accommodation of the actors.
In the past year, many ** have spoken out, and the discussion can still see netizens' "suggestions" for the troupe
The people in the live broadcast room simply typed out lines and lines, seemingly speaking for art. For Shi Hongtao, it is like a knife that kills people without seeing blood, facing it head-on. After two years, he choked up again when he mentioned that day.
He couldn't understand that everyone didn't steal or rob, and the money they earned in the live broadcast room in one day was far less than that of going out to work, and the basic living expenses were not enough, so they were about to die. It's just trying to bring goods in between live broadcasts of Henan Opera, why is this happening?
Fan Shengnan was the first to calm down. "Once the opera starts, it can't be stopped. Today's scene can't be said to be perfect, and we must finish singing from beginning to end. Tomorrow really can't work, and the live broadcast room won't continue. ”
Half an hour later, the live broadcast restarted, and the crowd sang the whole scene with tears.
After the live broadcast ended, some actors immediately decided to give up, they packed their luggage and continued to go out to work. But many more are reluctant to leave.
Shi Hongtao fell in love with drama very early. Before the age of 10, he liked to watch opera students practice at a drama school near his hometown of Anyang Huaxian. Later, when the school moved, he was always haunted by not enrolling. It wasn't until he was a teenager that a troupe came to the village and was about to enroll in a school, so he persuaded his parents to follow the troupe.
It was a large group of hundreds of people, including sixty or seventy-year-old drama bones, and there were also teenagers like him, who ate a big pot of rice in the group and couldn't even reach the pot. They perform with the troupe all year round, and they don't even have tents when they perform, they sleep directly on the ground.
When he didn't perform, he followed his teacher home, got up at five o'clock every morning, went to the wilderness to practice his voice, and practiced every day to learn to sing. The performance started with the dragon set, and it was not until three years of study that he had the pocket money given by the troupe after the performance.
After Shi Hongtao finished his studies, it was not easy. Henan Henan opera is mostly performed in spring and winter. Every winter, when I was on the road overnight, the props were packed in boxes, people sat on the boxes, followed the truck, in the cold wind through 300 miles, 500 miles or even thousands of miles, and when I got out of the car and wanted to go to the toilet, I lost feeling in my hands and feet, and I couldn't even pull down my pants. As soon as the morning dawned, when I arrived at the performance venue, I didn't eat, so I had to set up the stage and sing all day.
After leaving the factory in Guangdong, Shi Hongtao no longer worked continuously. When he was in Chongqing, every holiday, he took a live broadcast sound card and went to Liuding to sing. When he was in Kunshan, he opened his voice directly in the work area at night to refresh everyone. Taking time to sing is a rare moment of relaxation in his working life.
Wang Hao said that singing is actually not easier than playing screws. When he received a role with lines for the first time in the troupe, he was still practicing in the middle of the night, and the actors were sleeping on the stage they had built, so he ran to practice farther away and didn't sleep all night. Rushing to the stage all night, loading and unloading trucks in the middle of the night, and working for months are the norm for the actors in the troupe.
There is only one reason to insist, I like it.
Fan Shengnan is the same, she has loved singing since she was a child, and the texts she can't memorize are compiled into operas and sung. When she was ten years old, she offered to learn Yu Opera. The laid-off parents pooled money to send her out, despite the opposition of her family and neighbors.
Fan Shengnan when he was a child.
She became the lead actor at the age of 15. For this reason, her parents gave up their stable jobs in their hometown and moved their family to Zhengzhou to accompany her. At the age of 21, she decided to form a private theater troupe, and her parents once again took out all their savings to buy a house.
Fan Shengnan remembered the first week of school when she was 10 years old, and wrote in a letter to her mother: Mom, I know that you have overcome great difficulties, don't worry, I must let everyone know that there is a singing girl named Fan Shengnan in Henan.
She wants to fight for her parents, and she also wants to fight for herself who sings Henan Opera. She mobilized all her connections, begged for people everywhere, and formed a team that was comparable to the provincial theater troupe at that time.
But she is only 21 years old, and she is the youngest person in the troupe. She spoke on stage, and the conversation never stopped. Outside the troupe, she couldn't receive the play, she didn't dare to go home, and she didn't dare to face the troupe, so she could only wear black clothes and high heels, try to pretend to be 40 years old, like a salesman, and go to each village with a leaflet to ask: "Do you need to sing?" ”
One winter, because she had run too far, on the way back, she found that the car was almost out of gas, and there were only 42 yuan left in her pocket, so she simply slept in the car all night.
The hard days have been endured in one performance after another. has performed once, and basically will sign a contract with her to sing in the coming year.
Wang Hao saw the performance of Fan Shengnan leading the troupe at the entrance of his hometown, so he decided to quit his job in the troupe at that time and join here.
Fan Shengnan. But that's not the whole reason for insistence.
In addition to liking, there is also responsibility. Fan Shengnan remembers that on the day the troupe received an 11-performance drama for the first time, Oak Tree's teacher sent a message that a troupe bus full of more than 30 Henan Opera actors had fallen off a cliff.
The moment she hung up, she realized that running a troupe is not only to stand on the stage, but also to be responsible for how everyone survives.
Now that the live broadcast is over, the 29-year-old has to decide whether to continue to be responsible for everyone's survival.
The next day, the live stream continued. Live streaming is more difficult than offline performances, the space is limited, the faces under the native camera are distorted, and every audience can clearly see the micro-expressions of the actors, and any small mistake will be infinitely magnified. They have to bear the attack of being scolded for their ugly appearance.
Fan Shengnan's house has a limited space and can only accommodate about half of the people in the group. Therefore, everyone has to sing more operas and more roles. sang "Tears and Lovesickness", the old drama bone of the young girl Wang Lianjuan, so she was criticized by netizens in the live broadcast room as "too old to pretend to be tender".
Even so, most of them stayed at the regiment commander's house, and the floor was laid for more than a year. Rehearsed during the day, broadcast at night, read every criticism and try to correct it, pick and select products together, and delete the lines of the midfield to the most concise.
Fan Shengnan explained the original intention of bringing goods in the live broadcast room. Rather than the income from tipping, they want the audience to use the money to buy what they need. The troupe only wants to be able to cover its daily expenses with the income from bringing goods. Even if it is to lose a little less money every day, so that the troupe will not be disbanded, and everyone can continue to sing.
The Anyang Youth Yu Opera Troupe in Henan Province went out to perform and explained with little effect. Every day, new viewers are pouring into the live broadcast room, ushering in new questions. The phenomenon of rapid powder loss with goods lasted for more than 8 months. In the first year, Fan Shengnan's troupe spent 3,000 yuan a day, while the daily income of the troupe's direct goods was several hundred yuan.
But at that time, Fan Shengnan secretly prayed every day, and there were more people who criticized her on the public screen. scolds other actors, it's better to scold her. She was afraid that the attacks would seriously hurt everyone's motivation. But that doesn't mean she has a high level of psychological endurance.
While struggling to reorganize the troupe, Fan Shengnan has a lot to take care of. Several important relatives in the family fell ill and were hospitalized one after another. The family's hospitalization expenses, medical expenses, the troupe's live broadcast expenses, the basic salary of the troupe, and daily expenses all have to be used everywhere.
She had to hide their illness from her family, and her family's illness from the troupe, and she was borrowing money everywhere in the middle of the night. She was diagnosed with severe depression and could only sleep on prescription sleeping pills. Whenever I heard a little discussion about singing, my face and head were sweating, tears flowed uncontrollably, and my whole body trembled.
She thought about dying, and immediately corrected herself, she couldn't think like that, I'm just sick now. The two selves in the body are fighting each other, and only on the stage can they find themselves.
When she was in the live broadcast room, she was most afraid of singing tragic scenes, and every time she didn't start singing, tears fell. "In the play, I play someone else, but I seem to be singing myself. ”
The people in Fan Sheng's boy group didn't know his physical condition, but they knew how many tears she shed.
During the live broadcast, everyone tacitly knew that there were few salary advances. There is a young actor who joined the troupe in 2019, and he has been doing live broadcasts for a year, and he has not asked for a penny until the end. The situation of the head of the troupe, they all saw it in their eyes: "This actor's salary continues to be paid, and his head has gold and silver, how long can he last, right?" ”
What helped Fan Shengnan tide over the difficulties, in addition to the troupe actors, relatives and friends, there were also fans accumulated when he was acting at the entrance of the village. They called ** and asked: Can the troupe still perform? Are you all okay? Everyone has gone to work, what should we do in the future?
After learning of the current situation, fans stayed in the live broadcast room, and together with many netizens, they spontaneously popularized science to the audience at the beginning of each delivery, and also posted grievances on the Internet.
This money is earned by vulgar Internet celebrities, earned by traffic stars, and the spiritual guys who dance a subject three can earn it, but artists can't earn it, and if they make it, they violate the noble image of the artist in their hearts, and defile the pure land of opera in their hearts. ”
Theater fans even lent money to the troupe during the epidemic, hoping that they would survive the winter.
During the live broadcast, fans accompanied them through the night Many years ago, Fan Shengnan, Shi Hongtao, and Wang Hao all crowded in front of the stage of the temple fair at the entrance of their respective villages, waiting for the Henan Opera to start singing. Now, the offline opera fans who are waiting for them to sound the gongs and drums and sing on stage again have snatched the opportunity for them to be reborn.
Until the end of the live broadcast of the troupe for a year and a half, the income from bringing goods still did not bring any profit, and the entire troupe earned 100 yuan a day.
But they don't have to rely on this anymore, in fact, after the offline resume, the troupe no longer brought goods.
On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year in 2023, they gathered at the entrance of the village in Jun County, Hebi, Henan Province, set up a stage, put on makeup, and the gong sounded. Thousands of people were waiting in the audience, and at a glance, they could only see dense black heads.
In Dinggou Village, Gongyi in the heavy rain, the owner who paid the troupe to come sat in the first position under the stage with a black umbrella early in the morning, signaling the start of the play.
Bicycles, tricycles, vans, tractors, ......A hundred meters near the stage are full of all kinds of vehicles. Spectators hid in their cars, crowded under the eaves. Many elderly people sit in the rain with umbrellas and raincoats. Their seats were strange, ...... on horses, stones, and firecracker piersThe rain trickled down the raincoat and the puddles of water under their feet were covered with bricks.
Villagers watching a play in the rain Source: CCTV News In Shanxi, an uncle in his 70s rode an electric car, riding dozens of kilometers every day, and drove the troupe to two places for 8 days. He drove there every morning, charged the tram by the stage, and then went home in the evening.
On the last day of the performance, he bottled a bottle of home-brewed Shanxi vinegar with mineral water. "The conditions at my home are not good, but this is a specialty of our Shanxi, so I want to bring some to you. ”
In the past three years, he has been following the live broadcast of the troupe, watching this group of young people persist all the way to the present. Now, he finally has a chance to send his heart.
From Henan to Shanxi to Hebei and Anhui, in the past year, Fan Shengnan and his companions shuttled through various villages and delivered more than 600 performances. College students who watched the play in the live broadcast room rushed to listen to the play offline; The child lay on the side of the pillar and looked curiously, and the girl in her 10s wanted to transfer to Henan Opera after listening to it.
The audience who brought into the plot scolded the actors' scumbags when watching the play, and the audience responded when they asked questions on stage. Everyone likes Henan Opera, and they don't want to stop when their palms hurt in the wonderful performance.
In 2023, Henan opera troupes that went to various places in Henan and other crowded scenes Source: Anhui Business Daily Shi Hongtao remembered that when he sang "Qingfeng Pavilion", he cried on stage, and the audience also cried to the uncontrollable old man. In the tragic plot of filial piety, I don't know what the old man thought.
In the play, there are reputations and loyalty, joys and sorrows, life mapping, and special memory codes for generations.
Xinhua News Agency compared the enthusiastic scene of the Anyang Theater Troupe's offline performance to the village BA, and Fan Shengnan was invited to appear on the Henan Spring Festival Gala.
In 2024, the head of the troupe, Fan Shengnan, was invited to participate in the Henan Spring Festival Gala, and many dreams came true little by little, but when the reporter asked her if she wanted to have her own theater, she admitted it and then denied it.
What about the people in the countryside? They won't be able to see the play. There's no way they could have walked into the theater. ”
My friend A Bing saw this Yu Opera Troupe on the Internet not long ago. Although she didn't like to watch Henan Opera when she was a child, she was moved.
In the era when she grew up, temple fairs were more important than many festivals, and her parents would treat them with extra ceremonies.
At this time, vendors from all over the country will gather within a few kilometers of Fangyuan, from food and clothes to department stores, like Pinduoduo offline. In the era when online shopping is not developed, you can buy a lot of things you need.
Many relatives and friends who may not move around during the Chinese New Year will also come to stay at home or come as guests.
And the absolute center of the temple fair is such a Henan Opera troupe. Almost every child has memories of playing hide-and-seek by the pillars under the stage.
Under Fan Shengnan's lens, the villagers who watch the play start the temple fair every year, and her grandfather will come from afar, stay at home, and get up early every day to go to the stage to watch the play.
This phenomenon is more common in rural areas. However, the roles were reversed, and the young man rushed back to accompany the elders.
Fan Shengnan talked about her observation that there are only large-scale Henan opera performances in rural Henan during the Spring Festival temple fair: "For the elderly in the countryside, Henan opera is an atmosphere and a kind of companionship. Because the children have gone out to earn money, only the old people are left at home. When a big drama is staged in the village, it will be lively, and the children will come back to reunite. ”
On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year a year ago, they were in Jun County, ushering in the long-lost fireworks. On the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve this year, they rushed overnight again.
The opening of the village-mouth Yu opera is the moment of reunion.