In an interview, Feng Gong, the new chairman of the China Quyi Artists Association, elaborated on the direction of work in the next five years. He pointed out that the music industry will be committed to launching more excellent works and cultivating music talents. Although these work directions cover a wide range of the quyi industry, there is no specific plan for the creation and performance of cross talk.
In a recent interview with a CCTV reporter, Feng Gong expressed his thoughts more specifically. He emphasized that the creation of excellent works requires continuous absorption of the nourishment of the changes of the times, the progress of the country and the expectations of the people. He hopes to use this as a guide to create more excellent works to repay the audience's support and expectations for the art of quyi.
The background of this interview is the intangible cultural heritage cross talk conference, and Feng Gong, as the artistic director of the China Broadcasting Art Troupe, assumed an important organizational role for the event. He is not only the chairman of the Quyi Artists Association, but also a senior in the cross talk industry, creating many classic works and making great contributions to the cross talk industry.
It can be said that Feng Gong's words are not only an incentive for the quyi industry, but also a guide for cross talk creation and performance. The changes of the times, the development of the country, and the expectations of the people, these twelve words are not only slogans, but also beacons on the way forward for the cross talk industry.
The important speech of the 11th National Congress of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles mentioned that this sentence quoted by Feng Gong is very appropriate in the direction of cross talk creation and has a commanding guiding significance.
Times are changing. Cross talk works must keep pace with the times and follow the pace of the times. This is not only the need of the times, but also the needs of artistic development, and more importantly, the needs of the audience. Therefore, the cross talk industry attaches great importance to keeping pace with the times and constantly innovating. Old jokes can be dismantled and reassembled, integrated into new era elements, and turned into brand new works.
For example, Guo Degang became popular with his masterpiece "Dream of the Western Expedition". On the basis of the traditional cross talk "Playing Bai Lang", this work integrates nonsensical and funny elements in the Internet era, which has the charm of traditional cross talk and the characteristics of the Internet era, and was very popular as soon as it was launched.
However, there are also negative examples. For example, Guo Degang used outdated methods in a performance in 2023, using pen and paper to secretly memorize lines, causing dissatisfaction among his peers. This kind of behavior is far behind the times, and now any smartphone has the function of recording and recording, and the use of pen and paper recording has become very outdated, which is inevitably ridiculed by netizens.
Of course, there are also many positive examples in the cross talk industry, and many classic cross talk keep up with the trend of the times. For example, Jiang Kun and Li Wenhua's "Taking Photo Like This" and "Grandpa's Troubles", as well as Jiang Kun and Tang Jiezhong's "Reverie in the Tiger's Mouth", "Elevator Adventure", "Anxious", "Beautiful March" and other works, as well as Niu Qun and Feng Gong's "Thief Company" and "Auction" and other works, are all classics in the history of cross talk, closely fitting the pulse of the times.
The 5th Intangible Cultural Heritage Crosstalk Conference presented a number of works that kept pace with the times, including Liu Ji and Feng Yudan's "Superheroes", Dou Chenguang and Chang Pengxu's "New Newspaper Dish Names", Liu Yinghaonan's "Fashion Commentary" and Fan Junming's "Intangible Cultural Heritage Live Room".
China's progress is uniquely reflected in the cross talk industry. Since 1949, every national progress has been accompanied by the birth of a number of classic cross talk works. These works show the rapid changes in the construction of the motherland from different angles. Ma Ji's works "Praise of Mountaineering Heroes", "Ode to Friendship", "New Peach Blossom Spring", "Small Scene of Mountain Village", Jiang Kun's "Big News", "Beautiful March", "Looking Back at the Nine", "Ming Chun Song", "Wonderful Netsheng", "New Tiger's Mouth Reverie", Liu Wei and Feng Gong's "Qiao Pair of Films", and Niu Qun Feng Gong's "The Best of the Asian Games", "Point Company", "Two Tide Makers", etc., are all excellent representative works that can reflect the development and progress of society.
At the 3rd Intangible Cultural Heritage Crosstalk Conference, Jia Xuming and Zheng Jian's "New Mythology", as well as Dong Jianchun and Li Ding's "Beijing, Beijing, Get Better" at the 5th Intangible Cultural Heritage Crosstalk Conference, and Feng Gong, Jia Xuming, Cao Suifeng's "I Love Poetry 3" and other works are also representatives of the spirit of the times.
For the people, they pursue positive, correct, and advanced cultural products. Today, when the country's economic development has made great achievements, people also have higher requirements for literary and artistic works.
In the face of the people's voice, cross talk actors need to show the spirit of innovation and the courage to be bold and satirical, and at the same time play the role of the people's mouthpiece. The work should reflect the various phenomena and problems that are close to people's lives. Hou Baolin's "Night Travel", "Marriage and Superstition", Ma Sanli's "Buy Monkey" and "Ten O'clock Starts", Ma Ji's "Multi-storey Hotel" and "A Salesman", Jiang Kun and Tang Jiezhong's "Elevator Adventure", "Anxious" and "Corridor Song", as well as Niu Qun Feng Gong's "I Was Wrong", "Confused", "Tomorrow Will Be Better", as well as Niu Qun Li Lishan's "Qiao Li Mingmu", Jiang Kun and others' "Expert Guidance", and Hou Yaowen and others' "New Wave Businessman" and other works are all classics in the history of cross talk.
At the 4th Intangible Cultural Heritage Crosstalk Conference, Jia Xuming and Zheng Jian's "Contemporary Heroes", as well as the 5th Intangible Cultural Heritage Crosstalk Conference's "Routines and Water Margin", Chen Yinquan and Hou Zhenpeng's "Healthy Boy", Liu Zhao and Liu Di's "Impetuous", Wang Tong, Guo Wei and Cao Suifeng's "Who Listens to", Jin Fei and Chen Xi's "Think Too Much" and other works also reflect the attention and reflection of the people's needs.
However, after the end of the Spring Festival Gala in 2024, a batch of classic cross talks** sparked heated discussions on the Internet. In the comment area of Ma Ji and others' "Five Senses Fighting for Merit"**, some viewers said: "Don't sell cute, don't pretend to be stupid, don't pretend to be ugly, don't exaggerate, don't clip yellow paragraphs, don't mention sister-in-law......."All it takes is a pure performance that will make people laugh out loud and be unforgettable for a long time. This is the real art, the classic art. ”
In the ** comment area of Niu Qun Feng Gong's cross talk "Holding a Gala", some viewers put forward a point of view: The recent gala seems to have lost its appeal back then, and they think that this may be because the appreciation level of modern audiences has improved. However, compared with the previous cross talk sketches, especially the classic works of Niu Qun Feng Gong, it was found that they can still arouse the audience's laughter and resonance.
In the comment area of "Sit and Enjoy", there is a netizen message that resonates: "Never get tired of watching is the only criterion for testing classics." This sentence expresses the audience's cherishing of classic works, believing that only those works that never get tired of watching can be called classics.
These views are not an isolated case, but reflect people's general dissatisfaction with current cross talk works. People call on the cross talk industry to return to excellent creations and create cross talk works with more depth and themes to meet the audience's demand for high-quality entertainment.
In fact, most cross talk actors can understand the connotation of the twelve words "the changes of the times, the progress of China, and the call of the people". The cross talk created according to this standard will definitely win the love of the audience. However, in recent years, why are there few classics in the cross talk industry, but low-level works like crawling cross talk have frequently emerged? This is not only reflected in ordinary performances, but even on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala.
First of all, the way cross talk actors became famous has changed. In the past, actors relied on their works to accumulate prestige, but now many actors focus more on hype, even if the cross talk performance is mediocre, as long as they win a moment of limelight on the stage, they can also be sought after in the fan circle. However, although these actors who win by traffic occupy resources and stages, it is difficult for them to create excellent works.
Secondly, the creative direction of cross talk actors has deviated. Many actors mistakenly think that "cross talk is picture music" is the core direction of creation, which has led to the emergence of a large number of tofu scum cross talk with a low bottom line and only pursuing funny. This creative bias makes it difficult for the audience to remember any deep impressions after the laughter.
To sum up, it is not for nothing that the audience is critical of today's cross talk works. The cross talk industry urgently needs to reflect, regain the classic creative concept, and return to high-quality performances to meet the audience's expectations for wonderful cross talk.
The evaluation criteria for cross talk actors have changed, and many people no longer evaluate a cross talk from the content of cross talk, such as theme, logic, connotation and other aspects. On the contrary, they only evaluate cross talk from a funny point of view, and this concept has gradually affected the ecology of the entire cross talk industry, making low-quality cross talk seem "deserved".
Although cross talk is a language art that can make people laugh, it is not just a form of entertainment that exists for the sake of being funny. In response to the current popular cross talk industry "cross talk only pursues funny", Chang Baokun and Ma Sanli's partner, Hou Yaowen's **, Guo Degang's master Zhao Peiru has long expressed his opinion: A good cross talk cannot lack baggage, but too much baggage is not necessarily a successful cross talk.
As a national intangible cultural heritage project, the value of cross talk is not only to bring laughter to the audience, but also to make breakthroughs in innovative content. An excellent cross talk work should allow the audience to get some spiritual enlightenment while laughing, which is the true meaning of language art.
Times are changing, China is progressing, and people's needs are changing. The 5th Intangible Cultural Heritage Crosstalk Conference, especially the special session of new works of the China Radio Rap Troupe, has set a model for us. Next, we look forward to how the cross talk actors will respond to the changes of the times, respond to the progress of Chinese society, and meet the people's demand for a higher level of culture.