During the lowest valley of crosstalk industry, the audience was keen on abnormal aesthetics. Why do artists cater to low tastes?

Crosstalk industry has been born 100 years. In recent years, the whole industry has ups and downs, prosperity and downturn.

Some people say that now is the most prosperous period in the history of cross talk industry, which is not very objective. As Guo Qilin said, the crosstalk industry is in a stage of false prosperity.

The most prosperous period in the history of crosstalk industry was the 1980s. No matter what entertainment was lacking, the cross talk industry and storytelling industry in that period were at the peak of history. People were busy watching Ma Ji and Jiang Kun and listening to Yuan Kuocheng, Dan Tianfang, Liu Lanfang and Tian Lianyuan.

There are peaks and valleys, and many people say that it is the lowest valley of cross talk that people will appear. If there is no cross talk, it will be over. Of course, this kind of remarks can only represent the pink circle. From the 1990s to the beginning of this century, crosstalk went downhill from peak to trough, but it is far from dying out.

When is the darkest and lowest valley in the history of crosstalk industry?

In my opinion, it was in the 1940s. If it can be more precise, it is probably 1940-1945. The cross talk industry in this period has three characteristics:

The big environment is turbulent, the small environment is difficult to survive, and the audience's aesthetic development is deformed.

First of all, the big environmental problems.

1937 War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression broke out, and the Beijing-Tianjin region fell, making life even more difficult for crosstalk artists.

Some people may ask, why can't crosstalk artists in occupied areas quit the Jianghu like Mei Lanfang and Cheng?

This is easy to understand. On the one hand, Master Mei Lanfang really has patriotism, on the other hand, their relatively rich family background can support their retirement. However, crosstalk artists and their families will starve if they don't talk about crosstalk, and they simply can't choose not to talk about crosstalk.

However, in the occupied areas, not all cities' Quyi markets are depressed, but Shenyang and Tianjin's Quyi markets are extremely prosperous.

Shenyang fell early and is an industrial area, so the economy is developed, and some Quyi gardens and teahouses are doing well. Therefore, Hou Hema went to Shenyang to perform.

Unexpectedly, no matter how good the Quyi market is, under the interference of traitors and puppet troops, artists have no guarantee of life. Qiao Liyuan, the husband of pendant queen Qiao Qingxiu, was beaten to death by traitors in Shenyang. In such a horrible atmosphere, Ma and Hou didn't make a penny, and they were almost involved.

Tianjin is an important port with a prominent strategic position, so during the occupation period, the Quyi market was also extremely prosperous. However, the dividend of market prosperity does not belong to most crosstalk artists, but belongs to the traitor Qu Ba.

Second, the Tianjin crosstalk controlled by the traitor Qu Ba

The abnormal prosperity of Tianjin Quyi market during the Anti-Japanese War is mainly reflected in the high enthusiasm of the audience, the rapid development of radio stations and teahouses, the popularity of five-level crosstalk and the bleak life of artists.

Qu Ba, a traitor represented by Yuan, controlled all the large and small Quyi gardens in Tianjin. Under their arrogance, crosstalk artists have no guarantee of basic life safety and survival dignity.

Dai Shaofu, one of the five cross talks, was killed; Wang, an artist from Danxian, was killed by traitors; The leader of crosstalk was placed under house arrest by Yuan; The most popular mushroom in Tianjin is often arrested and beaten by traitors for satirizing Japanese crosstalk.

From Ma's oral autobiography "A Sea Drift and Flat Record", we can see the tragic situation at that time. Ma was detained in the Dayi Society, the predecessor of the Brothers Troupe, and could not get away. If you can't make money, beating is common, and life is like hot water. "Yuan" has become a lingering shadow on the head of crosstalk artists.

Third, the audience's abnormal aesthetic tendency.

If the external environment and oppression are the external reasons for the depression of cross talk industry, then the internal changes of cross talk industry are the internal reasons for the unprecedented depression of cross talk industry.

This is what Ma and Hou mentioned many times in their autobiography.

The so-called "noisy drama" is not a kind of drama, but a general term for various forms of Quyi performance. The specific performance is that crosstalk artists no longer adhere to the traditional crosstalk, but carry out "reform" and begin to perform makeup crosstalk, mixed singing and drama crosstalk on the stage.

In fact, cross talk in makeup, cross talk in drama and singing at home are not derogatory terms. Now this form of performance still exists. For example, Wang Gang and Zhao Lianjia performed crosstalk in the makeup "Tooth Extraction" in the Spring Festival Evening, and Feng Gong performed crosstalk drama for many years in the Spring Festival Evening.

However, these forms of expression were regarded as derogatory terms in the 1940s, because these emerging cross talks all had several characteristics: grandstanding, low taste, random adaptation, sheer nonsense, and noisy stage performances, so they were called "noisy".

For example, the Datong Yishe, which was led by Chang, and later the Brothers Troupe, stopped talking about cross talk and turned to modern drama. By adapting some burlesque and some popular dramas brought by the Shanghai Comic Troupe, they launched their own programs, such as changing Luo Qingtang's canary into such a singer, Gu Lanjun's Love and Punishment into Love and fickleness, and Shanghai Lubao Repertory Theatre's Crying into Crying. Fu William's Gentleman on the Beam was changed to Steal, Man Huazhou's film Peach Blossom Pond was changed to Law and Human Feelings, Haitang was changed to Song of Heartbroken, and Xu Shenyuan's detective drama Chen Charley was changed to The Mystery of Property Robbery and The Thief in Black. There is also "Malicious" edited according to the incident of Guo Huashi killing his second son with a knife in Beiping; The famous Russian classical drama "An Imperial Envoy" was also changed into China's farce "According to the Inspector".

This adaptation, without exception, added some things such as eroticism, murder, poor creation, pop songs and so on to the normal script, and the actors' performances were more casual. In short, this is the way they are busy.

Qiming Tea House in Beijing can't be exempted from customs. They made a lot of make-up crosstalk, such as "face-to-face", but these jokes were also adapted. Artists often add some popular jokes on the stage and sing pop songs at random to make the audience laugh. The audience is always heckling artists to sing some popular songs and minor tunes, completely losing the appearance of the cross talk conference.

Under this adaptation trend, almost all crosstalk artists can't avoid customs. Hou's situation is slightly better. He didn't want to take part in "making a scene", but instead adapted operas, such as "Bangzi, Peking Opera", with the opera world in order to make the audience like it. The same play, Bangzi and Peking Opera can be used.

However, this is not as profitable as adapting a play. Finally, Hou went to perform a civilized play, but the result was still no match for "making a big scene." He was finally forced to get a job in a radio station and start a small advertising company. His persistence brought him a good wife. At that time, when the father of Peking Opera actor Wang Yalan was at home, he turned off the radio as soon as he heard the sound of "playing". He only allows his daughter to listen to Hou's cross talk, so Hou's cross talk is civilized!

Horses, on the other hand, can only follow the crowd in order to survive. In the social club, he often plays "jokes" with them, while in other places, he often makes a guest appearance as an extra. For example, I dressed up as an old lady and played the evil mother-in-law, Jiao Shi, with a new peacock flying southeast and unable to say a word, all by dressing up to amuse the poor and make the audience laugh.

In fact, it is not only the phonology and quyi circles, but also the "big coffin" and "spinning cotton" and other "split plays" popular in Beijing opera circles at this time.

One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the problem of the audience. At that time, the audience generally had a mentality that if they were drunk today, they would never listen to Quyi or cross talk in the garden again, just for fun. As long as they can have fun, it doesn't matter what the actors play, whether they are dirty or not, whether they are funny or not. Only low-level people are interesting.

Crosstalk artists have never been caught in a "noisy scene" from the beginning. For example, the Friendship Society of Brothers Troupe also performed Quyi and Crosstalk normally at first, but it was really difficult to sell tickets. After the' noisy' performance, the venue was full.

For example, Ma's first cross-talk drama "Murder" was adapted from the Peking Opera "Shooting Face". He played a heavy smoker in the play. On the basis of the Beijing Opera script, this drama added magic, haunted and other things, which actually attracted a large audience and lasted for more than 40 days, with more than 80 performances, which completely strengthened the cross-dressing of the brother troupe.

Encouraged by the audience's pursuit of abnormal aesthetics and low taste, almost all cross talk industries have collapsed, desperately catering to the needs of the audience and launching a large number of adaptations, but no one said serious cross talk.

Therefore, although the cross talk market in this period was booming at the box office, the cross talk art fell into an unprecedented downturn, which could even be regarded as an industry crisis.

This depression lasted until 1945 won the Anti-Japanese War. In the following years, the box office was still strong, although the "noisy drama" was not as popular as before. It was not until the liberation of 1950 that the "farce" craze died down.

Interestingly, the last cross-talk drama performed by the Brothers Troupe is Shooting Yuan Wenhui, in which Zhao Peiru plays the traitor Qu Ba who has long dominated the Tianjin Quyi circle.

Finally, is it wrong to cater to the audience? In principle, there is nothing wrong with wartime. After all, people want to survive, so do crosstalk artists. However, if cross talk, as a kind of language art, still caters to the low taste of some audiences in peacetime and harmonious society, then there is a problem.