Information about cross talk

The art of cross talk in our country has a history of at least more than 2,000 years. Its earliest form was derived from the miscellany of "actors".

"Performers" mostly performed in the palace, using humorous speech, bitter and sarcastic ridicule, in order to achieve the purpose of making people laugh and entertain them

In these jokes, artists often place their mockery and lashing on the rulers.

In the last years of the Qin Dynasty, the actor Youzhan performed for Hu Hai, the second emperor of Qin. He knew that the stupid Hu Hai was about to

order to increase the labor and taxes of the people in order to repaint the Great Wall. The ministers all fawned over him, and no one dared to dissuade him. Through his performance, Youzhan made Hu Hai laugh out loud, and then became angry from embarrassment.

The cross talk in the Tang Dynasty was called "Nong Shenjun". Because the actors who performed this kind of crosstalk were often aides in the military camp, it was called "Nong Shenjun".

Joining the army is a kind of cross talk. One person wears green clothes and holds a simple policy, and he is a clever and funny person joining the army; the other person wears shabby clothes and pretends to be a soldier. The stupid and ridiculous Cangtou laughed, scolded, played, and even beat each other. This image of a crosstalk actor can be seen on the teasing figurines unearthed from Tang tombs.

Group crosstalk was very popular in the Song Dynasty. In the twelfth year of Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, during the Hangzhou General Examination, Prime Minister Qin Hui's son and two nephews were all taken away, and no one dared to expose the flaw. The crosstalk artist pretended to be a few candidates and used humorous conversations to narrate the allusion of Han Xin's acquisition of the Three Qins in Guanzhong and satirize Qin Hui's three nephews.

During the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, the art of cross talk developed rapidly in Beijing and became increasingly mature. It was stipulated that performances should be performed in Beijing dialect, and local dialects were occasionally used in other places.

According to some old folk artists, there are two paragraphs for practicing basic skills in cross talk. One is called "Learning Four Phases", which refers to studying at a university.

Girls and old ladies , mute and deaf people; the other section is called "Learning the Four Tones", which means learning the sounds of four local dialects in Shandong, Shanxi and Beijing

In the city and outside the city. The word "crosstalk" is composed of the suffixes of "learn four phases" and "learn four tones".

Today, crosstalk has become an art form that is popular all over the country, has a unique style, and is popular among the masses

Crosstalk originated in Beijing and is popular all over the country. It is generally believed that it was formed during the Xianfeng and Tongzhi years of the Qing Dynasty. It is a form of folk art that makes the audience laugh by telling jokes or funny questions and answers. It evolved from "Xiang Sheng" in the Song Dynasty. By the late Qing Dynasty, crosstalk had developed modern features and styles. Mainly spoken in Beijing dialect, there are also "dialect crosstalk" spoken in local dialects in various places.

In the process of the formation of cross talk, we extensively absorbed the advantages of ventriloquism, storytelling and other arts, blended solemnity with humor, used satirical jokes to express truth, goodness and beauty, and made people laugh as its artistic characteristics. ” as the main artistic means.

There are three types of performance: stand-alone, dialogue and group speaking.

Stand-up comedy is performed by one actor and tells jokes;

Straight-talk is performed by two actors who laugh and laugh at each other. There are usually two types of stand-up comedy: "one head silent" and "zimu 叏" ;

Group crosstalk is also called "group work" and is performed by more than three actors. The traditional repertoire mainly satirizes various ugly phenomena in the old society and reflects various life phenomena through humorous narratives. After liberation, in addition to continuing to carry forward the satirical tradition, there are also works that praise new people and new things.

The performance tools include Xingzi (eye-catching,), fan and handkerchief.

Basic functions:

The wake-up call - knocking the wake-up call at the beginning of a stand-up comedy is used to remind the audience and attract attention.

Fan - fan yourself when the weather is hot.

Handkerchief - wipe sweat.

But these three things have other functions on the stage.

The wake-up child is a small prop and is not very useful. However, if you have listened to the cross talk "Gua House", you will know that the funny actor compares the wake-up child to the house in the home of the praise actor. The actor said "Is this a house? Isn't this a cricket passing through a cage?" Therefore, it is the need to live.

Fans - have many uses. In the hands of actors, fans can be used as knives, spears, swords, halberds, axes, axes, hooks, forks, and all eighteen kinds of weapons can be found on the fans. At the same time, the fan is also a pipe, a pipe, a drumstick, a trumpet, etc. The fan can serve as almost all the props needed on the stage.

Handkerchief - used for makeup, wrapped around the head, a man becomes a woman. In "Learning the Four Provinces", Bao is used as above to show the beheading of the admiring actor. It is a dressing-up tool used to vilify an actor for comic effect.

Traditional repertoire includes "Guan Gong Battles Qin Qiong", "Drama and Dialects", "Jia Xingjia", "Making Jacket", etc., with a total of more than 200 pieces. Among the works that reflect real life, "Night Walk", "Monkey Buying", "Yesterday" and "Hat Factory" have greater influence.

Crosstalk is the art of language.

In recent years, in order to change the sluggish situation of crosstalk creation and performance, various forms of crosstalk reforms have emerged. Guitar crosstalk, disco crosstalk, song and dance crosstalk, and even male and female crosstalk, and dwarf crosstalk, I have tried many methods and spent a lot of effort but only ignored the fundamental proposition that "crosstalk is the art of language", so it is inevitable Unable to achieve success. Ignoring the importance of language in cross talk art also deviates from the aesthetic characteristics of cross talk art.

However, the definition of "crosstalk is the art of language" is not accurate enough. Its extension is too broad and cannot well distinguish the boundaries between crosstalk and other arts. Among folk arts, storytelling, express writing, etc. are also language arts, while singing folk arts are nothing more than a combination of language art and music art. Dramatic art, film art, and vocal art all have elements of language art. Even literature is a language art that appears in written form. If we cannot clearly draw the basic boundaries between cross talk art and other arts, it will be difficult for us to further understand the essential characteristics of cross talk art.

In fact, as long as we analyze it carefully, we will find that the social life content and its artistic expression reflected by cross talk are relatively unique. Quyi is the general term for all kinds of rap arts, and most of them include storytelling, commentaries, and quick scripts that only speak but don’t sing; The content of books and tanci is to tell a story, with the exception of a few types of music represented by cross talk (as well as one-man opera in Shanghai, dazui drum in southern Fujian and Taiwan, etc.).

As one of the comedy art forms, crosstalk does not mainly reflect life through narration, description and other techniques like novels, storytelling and other narrative arts, nor does it mainly use actors to express emotions like drama, film and other comprehensive arts. The body and movement vividly reflect life, but mainly discuss and talk about life through dialogue.

As a dialogue art, crosstalk has characteristics that are completely different from various narrative arts and performing arts. They are described below:

1. Crosstalk uses dialogue as its main form of expression. As a language art, cross talk mainly reflects the dialogues of various characters in real life. In narrative art, the dialogue of characters cannot be separated from the constraints of the plot, but in cross talk, the role of plot is far less important than in narrative art. In cross talk, the plot serves to organize the baggage, and the baggage is made up of dialogue. Telling a story apart from the subject and topic of conversation is incomprehensible and therefore not allowed. On the contrary, the plot in cross talk can appear and disappear, intermittent and continuous, and even appear and disappear.

In some cross talk, there is no need for a plot at all, and only the charm of dialogue can be used to organize the baggage, directly expose the contradictions, and express the theme. Correspondingly, when listening to cross talk, the audience is not obsessed with the complex twists and turns of the plot, but wants to understand the performer's stance, views and opinions on issues and events. These views and opinions are mainly expressed through dialogue.

The characters in cross talk are not required to be complete and full, but often only describe their words, and directly reflect the characters' ideology, stance, and personality through these words. The characters in cross talk, like the plot, are tools for organizing baggage. Therefore, characters often come and go as soon as they are called upon.

Characters in many cross talk are often incomplete, exaggerated, and deformed, and do not present a complete and true image. In some cross talk, there are no characters.

The internal structure of cross talk is relatively loose. Sometimes there is no close connection between the plots of the various parts such as "premium words", "zhenghuo" and "saving money", but are only maintained through a relatively broad theme. In cross talk, changes in content are often not reflected in the advancement of the plot, but in the change of topics.

In short, for the art of cross talk, the characters and plot structure, which are very important in narrative art, do not occupy a place. The most important thing in cross talk is baggage, and baggage is made up of dialogue. If you open any cross talk work, you can see a lot of dialogue. These dialogues vividly reflect the speech of people in real life. Of course, these dialogues are copied from life, but have been carefully artistically processed.

2. The burden of cross talk is mainly composed of dialogue.

The famous cross talk artist Ma Ji pointed out when talking about the basic concept of cross talk: "(cross talk) is the art of making people laugh by organizing a series of unique 'baggage'. The baggage here is language. The baggage of art, the language here refers to the language of baggage art..., language, baggage, and laughter can be said to be the three major elements of cross talk art, and each one is indispensable." (Quoted from Ma Ji's "Thirty Years". "Looking Back and Saying It Quickly" ("Quyi" Issue 2, 1987) Among the three elements he listed, language and laughter are also possessed by other comedy arts, while only baggage is unique to the art of cross talk. Baggage plays the most important role in the art of cross talk. Therefore, analyzing the content and form of baggage is the key to our study of cross talk art.

The word "baggage" is a figurative metaphor. It actually refers to the process of brewing and development of comic conflicts in cross talk. The so-called "three turns and four shakes" is a structure often used in crosstalk. Among them, "three translations" refers to repeatedly exaggerating and emphasizing the illusion of contradiction; "four shakes" refers to revealing the truth of the contradiction after "three translations".

We know that the characteristic of comic contradiction is "to cover up one's own essence with the illusion of another essence." (Quoted from Marx's "lt; Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right; Introduction" The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 1, Page 5) Therefore, in comedic contradictions, there are many illusions. Illusion is actually a phenomenon, and its characteristic is that it can bring up appearances that are opposite (or deviate) from its essence. However, illusion reflects the essence extremely profoundly in its own unique way. Therefore, real comic contradictions have the characteristics of being unexpected and reasonable. In cross talk, the two sides of the comic contradiction-the burden (phenomenon and essence, etc.) are respectively held by the funny and funny parties, and the contradiction is gradually revealed through dialogue. Comedy techniques (such as exaggeration, misunderstanding, coincidence, etc.) are widely used in various comedy arts and are not unique to cross talk. However, cross talk has its own characteristics when using these techniques. For example, many dramas and movies use visual images to create misunderstandings (the films "The Great Dictator" and "Black Tulip" all feature two cool-looking people), while cross talk mostly relies on dialogue when using misunderstanding techniques. For example, in "Change of Career", it is said that the artist Gong Yunfu changed his career to selling vegetables. He put down the pick and touched his shoulder. This hurt! He remembered the challenge in "Meeting the Queen": 'Oh, it's so painful!' The old lady When I heard it: 'Oh! Cucumber is bitter, don't want it. '" Obviously, this baggage uses a misunderstanding method, and the misunderstanding is caused by the dialogue between the characters. Without both parties involved in the dialogue, there will be no misunderstanding.

Organizing baggage through character dialogue is the most commonly used and important method in cross talk. This is true not only in the "Zi Mu Ke" type of cross talk, but also in the "Head Shen" type of cross talk. This is true not only in stand-up comedy, but in stand-up comedy as well. For example, in the stand-up comedy "Pearl, Jade and White Jade Soup", the baggage that saves the bottom is composed of the dialogue between Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang and his ministers. This kind of baggage formed by dialogue can be found everywhere in cross talk works. enumerate.

Dialogue is not only reflected in the organization method of baggage, but also in the use of various cross talk artistic methods. "Speaking, learning and teasing" are the four most basic artistic methods of cross talk. "Shuo" means telling jokes and tongue twisters, "learning" means imitating various cries, singing tunes and the language of various characters, and "playing" means catching jokes. To make a laugh, "singing" means making up some funny words and singing them to various tunes. Only when the use of these artistic means is included in the scope of dialogue can it be in line with the artistic rules of cross talk creation. Crosstalk performance cannot be done for the sake of learning or singing for the sake of singing. What cross talk actors say in dialect still needs to achieve the purpose of dialogue; the songs and operas they sing either serve as arguments in the dialogue, or they express the content of the dialogue by changing the lyrics. At present, some "Liuhua" (that is, crosstalk that mainly focuses on learning to sing songs and operas) crosstalk performances have actually become audience sing-along concerts. Although they can also achieve theater effects, they violate the essence of crosstalk as a dialogue art. This creative tendency of "singing for the sake of singing" is not advisable.

3. Crosstalk actors perform as interlocutors.

Crosstalk actors neither perform as narrators like storytelling and other folk art actors, nor do they perform as characters in the play like drama actors do, but perform as interlocutors. . The language used by crosstalk actors is not narrative language, but conversational (i.e. question-and-answer) language. This is more obvious in the crosstalk of the Zimu type cabin. In fact, in a dull cross talk, the funny and flattering actors are also having a conversation. Although the content of the funny actor's words does have a narrative element, in form it is still expressed as a dialogue with the flattering actor; here, the narrative content can only be spoken as a reply and cannot be separated from the specific dialogue environment. Go tell stories.

A crosstalk actor is always an interlocutor in a performance, not an actor (the word "actor" in English is "actor", which can also be translated as "actor"). Crosstalk actors mainly rely on dialogue to create characters, rather than relying on external images and body movements. The external image of cross talk actors is "unchanged in response to all changes". This feature has a lot to do with the special aesthetic style of cross talk. Some researchers believe that cross talk performance is, to a large extent, a true performance of "I act as I am" (see Lu Changwang's "Some Thoughts on Folk Art Performance Issues" in "Folk Arts Art Discussion Series", Volume 9, page 76 ), some researchers believe it is a virtual performance. (See pages 64-65 of "The Art of Laughter" by Xue Baokun) But in any case, the physical movements of crosstalk actors are only auxiliary means used to make the dialogue more vivid. These movements are not as important and complete as the movements in drama.

In a cross talk with a heavy head, although there are not many words to praise the actors, they should play the finishing touch. The importance and necessity of admiring actors can serve as a "witness" for the proposition that "crosstalk is the art of dialogue."

Among the several types of cross talk, group cross talk is further developed and evolved on the basis of cross talk. It transforms the bilateral dialogue in cross talk into a multilateral dialogue; and has certain Some elements of drama.

The situation of stand-up comedy is rather special. Stand-up comedy developed and evolved from folk tales and jokes. It has the artistic characteristics of both stories and jokes. In this regard, experts have expressed insightful opinions.

Feng Buyi pointed out; "Among the many types of folk art, there is a form of performance in which a single person tells funny stories, which is called stand-up comedy... (stand-up comedy) But I hope that the advice will be fruitful, but it will not work. It does not necessarily have a beginning and end. Its system is different from short stories, stories, jokes, and cross talk. It is a unique oral literary genre." (Quoted from "Inheriting Tradition, Enriching Improvement" in "Quyi". Issue 5, 1986).

Wang Xingzhi believes: "It may not be appropriate to directly incorporate stand-up comedy into the art category of short stories and short stories. However, because they are both narrative art forms, from the perspective of narrative objects and character depictions, Not only do they have many similarities, but there are also many unique features in stand-up comedy.

"(Quoted from "Novelist's Friend—or "Strong Enemy"" in "Collection of Chinese Folk Art", page 280)

Li Fengqi also pointed out: "Stand-up comedy is good at storytelling, and some of it is biased. Reasoning, the so-called "argumentation type", this kind of cross talk is often empty, boring, difficult to write, and is almost extinct in new works. " (Quoted from "Vivid Social Customs Picture Scroll", published in "Quyi" Issue 5, 1986)

It seems that experts unanimously believe that stand-up comedy is a comedic narrative art . Stand-up comedy is not a dialogue art in its form, but it has many variations compared with traditional narrative arts (storytelling, stories, etc.). For example, stand-up comedy focuses on reflecting the dialogue between characters. And it mainly relies on dialogue to form baggage and shape the image. Since the organization of baggage in stand-up comedy creation is restricted by plot and character, story-based stand-up comedy creation has become almost extinct in recent years; discussion. Due to the insurmountable contradiction between content and form, stand-up cross talk gave way to stand-up cross talk.

Single-talk cross talk was born out of stand-up cross talk, but it "wins with excellence." "Yu Lan", its artistic life has lasted for a long time. This has a lot to do with the harmony between its content and form. Simply put, the main content of cross talk is dialogue, and the form it adopts is also dialogue. There is a isomorphic and isomorphic relationship between them. 4. Dialogue is not only reflected in the creation and performance process of cross talk, but also in the appreciation process. As a stage art (basically this is the case at present), its performance and appreciation are It is unified in time and space. Crosstalk, like other stage arts, has the problem of communicating with the audience.

As we all know, crosstalk is an art that is best at communicating with the audience, and the theater produced by crosstalk performances. The effect is often unmatched by other stage arts. In addition to the comic content, the unique artistic expression of crosstalk - the form of dialogue is also an important reason why creators are confident in their ability to penetrate isolation. events, seize their "inner essence", give them the order of causal connection, thereby forming the fictional plot and history of the story, and instill these contents into the audience. Here, the flow of information is basically one-way, the audience. Basically in a position of passive acceptance.

In narrative art, a penetrating plot forms a closed structure with a beginning and an end, and linear development, which does not allow interference from the outside. In theater art, there is the theory of the fourth wall, which requires the erection of an imaginary wall between the actors and the audience. This wall makes the communication between the actors and the audience indirect.

The art of cross talk is very different. The "plot" in cross talk is intermittent and sometimes absent. Therefore, the content of cross talk makes people feel uncertain. And hide the truth. In this way, the audience is encouraged to take the initiative to think, thus strengthening the ideological exchange between the two parties. In contrast, storytelling (and other folk arts) actors not only explain the cause and effect of things clearly. In cross talk performances, actors no longer enjoy the status of "storytellers" like storytelling actors. Actors and actors, actors and audiences are all involved. It is to appear as an equal interlocutor. They can express their different opinions on things. This kind of different opinions from many aspects not only constitutes the formal characteristics of cross talk, but also is the source of comic contradictions in cross talk. Here, all the actor's words must be strictly tested by another actor and the audience. All his mysteries, self-contradictions, absurd exaggerations, and logically confusing words cannot escape the ears of the audience. Showing one's ugliness" was laughed out loud by the audience and put him in the "embarrassing" position of "not being able to get off the stage". The audience feels their own psychological advantages through laughter and receives subtle education in the laughter. The appreciation process of cross talk can better achieve the purpose of "education through entertainment", so the art of cross talk is very popular among the masses.

Crosstalk performances face the audience directly, and the "fourth wall" does not exist in crosstalk performances. Many actors also ask questions directly from the audience, or answer questions raised by the audience and fulfill audience requests. In this way, the connection and communication between the actors and the audience are greatly strengthened.

During the cross talk appreciation process, although the audience generally cannot have a direct dialogue with the actors, they can express their opinions and attitudes through laughter. In addition, in many crosstalks, the words of the flattering actor often represent the audience's point of view, and the flattering actor often acts as the audience's spokesperson to have a dialogue with the funny actor.

It can be seen from the above analysis that during the performance and appreciation of cross talk, the communication between actors and the audience is two-way and very close. This feature is inseparable from its unique art form - the form of dialogue. This form satisfies the participation awareness of the broad audience, resulting in a unique artistic charm. Crosstalk has formed "talking about everything" friends with the audience. It draws wisdom and humor from the masses, expresses the masses' pursuit and optimism for truth, goodness and beauty, and exposes and satirizes the fake, evil and ugly in life. Crosstalk has become an outstanding national art flower with its exquisite life content and unique art form.

In short, cross talk is a comedy art in terms of content, and a dialogue art in terms of form. The two major characteristics of cross talk in content and form are not isolated from each other, but are mutually inclusive, mutually penetrating, interdependent, and mutually transformed. Hegel believes that "content has form in itself", and content and form are the unity of opposites: "Content is not other, that is, form turns to content, form is not other, that is, content turns to form." (See Hegel (Page 286-287 of "Little Logic") Based on this proposition, we can call cross talk a "conversational comedy art", or a "comedy dialogue art". Just as the proposition "Drama: The Art of Action" does not exclude the dialogue of the characters in the play, the proposition "Crosstalk: The Art of Dialogue" does not exclude the actors' physical movements, the narrative elements of the dialogue, and a variety of arts. means. Proposing that cross talk is an art of dialogue is just to further clarify the prescriptive nature of cross talk, a special form of artistic expression, rather than to cut off the inextricable connections between cross talk and other comedy arts.

The proposition "Crosstalk: the art of dialogue" seems simple. In fact, it just provides us with the basis for studying the art of crosstalk and the code to decipher many crosstalk mysteries. For example, we all know that cross talk is a product of civil society, but we know it but don’t know why. British scholar Mumford wrote in the book "History of Urban Development", "Dialogue is one of the highest expressions of urban life. First, it is a flower on a long ivy. The diversity of characters contained in the city’s theater makes dialogue possible.” (See page 88 of “History of Urban Development”) This passage has a profound impact on the art of cross talk in our country. The origin of can be said to be a wonderful circumstantial evidence. thus.