Liu Hanlin’s first drumbeat in New China——Liu Hanlin

Liu Hanlin was born in 1935. A national first-class performer, enjoying special government allowances, a member of the Chinese Musicians Association, the honorary president of the Chinese National Percussion Association, the former deputy director of the Avant-Garde Song and Dance Ensemble of Jinan Military Region and the director of the Avant-garde National Orchestra.

Specializes in Chinese and Western percussion instruments and the creation of folk wind and percussion music. His main works include "All People Galloping", "Celebrating Four Good Things", "United Military and Civilian Hearts", "Victory Song of Southern Xinjiang", "Great Victory", etc. , won many awards at home and abroad. Over the years, he has visited more than 50 countries and regions in the world as a leader and main performer on behalf of the country many times; he was awarded the "Lifetime Contribution Award" by the Chinese National Orchestra Association.

No one has forgotten the music that was transmitted back to the ground when the first artificial satellite "Dongfanghong 1" was launched into space - "Dongfanghong", but few people may know that its performer is " "The First Drum of New China" - Liu Hanlin, the dean of Chinese national percussion.

Mr. Liu is 71 years old this year, but he is still in good spirits. His speech is like the sound of a drum and his hearty laughter is ear-drum-shaking.

Since he started playing drums at the age of 13, he has visited more than 50 countries and regions, witnessed many major historical events, and achieved gratifying artistic achievements. "It's not a loss in this life!" Sitting in the living room surrounded by honors and medals, Mr. Liu's thoughts returned to the past.

Apprenticeship to the Empress Dowager Cixi

’s royal band

In 1935, Liu Hanlin was born in an urban civilian home in Babaolou, Suzhou Hutong, Chongwenmen, Beijing. Poverty-stricken, wearing rags and rags, and often suffering from abdominal cramps. In the winter, he picked briquettes with his friends and helped sell candy. In the old man's own words, he was "just close to begging."

In December 1948, Liu Hanlin was 13 years old. At that time, the People's Liberation Army was approaching Beiping City. Some people in the city were happy and some were panicked. On a bright and starry night, Liu Hanlin quietly followed a man named " "Liu Boxan"'s neighbor climbed over the city wall from Dongbian Gate and left Peiping City. When he left, he was wearing a tattered coat and his shoes had exposed toes. He did not expect that this move would completely change his life.

This brave and resourceful "underground party" uncle took Xiao Hanlin overnight to Tong County in the east of Beijing to join the People's Liberation Army. This army belonged to the Northeast Branch of the Peking City Military Control Commission. At that time, he was still tall. Not as tall as a gun, the head of the army thought for a long time and said: "What can such a little kid do? Let's go to the art team!" At that time, the art team had two main jobs: one was acting, and remembering the sick and wounded of the Kuomintang. Kusitian taught, and the most acted roles at that time were "The White-Haired Girl", "The Transformation of a Second-rate Son" and "Baoshan Joins the Army"; the second was to paint slogans, such as "Fight across the Yangtze River and capture Chiang Kai-shek alive". Liu Hanlin often went to his fellow villagers' homes to help the team Borrow props from inside, or carry buckets of white ash for the comrades in charge of writing slogans.

In July 1949, the troops entered the city and were renamed "Beiping Public Security Corps". The commander-in-chief was Luo Wenfang, who was also the director of the Peking Municipal Public Security Bureau, and the political commissar was Wang Heyuan. Soon the "Peiping Municipal Public Security Corps Propaganda Team" was established. Most of the members of the propaganda team had never touched a musical instrument. Their teachers were members of the "Beiping Municipal Police Military Band" who were originally members of the Kuomintang and had just been incorporated by the People's Liberation Army. The predecessor of this team was It is the royal band of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and the musicians are highly skilled. Liu Hanlin started his music career under the guidance of these profound teachers. At first, the leader arranged for Liu Hanlin to play the alto horn, then changed to the trombone, bass, and snare drum, and finally specialized in percussion. From then on, the drums formed an indissoluble bond with him, and drumming became his lifelong love. .

The publicity team undertook two tasks in the early stages of its establishment: First, it went to various parts of the city to promote "hukou registration", with the slogans "Everyone must have a household registration" and "If you cannot register your household registration clearly, you will feel guilty." "Unrest", the main purpose of organizing residents to register their household registration was to track down the Kuomintang agents who were lurking at that time; the second task was to maintain public security in the city and protect the new revolutionary regime. The soldiers shouted the loud slogan "Public security soldiers are high in fighting spirit. Stand tall, hold your gun, and defend Chairman Mao, the Party Central Committee, and the glorious victory of the people's democratic dictatorship." In 1951, the Central Military Commission decided to establish a public security force with the commander Luo Ruiqing.

The tasks of this force are: to protect the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, to protect factories, mines, railways and bridges, and to protect embassies and military facilities of various countries. The clothing is a People's Liberation Army uniform with a police shield on the left arm. Accordingly, the original "Propaganda Team of the Public Security Corps" was also changed to the "Art Troupe of the Political Department of the Public Security Forces." Liu Hanlin is one of the professional drummers with excellent skills.

Accompanying Chairman Mao's

"咚嚓嚚嚓"

After the Art Troupe of the Political Department of the Public Security Forces was established in 1951, its tasks increased significantly. At that time, Liu Hanlin was fortunate enough to start dancing as accompaniment for Chairman Mao. According to his recollection, in the early days of entering the city, the central leaders did not have fixed time for recreational activities. Taking into account the health of the leaders, the relevant parties held a dance party in Zhongnanhai. Later, dances with the participation of the heads of the Military Commission began to be held at Sanzuomen. The Ministry of General Political Affairs and Culture gave the task of accompaniment for the leader's dance to the orchestra of the Public Security Forces Art Troupe where Liu Hanlin worked, and as the "chief" drummer, Liu Hanlin had to be the one to lead the performance. At that time, dances in Zhongnanhai usually started around 10 p.m., and Chairman Mao would not show up until about 11:30; Liu Shaoqi usually came earlier, but would leave with his wife Wang Guangmei before 11:30; Zhu Delai The time is not fixed, sometimes early and sometimes late; and Premier Zhou Enlai is busy with official duties, so he is rarely seen in the dance hall.

It is very interesting to talk about Chairman Mao's dancing. It should be said that Chairman Mao is not good at dancing. His dance steps are more like "walking" than "dancing" because he can only dance "2/4". "That's the rhythm of "dong-dong-dong-dong", and it must be at a medium tempo. Therefore, whenever a female partner invites Chairman Mao to dance, and Chairman Mao readily agrees, Deng Bin, Director of the Arts and Literature Department of the General Political Bureau, who is responsible for conducting the live music, He would make a gesture to Liu Hanlin, a jazz drummer, indicating that he could start playing the drums. At this time, Liu Hanlin, who was only 17 years old, would closely watch Chairman Mao's movements and drop the drum hammer in his hand at the right time. Then the music would sound. After Chairman Mao and his dancing partner had been walking around the dance hall for two weeks, they turned to the place where he had just been sitting. When he was in the right position, Deng Bin would give Liu Hanlin another gesture, and Liu Hanlin would hit the drum head with understanding force. The music would stop abruptly, and Chairman Mao would sit back down in his seat with the help of his dance partner.

What impressed Liu Hanlin deeply was that the chairman was dressed very simply. Once when the chairman was dancing, the socks on his feet suddenly slipped off his legs. They were a pair of coarse cloth socks. The socks were very long, reaching to his knees, and they were clearly visible on the top. After wearing a few patches, the chairman saw that his socks had fallen off. He calmly stopped dancing, bent over and rolled up his trouser legs, pulled his socks down to his knees, and continued dancing with a calm expression. After dancing a few songs, the chairman usually starts to smoke or listen to Peking opera and cross talk from the wire recorder. Sometimes the dance will last until two o'clock in the morning, and then the chairman walks slowly and leaves as if thinking about something. The last ones to withdraw are naturally the band members, and each of them will be given a bowl of noodles as a midnight snack.

These days lasted for four or five years. Liu Hanlin met Chairman Mao at close range many times. He said that he was so lucky and could not hide his excitement every time he went to accompany him.

The fate of "The East is Red"

In 1955, the Central Military Commission decided to establish the Public Security Army, which became the fourth branch of the military after the army, navy and air force. Luo Ruiqing served as The Commander of the Public Security Army and Minister of the Ministry of Public Security also established the "Art Troupe of the Political Department of the Public Security Army". At this time, after several years of basic skills practice and performance practice, Liu Hanlin's artistic quality improved by leaps and bounds. In 1957, the "6th World Youth Festival" was held as scheduled. Liu Hanlin competed with artists from all over the world with the national instrumental music "Great Victory" compiled by his teammates He Huajun and Hu Tianquan, and finally won the gold medal. .

In 1957, the Public Security Army completed its historical mission and withdrew from the historical stage. Although the Public Security Army Art Troupe was famous at home and abroad, it did not know where to go at this time. Yang Dezhi, then commander of the Jinan Military Region, asked his old comrade Luo Ruiqing to "request" this group. So, all the members of the Public Security Army Art Troupe collectively moved to Jinan that year and established the "Jinan Military Region Avant-garde Song and Dance Troupe". The original "Jinan Military Region Avant-garde Song and Dance Troupe" The Song and Dance Troupe" collectively changed its profession and became the "Shandong Song and Dance Troupe".

Liu Hanlin, who was born and raised in Beijing, became a "Jinan native" in his early 20s. Although he was reluctant to leave Beijing, he still happily settled his family in Jinan. With excellent results, he has established himself as the "number one drummer" in Chinese national instrumental music. Since then, he has visited various countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America on behalf of the country. Frequent overseas performances have also given him the opportunity to contact countries around the world. In the art of drumming, he learned from the strengths of others and absorbed the essence of drumming art from various countries, forming his own unique artistic style that combines Chinese and Western styles with emotion, sound, fullness and smoothness.

In 1964, Liu Hanlin began to participate in the rehearsals of the large-scale dance epic "The East is Red" and served as the main percussionist of the national band. At that time, the chief director Premier Zhou instructed that he should use "a serious attitude and strict organization" , strict requirements" to treat this performance. Liu Hanlin clearly remembers that it was June 16, 1964. All the thousands of cast and crew members who participated in the performance of "The East Is Red" gathered in the North Hall of the Great Hall of the People and waited eagerly. Premier Zhou walked over and it was obvious that he I was very excited. After the crowd calmed down, Premier Zhou said: "I have good news for everyone." At this time, the venue was completely silent. Premier Zhou paused and said with emphasis: "First, our atomic bomb has gone up to the sky! Second, Heilongjiang Lu Xiaofu has stepped down! Third, Chairman Mao is coming to visit everyone!" Before he finished speaking, a wave of applause sounded again. Liu Hanlin recalled that at that time, he felt that "the ceiling was about to be shattered." On that day, he met almost all the party and state leaders at that time.

In 1969, Liu Hanlin's army was on vacation. Suddenly he received an urgent mission and rushed to Beijing with another comrade Zhao Xingru. However, he did not know what the mission was. After arriving in Beijing, they immediately rushed to the Central People's Broadcasting Station. In a closed recording room, the leader handed over a sheet of music. When he saw it, it was "The East Is Red" that had been played countless times. The leader ordered him and his comrades to play this piece of music. If it failed once, they would play it again. Looking at the serious look of the radio station leader, Liu Hanlin understood that this must be a glorious and important task. He did not dare to neglect it and did not ask any questions. Just keep your head down and concentrate on playing. A few hours later, the leader asked them to change drum hammers. They tried hard hammers, soft hammers, and rubber hammers. Finally, they were asked to use the knuckle of their middle finger as a hammer to hit the bell. Liu Hanlin jokingly called this "Finger hammer". It was obviously inappropriate to knock the copper clock with your fingers. Liu Hanlin only struck it once, and his knuckles started to hurt. It took almost a whole day for him and his comrades to record the music "The East Is Red" struck more than ten times with different hammers and different bells. After completing their mission, they quickly returned to Jinan, and no one told them more details until the end.

In 1970, the "Dongfanghong 1" satellite was launched, and the music "Dongfanghong" came, and Liu Hanlin suddenly realized that this was not what he had played on the radio with a bronze bell from Zhoucun, Shandong. Melody? For a moment, his heart was filled with pride and pride.

Mo Dao Sang Yu Wan

The sky is full of mist

In 1997, Liu Hanlin retired from the avant-garde song and dance troupe. Taking into account his ancestral home in Beijing, the organization specially Moved his family's household registration back to Beijing. The organizational concern became the motivation for him to continue to struggle as he grew older and stronger, and soon after leaving, another magnificent national percussion work "The Decisive Battle between Chu and Han" came out, which won the Ministry of Culture's Outstanding Work Award.

Although Liu Hanlin is now in his seventies, he has a strong body and is full of energy when he speaks. When talking about excitement, he has a habit of waving his powerful hands that have been holding drum hammers all his life. Looking back on the past, Liu Hanlin said with emotion that he was lucky. The job assigned by the organization happened to be where his talents were. In life, he found a virtuous wife, Liang Zhengrong, a former soloist of the Avant-garde Song and Dance Troupe. The two of them grew up loving each other. Both sons and daughters have successful careers, especially the son, who has followed his father and become famous in percussion music. The cute little granddaughter’s favorite toy is also her grandfather and father’s drum hammer.

Liu Hanlin, who has been treated as a deputy military officer, now spends more time teaching students and conducting social examinations for national percussion music. He likes talented students. A worker's daughter learned to play drums from him at the age of five, never paying a penny for tuition, and finally embarked on a professional path.

There are now students of his in the Central Conservatory of Music, the China Conservatory of Music, and the Military Band of the People's Liberation Army.

The sonorous drum beats, the round drum body, and the small and spiritual drum hammers have accompanied Liu Hanlin through his artistic life for more than 50 years. For this artist whose soul is national percussion music, , the wonderful chapters in life will continue to play out.