On the afternoon of October 13, the free show delivery project of "one play per village every year" and the excellent program tour of "small pieces into the community" in the West Coast New Area entered Fajiayuan Community, and the actors of the Happy Town Art Center gave a wonderful performance to the community residents. Recently, there are many folk troupes in the West Coast New Area busy performing for the public welfare, and the Happy Town Art Center Troupe is one of them. The average age of the troupe is about 70 years old. Maoqiang Opera is the main performance, and Chen Jinguang, the head of the troupe, plays Jinghu. Although this troupe is an amateur troupe, the old people are good at playing and singing. Chen Jinguang said proudly that our troupe has been awarded the title of "First Class Troupe for the Exhibition of Small Dramas and Pieces" by the Organizing Committee every year!

Sing Maoqiang, play Jinghu
The villagers were amused and laughed

At about 2 p.m., when the reporter came to Fajiayuan Community, he saw that the stage had been built. This stage was not another stage. It was a simple stage built by the theater troupe on the back of the truck with wooden boards and red carpets. The old people in the theater band in the blue shed beside the stage have already set up the music stand and arranged the music scores. These music scores were written by Chen Jinguang himself. The paper on which the music scores were written is slightly yellow. Because they often look, the corners have been rolled up.

"No matter in the competition or in the performance, our band members are indispensable. Xue Degao, who plays the Beijing erhu, and Xue Juming, who plays the dulcimer, are both big brothers in their 70s," said Zhao Dexi, 67, a percussion player. The performance officially started at 2:30 p.m. After the song and Yangko hit the stage, Maoqiang, the main drama, began to play. Several "Maoqiang Corner" held their heads high, their eyes bright, and their melodies melodious, attracting many villagers who passed by to stop and admire them. Gradually, the audience grew more and more. At the climax of the song, many audiences laughed. Liu Guishan, a villager, said, "They sing very well. I usually like to listen to Maoqiang with my mobile phone, and I can understand all the songs they sing." Old Madam Lu, who switched buses from Wangtai Town to Wangtai Town, came to see the performance specially. She said, "The troupe led by teacher Chen Jinguang is great. They set up the troupe at their own expense, and there are many voluntary performances every year." Chen Jinguang told reporters that they spent a total of 110000 yuan to set up the "Guy Shier" of the troupe, They pay out of their own pocket.

The performance lasted 90 minutes, and the old people in the troupe did not rest for a moment. At the end of the performance, the old people's faces were not tired. They told reporters, "On the National Day holiday, we performed three performances a day in big villages and towns. Today, we had a few days' rest before the performance. We were not tired." It was already 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Two hours later, the troupe had another performance. In mid October, when the cool wind was blowing in Qingdao, the actors changed from their thin costumes to their thick coats. Chen Jinguang and other band members packed up their "stuff" and prepared to go to the next stage.

Leader listens to music
The music "Kung Fu" is very good

Two Maoqiang dramas, "After Poverty Relief" and "Love Homes for the Aged", were especially popular in the show performed by the troupe, which made the villagers smile, and their dark faces were full of wrinkles because of laughter. Chen Jinguang told the reporter that the scripts of these small plays were given by the Cultural Bureau, and he was responsible for arranging the songs for these scripts. 66 year old Chen Jinguang is good at music "Kung Fu". Teacher Liu Xia picked her eyebrows and said, "Teacher Chen is a music wizard". Listening to music and composing music is Chen Jinguang's "stunt".

It is understood that Chen Jinguang has been dealing with music all his life. When he was young, his father taught him to play the flute and erhu. In high school, he learned to play the crescent lute and the sanxian. After graduating from high school in 1975, Chen Jinguang went to the commune publicity team. "At that time, they were all singing model plays.". Later, he joined the army and became a literary soldier. In 1980, Chen Jinguang returned as a soldier and worked in the town government. In the 1980s, Jiaozhou Opera Troupe came to Huangdao to perform ancient costumes and sing Maoqiang, which was his first acquaintance with Maoqiang. "In those years, when I had time to listen to tapes, I could write music scores and then learn to sing Maoqiang according to the music scores." After mastering the melody of Maoqiang, Chen Jinguang could judge whether the person's singing was correct simply by listening. The leading musical instrument of Maoqiang Opera is Jinghu. In addition, he already has the foundation of Erhu, so he began to learn Jinghu from books. Fortunately, Chen Jinguang was instructed by professionals at that time. "Deng Dongsheng, a professional Jinghu teacher from Texas, is very powerful." For two years, Chen Jinguang improved his fingering by watching Deng Dongsheng pull Jinghu on the spot, so that he could walk on the right path from the "wild road".

With that, Chen Jinguang opened a cabinet, and the reporter saw a thick stack of hand copied music scores inside. He told the reporter that he had written all this while listening to tapes and watching CDs. "I used to copy by hand, but now my eyes are no longer good, so I will make a first draft and let others copy."

Liu Xia told the reporter that Chen Jinguang arranged all the songs performed by the troupe and then sent the recordings to the group. He sang them first, and others sang with him. So did Jinghu.

The league members are versatile
"First Class Theatre Troupe" has won many awards

When talking about the establishment of the troupe, Chen Jinguang said, "The process can be said to be very tortuous." In the 1980s, when the town government was engaged in statistics and accounting, Chen Jinguang studied industrial and civil construction by himself, and then switched to architecture. Later, he went to work in the engineering supervision company for 89 years. When he was in his 50s, Chen Jinguang began to think about retirement and re practicing performing. For more than ten years, he helped his friends bring different troupes. Later, he organized a group of like-minded friends and established the current troupe.

Finally, the Happy Town Art Center Theatre Troupe was officially established in 2019. Now it has 22 members. These old people are all versatile. The traditional instruments of the band alone include Jinghu, Jingerhu, cello, sanxian, Dayuan, Yueqin, dulcimer, bantam and electronic drum.

Chen Jinguang said that every July, 40 troupes in the whole district will perform in a unified way, which will be selected by the organizing committee. This year, only about 10 troupes will be rated as "first-class troupes", and their troupes are one of them. "The free show delivery project of" One show per village every year "and the program tour of" Pieces into the community "organized by the District Culture and Tourism Bureau have continued for 17 years. I have participated in the tour with different troupes for 17 years, and never stopped." Such tours are held every year for more than 40 times, distributed in different communities. In addition, Chen Jinguang will take the initiative to contact nearby communities for charity performances. Since its establishment, the Happy Town Art Center Theater has participated in more than 100 public benefit performances.

These like-minded elderly people have also won many honors. For example, in the past two years, they have won the "Excellent Performance Award" in the performance of excellent short plays, and Chen Jinguang and Liu Xia have won the "Best Accompaniment Award" and "Best Actor Award" respectively.

have pupils everywhere
Hope to inherit Maoqiang Opera and Jinghu Opera

When the reporter came to Zhanggezhuang Village, Qingdao West Coast New Area, where the troupe was stationed in the Art Center of Happy Town, what appeared to the reporter was a simple container, which was the "living place" of the troupe. Although it was simple, the house was kept clean.

Chen Jinguang told the reporter that there would be a group of Peking Opera fans here to learn from each other on weekdays, and some students would come here to learn Jinghu with him on weekends and in winter and summer vacations.

In this container, the black handwriting on the white iron sheet attracted the attention of the reporter. It turns out that this white iron sheet is Chen Jinguang's "blackboard", and several plastic benches beside it are students' "learning places". Chen Jinguang said that some families who followed him to learn Jinghu lived far away, and it cost more than 40 yuan to take a taxi to come here, while others lived nearby. "A child from the neighbor came to see me pull Jinghu, and then followed me to learn. And the children of friends, can I ask for their money. "Sometimes I can't use these things, and they are wasted." Later, he changed the charge to 60 yuan per class, but he charged only one hour for a class of two hours.

"My students have graduated from college now." Chen Jinguang told the reporter that he was also a "peach and plum". "There was a senior high school sophomore and two junior high school students, who both won the silver medal in the National Junior Jinghu Competition."

Both Chen Jinguang and Liu Xia intend to inherit the traditional culture of Jinghu and Maoqiang. The two once taught students to pull Jinghu and sing Maoqiang in Zhanggezhuang Primary School. Liu Xia told the reporter that her residence is about 20 kilometers away from Zhang Gezhuang Primary School, and it takes about two hours to take the bus to teach every time. She has been teaching hard for five or six years.

Inheritance is not only in words. Chen Jinguang and his followers are committed to making Maoqiang and Jinghu shine in this land