Cultural celebrities talk about how to commemorate the 1,300th anniversary of Li Bai’s birth
In 1877, when commemorating the 30th anniversary of the February 1848 Revolution, Hugo wrote: "Memory is the source of power... Never forget an anniversary, carry out commemorative activities like lighting a torch. 』
In France, activities to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Hugo’s birth began on February 7 this year. This day is the first day of school for French students after the Christmas holiday. One class—no matter what class you are taking—choose a poem or novel by Victor Hugo and read it aloud to the class. Primary and secondary schools will also hold a "Hugo Marathon" for five consecutive days, in which Hugo's novels are read aloud in a relay style in the school's art salon, forming a "reading chain" that students, teachers and surrounding residents can participate in. In the future, France's reading festival, poetry festival, and drama festival will all use Hugo as the theme, and the entire French cultural life will play the theme of Hugo.
China has so many celebrities to remember and so much history to commemorate, but there is so little natural and heartfelt appreciation and awe, which is a pity. (Excerpt)
-In the sky above us, there is a star named Li Bai
-The Chinese poet whose works have been translated the most in the world is Li Bai
Liu Jingzhi (our reporter): On the eve of the Spring Festival, China International Performance Company and Beijing Youth Daily will jointly host a commemorative event for the 1,300th anniversary of Li Bai’s birth. It is just a performance or exhibition in the usual sense, and there are many cultural topics worth talking about in detail. We all know that it is very common for foreign countries to commemorate cultural celebrities. For example, last year was the Year of Socrates in Greece and this year is the Year of Hugo in France. In terms of music, last year was the year of Verdi and this is the year of Mahler.
Ouyang Jianghe (poet): Mahler's most important work in his later years, "Song of the Earth", is now recognized as a landmark work in the history of Western music in the entire 20th century. This work is based on six It is composed of Chinese Tang poems, three of which are poems by Li Bai. We can draw a topic from this example: Li Bai is not only from China, but also from the world. The Li Bai series of commemorative activities organized by China Performance Company and Beiqing Daily are positioned on the two basic points of Li Bai and contemporary times, and Li Bai and the world, and place Li Bai in a context where ancient times and contemporary times, China and the world are integrated and complement each other. To commemorate, I think it has special meaning.
After entering the 21st century, human life has increasingly taken on a global character of consumption and professionalism. This characteristic seems to be drifting away from the traditional Chinese humanistic sentiments of Li Bai, but in fact Li Bai's poetry is contemporary. His cosmic consciousness that communicates exclusively with the spirit of heaven and earth, his view of nature that is close to mountains and rivers, his imagination, his Dionysian spirit and romantic sentiments, all of these can definitely bring enlightenment and nourishment to us in the contemporary era. As for why we mention Li Bai and the world, is there any cosmopolitan nature in Li Bai? The Chinese poet whose works have been translated the most in the world is Li Bai. Li Bai is a world cultural celebrity promulgated by UNESCO, so UNESCO is the supporting unit for this commemorative event.
As far as I know, there are two stars in the sky above us named after Chinese people, one is Li Bai and the other is Qu Yuan.
-How do we commemorate our own cultural celebrities
-China’s influence in the world seems to be mainly related to economy and sports, such as bidding for the Olympics, joining the WTO, and qualifying for the World Cup. Why do we Can’t make a difference in culture
Liu: In the past, we held very few activities to commemorate Chinese cultural celebrities, and their impact was also very small. They were usually limited to small academic circles. It makes people feel incomprehensible. Is it because we have too many cultural celebrities that we cannot commemorate, or are we not very good at looking back on the past?
Ouyang: Using Li Bai and contemporary times and Li Bai and the world to position the commemoration of the 1300th anniversary of Li Bai’s birth involves both academic and poetry considerations, but I think a more important consideration is the use of performances and exhibitions. In a way that ordinary people are willing to accept, the influence of Li Bai's poetry, image, thoughts and life attitude will be extended to the entire society. Last year was called the Year of China, but China's influence in the world seems to be mainly related to economy and sports, such as its bid for the Olympics, its accession to the WTO, and qualifying for the World Cup. Why can't we make a difference in culture? This time, China Theater and the Beijing Youth Daily are cooperating to commemorate Li Bai’s birthday to see if they can provide a new possibility to unleash the energy of China’s spiritual and cultural resources and create a contemporary and global ***Enjoy culture.
Shang Xiaolan (our reporter): Teacher Qian, I know that "Literary and Historical Knowledge" published a special issue to commemorate Li Bai's 1300th birthday. Is there any reaction from the academic community to this?
Qian Zhixi (Professor and PhD Supervisor of Peking University): In Europe, America and Japan, activities to commemorate cultural celebrities are routine, such as the anniversary of someone’s birth or death. But we are still basically limited to the academic circle, and basically do not reflect it in the mass media. It's hard to compare now with before the May Fourth Movement. For example, on Li Bai's birthday, people would hold some poetry singing activities. For example, they would hold some activities on the anniversary of Su Shi's death, the anniversary of Qu Yuan's birth, and the anniversary of Li Bai's birth.
Due to some of the more famous quatrains such as "Moonlight before the Bed", people with a junior high school education or above still know a little bit about Li Bai, but that's about it.
Liu: Is this normal?
Qian: Of course it’s not normal. I think governments, cultural institutions, media and schools need to work together to change this situation. Through this large-scale event to commemorate cultural celebrities, a sense of respect for cultural heritage is established. At least among the cultural class, educated people should pay attention to Li Bai.
Yu Hua (famous writer): Among Chinese literati, one is Li Bai and the other is Qu Yuan. Their lyricism is something that was not found later. There are some primitive things in their works. Li Bai's poetry has a relatively open structure. The new poetry style in the Tang Dynasty was metrical poetry, but Li Bai was anti-metrical and open. His poems lose less of their poetic meaning when translated into foreign languages. If the main essence of poetic art is lyricism, Li Bai's poetry has reached the pinnacle of lyrical art and has a certain degree of globality. It may be easier for foreigners to accept Li Bai than Du Fu.
Ouyang: It is also very interesting to look at Chinese classical poetry from a Western perspective. When it comes to the translation of ancient Chinese poems, I know a well-known German professor, Ku Bin. He said that one thing he wants to do in his life is to translate Du Fu's "Eight Poems on the Rise of Autumn" in his later years into German. This is not easy. It is equivalent to inventing German, because it cannot be translated using existing German.
Nobel Prize winner and British poet Eliot made a very famous statement. He said that the most lasting and decisive contribution of the modernist poetry master Ezra Pound to the English poetry revolution was his translation. Tang poetry, mainly Li Bai's poetry. Eliot believed that Pound invented Chinese classical poetry, but in fact Pound himself did not understand Chinese. He translated it based on the notes of a British sinologist. Pound studied Tang poetry and Li Bai, and then used translation to complete the most profound language revolution in modern English poetry in the 20th century.
There is a very interesting question here. We modern Chinese poets feel that the legacy of classical poetry is useless, but modern foreign poets have found something useful in it.
-Inheriting cultural heritage is a long-term and complicated matter. Nowadays, young audiences and young readers are losing generation after generation. It seems that the most important point is to accept cultural heritage creatively.
-We Chinese commemorate some Western cultural celebrities even more closely than commemorate our own cultural celebrities, such as commemorating Shakespeare. Perhaps ordinary Chinese know more about Shakespeare than ordinary British people.
Qian: When I held an academic conference in Sichuan, I felt that Sichuan people had deep feelings for Li Bai and also had feelings for Du Fu. These two people can stand side by side and complement each other. Li Bai is retro and he particularly admires the ancients, while Du Fu is revolutionary. What Li Bai did was indeed unprecedented. In a sense, there is no way to learn from Li Bai. We can only absorb culture and regard him as a high level. Li Bai cannot study like Du Fu.
Yu: China’s cultural heritage is so rich that you won’t know it if you don’t read it. When I was a child, I thought it was Tang poetry, Song lyrics, Yuan opera, and novels were Dream of Red Mansions and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Now I realize that it is impossible to read all of Chinese classical literature, it is too vast. Although two hundred words in classical Chinese can constitute a novel, you won't be able to finish reading such a condensed thing. The translation work that Gu Bin had to do was very difficult, not to mention translating into German, even into vernacular Chinese. For example, Du Fu's feelings about mountains and roads are completely different from Li Bai's. How would you translate that? Inheriting cultural heritage is a long-term and complicated matter. Nowadays, young audiences and young readers are losing generation after generation. It seems that the most important point is to accept cultural heritage creatively. The key to why Su Dongpo is the most successful literati influenced by Li Bai is that Li Bai influenced his originality instead of obliterating his originality. This is the most important thing. Su Dongpo lets us once again understand Li Bai's originality through his originality. The two are not mere imitations.
Ouyang: Is it an irreversible trend for contemporary Chinese literature and poetry creation to enter the era of linguistic globalization? This is a question worth exploring in depth. As mentioned just now, we Chinese commemorate some Western cultural celebrities even more closely than commemorate our own cultural celebrities, such as commemorating Shakespeare. Maybe the average Chinese knows more about Shakespeare than the average British person. So I think commemorating Chinese cultural celebrities like Li Bai contains strategic considerations for expanding our own cultural resources.
Yu: In 1999, I went to Turin to participate in an international book fair and met a British writer who had won the Booker Prize. He said that most of the current college students in the UK did not know it if they were not studying literature. Who is Shakespeare? Britain's activities to commemorate Shakespeare are very grand, but it still cannot retain its own cultural heritage. People cannot be as enthusiastic about this as they are about the Olympics, because after all, it is a legacy of the past. It’s similar in the United States. I happened to go to Faulkner’s hometown for the 100th anniversary of his birth. The major newspapers in the United States only published a little news. Only the newspapers in his hometown town (smaller than a postage stamp, about two minutes’ walk away) had all the pages. All were given to him.
If China wants to commemorate cultural celebrities, it will be commemorated every day 365 days, and the country will commemorate the national celebrities, the province will commemorate the provincial celebrities, the county will commemorate the county celebrities, and even some townships will commemorate the celebrities of their own township. In the end Things got really messy. Therefore, when we commemorate Li Bai on the 1300th anniversary of his birth, what matters is our attitude.
Liu: No matter what commemorative means are used, the key is how to view cultural heritage and what significance these heritages have to our contemporary people. Here is a question of finding a cultural fixation point. Foreign commemorative cultural celebrities have a very confident cultural background, and people can be very proud to talk about the culture they represent and the things behind them. What about us?
Ouyang: For me, participating in activities commemorating Li Bai is actually a way of survival. China is currently undergoing a transformation, and everyone's interest seems to be overwhelmingly in the economy and market. Therefore, I regard the poetry embodied in Li Bai, such a spiritually radiant thing, as a good reminder of the increasingly busy and practical contemporary lifestyle. Ku Bin has a view. He believes that many of the essences of ancient and contemporary Chinese poetry must be conveyed through Europeans like him. Because Germany's economic distribution has long been institutionalized, a university professor can no longer consider money, and his energy and spiritual activities are completely saved, which can be used to focus on poetry and art. For example, Professor Gu Bin racked his brains to translate Du Fu's "Eight Poems on Autumn Joy". Which Chinese can still see this phenomenon today? I think commemorating Li Bai is precisely because his poems are a unique reminder of our living situation and quality of life in such an era.
-Trees grow like trees after being affected by sunlight
-We don’t have a person like Bach or Beethoven, nor a person like Mozart, Suddenly so many musical resources exposed in the folk were built into a huge music
Liu: Mr. Yu Hua, I think your generation of writers themselves are also in the process of learning from the West, including writing. Will it be influenced by Western literature? Can you talk about this?
Yu: When it comes to the influence of foreign culture on Chinese culture, this is actually a good thing. The literature of the Wei and Jin Dynasties was influenced by foreign culture. The Tang Dynasty was the cultural heyday of the Tang Dynasty, not to mention the Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, and the same was true for the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The same was true for European literature throughout the 19th century. Three of Shakespeare's plays were translated into French and staged in Paris. The results caused a sensation. British literature suddenly stimulated French literature and created a generation of French masters, such as Hugo and Balzac. No matter how strong the culture of any nation is, it will gradually become a little sluggish. When foreign culture comes in, it will definitely promote you. What is important is that the influence of foreign literature on a Chinese writer like me, including the influence of Chinese literature on Chinese writers, and the influence of contemporary writers, is the influence of sunlight on trees. The key is that trees are affected by sunlight. After the influence, it will grow like a tree and will not change into the way of sunlight. This is creation.
Ouyang: Can Li Bai be used to define Chinese culture? Defining European culture is certainly inseparable from people like Shakespeare and Bach. Bach was not just a composer, he was a cultural phenomenon. Even if no one listens to Bach now and everyone listens to rock music, it will not prevent Bach from being the founder of European culture. Shakespeare is definitely not as hot and popular as a British rock band (such as the Spice Girls), that's for sure, but can you say that the Spice Girls and Beckham can replace Shakespeare as the cornerstone of defining British culture?
Yu: Speaking of Bach, he is very much like China’s Li Bai. I went to Germany in 1999, which happened to be the 200th anniversary of Bach's death. There were many commemorative activities throughout Germany. What impressed me deeply was that on the day of Bach's death, Bach's music was constantly played on the radio. All the music was Bach's music 24 hours a day. The show is gone. I believe Bach is a spiritual pillar for the entire German people. Why do so many people like his music? Like Li Bai, he was a common man, a very famous organ player, who collected a lot of country music and created his own music from it. His music is German music and certainly a valuable asset to music all over the world. Bach wrote music that was considered quite secular in his time, but today sounds to us like a very sacred music. Isn't it the same with Li Bai's poems? He was a relatively life-oriented poet with secular tendencies at that time, but in our eyes today, he is very sacred. This is a very interesting phenomenon. Someone once asked me if I liked contemporary Chinese music. I said I didn't like it very much, although my writing is also influenced by some elements of Chinese music. We do not have a person like Bach or Beethoven, nor a person like Mozart, who suddenly built so many musical resources exposed in the folk into a huge music. Now Tan Dun and others are doing some work, but it is far from reaching the stage. To really carry forward our Chinese national music, we need people like Bach and Mozart to do original excavations. In this way, I think cultural heritage Only then can it be truly preserved and developed.
-All kinds of commemorative methods are very interesting, and our use of performances and exhibitions to commemorate Li Bai this time should also have a beneficial impact.
As cultural people, we have the responsibility to publicize and promote our own cultural celebrities to the society
-We do not want the event to commemorate Li Bai to become an academic discussion or a small circle event, but to attract more People come to pay attention
Ouyang: There is a very important way in the West to commemorate cultural celebrities such as writers and musicians, and that is movies. Shakespeare, Joyce, Eliot, Mahler, Han Bo and Verlaine, Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, all made films. However, Chinese TV series seem to always focus on emperors and rarely on cultural celebrities.
Yu: I have seen the movies "Mozart" and "The Love of the Sand". This is definitely a way to commemorate, and it will definitely not be filmed just in time for the anniversary of his birth or death. There is another way of commemorating a writer's work to many who came after him, just like Li Bai to many who came after him. Whether they are those who study him in universities or ordinary readers, commemoration exists at all times and places. When I went to Faulkner's hometown, I heard someone tell a story. Faulkner loved to drink during his lifetime, and those who loved him around the world commemorated him by bringing a bottle of whiskey and scattering it on his grave. In the spring of 1988, a little old man who was as short as Faulkner came, carrying a bottle of particularly expensive whiskey in his hand. He sat by the cemetery for two hours. After spilling the wine, he went to the cemetery because he had to wait for the bus. He went to a small bookstore that I also loved to go to, and he flipped through the books without saying a word, and no one noticed him. If the bookstore owner pays attention to him, he will know that he is Garcia Marquez. This became the most proud joke in their town, and everyone who came would tell it.
Ouyang: When I lived in the United States, in January 1994, I encountered a heavy snowfall that had never happened in a century. I read a piece of touching news in the newspaper at that time. The snowy day coincided with Poe's birthday. Before that, every morning at 5 o'clock on this day, a mysterious man in black would appear, drive over and place a black rose on his grave. This had been done for 40 years. For years, it has never stopped. Because the snow was so heavy that day that it accumulated more than one meter thick, the locals thought that he would definitely not show up. However, at 5 o'clock in the morning, someone still got up habitually and took a look. The man walked over on foot and at 5 o'clock on time Placing a black rose in front of Bo's grave is probably the best memorial to a writer. After a tango singer in Argentina died in a plane crash, people made a statue of him with a cigarette in his mouth, because he never left his hand without a cigarette. It is said that his cigarette is always lit and someone is always there to refill it. France's Sartre was used to writing in cafes during his lifetime, and the cafe he often visited had his fixed place. After his death, the special seat remained empty and unoccupied. This was also a way of commemoration. Various commemorative methods are very interesting, and our use of performances and exhibitions to commemorate Li Bai this time should also have a beneficial impact. As cultural people, we have the responsibility to publicize and promote our own cultural celebrities to the society.
Liu: We are doing this commemorative event for the public, and the performance is for the public. Beiqing Daily itself is a mass media, and the issues we care about may be the issues that the public cares about. We do not want the event to commemorate Li Bai to become an academic discussion or a small circle event, but to attract more people's attention. What is the practical significance of commemorating him?
Money: Chinese people’s way of commemoration is usually more subtle. For example, to commemorate Li Bai, you can go to study. The literature is all here. You happen to read a place. As a friend, you tell me that there is a passage or an idea in the book that moved you. Share it with everyone and everyone will know about it. It is the 1,300th anniversary of Li Bai’s birth. Usually, people have various perspectives. Now we look at Li Bai from the perspective of exhibitions or performances to think about and commemorate him. All of us have the genes of our ancestors, and everyone who has read classical literature has the genes of Li Bai and Du Fu. There is no doubt about it. It may appear differently in each person, but it's definitely there. With such an event to commemorate Li Bai, some people will take this opportunity to understand something more deeply. Economists have one of the most important assumptions: all people are economic humans. The biggest thing for homo economicus is to make money. In fact, learning how to spend money has a greater impact on people than learning how to make money. There are two aspects of how people spend money: for their own body and for their own spirit. Which aspect do you spend more money on?
Ouyang: I remember a contemporary Russian poet once said: A person who reads poetry will definitely live a better life than a person who does not read poetry at all. So, read Li Bai’s poems.
-Celebrating the 1,300th anniversary of Li Bai’s birth
Key points
A large-scale modern dance drama called "Dream Bai" (February 5th and 6th, Tianqiao Theater) was specially created by the Guangdong Modern Dance Troupe to commemorate Li Bai. They used the vocabulary of modern dance to express the wild character of the poet, and outlined the poet's love for life, yearning for nature, and feelings about life. They used freehand techniques to juxtapose ancient and modern times on the same stage space. At the same time, modern music from various countries around the world is used as the basic material, and is arranged and integrated using computers to form the musical background of the dance drama. The entire dance drama fully demonstrates its diversity and cosmopolitan nature.
The symphony concert "Moon Rising from the Tianshan Mountains" (February 7, Tianqiao Theater) highlighted the indissoluble bond between Li Bai's poetry and music. Guo Wenjing's "The Road to Shu is Difficult" is a symphonic chorus based on Li Bai's famous song-style poem. Zhou Long's "Four Tang Poems" captures the artistic conception of four Tang poems including Li Bai's "Listening to Shu Monks Playing the Qin".
Guo Wenjing and Zhou Long focus on the dialogue between ancient times and modern times, China and the world. They used the basic techniques of Western symphonic music, combined with many elements of traditional Chinese culture, and their own inner experiences to create works that are both traditional and modern, local and global.
The poetry theater "Heaven and Earth One Taibai" (February 9th and 10th, Tianqiao Theater) particularly emphasizes the mutual reflection and integration of Li Bai's poetry and the current living conditions of contemporary people. The performance will specially invite performing artists such as Tang Guoqiang, Jiao Huang, Bao Guoan, and Shi Weijian to take the stage, and use their passionate or deep and restrained recitations to convey the poet's emotional experience of life, nature, and eternity. Throughout the poetry evening, Li Bai, played by the famous actor Bao Guoan, will appear many times. The creative staff of the show imaginatively "resurrected" Li Bai on the stage, allowing Li Bai to reunite with his poems and allow him to dialogue with modern people. . It is worth mentioning that on the night of the performance, diplomats from multiple countries will take the stage and recite "Quiet Night Thoughts" in the languages ??of their respective countries.