In mainland China, the old version of the TV series “Journey to the West” is a household name, and Zhang Jinlai, who played the Monkey King, is widely known for his dynamic performance, and so far, no one has been able to surpass his image as the Monkey King. The media disclosed that Zhang Jinlai has made great efforts for this.
As many people know, Liu Xiaolingtong was born into a Family of monkey kings. His great-grandfather Zhang Tingchun is an ordinary villager in Shaoxing Shangyu Daoxu Town, Zhejiang Province, and he would participate in theater during farming and New Year’s festivals, performing most of the monkey shows, and was known as “the living monkey chapter” for his excellent performance; his grandfather, “the living monkey” Zhang Yisheng, inherited his father’s In addition to his father’s acting talent, Zhang Yisheng also started an acting business, opening a large theater in Shanghai and expanding the Shao opera troupe he brought with him to the same spring stage.
Among the actors in this troupe were Zhang Yisheng’s two sons: Zhang Zongyi, the father of Liu Xiaolingtong, and his uncle Zhang Zongxin, the seventh child, both of whom had achieved considerable success in their art, but neither of them escaped the persecution of Mao and the Cultural Revolution launched by the Chinese Communist Party.
The “Southern Monkey King” Zhang Zongyi was forced to “go into a dog hole”
According to the mainland media, Zhang Zongyi, the sixth-age boy, loved to watch social opera since he was a child, and even a boat ride to the opera almost caused a tragic accident in which the boat was destroyed, could not stop him. Because of the fascination of watching opera, his studies were gradually abandoned. Eventually, his family agreed that he should follow the footsteps of his brother, Zhang Zongxin, who was a seven-year-old boy who starred in the old sang opera in Shanghai theater, to study opera.
Zhang Zongyi’s first play on stage was “The Little King” in “The Coming of the King”, and because he was only six years old at the Time, his stage name was “Sixth Age Boy”. Since his family did not hire a master for him, they only hired a Shandong martial arts master to teach him martial arts, so Zhang Zongxin secretly asked him to come with him to learn. Later, Zhang Zongyi also met a lot of young ticket holders, and in the process of sparring with them, he gradually learned traditional opera skills such as sheathing the sword and flying forks.
At the age of 12, Zhang Zongyi formally performed on stage, specializing in martial arts, especially in monkey opera, he created a “live, spiritual” southern style of monkey opera, and is known as the “Southern Monkey King”. His masterpieces include “Sun Wukong Breaks the Pingding Mountain”, “Sun Wukong Fights the White Bone Spirit”, “Flaming Mountain” and “Sun Wukong Ravages the Heaven and Earth”.
Zhang Zongyi has 11 children, all of whom played little monkeys when they were young. Among them, his second son “Little Sixth Child” was very talented in monkey play, but he died early due to leukemia. Zhang Jinlei, the youngest son of Zhang Zongyi, was the “Sixth Child”.
After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Zhang Zongyi, who was the head of the Zhejiang Shao Opera Troupe, was branded as a “capitalist, a big rightist, a big theater bully, a reactionary academic authority and a counter-revolutionary revisionist”, and his position as head of the troupe was revoked and he was put under isolation and deprived of the right to go on stage. For a period of time, he was locked in a room all day to write a review, and the door was also glued with large-character posters, leaving only a little space on the floor, and he had to crawl in and out because he could never break the large-character posters, commonly known as “drilling a dog hole”.
In 1971, Mao gave instructions to end Zhang Zongyi’s transformation, but he could only do some small jobs in the theater company, such as pulling the curtain and making props, until the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Seven-year-old Zhang Zongxin died of torture
Zhang Zongyi’s brother Zhang Zongxin began to perform on stage at the age of 7, so his stage name was “seven-year-old boy”. He was famous for his performance as an old student and as a clown. In his early years, he became famous for his portrayal of Bao Zheng in “The Hall of Longevity” and Liu Chengmei in “After the Vermilion Sand”.
What is even more amazing is that Zhang Zongxin also won the title of “The Living Eight Rings”, “The Divine Eight Rings”, and “The World’s First Pig” for his successful performance as Pig Bajie, which was described as “a combination of form and spirit, stupidly dressed and skillfully acted, harmonious but not vulgar, and wonderfully interesting”. “, “the world’s first pig” reputation.
Luo Ping, the national-level composer of Shaoxing Art Research Institute, believes: “In the Shaoxing opera Wukong play, can be comparable to the superb performance art of the sixth-aged boy as the Monkey King, that is the seventh-aged boy as the pig Bajie’s vocal and colorful performance. His ‘stupid costume’ refers to the head covering the eyes and face, wearing a fat jacket, carrying a big belly, that is the image of the pig; the so-called ‘skillful performance’ refers to the accurate, vivid and infectious physical movements to portray the character and feelings of the pig. The so-called ‘skillful acting’ refers to the use of accurate, vivid and infectious physical movements to portray the character and feelings of the Pig. The seventh-age boy plays Pig Bajie, winning with various physical movements, no matter a shrug, a waist swing, a back arch, a knee bend, all are meticulous, deeply in line with the mood of the play. His singing voice, clear and clean, high-pitched and exciting, in the line of Shao opera Lao Sheng, a unique style and flavor.
Zhang Zongxin is not only a good actor, but also versatile, and can compose and direct himself. At that time, he had made up and performed “36 books of Journey to the West” and “72 books of the Legend of Jigong”, which was an innovation in the history of Shao opera, following the “Hai School” of long plays. In addition, after his father’s death in 1952, he became the director of the Tongchun Shaoxing Opera Troupe, which was renamed the Zhejiang Shaoxing Opera Troupe in 1956, with Liulingtong as the director.
In 1961, the Shao opera “The Three White Bones” starring Liulingtong and Qilingtong was made into a color film, which was broadcasted to 72 countries and regions in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, and won the Best Opera Film Award in the Second China Popular Film Hundred Flowers Awards. The fame of Seventh Age Child and Sixth Age Child flourished for a while.
However, such an accomplished actor passed away at the young age of 47. After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, he was completely beaten by the rebels and suffered from physical and psychological damage, which eventually led to the recurrence of his old illness and his death in 1968 due to the spread of intestinal cancer.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that what happened to the Sixth Child and the Seventh Child during the Cultural Revolution was just a microcosm of the Chinese Communist Party’s destruction of famous artists in the literary world, and that the culprits who created one tragic story after another are still in China today, continuing to brutalize the good people. The Sixth and Seventh Agers, who once subdued so many demons in their plays, probably also look forward to the day when the demon of the Chinese Communist Party is subdued by God and Buddha.
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