China News Service, Beijing, August 20. Title: Restore “Ordinary Man” Kong Fansen
China News Service reporter Huang Xinxin
When Shandong Bangzi played in local opera performance centers across the country, the image of Kong Fansen came alive again. At the beginning of the story, Kong Fansen, who had assisted Tibet for three years, was about to go to Lhasa to take up his post again.
On the 20th, the modern play "Kong Fansen" created and staged by Liaocheng Shandong Bangzi Theater appeared at the Seventh National Ethnic Minority Literature and Art Festival. The six-act play, from "Farewell Home to Mother" to "Devotion to Ali", puts the life story of this Shandong aid-Tibet cadre on the stage.
Kong Fansen went to Tibet twice in his life. He was involved in a car accident on his way back to Ngari from Xinjiang and died in the line of duty at the age of 50. His deeds are well known, how to restore them on the stage? Revival director Zhang Donghua said that this was the biggest difficulty in the play.
In order to find Kong Fansen, the creative team made a special trip to the Kong Fansen Memorial Hall. In front of the memorial hall, there is a string of fifty-step footprints, symbolizing Kong Fansen's life from his birth in 1944 to his death in 1994.
He joined the army at the age of 17 and went to Tibet for the first time at the age of 35 to serve as deputy secretary of the Gangba County Party Committee. At the age of 44, he went to Tibet for the second time to serve as the deputy mayor of Lhasa City. During this period, he adopted three orphans from earthquake-stricken areas. When he was nearly 50 years old, he went to serve as secretary of the Ali Prefecture Party Committee. In less than two years, he traveled to 106 townships in the region and traveled more than 80,000 kilometers...
"As soon as you follow those footsteps, you will immediately catch Kong Fansen's character." Zhang Donghua said that he was fast-moving and resolute in his work, with the open-mindedness of Shandong people.
On the stage, Kong Fansen had multiple walking movements, walking towards the snowy mountains, entering Tibetan people's homes, and walking out of the crowd during the curtain call. Zhu Yuqin, who plays Kong Fansen, said that he always carries with him the feeling of walking through the series of footprints when collecting songs, "stepping firmly, moving forward step by step."
Zhu Yuqin is also from Shandong. He has a broad forehead and a simple and friendly smile. He has been learning Shandong Bangzi since he was a teenager and has acted in many plays. This one is still his favorite.
But when she first received the role, Zhu Yuqin was very nervous. "I was afraid that I would mess up the character." After getting the script, he spent a whole morning reading the first scene, and could not stand the last few pages. "When I saw that, I started crying. I put the script down, walked around the room, adjusted my mood, and then read it again."
What moved him most was the line from Kong Fansen's mother: "San'er, can't we go if we don't go? Mom is old, and I'm afraid I won't be able to see you when she leaves! Mom misses you!" Kong Fansen's mother was nearly ninety years old at the time, and she didn't know whether this separation from her son was a temporary farewell or a permanent farewell.
Zhu Yuqin repeatedly studied Kong Fansen's photos, recordings and other materials, seeking both physical and spiritual resemblance. He noticed that Kong Fansen mostly sat on the ground in Tibet, sitting in a circle with his fellow Tibetans, doing household chores, asking questions, and delivering medicine and medical treatment. "Conditions were poor at that time, and there were not necessarily small stools in the yurt, so he just lifted up his windbreaker and sat with everyone."
"We focus on portraying the love between mother and son, father and daughter, husband and wife, and national love. We hope that when the audience enters the theater, they will remember a complete Shandong man." Zhang Donghua said that the play does not portray Kong Fansen as an eternally correct symbol, but also depicts his reluctance, guilt, and softness.
In the first family scene, he combed his mother's hair and hesitated when bidding farewell to his wife; in the fourth scene, his wife took their daughter to Tibet to visit, but he delayed seeing them for half a month due to work. Faced with his daughter's grievance, he didn't know how to speak. It only lasted three to five minutes in the play, but many viewers said, "It turns out that he can also be in trouble and struggle."
At the end of the play, Kong Fansen said goodbye to his family. He slowly put on his hat, turned around, stepped towards the depths of the stage, and turned into a statue. The white hada fell all over the sky, and the chorus sounded: You are born as the bones of Mount Tai, you die as a plateau man, your blood is the East Sea Sea, and your soul is the snow mountain lotus.
