在智能手機上拯救鄉村社戲
Last Friday in a Beijing theater, Li BaoFeng and 10 of her colleagues from the Feng Yun Theatrical Company bowed to a small but enthusiastic audience after their performance of Sizhou Xi, a 200-year-old form of Chinese opera. It was the second time Ms. Li, 81, had performed in Beijing. The first time was 57 years earlier, for Mao Zedong at Zhongnanhai, the seat of the Chinese leadership.
上週五在北京的一座劇場，81歲的李寶鳳和她在鳳韻泗州戲劇團的10名演員，爲人數不多但熱情頗高的觀衆呈現了一臺傳統泗州戲演出。這是李寶鳳第二次在北京唱戲；第一次還是57年前，在中南海爲毛澤東表演。
That level of government blessing is now long gone for Sizhou Xi, in a fast-changing China where the proliferation of new forms of entertainment has sidelined many traditional arts. With the appearance in Beijing, Ms. Li hoped to win at least some recognition for Sizhou Xi and the small number of professionals who are still performing it.
時至今日，那樣高規格的政府支持早已不再。中國正在急速改變，新的文化娛樂形式層出不窮，衝擊着傳統藝術。李寶鳳這一次帶戲班進京，就是希望再次獲得哪怕是一定程度的認可，爲泗州戲，也爲仍在唱戲的那一小批演員。Once popular in parts of Anhui, Shandong and Henan provinces, in central to northern China, Sizhou Xi features singing, dancing and acrobatics. Stories in the traditional repertoire range from historical epics about heroes to tales of common people, presented in local dialects.
有約200年曆史的泗州戲曾經在安徽、山東、河南一帶流傳，表演融合唱、念、做、打，用當地方言演繹英雄史詩或尋常百姓故事。
In the 1950s, the new Communist government paid actors like Ms. Li to work in state-run troupes. But after the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, Ms. Li, like many other artists with roots in the Republican period, was charged with counterrevolutionary crimes and sent to labor on a farm. Her younger colleagues were allowed to continue performing, but only in works glorifying the Communist revolution, whose productions were dictated by Jiang Qing, Mao’s wife.
20世紀50年代，新成立不久的共產黨政府把像李寶鳳這樣的舊藝人們組織起來，成立國營劇團。到了文化大革命時期，李寶鳳又和許多舊藝人一樣，被打倒、下放勞動。年輕演員繼續在劇團演出，但只能唱江青主導的革命樣板戲。The next setback came in the 1990s, with the withdrawal of state support. Although the end of the Cultural Revolution and the start of Deng Xiaoping’s policy of economic reforms had lifted political constraints and allowed a revival of many folk traditions in the 1980s, changing popular tastes and diminishing state involvement in less commercially viable art forms began taking their toll. Although the government has continued to finance theatrical groups that enjoy larger followings, such as forms of Beijing Opera, practitioners of more local forms are now largely on their own, dependent on dwindling audiences.
第二次打擊來自90年代，國家的支持消失了。雖然文革結束，80年代鄧小平的經濟改革政策放鬆了政治上的禁錮，民間傳統得到復甦，但大衆的口味卻在變化，政府對缺乏經濟價值的藝術形式削減了支持，傳統文化又遇挫折。政府仍然支持較大的劇種，比如京劇，但地方小劇種的從業者基本只能靠着逐漸縮小的觀衆羣體自立更生了。To save her ancient art, Ms. Li and her colleagues took decidedly modern measures this year. To raise the money for the troupe’s journey from Bengbu, a town in the central province of Anhui, to Beijing, they turned to smartphones.
這一次，爲籌集從安徽蚌埠到北京演出的費用，李寶鳳等人動用了現代技術手段——他們選擇了智能手機。In September, He Gongyi, a Beijing-based nongovernmental organization dedicated to reviving traditional culture, helped Ms. Li set up a fund-raising campaign on WeChat, a popular messaging app run by Tencent. The wallet service of WeChat links directly to the user’s bank account, allowing a donation to be made with a few taps on the touch screen of a phone.
9月的時候，致力於重建鄉土文化的北京草根公益組織幫助鳳韻劇團發起了一個微信端的募捐活動。微信的電子錢包應用與用戶的銀行賬戶關聯，利用這種技術支持，只要在手機觸屏上動動手指，即可完成捐款。Within four days, they reached their target of 30,000 renminbi, or about $5,000, with donations from 998 people, said Ku Zheng, He Gongyi’s chief executive.
和公益總幹事庫徵說，他們在四天中籌到了目標金額3萬元。998人解囊相助。Philanthropy in China has only recently begun tapping mobile payments, but the approach is fast gaining in popularity.
公益事業開始藉助移動支付技術，在中國是相對晚近的事，但已經十分紅火。Tencent opened its WeChat service to donors in October 2013. Now more than half of the 3.88 million people giving to charities via Tencent are doing so on their phones, said Wu Ting, Tencent’s senior program manager for its charity platforms. People also tend to give more when they make the donation on a mobile device, about three times the amount given on a computer, she said.
騰訊公司於2013年10月啓動微信公益平臺，騰訊公益的高級項目經理吳婷說，現在通過騰訊公益向慈善項目捐款的388萬多人中，超過一半是在手機上完成捐款的。人們在手機上也往往傾向於捐得更多，她說，大約是在PC端的三倍。The typical donor is a young man between 15 and 29, giving small amounts well below 100 renminbi, Ms. Wu said. But the number of potential donors is huge. Tencent said it had 438 million active WeChat users as of August, making it possible to raise substantial amounts in a short time.
吳婷說，騰訊公益平臺上的捐款人多數是男性，年齡在15到29歲之間，捐贈金額都爲小額，遠低於100元。但龐大的用戶羣是互聯網公益的關鍵。騰訊8月份宣稱有4.38億活躍用戶，因此網絡募捐可以短時間內籌集大筆資金。“In one case, 540,000 renminbi was raised in three days to help save a premature baby in Hubei Province,” Ms. Wu said.
“有一個案例，用戶三天籌集了54萬元，爲了搶救湖北一個早產兒，”吳婷說。In total, more than 228 million renminbi has been donated through Tencent’s online charity platform since it was introduced in 2007. Alipay, affiliated with the online retailer Alibaba, says it has processed more than 212 million renminbi in donations on its charity platform since 2010.
自從2007年騰訊公益平臺上線以來，募捐金額已超2.28億元。阿里巴巴集團的附屬企業支付寶的公益平臺，2010年以來募集了超過2.12億元。“I cannot thank you enough for helping us make this happen,” Ms. Li said to her audience last Friday after her troupe’s production of “Pin Nu Lei,” or “Tears of the Poor Girl,” the story of a fisherman’s daughter, whose abuse at the hands of her snobbish mother-in-law and overbearing sister-in-law drives her to suicide.
“我萬分感謝大家幫我實現夢想，讓我站在這個舞臺上，”週五的演出結束後，李寶鳳對觀衆說。她的學生和同事演出了傳統劇目《貧女淚》，講的是一個漁家女被勢利眼的婆婆和兇悍妯娌虐待而自殺的故事。The life of a Sizhou Xi performer in 2014 is very different than it was in 1957, when Ms. Li’s troupe was on a local government payroll and honored with an audience including Mao, said Lu Xianwei, Ms. Li’s grandson and a social media manager for an Internet company in Beijing who managed the fund-raising for Feng Yun.
李寶鳳的孫子呂鹹蔚說，今天泗州戲演員的處境已經遠非1957年可比。那年，李寶鳳在國營劇團，而且還能在北京得到毛澤東等領導人的接見。呂鹹蔚在北京一家網站做新媒體運營，他幫助策劃了這次手機募捐和進京演出。“After the government disbanded the state-run troupe,” Mr. Lu said, “my grandma founded this troupe with some of those actors, who had lost their jobs but wanted to keep on performing.”
“國營劇團解散以後，我的祖母成立了這個民營劇團，和那些還想唱戲的下崗演員一起，”呂鹹蔚說。Families in rural Anhui Province still hire the performers for weddings, funerals or ancestor worship ceremonies. But the art form is struggling amid competition from modern entertainment. “Younger people don’t want to watch Sizhou Xi or make it a career,” Mr. Lu said.
今天在安徽農村，人們遇到婚喪嫁娶和祭祖之類的大事，仍然會請戲班。但舊戲在現代娛樂形式的競爭中處境艱難。“現在年輕人都不怎麼看泗州戲了，也不願意幹這一行，”呂鹹蔚說。Feng Yun has taken to the road in search of private patrons, but there aren’t many, Mr. Lu said. Even when the group does secure donations, as it did for the Beijing appearance, fund-raising might not be a long-term solution if popular interest is fading.
鳳韻劇團通過民間演出維持，但願意請戲班的人少了，他說。而且，雖然這一次進京演出做到了自籌資金，也不是長久之計。“I hope the government will do more for us.” he said.
呂鹹蔚說：“我還是希望政府能夠重視。”Government support can make a difference. In 2012, when Feng Yun participated in a government-paid cultural program to tour villages in Anhui, it staged 70 performances, Mr. Lu said. Last year, without government backing, Feng Yun was able to put on only a dozen performances.
政府的支持的確至關重要。據呂鹹蔚說，2012年鳳韻劇團搭上了當地政府三下鄉的項目，有機會演了70場；去年沒能爭取到政府項目，他們只演了十幾場而已。In 2006, the Chinese government added Sizhou Xi to its intangible cultural heritage list, alongside Beijing Opera and Hui Ju, another form of theater that originated in Anhui. But some say that the government has a moral obligation to do more, given the consequences of its own shifting policies and the resources it still controls. (The stage on which Feng Yun performed last week was made available free of charge by the Dongcheng District government in Beijing.)
2006年泗州戲被列爲國家非物質文化遺產。同年獲此稱號的還有京劇和徽劇。有觀點認爲，政府有道義上的責任，應該做得更多，特別是考慮到以往忽左忽右的文化政策，而且政府畢竟仍然掌握着巨大的資源。（這次鳳韻劇團進京演出的舞臺就是北京東城區文化館免費提供的。）“Traditional theaters are in a mess today because of the culture policies of previous leaders,” said Fu Jin, a professor at the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts in Beijing. “They financed theater professionals for decades without them having to learn about the market, and then they changed their mind and cut the cord. Of course, the government has a political and cultural responsibility to fix this.”
“今天傳統戲曲處境艱難也是因爲之前政府的政策造成的，”中國戲曲學院教授傅謹說。“他們一直出資辦國營劇團，演員不需要了解市場，然後他們忽然又改了政策，放手不管。因此今天的政府當然有政治責任和文化責任，不能不管。”But Mr. Fu sees signs of hope.
但傅謹也指出一些希望的跡象。“The market may still be depressed, but this past decade has seen some changes,” he said. “More people, many of them the younger generation who will pay more than their fathers and grandfathers for theater, are becoming interested again, and a taste for authentic, centuries-old plays is coming back. There is something about art that makes it worth preserving even when the market says otherwise. The government should not be shortsighted.”
“雖然今天的市場仍然不景氣，但最近這10年的情況也是有變化的，”他說。“更多的人開始感興趣了，而且很多是年輕人，他們比老一輩的觀衆更能接受較高的票價，而且在很多地方，對傳統戲的興趣超過了對新編戲的興趣。即使市場暫時不能支持一種藝術，藝術本身也還是值得保存下去。政府不應該短視。”
