2024-01-25 05:17:00
original title:
Exclusive interview with Dashan: I find resonance in cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries
China News Service, Beijing, January 24. Title: Exclusive interview with Dashan: I find resonance in cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.
Author Guan Yilun
“We don’t come to the set to learn Chinese, we come to act in dramas.”
The play in Dashankou is the Chinese version of the play “The Shawshank Redemption” that is currently touring many places in China. This play, starring entirely foreign actors, is Dashan’s first offline performance project after returning to China after nearly four years.
After reading the script, Dashan expressed his concerns to the director: “The script seems to want to highlight that this is a prison escape story, but the core of the story is not exactly prison escape, but hope.”
In Dashan’s view, “hope” is the reason why the Western story “The Shawshank Redemption” resonates strongly with Chinese audiences: Andy’s escape gave Red hope and made him understand that the prisoners in Shawshank Prison were not unable to change their fate. Imprisoning the fate of a lifetime; it also encourages the audience to face the setbacks and pressures in daily life, as long as they have hope and work hard, their dreams will come true.
“The performance must resonate with the audience.” For Dashan, “finding resonance” is the reason for the success of the Chinese version of the drama “The Shawshank Redemption”, and it is also his constant pursuit in the cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries for more than 30 years. .
“I believe that cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries are ultimately about cultivating an international consciousness so that everyone can appreciate and accept different cultures, but more importantly, we need to see the commonalities between different cultures and the commonalities in human nature.”
At the New Year’s Day party in 1989, the phrase “Magnolia, open the door, I am Dashan” made countless viewers instantly remember this international student from Peking University in Canada. Dashan accidentally became a “foreign comedian” by performing sketches and crosstalk, but he understood that this was not the purpose of coming to China. “At the time, I didn’t decide whether to do business, education, or other things, but I knew I was here for Chinese and foreign exchanges.”
In the end, Dashan chose to engage in work related to cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. At first, the huge differences between Chinese and foreign cultures aroused Dashan’s attention. But after he really took root in China, Dashan discovered that many cultural differences were actually caused by language barriers or lack of information.
“The deeper I study Chinese and foreign cultures, the more I can discover the commonalities between cultures.” This is what Dashan feels most deeply about engaging in cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, and it is also what he enjoys the most. “So this is what I want to show you. A little bit, rather than showing a culture to be particularly beautiful but also mysterious and remote.”
Now, Dashan devotes more energy to his own self-media column “Dashan Reading Poetry” to explore the international expression of ancient Chinese poetry. From the blues version of “The Wine Will Come in” to the jazz version of “The Road to Shu Is Difficult”, Dashan combines Chinese poetry recitation with Western music performance, and explains the content of the poetry with Chinese and English subtitles, becoming his “organic combination of Chinese and foreign cultures” new attempt.
Can this attempt be understood and accepted by Chinese and foreign audiences? In this regard, Dashan expressed his confidence. In his opinion, ancient Chinese poetry has the vitality that has been passed down for thousands of years precisely because its core emotions and concepts resonate with modern people. “What I have to do is to find this resonance point and embody the common humanity conveyed by ancient Chinese poetry through performance.”
Dashan, who will be 59 years old this year, has been engaged in cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries for more than 30 years, but he admitted that compared with the speed of scientific and technological progress in the past 30 years, the progress of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries is still slower. In his view, mutual understanding between different cultures is not a natural trend, but maintaining distance and mystery between cultures is. “Really breaking this natural trend will require special efforts from all of us.”
Next, Dashan plans to create a live performance around poetry recitation that can be toured, stringing together poetry recitation programs in the form of a talk show, and adding some musical elements to the performance to make the performance “both cultural and cultural.” A more joyful atmosphere.”
“I hope the audience can feel a sense of my spirit after watching my performance.”
Asked what the core of this spirit is, Dashan smiled and said: “Let’s build a utopia where China and foreign countries cannot be distinguished.”
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