The day was said to be the birthday of the village's Fusheng Emperor. Opposite the village's grand theater is a Zen garden. Incense burners are set up at the entrance. People from the village would come over to make offerings during the annual public holiday. Many people in the village who have achieved success outside the village will return to the village on the day of the public holiday and make offerings to Buddha as well.
More than eight o'clock in the evening, the sky gradually darkened, the village people after dinner, old and young people move a stool to sit in front of the big theater. The field has been placed in advance of some plastic stools, each between the stools are strung together with a plastic rope, presumably for fear of watching the theater people to watch the performance of the stools to take it home with them. The village of Wang Ting all the people are surnamed Wang, the village head is said to be open driving school, their own open a big Benz. the village Zhang Luo show big brother, let us put the stereo very loud, said so, other villages can hear, hear will come over to join in the fun.
They have been performing in the countryside every year for the past few years. Because the professional students are performing, there are American voice, ethnic, cheerleading, professional dance, and all kinds of instrumental music. With professional students to perform in the countryside, the effect of one and one is different. In some places, the people will feel that they have heard a lot of familiar tunes and some new songs. In some places, the performance was very good and the people found it hilarious. Some of the performances were not so good. But on the whole, it was a bit of a waste of resources to bring these professional students to perform in the countryside, and the people couldn't understand them. It's too elegant. The college students usually practice voice, practice are very picky, let them go to a square dance, they are not happy, but also to lower their level. perhaps, elegant art, is to have elegant taste to appreciate it.
There are village people selling snacks and popsicles around the field. Looking at this scene, I was instantly transported back to more than 20 years ago. I was born in the mid-eighties in the village of Xijianan. It is a small village in Shanxi that is particularly remote. Next to the Fen River, located in Qixian, Pingyao, Wenshui junction of the three counties. Not close to the highway, but also in the "unregulated" area. The economy has been very backward, the village people's concept is also very conservative. There are not many ways to reach the outside world. Until now, girls from other villages in the county are not willing to marry in our village because the geographical location is too backward (too remote). But my childhood was very happy. Because there were many siblings in the family and we were all not too far apart in age, my elder sister was one year older than me, my younger sister was two years younger than me, and my younger brother was a little younger, six years younger than me. My sister and I were regarded as twins by many people since we were young. When I was young, the village would occasionally show movies. There was no need to buy a ticket, and it was held in front of the village brigade, which was also in the playground of the village elementary school. On the day of the movie, the village loudspeaker would broadcast, calling the villagers to come over after dinner to watch the movie. Whenever a movie was to be shown in the evening, we would have an early dinner, and my parents would take the four of us kids and carry small stools to the movie. Around the movie theater, there were old men with kerosene lamps selling melon seeds and peanuts. We would buy them one or two at a time, and they would fill up a pocket. It is said that getting high on melon seeds while watching a movie makes you less likely to get sleepy. When we were halfway through a movie, we would often get sleepy, and our parents would hold us in their arms while they continued to watch. The movie I watched as a child was mostly "tunnel wars" with similar themes, and the villagers should also like to watch such films.
Every year on the thirteenth day of the second month of the lunar calendar, the village temple fair. There will be a lot of people from neighboring villages, the village married out of the daughter, back to catch the temple fair. The village will also invite a theater troupe to come and sing a week's worth of plays or songs. After all, the village is only lively once a year. When I was a kid, I didn't understand rice-planting songs, nor did I understand theater. But I could still hum the tune of the rice-planting songs. Because these opera troupes only sang a few pieces every year. Every morning, the troupe would write down on a small blackboard what they were going to sing that night. I remember that there was "Returning to My Mother's House" and "Washing Clothes". I didn't know what they were about, but when I grew up, I looked them up on the Internet and was shocked to find out that many of them were actually pornographic. No wonder people listened so attentively at that time. It is said to be a rice-planting opera troupe, but on the last day of the temple fair every year, it will be a concert of popular songs. Young people would only crowd here on this day to listen to a painful pop concert. Many young people, will also be in this day, in the name of the concert, flirt with the village girls, may be able to get an object back, after all, this occasion is still relatively relaxed, laid-back, suitable for object.
In the past few years, every summer with students to perform in the countryside, semester also in the migrant children's schools to help volunteer activities. To be honest, regardless of the motivation of today's college students to volunteer is to cultivate and practice a sense of social responsibility, the inheritance of a civilized spirit, or for other utilitarian purposes, at least the volunteers do pay a lot of migrant children, socially disadvantaged groups, etc. benefit a lot.
At 8:30pm, the party officially started. After the firecrackers and fireworks, the cheerleading began. Ten or so beautiful young girls on the stage jumping drill, visual really amazing. It was also stunning to the people in the village. The cheerleading clothes were all tight-fitting, and the babes had great bodies, so they naturally won a burst of applause. It is said that the later program, the village people do not quite understand. Find a few Hainanese students singing Hainanese songs, last time in Bangxi won the site of the most frenzied cheers, today in Wangting, but people do not understand. I guess Wangting village is some special local dialect of Hainanese. This, I can't explain. The actors greeted the villagers on the spot in Hainanese, and the villagers didn't seem to have much of a reaction. The actors were also slightly embarrassed.
Many of the actors were freshmen, performing in the countryside for the first time. There were also some fourth-years, Baby, Junran, and Wenjing, who I had specially invited. The quality of the show is, in fact, very good. It's just that with such an audience, the result was still a bit different from what we expected. There were some drunken youngsters backstage making a scene. It always feels uncomfortable. People in the village said they wanted to listen to Qiong Opera, watch acrobatics, watch songs and dances, and see the girls twisting and dancing on stage. I can only silently in the heart huh. Because the heart still feel a little lost. Especially the attitude of some villagers later. Really should be invited to Hainan's Qiong Opera Troupe, acrobatic troupes well. Five days of time, let these children out of the whole night of two dozen songs and dances, is not realistic. We met a young man who works abroad and returns to his hometown on weekends, and he gave us some suggestions. But it was also our window into the countryside.
Back to the school is already 11 pm. Full of exhaustion.
The theater has our stories, our footsteps, our growth.
This night, full of those simple village memories of 20 years ago. The village theater, as well as the radio room, although it has long been a dangerous building, but still calmly in the courtyard of the village brigade, watching the development of the village of the little by little. Now every year when the opera is sung again, a new stage has to be built. I have also not been back to my hometown to attend the temple fair for more than ten years. And I can't hear those segments that I always heard when I was a kid.
Wake up tomorrow, it's a new day.