Revolutionaries Are Forever Young is a cantata from the opera The Flame of the Stars. The opera was premiered in December 1950 in Harbin by the Northeast Lu Xun Literature Institute. It was written and directed by Lupeng, composed by Hijacker, and conducted by Su Yang and Liu Su. Set against the backdrop of the arduous revolutionary struggle of the Northeastern Anti-Japanese Allied Forces, the opera glorifies the revolutionary spirit of a guerrilla army and the masses of the people who defied violence and were not afraid of sacrifices, and the greatness of their courageous struggle, which could surely start a prairie fire. Revolutionaries are always young" is from Act I, Scene II of the play. Old Li Tou, an old transportation agent of the guerrilla army, and the heroine Xiao Feng meet in the forest and promise to send Xiao Feng to the guerrilla army. This is a duet between the two. In the course of circulation, it gradually appeared in the form of solo and multi-part repetitions.
Li Jiefu (李劫夫), a Chinese composer and music educator, was born on November 17, 1913 in Nong'an, Jilin, and died on December 17, 1976 in Shenyang. During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, he participated in music activities in Yan'an, Jinchahi and Hebei Border Areas, and composed songs such as "Singing Two Little Cowherds", etc. During the War of Liberation, he was the head of the Cultural Troupe of the Jichahai-Jiezhaliao Military Region, and composed songs such as "Determined to Beat Him Without Mercy", etc. He served as the deputy head of the Music Department of the Northeast Lu Xun College of the Arts in 1948, and the principal of the Northeast Music Academy in 1953, and the president of the Shenyang Conservatory of Music later on. He was elected as a director of the Chinese Musicians Association and chairman of the Liaoning branch of the Association. His works include "We Walk on the Great Road", "Butterfly Lovers' Flower - Answer to Li Shuyi", "Seven Styles - Photo for Female Militiamen", etc., and a large number of songs of Chairman Mao's quotations for Mao Zedong's poems. He also composed the opera "The Flame of the Stars" and several small operas, and published "Selected Songs of Hijacker" in 1964.
The birth of this song can be traced back to 1948, when Hijacker was transferred back to Harbin in Northeast China from Jinchaji, leaving the old rural base and entering the metropolis. One day, he and the famous playwright Lupeng were discussing together, "Since we are in the Northeast, we should use our works to show the heroic deeds of the Northeast." The first thing that came to their mind was the Northeast Resistance League. 1949, Hijacker and other comrades went to the White Mountains and Black Waters to deepen their lives and search for the footprints of the heroes of the Resistance League. When they visited, they also realized how hard the environment was for the Resistance fighters at that time - no solid base is the Achilles' heel, often only a few families within the range of one hundred and eighty miles of forested land, the struggle can only be a guerrilla war; no fixed dwellings can not be realized stable food supply, the Resistance fighters often have nothing to eat or wear, the Resistance fighters often have nothing to eat or wear, the Resistance fighters often have nothing to eat or wear. Fighters often eat and wear nothing, very hard, often cut off food to eat grass roots and bark, drink snow water. The hijacker went to the deep forest where the Resistance League had guerrilla activities, and saw a black bear carrying a tree in the mountain, which was originally lassoed by the hunter in the tree, but the tree was finally uprooted by the black bear after the binding of the rope was no way to break free, and the tree could not be put down, so it could only be carried. Although this matter was treated as "anecdotes" to tell everyone, but can imagine that the robbers experienced how dangerous the environment, the Northeast Resistance League is also in such a dangerous environment in the winter to climb the ice and snow, "fire baked in front of the warmth of the chest, the wind blowing the back of the cold," the summer put down mosquitoes! Tick bites, tenacious struggle for 14 years.
The biggest gain in the process of visiting the hijacker is to contact a lot of the year's old warriors of the Resistance, which has a very deep impression of the hijacker, he is the Northeast Resistance old transportation "old Li head" Li Sheng. Li Sheng, born in 1867 in Dezhou, Shandong Province, a poor family of canal porters, in 1894, at the age of 28, he broke into the East to cultivate land and drive a horse-drawn carriage to make a living. After the "9-18" Incident, the Japanese and pseudo-army captured Fangzheng County and burned half of the street, Li Sheng's house was burned, and his old companion and two sons were killed.In 1932, Li Sheng joined the anti-Japanese guerrillas of Tangyuan under the leadership of Tangyuan Central County Committee of the C***, and joined the party under the introduction of Feng Zhongyun in 1933.Because of his rich experience in life, wit and calmness, his legs and feet were also very good at fighting against Japan. Due to Li Sheng's experience in life, wit and composure, and quick legs, although he was old but more convenient to cover, the Party organization decided to let him specialize in transportation work, and he accomplished the task of transmitting documents and news countless times. Li Sheng also served as an escort for leading cadres, including Yang Jingyu, Li Zhaolin, Feng Zhongyun, Zhao Yiman, Zhou Baozhong, etc., who went to the field to inspect the work, under the cover of the relationship of "father and son," "father and daughter," "father and daughter-in-law. Li Sheng escorted by "father-son", "father-daughter", "father-daughter", "father-daughter", "father-daughter" and other relationships as a cover, each time to complete the task very well. Li Sheng is also affectionately known as "the father of the Resistance", "Resistance grandfather". Li Sheng ran the transportation without fear of any difficulties and dangers, and left his footprints from Xiaoxinganling, Wanda Mountain, Songhua River, Mudanjiang River, the southern foot of Changbai Mountain, and the coast of Yalu River. He often traveled alone, from east to west, from north to south, regardless of stormy weather, or snowy and icy days; using his free time to give short-term jobs, odd jobs, to earn money for travel expenses. 1938, the North Manchuria Provisional Provincial Party Committee and the Jidong Provincial Party Committee dispatched Li Sheng to look for lost contact with South Manchuria Yang Jingyu's Resistance First Route Army, Wei Zhengmin's South Manchuria Provincial Party Committee. 71 year-old Li Sheng did not say a word, and braved the cold of more than 40 degrees below zero, and stepped on the ground. More than forty degrees of cold, treading knee-deep snow, into the rare Changbai Mountain virgin forest, from Mudanjiang through Yanbian to Mengjiang walked for more than a month, finally in a forest to find the team of the first Resistance Army. In the summer of the same year, on the way back to Yilan, Li Sheng was recognized by the traitors who surrendered to the Japanese hypocrites were arrested. The Japanese Kwantung Army Military Police tortured Li Sheng, tiger stool, kerosene, branding iron, standing cage, more than a dozen times dead and alive, always steadfast, and finally was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment by the Pseudo-Manchukuo Military Court. 1945 Japan's defeat and surrender Li Sheng out of the Xinking Prison. 1946, August 16, Li Sheng returned to Harbin to find the then chairman of the People's Government of Songjiang Feng Zhongyun, back to the embrace of the party organization. The party organization's embrace. As Li Sheng was already 79 years old and had been tortured in prison, his health was not good, so Feng Zhongyun arranged for him to live in the Northeast Martyrs' Memorial Hall and sent someone to take care of him in his old age.On the National Day in 1951, Li Sheng was selected as a representative of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army, and went to Beijing to participate in the ceremony for the anniversary of the National Day, and was received by Chairman Mao Zedong. When Chairman Mao learned about Li Sheng's deeds, he gave him a pair of walking sticks and engraved the words "Father of the Revolution" on them. Subsequently, Li Sheng was invited to be a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of Heilongjiang Province. He was elected as a delegate to the first Heilongjiang Provincial People's Congress and died on January 12, 1962 at the age of 95. As a representative of the indomitable resistance veterans, Li Sheng's deeds have been publicized since 1946, and Feng Zhongyun's short biography of Li Sheng was published in Harbin Daily, which had great social influence. Playwright Lupeng, composer Hijacker in Harbin is the story of Li Sheng as the source of the creation of the Resistance old traffic officer "Li old man" this tandem of the main characters. In the hijacker's notebook, there is a hand-drawn portrait of the old Li Tou, it is because he has seen the old Li Tou, know his optimism, positive and vigilant, the hijacker decided to use in the song "revolutionaries are always young" in the revolutionary romanticism of the joyful tunes.
In the 1930s, the Northeast Underground Party Organization sent many revolutionary youths into the mountains to join the Northeast Resistance Forces, which were also brought by Li Sheng.At the beginning of 1937, Li Sheng went out of the mountains from the secret camp where the 6th Resistance Forces were located, and he met Resistance Forces family members in the Banchangzi Tun of Tangyuan County, then 13-year-old children's leader Li Min (a woman of Korean ethnicity, whose real name is Li Xiaofeng, and who had served as the vice-chairman of the CPPCC in Heilongjiang Province in the 1980s), and Xiayiang Liu Zhimin, director of the Women's Federation of the Special Committee Organ, said to Li Sheng, "Xiaofeng wants to go to the army, I think it's OK, you take her up the mountain this time." Li Sheng and Li Xiaofeng walked for a day and met Li Guilan, then 19 years old, the director of the Women's Federation of the Pit District of Tangyuan County, who was being pursued by the enemy, so they took Li Guilan with them into the mountains to look for troops. Li Xiaofeng and Li Guilan did not have any luggage; Li Sheng, however, was heavily armed, with a large cloth pocket full of leg warmer grass, foot cloth, tobacco, salt grains; flint, knives, saws, files, scythes, axes and other tools, as well as cornmeal pancakes, dumplings and other food. He also carried a jug, which was made of sun-dried cow's bladder, the mouth of which was plugged with a corn-cob core. The winter days were short, and before we knew it the sun was setting in the west and night was falling. Li Sheng said: "The guerrillas are on the other side of the mountain, we can't make it this time, so let's spend the night here". At the windward side of the forest, they swept the snow on the ground to one side, and then used an axe to cut down the dead tree branches and piled them up into firewood to prepare a place for camping. The campfire was lit, and in a short while, the flames rose and the surroundings were brightly lit. Li Sheng also picked up a lot of pine towers thrown into the fire, after a while and then use the branches of the pine towers to pull out, with a foot step, all over the ground are roasted pine nuts. This heat has not disappeared of the pine nuts, and good high and fragrant. Li Sheng with the pot with the snow boil water, baked hot brought corn cakes, pine as a dish, snow as soup, on the cornmeal cakes, eat very fragrant. After two days of walking in this way, a group of three people arrived at the camp of the Fourth Division of the Sixth Army of the Resistance League, which is located on the north side of the four stone mountains in Xiaoxinganling, Hao'er Mountain. Li Xiaofeng (i.e. Li Min) and Li Guilan were arranged to work in the quilt factory of the Sixth Army of the Resistance.
The winter of 1947 was unusually cold, and on a snowy day, a young man named Lüpeng from the Yan'an Lu Yi Academy came to Bei'an County, the seat of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee. Lupeng was in his twenties, a Hunanese with a thin face. He was holding a letter of introduction from Comrade Feng Zhongyun, which said, "This is a writer from the Lu Art Institute in Yan'an, who has come to interview us about the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, so please cooperate." It turned out that at that time our party needed to vigorously publicize the 14-year history of the Northeast Resistance League's bitter struggle against the Japanese, and Li Sheng's deeds were eminently representative. As a veteran leader Feng Zhongyun who was familiar with the deeds and cadres of the Resistance League, he thought of arranging for writers to go to Bei'an to find Li Min, a pro-life person, for an interview. Lupeng and Li Min (Li Xiaofeng) talked for seven days. After returning to Harbin, Lupeng collaborated with composers Hijacker and Anbo to create the opera "The Flame of the Stars", which celebrated the Northeast Resistance. The two main characters in the opera are Li Sheng, an old man and Li Xiaofeng, a female fighter of the Resistance, and the theme song of the opera, "Revolutionaries are always young," has been handed down to this day.
After discussing the structure of the play and the outline of the story, Hijacker and Lupeng began to work on it separately, and the second act of the play was to be written by Hijacker alone in November 1949, and the song "Revolutionaries are always young" was taken from the first scene of this act. The plot of the play is like this: after the Japanese soldiers captured Xiaofeng's father (the character prototype of Li Min's father in the Sixth Army of the Resistance, the first division of the logistics director of the post), her mother let her go up to the mountains to find the guerrillas, climbing the snowy mountains, Xiaofeng accidentally fell into a hole in the mountain, she could not climb up, so she had to wait, and then heard someone far away from the approach, this person is the old Li head. After the old Li head to save her up, the two began to chatter, Xiaofeng said she wanted to participate in the revolution, the old Li head asked her what her name, Xiaofeng reported her name, the old Li head said to her, "Oops, to participate in the revolution can not be called the dragon and the phoenix, I will give you a name, it is called Li Qingyang it", and then the old Li head to explain to Xiaofeng, why the word "Qing", the old Li head, the old Li head to explain to Xiaofeng, the old Li head to explain to Xiaofeng, why there is a "Qing", the word "Qing". Then Old Li explained to Xiao Feng why there was the character "Qing", because revolutionaries are as green as pine trees, and they can't leave the sun. At this point, the music starts, and the two sing the song "Revolutionaries Are Forever Young". Zhang Luo, who played Xiao Feng in the original opera (and was 20 years old at the time of the premiere), recalls: "Think about it, there were just two people on stage - a white-bearded old man and a little girl with pigtails, with their bodies gently swaying, singing this song joyfully, how interesting it was. " Hijacker envisioned this piece to have a sing-along at the beginning of the composition, but then he pondered, "Old Li Tou is dealing with a 16 year old girl, what kind of way is it going to propagandize the revolutionary truth to such a big kid? There must be a distinctive image. Thinking about it, the image of the evergreen pine tree came out. And the song has a feature that most of the lyrics are sung one note at a time, and the whole song bounces out entirely on the notes, very cheerful.
After the entire opera script was written, Zhang Luo and the rest of the cast began rehearsals until December 1950, when it was finally premiered in Harbin, and then performed from Harbin to Shenyang, and then to Dalian, where the crowd's response was quite good, and the performances were sold out. Until 1953, there were hundreds of performances. Zhang Luo remembers that after the show they had to go home to remove their makeup, with the crowd dispersed out of the crowd, all the way to the crowd humming "revolutionaries are always young, he is like a big pine tree evergreen in winter and summer ......", because the song has only six lines, the melody is easy to remember, the crowd heard it once and remembered it. Because the song had only six lines and the melody was easy to remember, the crowd remembered it after hearing it once, not to mention that some people came to see more than one performance of the song, and the song spread from the theater, and was sung as a solo or chorus song over and over again. The Fire of the Stars was the only large-scale opera that glorified the heroes of the Resistance at that time, with reference to the artistic achievements of the two operas that had a greater influence in China, "The White Haired Girl" and "Tears of Blood and Vengeance", and at the same time, it also made some explorations and innovations, and we very much wanted to explore how to express the revolution with the opera by means of the production of the Fire of the Stars and no longer use the method of "drama plus singing", but try our best to express the revolution by means of the opera. We wanted to explore how to express the revolution in opera through this "Flame of the Stars", no longer using the method of "drama and singing", but trying to be as operatic as possible. Especially the hijacker completed the second act of the lyrics and music, almost no lines, are sung.
Jackoff's songs do also have this characteristic of being memorable and singable. The reason is that every time Hijacker finished writing a song, he first found a child to teach it to sing, and immediately changed it if there was any awkwardness. He felt that as long as a teenager could sing, the whole Chinese people would be able to sing it. Mr. Zhang Luo explained that there was another reason for the song's popularity, that is, there were very few three-beat dance songs at that time, and not many foreign tunes were introduced, so people took the melody of "Revolutionaries Are Forever Young" as a dance song. Many old comrades in their seventies and eighties, when they hear the melody of this song, will also surely remember the dance they used to do when they were in their youth, and the joyful scenes when they chorused this song.
While there were some unsatisfactory aspects of the opera, before it could be revised, the opera was stopped, and even Zhang Luo did not know what the reason was. Only the songs "Revolutionaries Are Forever Young", "I'm a Poor Little Girl", and "Through the Dense Green Pine Forest" have survived and are used as textbook tracks in some conservatories. After the cessation of performances, hijacker moved to Shenyang with the Luxun Academy of Arts, and then stayed in Shenyang did not leave.
Many people who do not know the song "revolutionaries are always young" related to the Northeast Resistance League, but also often think of it as written in the early days of the establishment of the new China used to express the people's pride in being the master of the song. This understanding is not wrong, "as long as people can benefit from the song, from it to get pleasure, it shows that the song is successful, a good work has many themes, to a particular time, there will be a certain theme in its resurrection", Zhang Luo said. Until now, almost every middle-aged and elderly choir in the country sings this song.