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Chapter 24 Winter Emperor

Farewell, but Du Yu, Lin Zixuan and Zhou Shoujuan left together, and Zhou Shoujuan wanted to take him to a place.

They came to Shanghai World Amusement Park together.

The Great World Amusement Park is located at the intersection of Minti Niyin Road and Aidoya Road in the French Concession in the center of the city. It faces southeast and northwest. It was built by Shanghai giant Huang Chujiu.

Huang Chujiu was from Yuyao, Zhejiang Province and was a descendant of Huang Zongxi, a thinker and historian in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.

His ancestors practiced medicine in his family. When he was 16 years old, he had a medicine book passed down from his ancestors in his bag.

He started his business by setting up street stalls to sell medicines. Later, he borrowed money from others to open the first large Chinese and French pharmacy, and also sold Chinese and Western medicines. He gradually made a fortune and became a leader in Shanghai Pharmaceutical.

He has also entered other industries and spanned many fields, including Shanghai World, which is known as the largest amusement park in the Far East.

Shanghai World broke ground in early 1917, and the ribbon was cut and unveiled on July 14 of the same year.

It is a comprehensive amusement club.

There are many theaters in the world, performing operas, folk art, Chinese and foreign singing and dancing music, ancient and modern acrobatics and magic, puppets, shadow puppets, qigong, martial arts, movie screening day and night, and various sports and intellectual entertainment activity rooms.

It is equipped with tea room, restaurant, hotel, concession office, service office, etc.

The door opens at 12 noon every day, and the tickets are two corners of the ocean. Visitors can go to various theaters and amusement rooms at will until midnight.

Due to its unprecedented scale, various amusement facilities are advanced, and there are a lot of tourists at the moment, reaching about tens of thousands of visitors a day.

The place where Zhou Shoujuan brought Lin Zixuan to come is Qiankun Grand Theater in the Great World, which is an important Peking Opera performance venue in Shanghai.

When discussing "Shanghai Holiday", Lin Zixuan suggested that domestic films should be musical with ethnic instruments, which made Zhou Shoujuan feel quite moved.

In this era, Western culture entered China in a large scale, causing fierce ideological collisions.

As a result, two extreme ideas emerged.

One is an extremely conservative idea, which believes that traditional culture should be adhered to and excluded Western culture, while the other is an extremely radical idea, which proposes a complete Westernization and even abolishes Chinese characters.

This problem can be attributed to the conflict between the nation and the world.

While accepting Western culture, whether to maintain national autonomy is a major topic of research by scholars in this era.

Although Zhou Shoujuan is a star-chasing person and loves foreign movies, he is also a conservative and old-school literati.

These two personalities seem to have some conflicts in him, but they are the true portrayal of this era.

In this era of great change, the Chinese people are in a contradiction in their hearts. They want to change, but are afraid of change, and do not know how to go in the future.

Confused, confused, at a loss...

Therefore, when he heard Lin Zixuan's suggestions, he sighed. When he thought that Lin Zixuan should advocate foreign culture and art after returning from studying abroad, he had seen many such people.

International students always say that Europe and the United States are good, and everything in foreign countries is good, and even the moon is rounder than China.

Unexpectedly, Lin Zixuan actually proposed to use Chinese musical instruments to soundtrack the movie.

For a moment, he felt that something had been touched and he felt enlightened.

If we put it in Luxun's words, it is "only national is the world."

So Zhou Shoujuan brought Lin Zixuan to the Shanghai World to listen to Peking Opera.

In this era, people who practice national music in China could not compare with foreign musicians. The social status was too great. Playing the piano in foreign countries was elegant, a master, playing the erhu in China, singing, and an actor.

However, if Lin Zixuan wanted to find the performers of the national instruments, he could only go to Liyuan.

There are performances every day in Qiankun Grand Theater, and many famous actors start to appear on stage from here, thus becoming famous.

There is never a shortage of audiences in the audience. Peking Opera is now the main entertainment method for the public, and only young people will go to the dance hall.

The two found a seat in the theater, and immediately a vendor selling melon seeds came over to hawk. The audience around them cheered with the performance on the stage, and the atmosphere was very warm.

This is the first time Lin Zixuan went to the theater to watch Peking Opera. As a time traveler, he has no interest in Peking Opera.

He neither liked this lively atmosphere nor understood the operas on stage, nor understood why the people around him were so intoxicated. This is the generation gap of the times.

He didn't want to affect Zhou Shoujuan's interest, so he had to pretend to listen to the opera seriously.

"This is Kunsheng, who was just released this year. Although he is young, he already has the style of a big shot." Zhou Shoujuan pointed to an actor on the stage and praised.

Lin Zixuan looked at the actors on the stage and thought that the man was not tall, but quite handsome, full of singing, wide and translucent. When he closed his eyes and listened, he really had an indescribable charm.

He didn't know that, but the so-called Kunsheng refers to a woman dressed up as a man to perform.

After a performance, Zhou Shoujuan brought Lin Zixuan to the backstage.

As the editor of "Shen Bao", Zhou Shoujuan is a celebrity in the Shanghai literary world and has connections with major opera troupes. If the opera troupe rehearses a new play, there are literati who need to write operas, so he can calmly go to and from the backstage.

Backstage, Lin Zixuan was surprised when he looked at the actor who took off his makeup.

The actor who just performed was just a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl, and this little girl was named Meng Xiaodong.

Meng Xiaodong's grandfather was born in the Huiban class, and his father and uncle were also Peking Opera actors, and he was truly from the Liyuan family.

She started learning opera at the age of nine and made her debut in Wuxi at the age of twelve. Now she is less than fourteen years old. She performs in Shanghai World and has received praise from the audience and is known as the star of tomorrow.

People at this time did not know that Meng Xiaodong then joined the school of Peking Opera Yu Shuyan, devoted himself to studying, and obtained the true teachings of the Yu School. After a few years, he became a great Peking Opera master.

At that time, the most popular female actor was Mei Lanfang, known as the "King of Alchemy", who pretended to be a woman;

The most popular character is Meng Xiaodong, who pretends to be a man with a woman and is called the "Winter Emperor".

Meng Xiaodong, who was just fourteen years old, didn't speak much, and she felt very quiet. After removing her makeup, she sat there quietly, looking at Lin Zixuan with her big eyes.

After Zhou Shoujuan praised Meng Xiaodong's performance, she discussed with the troupe's headmaster about the soundtrack for the movie.

The troupe leader enthusiastically agreed, but he was just giving money, just performing in a different place.

For the opera troupe, in addition to theater performances, it is also possible to go to the official and noble people's house to attend the singing ceremony. It is not easy to support their subordinates. They can have a way to make money, and there is no reason to refuse.

He heard that there would be new songs in the movie and he had to find actors to sing, so he strongly recommended Meng Xiaodong, who is the signature of their opera troupe.
Chapter completed!
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