Memories of the flower drum

As a child, I grew up in the Anhua mountainous area located in the middle reaches of the Zhui River and the northern foot of the Xuefeng Mountain. Due to the remoteness of the area and the isolated traffic, the regional culture there has been unique and distinctive since ancient times. Among them, the art form of ground flower drums has a particularly profound influence in the region, and is known as the "nest of ground flower drums".

The people there love the drums to the point of obsession. After work and dinner, as soon as someone blows the jirazi, the men and women, sae children and sisters seek to come, fan a shake, handkerchief a swing, and pull up to the corner. Or love, or than the ancient, or hope, or pick tea, and send money, spring trip, to the flowers and so on. The lyrics are mostly about the four seasons, five shifts, twelve hours and other time sequences, and they mostly show the living conditions of the local people and describe the details of their life interests. At that time, I was still a young child, often happy in the pile of people to enjoy the drama, and the excitement will follow the adults giggling a bit, the family called dinner still do not want to move their feet. In those days when material life was relatively poor, this original voice, the original tune, hand to hand, hand to hand form of self-entertainment, more or less found a little balance in the spirit of the people.

The flower drums of my hometown are so vulgar and earthy that they belong to the "lower class". However, in terms of performance, they have their own unique characteristics and capabilities.

In the hometown, flower drums are usually performed by two characters, called "pair of flower drums"; there are also two Dan and one clown "three small plays", also known as "double flower drums". According to the jargon of old-time artists, the performance is called "the Dan character is the one who swings the willow, and the clown character is the one who sits on the ground". To "swing" lightly, "shuttle" dexterity, that is not an easy task. Not to mention the fan work, short steps, shaking shoulders, shrugging neck, etc., a move, a move, is not a day's work. As for the performance form of Dihuahua drums, the old time artists have a precise summary of "a table, two pairs of corners, three flowers, four shuttles, five birds, six lotuses, seven shakes, eight trembles, nine straddling feet".

Besides, the tunes of flower drums in the hometown are very pleasing to the ear and have endless rhythm, with smooth, gentle, twisted and delicate artistic features. Its source is mainly folk ditties, such as "five nights of the Yang bird cry", "four seasons of tea", "December to send money", "to the flowers", etc., all using local vernacular singing, vulgar in highlighting its regional characteristics, a unique flavor. In the 1950s, several musicians from the capital specifically to the local folk, gathered in the county many men and women who can sing and dance, as much as they can sing, the best singing, the original voice and original tone, the original seal recorded into the iron box at that time the countryside people do not know why the object. After going back in the radio broadcast, so many people in the hometown of work in the field really hurt a homesickness.

In the early 1970s, I graduated from high school, there was no work, no college to attend, idle at home. My father, who came from a military background, was afraid that I would get sick at home, and sent me to a state-run alpine forest at an altitude of more than 1400 meters to participate in production work. In addition to self-cultivation and self-harvesting, all the living and production materials were picked by foot, from the bottom of the mountain along a rugged path to the mountain. The letter carrier is only once a month to send letters and mail.

One winter, the snow closed the mountains, I and a group of devolved youth trapped in the mountains can not go home for the New Year. Luckily, the forestry workers were very kind and arranged for us to be dispersed to each family for New Year's dinner. In our situation at that time, we had nothing to give back to them, so we ate and drank for nothing every day, which was really embarrassing. What to do? Some of my companions knew that I usually like to write a little song or something, so they suggested that I make up a form of New Year's Eve drums, and we simply rehearsed it and went to each house to perform to thank them. Surprisingly, everyone was very appreciative of our "love", and after watching our performance, all of them, adults and children alike, were happy and said they had a most enjoyable year.

At that time, the forest was divided into three work areas, and the second work area where we were located was the headquarters of the forest, while the first and third work areas were more than five miles away from the field headquarters. When they heard that there was a play to watch in the field, they all rushed to see the play overnight with horse lamps. In fact, we have no decent costumes, no decent props and soundtrack, really "country lion country dance", even the grass-table play is not considered. But we still look as enchanted, finished also full of reluctant attitude.

In order to reward us, every day when we eat, there is a big piece of bacon hand plate to support our eyes rolled over, in those days, this is the most extravagant hospitality.

It is no wonder that, due to the environment and transportation conditions, workers are working in the mountains all year round during the day, and go home in the evening for dinner and rest. A little free time is at most a string of doors to pull some mouth white, day after day rarely have any spare time recreational life, let alone watch any performance.

Indeed, for many generations, "facing the yellow earth and facing the sky, straw shoes with straw raincoats and hats" was the normal life of the folks in the hometown. It is the ground flower drums that injected them with the vitality and spiritual elements that never fail to make them face the difficulties in life bravely and usher in a plain and warm bright day every day!