Old Tunes Make Student life Interesting
By admin on 2015-01-12

The number of views of a clip showing Errenzhuan, a popular form of folk duet, on youku.com topped 93,000 last night. The performer, Xiaoliaoyang, is actually the stage name of Lai Ziwei, an English senior at Anshan Normal University in Liaoning Province.

As a native Chinese Northeasterner who was born in Liaoyang, Liaoning Province, Lai was interested at an early age in Errenzhuan, which originated in Northwest China.

She took her hometown as her stage name in hope of making the town more famous.

Lai's interest in Errenzhuan dates back to her childhood, which was mostly spent at her grandmother's. At that time, she said, since few channels were available on their black and white TV, her grandma always turned on the tape player to listen to Errenzhuan when doing housework. Lai imitated Errenzhuan at first and then began to sing along with the tape.

"The melodies during my childhood impressed me, and they still remind me of life with grandma. Therefore in my mind, Errenzhuan is pure, down-to-earth and a reflection of country life," Lai said.

At a Christmas party when she was a freshman, Lai saw her older schoolmate perform Errenzhuan, and she decided to give it a try at the New Year's Eve party several days later.

"Errenzhuan has a history of more than 300 years. Whether it will attract the young students depends on its updated style and lyrics," Lai said.

To make it more attractive, Lai racked her brains and gave an improvisational performance of The Alphabet Song in the style of Errenzhuan at the party.

Lai's unique performance created a stir. Some students asked to learn Errenzhuan from her, and she also earned notoriety around school as the "ABC girl."

Catching the fever of Errenzhuan after the New Year's party, Lai started a student association for Errenzhuan at the university.

Currently, 80 members, including those from other Anshan-based universities, have joined the association.

In order to get more chances for the members to practice their skills, Lai has even led her team to perform for some enterprises for free.

"We need more practice, and the free performances might bring us funding from the companies in the future," she said.

Lai has already acquired many fans, some of whom even travel specially to Anshan to meet her and see her performance.

"In Northeastern China, where so many Errenzhuan stars gather, their preference for us lies in the fashionable and campus factors we add to it," she said.

Lai and other members of the association each have a notebook to record new materials they see that could be applied to their Errenzhuan programs.

"From details of life in our dormitories and the school cafeteria, to the library and crosstalk we listen to on the radio, any interesting elements might be added," she said.

For Lai, Errenzhuan is not only a beloved art performance, but also a means to contribute to the society.

On January 28, her team put on a two-hour, free performance on a local shopping street and collected 2,679 yuan ($394) for people affected by the Haiti earthquake in February.

"Although the money was less than we had expected, when the Red Cross Society of China wrote out a receipt, I felt the energy of our team," she said.

Two months later, Lai received a text message from a stranger who said he was a grass-roots artist and had heard about what she did for the Haiti victims. The man asked Lai to help raise money for a girl at a local hospital.

Lai went to the hospital with the man to see the girl, a junior at the University of Science and Technology Liaoning (USTL).

"Our team then gave a performance at USTL and collected more than 10,000 yuan ($1,471) for the girl," Lai said.

The learning of the art is unending. Aiming to improve their performances, Lai sought out professional schools to get some training.

During the winter holidays she found the Liu Laogen stage-Hongyan folk performance training center, which helps cultivate Errenzhuan performers.

Not able to afford the tuition of 10,000 yuan, Lai took out a loan and planned to repay gradually with the income from performing.

Touched by Lai's determination, the president of the center wiped the debt clean. Lai said that in the past, when referring to Errenzhuan, most people would regard it as being in poor taste because it sometimes contains dirty words, and would never connect it with the sun-ny and positive campus culture.

But the idea of introducing campus-orientated Errenzhuan to universities won support from the campus president.

"He knows well that we will not allow those kind of pieces to pour into campus. We create pure and positive performances," she said. "The old perception on Errenzhuan hurts us Errenzhuan-lovers, and we're trying to change the negative opinion about it."

Cui Kai, vice president of the Liaoning Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said that, compared with the Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera, it is easier for Errenzhuan to enter campuses.

"Eerrenzhuan could bring direct joy and ease to the audience, and applying current and fashionable factors to it will increase its culture quality," Cui said. "The promotion of Errenzhuan on campuses will benefit the development of the art itself."