Observations from a Film - (Miriam Lang) (PDF ... - East Asian History

156MIRIAM LANG24 See Zhang Zeming, "Di yi bu de changshi-Juexiangyishu zongjie" [The firstanempt: an artistic appraisal of Swan Song),Dianying yisbu cankao ziliao, no.6 (22April 1986), p.4 (a restricted circulation publication).In the next scene, an official in Ou Laoshu's opera troupe informs himthat the publisher to whom he sent his music has rejected it. He adds his owncriticism of Ou's music: "You can't compose that mournful, nondescriptmusic any more ... your ideology is stuck in the old society." (Thisconnection between a composer's ideology and the quality of the music heor she produces will be discussed in more detail below.) He goes on to tellOu Laoshu that it is not enough just to rewrite his music, but that he mustchange his world view as well. He criticizes Ou Laoshu for his nostalgia forthe dissolute lifestyle of the 'old society', reminding him of the anti-Rightistmovement of 1957, the lessons of which he has failed to learn. The officialthen instructs the composer to set to music a revolutionary poem to be sungin the countryside.The two scenes outlined above serve to tell the viewer more about bothOu Laoshu's character and the social category to which he belongs. The filmnever idealizes him or plays for sympathy; he is shown to be constantlynostalgic for the musical and social world of pre-1949 times, foolish,impractical, rather pretentious, and an inconsistent father who neglects hisson to drink with his old friends in the tea-house, spending all of his moneyon them so that there is none left with which to buy food for the boy. Thisportrayal was, in the film-maker Zhang Zeming's own words, a deliberatedeparture from the usual over-heroic depictions of musicians in Chinesefiction.24In his dealings with his work unit, Ou Laoshu likewise appears out of stepwith contemporary political realities. The opera company does not value thekind of music he composes, but directs him to produce such music as thepolitical situation dictates; this scene accurately illustrates the controlexercised by the state over musical culture in the Maoist era. Having placedOu Laoshu outside the folk tradition in the preceding scene, the film nowdemonstrates that he does not fit comfortably into his role in the new formsof musical organization either.Part Three25 , a hammered dulcimer.2 6 He Dasha's name is not given an entry ineither Zbongguo yinyue cidian [Dictionaryof Chinese music] (Beijing: Renmin YinyueChubanshe, 1984) or Zbongguo yinyuesbilUe. He is briefly mentioned by ZhouHaihong, however, in connection with YanLaolie and other figures in Cantonese instrumentalmusic ("Weiji zhong de jueze: p.20)and by association with He Iiutang (Zbongguoyinyue cidian, p.149).The impact of politics on musical culture is alluded to again in subsequentscenes where we see Guanzai, Ou Laoshu's son, practising the yangqin.25He asks A Xiang, the old blind folk musician, to teach him "The Monk Seeksa Wife," only to be told that this piece is currently considered "obscene" andis therefore forbidden. After this exchange, Guanzai's father returns andprepares to teach him one of He Liutang's compositions. Guanzai wouldrather study the music of He Dasha fiiJ jdl, saying that he is the greatest ofthe Cantonese composers.26 Ou Laoshu tells tall stories of the closerelationship between himself and He Liutang ("We were blood brothers")and brags of having paid He's debts for him; his son, however, knows this