Photography: Zhu Bowen

Yue Zhengqi, a 96-year-old veteran of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, took a photo with the actor.

　　Recently, the musical "Looking for Li Ergou" created to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army's fight against the United States and aid Korea was staged at the Poly Shandong Provincial Capital Theater (hereinafter referred to as the Provincial Capital Theater). The play takes the "Long Live Peace" medal as the spiritual clue, telling the story of the modern young Chang Weiguo traveling back to the Yalu River in 1950 to find the hero Li Ergou. Since its debut, the response has been strong. Both performances in Jinan set off a shocking artistic wave. This good drama, which is intertwined with passion and warmth, breaks the narrative shackles of traditional red themes, and uses time-travel fantasy settings and avant-garde music language to successfully build a bridge for dialogue between contemporary youth and history.

　　A dialogue across time and space

　　The performance at the Provincial Capital Theater on April 18 is the first stop of this new work after it was released from Beijing. On that day, the arrival of a special audience made the performance even more meaningful - when the curtain lights were on, Yue Zheng, a 96-year-old veteran of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, took the stage in a wheelchair and greeted the actors in a volunteer uniform. At this moment, the time and space dialogue spanned 75 years made the audience burst into tears... This old hero who had personally experienced the Battle of Shangganling joined the army in 1945 and joined the party in 1946. He participated in the battle of liberating Yanzhou and Zou County. He was awarded the third-class merit in the War of Liberation. In October 1950, he joined North Korea to participate in the War of Resistance and Aid Korea. He served as the platoon leader of the roar from the Second to Fifth Battles, and stationed with the 27th Regiment in Xifangshan in the Battle of Shangganling. Until now, he has been vivid in his memory of the day and night of fighting in Korea. "Thank you to the Party and Chairman Mao. I am very moved. Thank you to the troupe. The performance is so good!" Mr. Yue's emotional words infected everyone in the theater, and warm applause rang out on the scene.

　　This is also the most moving part of the special musical event of "Salute to Heroes and Passing Through the Torch" veterans in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, hosted by Shandong Cultural Industry Investment Group Co., Ltd. Through this performance, generations of people on and off the stage walked into that fierce and fierce period of war, allowing the spirit of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea to burst out with shocking power in the theater of the new era.

　　"Looking for Li Ergou" is the first original musical in China with the theme of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, which makes people feel the sincerity of "salute". The drama is jointly produced by China Oriental Performing Arts Group and Beijing Dopamine Culture Media. Fan Chong serves as the chief director, composer and screenwriter. He has assembled a domestic ace creative team. Many well-known musical actors such as Qi Yu, Gao Yang, and Jin Shengquan work together to perform. The lineup is powerful. In the play, the scenes of modern and historical are presented intertwined, and the dusty history in the intertwined light and shadow are revealed layer by layer. Every scene and every story are exciting.

　　Many young audiences even shed tears on the scene. "My grandfather is a martyr in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. I grew up listening to his stories. This musical made me feel like I have traveled through time and space. What appeared before my eyes was a scene of my grandfather fighting bravely. I think I will accumulate greater strength and continue to move forward!" At the end of the show, Zhou Jie, a post-90s audience, said emotionally.

　　"Young people in every era have their own Long March, but the blood surging in their blood will always be bright red. "Looking for Li Ergou" is based on such a spiritual cornerstone that allows artistic creation to truly enter the hearts of the audience." said cultural scholar Gou Ruixue.

　　More touching everyday

　　The story of "Looking for Li Ergou" originated from the Western Front battle participated by the 116th Division of the 39th Army of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. The core of its creation focuses on a profound proposition: If we were in those years of war, what attitude should we embrace life? The work hopes to guide young audiences to go back to history, cherish the present, and build a solid foundation for ideals and beliefs in the journey to the future, and firmly move forward.

　　As for why the creative team locked the narrative perspective on the Western Front, director Fan Chong gave an answer: On the one hand, the Western Front battle is rarely fully presented in many film and television works; on the other hand, the combat process of the 116th Division of the 39th Army is legendary. As the first ace force to enter North Korea to fight, from the 1st ace cavalry division of the U.S. Army in 1950, to the breakthrough of Linjinjiang and liberating Seoul, the division participated in five battles throughout the process, vividly interpreting the spirit of the Volunteer Army and being a typical representative of the heroic battle of the Volunteer Army.

　　As Ding Wei, a military adviser in the musical "Looking for Li Ergou" and an expert in historical facts on the fight against U.S. aggression and aid Korea, said: "This army that held the captured 'more-made' weapons into North Korea, faced the US military with crushing equipment, tore the myth of the First Cavalry Division in the first battle. They are not only synonymous with heroic troops, but also a microcosm of the spirit of the entire volunteer army."

　　How to create the "cutest people" with musicals? The main creative team abandoned the grand narrative and found a more shocking dramatic tension deep in the trenches. When the modern young man Chang Weiguo traveled through time and space and fought side by side with his young grandfather, what the audience saw was not the heroic scene of charging forward, but the excitement and trembling of a modern young man when he first touched his gun and the trembling of death for the first time. It was the meticulousness of Xiu'er, a medical soldier who had transferred from the art troupe when facing work, the silly smile of the big man who "wife is strict in control" holding his first wife's letter, and it was the childishness of Xiaobing Gawa when he was muttering about the two goats in his hometown. They sat around to write letters from home, celebrate the New Year, and talked about the source of weapons made by "Made in All Nations"... These fine daily life reflected by artillery fire constitute the most moving narrative incision in the play.

　　Tell a good red story with diverse art

　　The sense of quality runs through the creation and arrangement of works. Taking the stage design as an example, the entire stage is centered on the turntable device, sometimes turning forward and sometimes turning backward, just like the gear of time, which puts the audience into that passionate era, and is also in line with the setting of the musical story "time travel". The most fascinating thing is the set of hanging "memory ropes", the seemingly abstract beam and column structures, based on the real texture of the Yalu River Bridge, gradually turned into spiritual monuments as the plot progresses, telling stories about sacrifice and memory.

　　In the use of color design of lighting, the "time code synchronization system" is particularly exquisite. The lighting changes accurately anchor the rhythm of the music and the actors' breathing rhythm, causing the incandescent light and string tremors to resonate in milliseconds when the artillery fire suddenly explodes, allowing the audience to complete the immersive experience of that period of beacon in the double tremors of physics and psychology...

　　In recent years, a remarkable creative trend has emerged on the art stage: using ballet and musicals and other art forms originating from the West to tell red stories and interpret the main melody chapters. Like the classic work of the Central Ballet "The Detachment of Women", the dance on the toes outlines the years of passionate revolution; the ballet "The Shining Red Star" takes the growth of the young Pan Dongzi as the main line, cleverly integrates the lightness and agility of Western ballet with the Chinese revolutionary stories, vividly showing Pan Dongzi's journey of gradually growing into a revolutionary warrior in the baptism of blood and fire; the opera "Yimeng Mountain" uses magnificent musical narratives to integrate Shandong folk song elements into bel canto singing, and uses arias, chorus and other forms to affectionately depict the moving scene of the military and civilians in the Yimeng Mountains where life and death are harmonious; and the "Looking for Li Ergou", which has caused heated discussion, reproduces the heroic posture of the volunteer army on the musical stage...

　　The success of these works is by no means accidental. From the perspective of artistic expression, the rich and diverse styles of the above-mentioned art forms have injected new vitality into the red story. Taking "Looking for Li Ergou" as an example, the beginning of rock music instantly drags the audience into the tense atmosphere on the Yalu River. The bulging and down-to-earth lyrics make people excited. While the soldiers sat around to write letters at home, the string melody became directly touching and tear-jerking. This kind of creative method that combines Chinese and Western styles breaks the expression limitations of traditional red-themed works, expands artistic tension, and makes the story presentation more three-dimensional and infectious.

　　"The audience's response is a strong proof of the success of such works. The cross-time and space dialogue presented in "Looking for Li Ergou" always makes the audience cry. This shows that these integrated and innovative works have successfully crossed the age gap, allowing people of different ages to touch the historical temperature in art and feel the power of the red spirit." Gou Ruixue believes.

　　In a cultural sense, using imported art to tell red stories is a manifestation of cultural confidence. This means that local art creators can not only absorb excellent foreign artistic achievements, but also cleverly integrate the essence of local red culture and realize it for my use. This opens up a new path for the inheritance of red culture, and conveys the heroic deeds and noble spirit of revolutionary ancestors to the new generation in a way closer to contemporary aesthetics. Using diverse art forms to achieve "intergenerational dialogue" will undoubtedly allow confused contemporary youth to find the direction of faith in the collision with their ancestors' spirits, and allow the red gene to continue under the nourishment of art. From this perspective, works such as "Looking for Li Ergou" not only enrich the stage art landscape, but also play a key role in cultural inheritance and value shaping. We look forward to more such masterpieces emerging in the future, continuing to play the strong sound of red culture and illuminating people's spiritual world. (Dazhong Daily reporter Tian Kexin intern Zhang Xinmiao Yin Xiaolu)

[Editor in charge: Tang Wei]