20220630 Culture 4

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• 20220630_Culture_1 papers 1-10: 1: 英语笔译 卞王倩 Bian Wangqian 202170081563 Europeanized Chinese and Cultural Factors Behind it, 2: 英语笔译 曹姣 Cao Jiao 202170081564 Research on court culture in the Tang Dynasty from the perspective of poem -- take Changhenge for example, 3 英语笔译 陈路瑶 Chen Luyao 202170081565, 4 英语笔译 崔晓凡 Cui Xiaofan 202170081566, 5 英语笔译 邓阳林 Deng Yanglin 202170081567, 6 英语笔译 高智慧 Gao Zhihui 202170081568, 7 英语笔译 何丽娜 He Lina 202170081569, 8 英语笔译 胡良明 Hu Liangming 202170081570, 9 英语笔译 黄琼 Huang Qiong 202170081571, 10 英语笔译 邝雨琪 Kuang Yuqi 202170081572
• 20220630_Culture_2 papers 11-20: 11 英语笔译 黎溢佳 Li Yijia 202170081573, 12 英语笔译 李思敏 Li Simin 202170081574, 13 英语笔译 李思源 Li Siyuan 202170081575, 14 英语笔译 李婷 Li Ting 202170081576, 15 英语笔译 李欣 Li Xin 202170081577, 16 英语笔译 李颖 Li Ying 202170081578, 17 英语笔译 李媛 Li Yuan 202170081579, 18 英语笔译 李梓婕 Li Zijie 202170081580, 19 英语笔译 梁思婷 Liang Siting 202170081581, 20 英语笔译 廖诗韵 Liao Shiyun 202170081582
• 20220630_Culture_3 papers 21-30: 21 英语笔译 刘唱 Liu Chang 202170081583, 22 英语笔译 刘乐乐 Liu Lele 202170081584, 23 英语笔译 刘双英 Liu Shuangying 202170081585, 24 英语笔译 刘婷 Liu Ting 202170081586, 25 英语笔译 刘瑶 Liu Yao 202170081587, 26 英语笔译 刘珍 Liu Zhen 202170081588, 27 英语笔译 龙翰良 Long Hanliang 202170081589, 28 英语笔译 罗姚林 Luo Yaolin 202170081590, 29 英语笔译 马艳焕 Ma Yanhuan 202170081591, 30 英语笔译 聂薇 Nie Wei 202170081592
• 20220630_Culture_4 papers 31-40: 31 英语笔译 孙丽君 Sun Lijun 202170081593, 32 英语笔译 仝雨梦 Tong Yumeng 202170081594, 33 英语笔译 童略雅 Tong Lueya 202170081595, 34 英语笔译 庹树梅 Tuo Shumei 202170081596, 35 英语笔译 王思琪 Wang Siqi 202170081597, 36 英语笔译 王亚娟 Wang Yajuan 202170081598, 37 英语笔译 肖冬晴 Xiao Dongqing 202170081599, 38 英语笔译 肖佳莉 Xiao Jiali 202170081600, 39 英语笔译 谢晓莹 Xie Xiaoying 202170081601, 40 英语笔译 熊嘉玲 Xiong Jialing 202170081602
• 20220630_Culture_5 papers 41-50: 41 英语笔译 颜媛 Yan Yuan 202170081603, 42 英语笔译 杨心怡 Yang Xinyi 202170081604, 43 英语笔译 杨紫微 Yang Ziwei 202170081605, 44 英语笔译 张国浩 Zhang Guohao 202170081606, 45 英语笔译 张姣玲 Zhang Jiaoling 202170081607, 46 英语笔译 张瑞 Zhang Rui 202170081608, 47 英语笔译 赵宇翔 Zhao Yuxiang 202170081609, 48 英语笔译 郑冬琴 Zheng Dongqin 202170081610, 49 英语笔译 钟青 Zhong Qing 202170081611, 50 英语笔译 周皓熙 Zhou Haoxi 202170081612
• 20220630_Culture_6 papers 51-60: 51 英语笔译 周哲 Zhou Zhe 202170081613, 52 英语笔译 朱丽娟 Zhu Lijuan 202170081614, 53 英语口译 段小蝶 Duan Xiaodie 202170081615, 54 英语口译 方楚晗 Fang Chuhan 202170081616, 55 英语口译 胡雯雯 Hu Wenwen 202170081617, 56 英语口译 黄天琪 Huang Tianqi 202170081618, 57 英语口译 兰绮 Lan Qi 202170081619, 58 英语口译 李丹 Li Dan 202170081620, 59 英语口译 李立飞 Li Lifei 202170081621, 60 英语口译 莫雨婷 Mo Yuting 202170081622
• 20220630_Culture_7 papers 61-70: 61 英语口译 彭慧璇 Peng Huixuan 202170081623, 62 英语口译 时友洁 Shi Youjie 202170081624, 63 英语口译 伍佳惠 Wu Jiahui 202170081625, 64 英语口译 夏晶 Xia Jing 202170081626, 65 英语口译 向师琦 Xiang Shiqi 202170081627, 66 英语口译 向望 Xiang Wang 202170081628, 67 英语口译 徐舞 Xu Wu 202170081629, 68 英语口译 张静芝 Zhang Jingzhi 202170081630, 69 英语口译 张旻丰 Zhang Minfeng 202170081631, 70 日语笔译 曹梦然 Cao Mengran 202170081632
• 20220630_Culture_8 papers 71-80: 71 日语笔译 胡梦琪 Hu Mengqi 202170081633, 72 日语笔译 张白鹭 Zhang Bailu 202170081634, 73 朝鲜语笔译 刘安莉 Liu Anli 202170081635, 74 朝鲜语笔译 王思佳 Wang Sijia 202170081636, 75 朝朝鲜语笔译 徐盖 Xu Gai 202170081638, 76 朝鲜语笔译 徐文慧 Xu Wenhui 202170081639, 77 外国语言文学 Akira Jantarat 202121080009, 78 比较文学与跨文化研究 Mahzad 202021080004, 79 英语语言文学 Mimi 2020GBJ002301

英语笔译 孙丽君 Sun Lijun 202170081593

Chuanjing Work Songs Sun Lijun

Introduction

Work song, nicknamed haozi(号子) in Chinese, is a kind of folk song that is created and sung by the working people in the process of production, bearing a direct relation with the manual work. And the contents of Chuanjiang work songs are rich and colorful, the representative works are Kuixing Tower(《魁星楼》), Giant Turtledove(《大斑鸠》), Lanlong Work Song(《懒龙号子》) and so on. Moreover, work song truthfully reflects the labor conditions and the mental appearance of the boatmen, emerging as an indispensably organic part in those workers' life. Chuanjiang work song, as one kind of work songs, is a traditional folk music originated in the Southwest China, mainly in Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality just as its name implies. And Chuanjing work song is a form of folk singing, led by a labor singer and accompanied by a crowd of boatmen in order to unify action and rhythm. It is a song of life cast by blood and sweat of those boatmen when they are struggling with the dangerous shoals and rapids, which is indicative of the working people's hardworking and their courageousness. Affluent in cultural connotations and charismatic in language art, Chuanjiang work song is the crystallization of the labor and wisdom of people living in Sichuan and Chongqing, which demonstrates the unsophisticated nature and tenacious will of them, possessing very high cultural value. However, as time goes on, great progress has been made in science and technology and outstanding improvements have been achieved in raising people's material living conditions, thus there is no need for them to struggle to meet the basic needs. It is not an age of necessities nowadays though, with the acceleration of modernization, Chuanjiang work song has lost its material carrier of its existence and is slowly withdrawing from the stage of history. On May 20th, 2006, with the approval of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Chuanjing work song was listed as the First Batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage, and only after then it's protection and inheritance were gradually given attention by all parties, namely all walks of life and the rescue of this intangible cultural heritage became imminent. While just as a common saying goes, "Rome was not built in one day", the protection and inheritance of Chuanjiang work song are not an easy task, which needs massive investment of manpower, physical and financial resource. Mostly attracted by new high-tech products, many modern youngsters don’t have the least idea to understand and learn the Chuanjiang work song, not to mention that a sea of young people have never heard of Chuanjiang work song, which is a pity. Hence, there is a problem that still remains to be solved, that is how to raise youngsters' interests in and willingness to know more about Chuanjiang work song so as to better protect and inherit the endangered Chuanjiang work song.

The History of Chuanjiang Work Songs

Chuanjiang work song, which enjoys a long history and is unique among the work songs in Sichuan and Chongqing which is called Bashu area for short, is not only diverse in forms but also rich in contents. From the Perilous Journey to the Land of Shu, which was composed by Li Bai, one brilliant and great poet in Tang Dynasty, we can tell that Bashu area had an extremely rugged landscape. "The westbound road to Shu, so steep, steeper than Heaven! I plod my way, step by step, sign after sign", these two lines from this poem Perilous Journey to the Land of Shu especially project a vivid picture for us to imagine and illustrate how peculiar and precipitous the Bashu area is since the ancient time! And Bashu area is crisscrossed by rivers and canals with more than 90 rivers and streams of various lengths, in addition to this, the overlapped peaks rise one above the other in Bashu area, inviting traffic inconveniences for this region. Hence, the cargo circulation and passenger transportation all were carried by wooden boats in the ancient time. According to some archaeological discoveries, the Neolithic stone anchors and the tracker's tome figures, which were excavated along the banks of the Yangtze River running through Bashu area, are the evidences of the long history of the shipping industry of wooden boats which gave birth to the Chuanjiang work song in Bashu area(Wu Mingshi, 2011:34-42). However, it was around the middle of Qing Dynasty that the work songs gradually were on the upgrade. And the Chuanjiang work song was the fruit of those industrious boatmen's hardworking and life. According to the water potential and the depth, currents as well as other characteristics of the rivers, the dangers of reefs and submerged rocks to boats, the leader of those boatmen then created work songs with different rhythms, tones and emotions on the basis of the rhythms of those boatmen's rowing and pulling. And this is how Chuanjiang work song was produced. While after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the government began to set about the business of the regulation of inland waterway navigation, therefore rivers and lakes in the Chuanjiang River Basin were destroyed by explosions to the submerged reefs and rocks in order to dredge the rivers and build waterpower stations. So these turbulent rivers and treacherous shoals that inspired boatmen to sing work songs have been a thing of the past. As the motor ships gradually replaced the wooden boats, the old shipping industry lost its competitiveness and living space little by little. The figures of the boatmen of the old days who swept over the rapids and dangerous shoals and climbed the rocks while towing a boat are gradually vanishing from people's sight in modern times, what's more, the appealing sound of the Chuanjiang work songs is fading away, resulting in the adverse conditions faced by Chuanjiang work songs. And scholars in the academic circles generally believe that Chuanjiang work song is cultural treasure in the history of waterway transportation along the Yangtze River and its existence reflects the indomitable fighting spirit, heroic spirit and humorous traits of character of the working people in the Chuanjiang River Basin when in face of a hostile environment. Such kind of intangible inheritage culture is supposed and deserves to be protected well, carried forward and promoted well in order to make Chinese culture and language splendid and glorious.

References

• Wang Jianhua (2021). The Reception of Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 450 pp.

英语笔译 仝雨梦 Tong Yumeng 202170081594

The Influence of Chinese Traditional Philosophy in Contemporary Times 仝雨梦

Introduction

Chinese traditional philosophy sprang up around the time of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (1600 B.C.--- 256 B.C.), took shape at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C.--- 476 B.C.), and flourished during the Warring States period (475 B.C.--- 221 B.C.) when a hundred schools of thought were already competing. Developing for more than 3,000 years, Chinese traditional philosophy has long been an integral part of Chinese culture. Up to 1949, its development history can be broadly divided into three stages. First, the period of slavery and the period of transition from slavery to feudalism. Second, the period of feudalism. Third, the period of transition from feudalism to socialism. The philosophy of the first two stages is known as ancient Chinese philosophy. And the last is called modern Chinese philosophy.

英语笔译 童略雅 Tong Lueya 202170081595

A Brief Analysis of the Influence of Artificial Intelligence on Translators Tong Lueya

Abstract

The Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and other information technologies in the digital age have brought profound changes to the development of human society. Of course, translation is also affected without exception. Artificial intelligence is quietly changing the process of translation and the identity of the translator. Over recent decades, AI has developed rapidly and has been widely used in various fields. It has become the inevitable trend of social development. As a special human activity, translation has developed from the early mechanical machine translation to the current computer-aided translation (CAT), which is the embodiment of the integration of artificial intelligence technology and translation, and more and more people hold that this technology will replace manual translation. Based on the current development of AI and translation technology, this paper will explore the influence of the AI on translators, and then attempt to give some suggestions to them, so as to make full use of artificial intelligence to lead the development of translation and form a good situation of complementary advantages and mutual benefit.

Key words

Artificial intelligence; translator; influence; machine translation

Subtitle 1

正文. (Wang 2021:423)如所用句子是引用他人的文章，请在引用部分后标明出处，如是借鉴他人观点，则请标注为(c.f: Wang 2021:423)

References

• Wang Jianhua (2021). The Reception of Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 450 pp.

英语笔译 庹树梅 Tuo Shumei 202170081596

Translation and Dissemination of Chinese Fairy Tales in the English-speaking World Tuo Shumei

Abstract

Chinese fairy tales are a literary style created by ancient Chinese people in the process of working life through long-term social practice. It is a literary style with a strong and distinctive national character, and is a bright and dazzling pearl in the treasury of Chinese culture. Internally, it is a source of cultural confidence, and externally, it is a channel for overseas readers to understand Chinese history, culture and society. Nowadays, with the increasingly frequent cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, the English translation of Chinese mythological stories can help foreign readers better understand Chinese customs and traditions, and deepen their understanding of Chinese culture. Therefore, in order to tell Chinese stories and spread Chinese voices well, it is indispensable to tell Chinese Fairy Tales, spread Chinese mythological imagination and explain Chinese mythological wisdom. The first chapter of this paper analyzes Chinese Fairy Tales from the perspective of its translation status and strategies in the English-speaking world. The second chapter analyzes Chinese Fairy Tales from the perspective of its dissemination in the English-speaking world and their dissemination strategies. Chapter 3 analyzes Chinese Fairy Tales from the perspective of how to improve its translation and dissemination in the English-speaking world. Chapter 5 analyzes Chinese Fairy Taliesin the English-speaking world from the point of view of its translation and dissemination significance.

Subtitle 1

正文. (Wang 2021:423)如所用句子是引用他人的文章，请在引用部分后标明出处，如是借鉴他人观点，则请标注为(c.f: Wang 2021:423)

References

• Wang Jianhua (2021). The Reception of Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 450 pp.

英语笔译 王亚娟 Wang Yajuan 202170081598

Filial Piety in China Wang Yajuan

Introduction

Filial piety has been a trait of the Chinese nation since ancient times and has been passed down from generation to generation. As the core concept and main feature of traditional Chinese ethics, filial piety has long been enjoying priority and regiment to other qualities in the political and cultural life of traditional Chinese society. China's patriarchal social system predestines filial piety to go through a process from a religious ethic of ancestor worship to a family ethic and then to a political ethic. (Xiao Longhang 2006) Since the pre-Qin period, monarchs have advocated respect for the elderly and used filial piety to educate the people; thinkers from various periods have put forward their ideas about respect for the elderly and have written books to preach them. In feudal society, when the system was highly prosperous, filial piety was closely linked to politics and became a criterion for selecting talents; in modern society, filial piety has also been given a new meaning in the modern era. (Fan Yan 2016) This article will focus on the origin and development of filial piety in China, analyze the cultural values and limitations of filial piety, and briefly compare and contrast filial piety in China and the West, aiming to give an analysis of the development of filial piety in China.

英语笔译 肖冬晴 Xiao Dongqing 202170081599

On Verbal Humour in Chinese Sketch Comedy from the Perspective of Violating Cooperative Principle Xiao Dongqing

Abstract

As a common linguistic phenomenon, verbal humour is an important part of our daily communication. Grice’s cooperative principle is one of the major principle of pragmatics which is ubiquitous in people’s daily conversations. Therefore, it could provide a new perspective from which we analyse verbal humour. Chinese sketch comedy, also known as Chinese Xiaopin, is an art commonly performed by a group of comic actors or comedians presenting a series of short, amusing scenes called “sketches”. This thesis intends to work out the mechanisms of verbal humour in Chines sketch comedy from the perspective of violation of cooperative principle. It reveals in this special art form the violation of quantity maxim, quality maxim, relation maxim as well as the manner maxim in the process of analysing and proves that the violation of cooperative principle could avoid taking verbal humour at face value and arouse deeper thinking about this topic.

Key words

Verbal humour; Chinese sketch comedy; cooperative principle

Introduction

Humour plays an important role in people’s daily conversations. As a kind of lubricant of verbal communication, it creates an easy and comfortable environment, provides a happy and relaxing atmosphere and helps bring interlocutors closer. Researches and studies on this topic at home and abroad could date back to as early as the 4th century B.C. when the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan composed “There in front of me remains nothing but vastness and silence(眴兮杳杳，孔静幽默)” in his masterpiece The Nine Elegies, meaning vastness.

However, the “humour” this paper talks about is the one transliterated by Lin Yutang. At home, researches on humour have greatly progress since the 1980s. Li Lanping (2002) believes that there are intrinsic connections between the principles in pragmatics and the triggering of humour. She discussed the relationship between the two parts under the guidance of the basic principles of pragmatics and the theory of conversational implicature. Yang Ting (2020), on the other hand, analysed the linguistic phenomenon of humour to further decipher the mechanism of it from the perspective of phonetics, semantics, pragmatics, contexts, figures of speech and logic of languages respectively. Ge Lingling (2011) focused on the translation of humour texts from the perspective of verbal humour so as to figure out the translation pattern of texts of this kind.

Abroad, researches on humour are multidisciplinary, involving anthropology, psychology, sociology, linguistics, semiotics and artificial intelligence which are ultimately centred on superiority theory, release theory and incongruity theory. For instance, Charles Gruner explained that wonder is an essential element of humour and that there is always a “winner” and a “loser” in humourous contexts. Freud the representative figure of release theory analysed the mechanism of humour from the perspective of psychoanalysis and divided jokes into intentional ones and unintentional ones(Cai Hui, Yin Xing, 2005:5). Kant was said to be the first to denote humour from the perspective of incongruity theory who pointed out that humour comes from a sudden twist from expectation and the inaccessibility of it(Cai Hui, Yin Xing, 2005:5).

There are studies concentrating on the mechanism of humour in comedy. For example, Dang Fengxiao and Cheng Xiongyong(2021) studied on the humourous language in sketch comedy from the perspective of speech act theory while Wei Ya'e studied the sketch comedy presented by Mahua Funage using logic rules. Looking across the border, Adesoye Ronke Eunice (2018) investigated humour and how it is achieved using phonological processes. Parashar Poorva and Tewari Paul (2020) analysed the humour in The Lonely Island and tried to work out its essence as well as how absurdism and stupid comedy provides insight into millennial and internet psychology. Alex Clayton (2020) studied humour from the perspective of rhetoric through vivid, highly readable analyses of individual sketches.

From all the above, it’s clear that the studies on humour are basically centred around linguistics, literature and figures of speech while researches abroad are involved with more disciplines ranging from anthropology to AI. What’s worth mentioning is that although humour was first brought forward in China, researches on this topic went through a far longer history in the west which could date back to the ancient Greek times. Meanwhile, researches on verbal humour in Chinese sketches are rare. Therefore, it’s necessary to work further on this subject. This thesis will adopt the cooperative principle to analyse the relationship between verbal humour in Chinese sketches and the violation of the principle in which the theoretical basis of cooperative theory, its classification as well as the detailed analysis of its four kinds of violation in Chinese sketch comedy will be covered.

Cooperative Principle

Conversational implicature as the core principle of pragmatics theory was first proposed by Oxford philosopher Herbert Paul Grice. Grice noticed that in daily conversations people do not say thing directly but tend to imply them. He believes that there is some regularity in conversation. “Our talk exchanges do not normally consist of a succession of disconnected remarks, and would not be rational if they did. They are characteristically, to some degree at least, cooperative efforts; and each participant recognizes in them, to some extent, a common purpose or set of purposes, or at least a mutually accepted direction.”(Herbert Paul Grice, 1975:45) In other words, we seem to follow some principle like the following: “make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.”(ibid.) And this principle is known as COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE, or CP for short.

To further specify the CP, Grice introduced four key categories of maxims, namely quantity maxim, quality maxim, relation maxim and manner maxim, each of which contains several specific maxims and sub-maxims. In simple terms, quantity maxim is to be informative, quality maxim is to be truthful, relation maxim is to be relevant and manner maxim is to be clear. These describe specific rational principles observed by people who follow the cooperative principle in pursuit of effective communication. Therefore, applying the maxims is a way to explain the link between utterances and what is understood from them.

Yet the use of terms such as “principle” and “maxims” does not mean that the CP and its maxims will be followed everywhere. Despite the wide use of CP in daily conversations, people would more often than not violate these principles in actual communication. When basic communication is interfered, it’s common for people to notice the violation of CP. As a result, the hearer has to make efforts to figure out the implicature so as to understand what the speaker means. Conversational implicature, in fact, is the direct cause of humour. Speaker only violates CP to achieve a sense of humour when the hearer manages to interpret the conversational implicatures under the surface and enjoys the pleasure brought by humour.

Chinese Sketch Comedy

Chinese sketch comedy first gained popularity after the Spring Festival Gala in 1984 when comedian Chen Peisi presented “eating noodles” on stage with his partner Zhu Shimao. Since then, this art form embodying acting and setting on stage sprung up like mushrooms across China and underwent refinement after years of development. Famous sketch comedians include Chen Peisi, Zhao Benshan, Fan Wei, Guo Da, Pan Changjiang, Song Dandan and so forth. The advent of the millennial witnessed the flourishing of this artistic form in which passionate performances of the younger generation, with Shen Teng, Ma Li, and Jia Ling taking the lead, engaged with great enthusiasm and produced a series of humourous yet educational works.

3.1 Historical origin

Chinese Sketch comedy got its name from art schools and performing groups. In the performing art community, the single or group performance which creates a simple scene through body and language is dubbed as “sketch comedy”, an event originally adopted to examine the basics of students of performing arts when teachers threw a topic during an interview and students were required to respond to that on the spot.

As a form of performance about small things in people's daily lives, Chinese sketch comedy has inherited qualities, and developed from other forms of comedy, such as stage play, xiangsheng, errenzhuan and comic drama and is generally believed to originate in the 1980s. Normally, sketch comedy revolves around just one topic, but with a lot of action and lively language. With the help of the promotion by the annual Spring Festival Gala, Chinese sketch comedy became a very popular artistic form in China. The first sketch comedy in China was“eating noodles” (in 1984) which was performed by Chen Peisi. Classic Chinese sketch comedy includes “Blind Date” performed by Zhao Benshan and Huang Xiaojuan in 1989, “The Adventures of Migrant Worker” led by Gong Hanlin and Zhao Lirong in 1996 and “Selling Crutches” by Zhao Benshan and Fan Wei in 2001, etc. Famous comedy groups in operation are DEYUNSHE initiated by Guo Degang, Mahua FunAge best known for its member Shen Teng, Big Bowl Entertainment led by Jia Ling, Zhao Benshan and his students, and Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture started by Li Dan, in which Mahua FunAge, Big Bowl Entertainment and Xiaoguo are still active on screen taking up sketch comedy, the Zhao’s team play “partially” for its fans in China’s northeast and DEYUNSHE mainly focus on passing on crosstalk to the next generation for the audience.

3.2 Features of Chinese Sketch Comedy

Chinese sketch comedy is sharp and witty, with simple plots, which represents as the most fundamental character that distinguish itself from other forms of art and performance. It may not be as sophisticated as other stage performances such as drama and opera, but it is able to render to its audience wisdom and thought-provoking perceptions based on its witty dialogue wrapped up in humour.

Chinese sketch comedy is also an art form that is highly narrative. As many of the topics are directly taken from the life of the people living in the grassroot, it appeals to all ages and entertains people from all works of life. Stories are the fundamental part of sketch comedies which are presented by the characters and the development of the plot interwoven with hookers of suspense, surprise and sudden changes.

Laughter is what sketch comedy aims to achieve ultimately. As the embodiment of stage play, xiangsheng, errenzhuan and comic drama, the modern sketch comedy manages to give the strengths of the artistic forms into full play with the help of modern technology, throwing humourous verbal “packages” consecutively and smoothly to the audience in the hope of eliciting ecstasy from them.

After giving a brief explanation of the theoretical basis and development of Chinese sketch comedy, the following chapter is to elaborate and exemplify the mechanism of humour in specific cases from the perspective of violation of CP in its four key categories, namely the violation of quantity maxim, quality maxim, relation maxim and manner maxim.

3.3 Classifications of Chinese Sketch Comedy

Chinese sketch comedy could be divided into different types with different names in accordance with the changing measurements. For example, from the size and scale of the art, Chinese sketch comedy could be classified into two types: multi-act ones and one-act ones. When looked from the perspective of the era of its theme, it could be divided into historical and modern ones. However, if it is categorised according to the effects of its artistic expressions, there are three kinds of Chinese sketch comedies, namely tragedy, comedy and tragicomedy.

An Overview of Cooperative Principle Violation in Chinese Sketch Comedy

As the kind of sketch comedy presented on stage are plenty, the cases this thesis is to select and analyse are mainly to taken from the ones presented by Mahua FunAge and Big Bowl Entertainment. Here is the detailed analysis of the comic dialogues:

4.1 Verbal Humour Resulted from Violation of Quantity Maxim

Quantity maxim requires that the contribution is as informative as required. In other words, the contribution should not be more informative than is required. However, this maxim is often violated in daily conversation when too much or incomplete contributions are made, which is especially common and humourous when it comes to sketch comedy jokes. For example:

Hao Jian: Oh my god! Are you feeling alright? Where did you hurt?

The old lady (lying on the road groaning): Oh, my elbow! Oh, my kneecaps! And my waist! None of them are painful!

The example above is taken from “To Help or not to Help”(《扶不扶》) in the Spring Festival Gala in 2014. In the opening part of the comedy, Hao the biker was intended to get his broken bike repaired after a car accident. On the way to the repair shop, an old lady with memory problems accidentally slipped on the ice and fell at the back of his bicycle, mistaking him to be the one who knocked her down. In this dialogue, the old lady was expected to answer where was painful. However, she adopted a funny “elimination” method carrying a bunch of irrelevant body parts as her reply. By creating a surprise contrary to what most of the audience would tend to presume, conversations of this kind produce a comic effect by violating quantity maxim.

Here is another case taken from “Making Friends”(《投其所好》) played in 2015:

Official: Is it true that you loved playing ping-pong in your spare time at your department?

Hao Jian(interrupts): I apologise. It was me being too playful. I now see that I was wrong and I swear that I’ll never play ping-pong again! If I were to commit it again, I would have my hands cut……

This satirical sketch comedy focused on the social phenomenon of “making friends” through bribery in order to get things done. In the part mentioned, what the official intended to do was to persuade Hao to practise more and try to be proficient in table tennis so as to flatter the new boss. However, Hao misunderstood the official. Instead of giving a “yes” or “no” to the question, he added up many remarks and even made an oath. It was the violation of quantity maxim in his clumsiness that made this part of acting hilarious.

4.2 Verbal Humour Resulted from Violation of Quality Maxim

Quality maxim requires the interlocutors to be sincere and talk about true things. It has two sub-maxims, namely “do not say what you believe is false” and “do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.” But in real life, this maxim is also often violated by people who tries not to hurt other people’s feelings or who with special intensions. Here is an example from “The Real and Fake Teacher”(《真假老师》) made its debut on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala in 2018:

Teacher: Nice to meet you, Madam, I’m Xiaoming’s head teacher, Ms Jia.

Cleaner: You too! I’m Xiaoming’s mother, Jia (the surname ‘Jia’ and fake are homophones in Chinese. Here the cleaner accidentally blurted it out).

Teacher: Excuse me?

Cleaner: I mean, my family name’s also Jia.

Teacher: But I remember Xiaoming’s parent is called Wang Guixiang(apparently a girl’s name)…

Cleaner: And that’s his father.

Teacher: Zhang Xiaoming actually had a father named Wang Guixiang?

Cleaner: You see, we are from a quite complicated family…

In China, it is a tradition to name the child after the surname of one of the parents, normally that of the father. In this example, the cleaner tried to make a cover-up for her accident alleging the girlish name Wang Guixiang(meaning the fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus) which has nothing to do with Xiaoming’s last name, belongs to the boy’s father. By stating consciously something fake one after another, the cleaner created a sense of humour.

Here is another example violating quality maxim from “Happiness of Today”(《今天的幸福》):

Wife: Tell me a little bit about your father please, baby.

Hao Jian: My dad is a huge success in the future! You know what, he even gets his name on the Fordes list!

Husband (poking Hao, whispering): It’s Forbes!

Hao Jian: Oh, right! Forbes made it later, too. Yet he still can’t hold a handle to my dad…

"Happiness of Today" was a sketch comedy inspired by the time-travelling drama and TV series such as “Palace”(《宫》) and “Treading on Thin Ice”(《步步惊心》). In this scene, Hao Jian was asked to play the son of the wife of his friend who travelled all along from the future back to the present to reassure the “mother” who’s in labour and mitigate her prenatal syndrome. In this example, Hao Jian was making up something that was clearly not true to humour his pregnant “mother”. What made this dialogue even more funny was his lack of knowledge about the “Forbes list” and the clumsy cover-up he made after correct hints from his partner.

4.3 Verbal Humour Resulted from Violation of Relation Maxim

Relation maxim is not only one of the most important maxims of the pragmatics theory, but also a protocol with which should be complied by all. It requires speakers to talk about things which are relevant to the topics. Violation of this maxim could bring about humour as well. The following examples are also taken from the sketch comedy “The Real and Fake Teacher”:

Xiaoming: You see, I am a high school student. Recently I have made some mistakes at school and my teacher is about to conduct a home visit. But the thing is, my parents are currently working abroad and I’m afraid my teacher be here at any minute, so I was wondering if you could, er, wow, that’s a little embarrassing…

Cleaner: Oh, I see. When will she arrive?

Xiaoming: She’ll be here at 10:00.

Cleaner: I’ll finish my job at 9:50 sharp.

In this example, what the student meant was to ask the cleaner to pretend as his mother so that there would be a parent present for the coming home visit. However, the cleaner misunderstood him and gave an irrelevant reply to the request. In this way, humour was generated.

Here is another example taken from this episode concerning the violation of relation maxim:

Teacher: You see, school education won’t do without the help of family education. After all, family is the place where goodness starts. These are the words of the famous educator Sukhomlynsky. I’m sure you must know about him, don’t you?

Cleaner: Eat… eat an apple, please.

In this case, the teacher quoted a motto from Sukhomlynsky, an influential educator from the Soviet Union to remind the “mother” the important role family and family education plays in a child’s development. However, the cleaner obviously had no idea of the educator and didn’t know how to respond. To avoid awkwardness and break the silence, she had only to hand the teacher an apple and divert her attention. In doing so, laughter was elicited from her irrelevant behaviour.

4.4 Verbal Humour Resulted from Violation of Manner Maxim

Unlike the three maxims above which focus on the contents conveyed in the process of talking, manner maxim mainly concentrates on the way how things are expressed. Its sub-maxims include to avoid obscurity of expression, to avoid ambiguity, to be brief and to be orderly. But this maxim is often violated in real life, too. Below is an example taken form the comedy “Happiness of Today” (《今天的幸福》) presented in the Spring Festival Gala in 2012:

Wife: My dear, what do you do then?

Hao Jian: (to the husband, whispering) Ah? Daddy, I don’t think we talked about this before …

Husband: Never mind. Just make up one! As if your mother were a master of the names of jobs.

Hao Jian: I scrub (the husband poking him)…wash…bathe…I study the epidermis of human beings!

Wife: Oh, you are a doctor then!

Hao Jian: You see, I specialise on dirt-ology.

In this comedy, Hao was actually a bather whose main job was to help scrub and wash the dirt off the customers in a public bathhouse. When his “mother” asked him about his job, he described it in an obscure way and even coined a term to sound more professional. His words apparently violated the manner maxim, yet it is the obscurity that made the dialogue funny.

The second example in this section is another one taken from “The Real and Fake Teacher” about job inquiry:

Xiaoming’s father: What on earth do you do, Miss?

Teacher: Well, I can tell you with great proud that I am a gardener!

Xiaoming’s father: Gardener? Then why don’t you water the flowers outside right away?

The mechanism of humour in this example works a little bit differently from the one mentioned in the first place. Instead of using some obscure term to explain what she does, the real teacher Ms Jia selected the word “gardener” with dual meanings to make a self-introduction. Apparently, the package proved to be a success regarding Xiaoming’s father’s misunderstanding.

Here is another example taken from Jia Ling’s autobiographical sketch comedy “Hi, mom!” (《你好，李焕英》)debuted on the stage of “Comedy General Mobilisation”(《喜剧总动员》) in 2016. “Hi, mom!” was a play in which the heroine Jia Ling travelled through space and time to the 1980s to spend some time with her mother who had passed away in a car accident in the 21st century. In the prologue where the two heroines made their first appearance, here comes their dialogue:

Li Huangying: Come on, go inside and stay a while with your grandma!

Jia Ling: I can’t!

Li Huanying: What do you mean you can’t? She loves you a lot! How could you say such hurtful things?

Jia Ling: Because she can’t stop sewing my ripped trousers!

In the example above, Jia used ambiguity in her reply to her mother’s question. It was not until the viewers watch further that they found out why the granddaughter would be so reluctant when it comes to her grandma’s sewing trousers, an act that was supposed to seem loving and caring----it was about the contradiction in aesthetic taste between generations. In this way, Humour comes along with the explanation.

Conclusion

Humour plays an important part in people’s daily conversation which conveys abundant cultural connotations. Grice’s cooperative principle as the core of pragmatics, is also a guiding principle according to which people converse. Once CP is violated, pleasure in humour which comes along with it could be felt. As an artistic form playing an important role in modern China, Chinese sketch comedy has been entertaining its audience of all ages with its funny plots and packages embedded in verbal humour. This thesis selected the sketch comedy performed by Mahua FunAge and Big Bowl Entertainment on the stage of Spring Festival Gala as its corpus and studied the mechanism of verbal humour under the guidance of Cooperative Principle. It has been found that to a large extent, it is the violation of quantity maxim, quality maxim, relation maxim and manner maxim that generated the humour in sketch comedy. As an integral part of Chinese sketch comedy, verbal humour was created through constant violation of Cooperative Principle and its maxims.

However, limitations are inevitable as a result of time and the limited knowledge of the writer. Moreover, as the theories on linguistics are becoming increasingly abundant, analysis about verbal humour should be made from different perspectives and with diversified texts as well. Only through this process could verbal humour and its mechanism be further understood and Cooperative Principle further applied in research and studies.

References

• Adesoye Ronke Eunice (2018). Phonological distortion as a humorous strategy in Folarin Falana’s comedy skits[J]. The European Journal of Humour Research, 6(4): 60-74.

• Clayton , A. (2020). Funny How? Sketch Comedy and the Art of Humor. Horizons of Cinema, State University of New York Press.

• Dang Fengxiao，Cheng Xiongyong (2021). Analysis of Humorous Speech Act in the Skit Help or Not Help[J]. International Journal of Education and Management, 6(1).

• Grice, H.P.(1975). Logic and Conversation[M]. New York: Academic Press.

• Parashar Poorva, Tewari Parul (2021). Locating humour in Absurdism and comedy in millennial humour[J]. Comedy Studies, 12(1): 65-74.

• Yao Xiaomin, Song Liya.Verbal(2019). Humour in English Jokes from the Perspective of Violation of Cooperative Principle[J]. Harbin: Northeast Forestry University.

• Cai Hui, Yin Xing 蔡辉, 尹星. (2005). 西方幽默理论综述研究[A Review of Western Humour Theory]. 外语研究Foreign Language Research(01):5-8+15.

• Ge Lingling 戈玲玲. (2011). 论幽默文本中本源概念的翻译模式——基于汉英双语平行语料库的研究[On the Pattern of Translating Alien Sources in Humourous Texts—— A Study Based on a Chinese-English Bilingual Parallel Corpus]. 外语学刊Foreign Language Research(01):117-122.

• Hu Zhuanglin 胡壮麟. (2017). 语言学教程[Linguistics: A Course Book]. Beijing: Peking University Press北京: 北京大学出版社.

• Li Lanping 李兰萍. (2002). 语用原则与英语幽默[On Pragmatic Principles and English Humour]. 天津外国语学院学报Journal of Tianjin Foreign Studies University(02):32-36.

• Wei Ya’e 魏亚娥. (2022). 幽默的产生与逻辑规律的违反——以沈腾春晚小品为例[The Generation of Humour and the Violation of Logic Law -- A case Study of Shen Teng's Spring Festival Gala]. 今古文创 JinGu Creative Literature(02): 95-97.

• Xu Jie, Zeng Xianmo 徐洁, 曾贤模. (2020). 以言致笑——从言语行为理论视角解析小品《扰民了您》中的幽默[Laughter through Words -- An Analysis of Humour in You Are Disturbing from the Perspective of Speech Act Theory]. 汉字文化Sinogram Culture(23):22-24.

• Yang Ting 杨婷. (2020). 认知视角下的言语幽默分析——以“生活大爆炸”为例[An Analysis of Verbal Humour from a Cognitive Perspective: A Case Study of The Big Bang Theory]. Shaanxi: Shaanxi Normal University陕西师范大学.

Terms and expressions

Chinese sketch comedy 小品

Cooperative Principle 合作原则

quantity maxim 数量原则

quality maxim 质量原则

relation maxim 关系原则

manner maxim 方式原则

Spring Festival Gala 春节联欢晚会

packages “包袱”

sweet-scented osmanthus 桂花

Questions

1. What are the maxims of Cooperative Principle?

2. What’s the name of the first sketch comedy in China?

3. How do you categorise Chinese sketch comedy?

Answers

1. There are four maxims in total, namely quantity maxim, quality maxim, relation maxim and manner maxim.

2. The first sketch comedy in China is “eating noodles” played by Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao in 1984.

3. Chinese sketch comedy could be divided into different types with different names in accordance with the changing measurements. For example, from the size and scale of the art, Chinese sketch comedy could be classified into two types: multi-act ones and one-act ones. When looked from the perspective of the era of its theme, it could be divided into historical and modern ones. However, if it is categorised according to the effects of its artistic expressions, there are three kinds of Chinese sketch comedies, namely tragedy, comedy and tragicomedy.

英语笔译 肖佳莉 Xiao Jiali 202170081600

The Various Schools of Thought and Their Exponents During the Period from Pre-Qin Times Xiao Jiali

Abstract

The Spring and Autumn period and warring States period is a very bright history in Chinese history, and a hundred schools of thought contend in such an era. Many scholars and schools of thought have emerged in this era, and these thoughts have had a very far-reaching impact on later generations. Zhuzi refers to the representatives of Guan-tzu, Lao-tzu, Confucius, Zhuang-tzu, Mozi, Mencius, Xun-tzu and other academic thoughts in the pre-Qin period, while Baijia refers to the representatives of Confucian, Taoist, Mohist, famous, Legalist and other academic schools. The hundred schools of thought are the general name of the pre-Qin academic thought figures and factions.So why was the Spring and Autumn and warring States period the coruscating period of all schools of thought in the pre-Qin period? This period basically laid the foundation of Chinese traditional culture or Sinology, and since then there have been almost no major breakthroughs or achievements.

References

• Wang Jianhua (2021). The Reception of Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 450 pp.

英语笔译 谢晓莹 Xie Xiaoying 202170081601

The Acrobatic Fighting in Peking Opera Xie Xiaoying

英语笔译 熊嘉玲 Xiong Jialing 202170081602

Yue Opera Xiong Jialing

Abstract

Yue Opera, an important local opera in China, is one of the five types of Chinese opera. From the original "Chinese Folk Rap"（落地唱书）, it has developed into the second most popular opera in China and is one of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage. Therefore, Yue Opera plays a very important role in China's art field. This article will give a general introduction to Yue Opera. The first is a brief introduction to the general situation of Yue Opera; In the first chapter, the author will introduce the historical origin and development of Yue Opera. In the second chapter, the author will focus on the introduction of the performance characteristics of Yue Opera, including its singing voice, role of business and so on; In the third chapter, the author will talk about the value of Yue Opera, such as its cultural value, social value and so on. The fourth chapter will mention the inheritance and development of Yue Opera. As one of Chinese operas, Yue Opera has a long history and rich cultural connotation. In today's cultural diversity and economic globalization, it can promote the spread of traditional Chinese culture to let the world see and hear Yue Opera.

Key words

Yue Opera;traditional Chinese culture;Chinese opera

Introduction

Yue Opera (Yueju in Pinyin) is the second largest opera genre in China, and some scholars consider it to be "the largest local opera genre". It is also one of the five major Chinese opera genres (Peking Opera, Huangmei Opera, Yue Opera, Pingju opera and Henan Opera). Originated in Shengzhou, Zhejiang province, prosperity in the whole country, spread to the world, it has experienced a historical evolution from male to female Yue Opera.In the development, it absorbed the elements of kunqu opera, drama, Shaoxing opera and other operas. It is called "Chinese opera" abroad. It is also known as "the most popular local opera". Yue Opera is long in lyric, mainly singing, beautiful voice, real and moving performance, beautiful and elegant, with the spirit of jiangnan. Most of them are based on the theme of "talents and beauties", and there are various artistic schools. There are as many as 13 recognized schools. It was mainly popular in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Jiangxi, Anhui and other southern regions, as well as most northern regions such as Beijing and Tianjin. In its heyday, professional troupes existed all over the country except xizang, Guangdong, Guangxi and a few other provinces and autonomous regions. (Qian Hong, edited by the editorial board of Chinese Yue Opera Canon，2006)

Yue Opera is also the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. Among the modern emerging operas in China, the Yue Opera bred from the regional culture and modern art of the Yangtze River Delta is undoubtedly the most influential. Once upon a time, "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" produced by "Shaoxing Women's Literary Opera" and "Shaoxing Women's Opera" were popular in Shanghai. The heroic deeds of the ten Sisters of Yue Opera, represented by Yuan Xuefen, against the bullying of the dark forces shocked the Chinese cultural circle; After the founding of the People's Republic of China, With the help of the movie a Dream of Red Mansions, Yue Opera became a national hit. Premier Zhou Enlai took the film liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai as one of new China's diplomatic means to promote the Opera overseas.(Liu,2022)

The Historical Origin of Yue Opera

Shengzhou, The Birthplace of Yue Opera

Yue Opera is one of the five major operas in China and the second largest in China at present. Yue Opera is called "the second in China" in terms of the number of performances and social popularity. In terms of its performing arts history and popular areas, it is probably far inferior to kunqu opera and Huangmei Opera. Due to language limitations, it is mainly popular in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. Yue Opera is generally spread in Shanghai, Zhejiang, southern Jiangsu and other places which are usually said wu language area. So Yue Opera is still a typical local opera. It originated from Shengzhou of Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province, which is the shengzhou city of Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province today. It is evolved from local folk songs and formed by absorbing the characteristics of Kunqu opera and Shaoxing opera in the development process. Shengzhou, the birthplace of Shaoxing opera, has been attracting celebrities from all sides to visit with its unique charm since ancient times. The beautiful scenery here, surrounded by beautiful mountains, with a long history, and its unique dynamic temperament, has created a unique charm and beauty in Shengzhou. The enchanting natural scenery has given here the magic charm, attracting the high sages and celebrities in succession to enjoy the scenery, leaving many immortal chapters spread through the ages for the later generations. With the growing popularity of folk poetry and lyrics, shengzhou people who are good at singing have integrated songs into their lives. Versatile shengzhou people thus became the original creator of Yue Opera art, Shengzhou has also become a fertile soil for the birth of Yue Opera art.

The Real Birth of Little Choir, the Predecessor of Yue Opera

From the year of 1906 , Yue Opera entered the stage role playing period. Therefore, it can be regarded as the origin of Yue Opera as the identity of opera. However, the little choir did not come into being suddenly, nor did it start out dressed up for the stage. From the xianfeng period in the 1850s and 1860s, it went through decades of embryonic stages. In terms of art classification, Chinese Folk Rap does not belong to opera, but to quyi. Therefore, it can not be called the "predecessor" of Yue Opera, but its original form of performance.

The origin of Chinese Folk Rap is that when farmers were resting in the fields after work, many people would compose and sing ditty that could reflect the aspirations of the common people, which always aroused the praise of farmers and gradually spread among them. The last few popular songs, everyone can sing. Researchers on the history of Yue Opera generally believe that the sign of the emergence of Chinese Folk Rap is that Jin Qibing and others began to sing Buddhist songs and folk tunes in front of rich households in the nearby countryside in order to make a living.(Pan,2009)

The early Chinese Folk Rap performers did not completely break away from agriculture while singing Chinese Folk Rap. For many performers, farm work is the main thing to support their families and is the job left to them for generations. It is unimaginable for them to completely break away from farm work. Therefore, during the spring ploughing season from January to February and March, the artists went back to their hometown in Sheng County to work on their fields. Qian Jingsong, Li Shiquan, Gao Binghuo and other artists who had been invited to the "stage" in Yuhang and Yuqian (now part of Lin 'an) talked with the villagers about their debut experience, which aroused the interest of many villagers. They urged artists to do the same at home. Guangxu period (1906) on the qingming Festival on the third day of march in the lunar calendar, on the vacant lot of dongwang village in Sheng County, the village civilian used rice barrel, the door panel set up the stage, invited many artists coarsely-dressed up to sing the Chinese Folk Raps, unexpectedly caused a stir in the countryside, attracted people from many villages to watch. The popularity of this form of singing book in the village even exceeded the artists' expectations.(Edited by Cultural and Historical Data Committee of Shengxian CPPCC,1992)

So they began to think about organizing theater groups to put on more scripted performances, and they came up with a low-key and elegant name for the form: Little Choir". In general, such performance formula has met the basic conditions of opera, so many researchers have always regarded this performance as the origin of Yue Opera. Stage at this time, not only clothing is very simple, Musical Instruments are also very simple. Although the form of "Little Choir" is primitive, the singing is monotonous, and the costumes are simple, but this pioneering move alone is enough to leave a brilliant first in the history of Yue Opera. Since the birth of the "Little Choir" in Sheng County, it has spread quickly to the surrounding areas. As a literature and art originating in country life, it is not surprising that it first established itself in the country. At the same time, it is constantly exploring transformation, slowly infiltrating into the city, After 1907, the "Little Choir" has been all over Athens County, and gradually to the neighboring Xinchang, Shangyu, Shaoxing, Yuyao, Fenghua and other places spread, both in the village and the town theater, where are warmly welcomed. For example, in Xinchang, only three or five years after the first contact with the "Little Choir", the number of newly established local opera troupe has reached 30 or 40 classes.

Performing in the countryside, the troupe must suffer from displacement. Therefore, it is always the ideal of the troupe to perform in a city with a large population, both male and female. Large and medium-sized cities for "Little Choir", is always tempting. On the one hand, large and medium-sized cities have strong consumption capacity and can obtain higher economic benefits. On the other hand, the fact that "Little Choir" can establish itself in big cities is the recognition of "Little Choir" by higher-level audiences, which is a kind of honor.(Pan,2009)

Shaoxing Civil Opera Period

In 1922, the development of Shaoxing Opera entered a new historical stage, that is, the Period of "Shaoxing Civil Opera". Because "Little Choir" was born in Shengzhou, which is subordinate to Shaoxing Prefecture, and the content of "Little Choir" is more focused on family ethics and love, so it is called "Shaoxing Civil Opera". Shaoxing Civil Opera period is the mature stage of the development of Yue Opera. It can be divided into two periods. In the early stage, there are all male actors, so it is called Shaoxing Civil Opera Male Troupe; in the later stage, there are mixed performances of male and female actors, and the transition to female troupe is called Shaoxing Civil Opera Female Troupe.

The Period of Women's Improvement in Shaoxing Civil Opera

In the history of The development of Yue Opera, the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War is an important dividing line. Before this, Shaoxing Civil Opera, which was dominated by male classes, was in its heyday, with famous actors concentrated in Shanghai and female classes flourishing, but the activity area was mainly in Zhejiang. Although there were female classes in Shanghai, most of them were mobile, so their status was not high and their influence was limited in the whole Cultural pattern of Shanghai.

In the late 1930s, after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, a large number of female classes came to Shanghai for development and rose rapidly. At the same time, male classes declined sharply and were soon replaced by female classes, gradually forming a kind of operas featuring all-female performances. Almost all the famous actors and drama companies were concentrated in Shanghai. The social and cultural environment of Shanghai has provided rich nutrition for the progress of Yue Opera art, promoted the reform of Yue Opera in the new environment, and provided a rare historical opportunity for its rapid development.

"New Yue Opera" Period

The reform of Yue Opera, which started in October 1942, opened up a new era in the history of Yue Opera and had a profound influence on the establishment of the form and style of Yue Opera. The "new Yue Opera" rising in the wave of reform in this period is obviously different from the original women's Yue Opera in terms of repertoire, music, stage image, deconstruction and operation mechanism of troupe. During the period of "New Yue Opera", Yue Opera achieved rapid development. A group of young actors, such as Yuan Xuefen, Yin Guifang, Fan Ruijuan and Fu Quanxiang, became the representatives of the new generation of Yue Opera.

The Development of Yue Opera After Liberation

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, opera art began to enter the process of planned, deployed and focused reform, and Yue Opera also began to adapt to the new era of profound reform. In the early 1950s, a drama reform movement was launched nationwide. During this period, professional drama troupes in Shanghai and Zhejiang carried out the work of "Three reforms" to different degrees successively, which brought new changes to the appearance of Yue Opera. In March 1955, Shanghai Theatre was formally established, gathering a large number of professional talents with high artistic quality in the field of yue Opera, such as editing, directing, acting, music, beauty and so on.

The Revival of Yue Opera in the New Period

The "Cultural Revolution" that began in 1966 severely destroyed Yue Opera. After the end of the "Cultural Revolution", especially after the third Plenary Session of the eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1978, Yue Opera began a comprehensive revival in a new period, ushering in a new spring in the development history of Yue Opera

Under the influence of historical conditions, the revival of Yue Opera started from the modern opera performed by men and women. In 1977, the Shanghai Yue Opera reenacted the drama with a co-performance of male and female and was a great success, setting off the wave of the revival of Yue Opera. Soon after that, Shanghai Film Studio made "Xiang Lin's wife" into the first color widescreen style art film of Yue Opera and screened it in the whole country, re-expanding the influence of Yue Opera in the whole country. Traditional and historical operas have also been resumed, and women's Yue Opera has gained recognition and new vitality. In 2006, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Yue Opera, it was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural Heritage list with the approval of The State Council. The future of Yue Opera will be more brilliant.

The Performance Characteristics of Yue Opera

First, the selection of materials for the Yue Opera plays is mainly based on the love and marriage stories of ancient talents and beauties. Such as Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, Fan Li and Xi Shi, Lu You and Tang Wan and so on. These stories have long been written and interpreted into various literary and artistic works and passed down from generation to generation among the people. After these stories were compiled into The Yue Opera, the artistic atmosphere of the story and the tragic color of the characters were enhanced, giving people a more vivid and profound impression.

Second, the music of Yue Opera is good at showing the feelings of young men and women. The singing style is based on the "Chinese Folk Rap" of Wuyue water town in the south of Yangtze River, absorbing the folk music of Sheng County. After Yuan Xuefen and lute zhou Baocai cooperation, so that the opera singing form a gentle lingering lyric style.

Third, the performances of Yue Opera are vivid, natural, elegant and moving. They are full of beauty and talent in the south of the Yangtze River, especially the performances of young girl's role, which combine the scholarliness of scholars with the beauty of young girls. The principle of "virtuality" and "stylization" and the aesthetic pursuit of "symbolism" and "freehand style" formed in the long-term artistic practice of Chinese opera performance have provided a theoretical basis for the formation of the performing art of young women in Yue Opera, so that female actors can play male roles without being restricted by their own gender. Under the guidance of virtual drama and freehand brushwork principle, the female students can not completely imitate the performance of men and force the unity of actors and roles, actors can use stylized performance to look at the male roles in the drama from the perspective of women. What she interprets is not the man in real life, but the man in the woman's mind, that is, the man that the woman idealizes, the man that the woman plays to the audience. This is just like the plum blossom and bamboo painted by Chinese painters in traditional Chinese paintings. They are not plum blossom and bamboo in nature, but plum blossom and bamboo in the artist's mind. Of course, the course of this success is not follow one's inclinations, is not subject to any condition, also need actors themselves have a certain external conditions and mental qualities, such as the tall figure, elegant temperament, generous demeanor, etc., so as to better shape the character image, conveys the verve of male role. Various schools of Yue Opera have blossomed.

Fourth, the stage presentation of the Yue Opera is fresh and elegant, which is often refreshing. The makeup of Yue Opera has absorbed the methods of drama and film, and is characterized by being close to nature, fresh and elegant, rather than exaggerated and colorful. Based on the paintings of ancient ladies in costume, the costumes are changed from complex to simple and gorgeous to clear and beautiful with the characteristics of simplicity and clarity. The scenery is simple and lively, the combination of virtual and real, with the performance of the actors, making full use of modern sound and light technology, giving people an immersive artistic feeling.(Liu,2022)

The Value of Yue Opera

Cultural Value

Cultural creation is based on traditional culture and under the influence of modern culture, absorbing new tunes, new choreography, new themes, new talents and new music of modern culture to generate a new round of cultural wave and a "new culture" that is different from the past and more adaptable. Yue Opera is "rich in expressive force, plain and smooth melody, fresh and beautiful with local flavor". It has beautiful melody, graceful and touching pronunciation, beautiful appearance but not coqueness. Both civic and military opera have their own strengths, and it is different from the softness and beauty of Peking Opera. It has a very high viewing value, which is why in recent years, Yue Opera has gained more and more audience's love, causing more and more attention. This is the cultural creation value of Yue Opera.(Jin,2012)

From the point of view of Marx's theory of literature and art, all arts (including literature, calligraphy, architecture, painting, opera, etc.) are the reflection of people's lifestyle and cultural psychology in a particular era and region. In the field investigation, we found that most of the people who adhere to Yue Opera are the older generation, because it used to be a part of their life, carrying their joys and sorrows, and relying on their understanding of life. Yue Opera touches the softest part of the heart of a generation in a casual way at some point. These cultural memories, no matter joyful, sad, beautiful or ugly, will become a kind of cultural nutrition and melt into the bones and blood of the whole regional culture and even the national culture, giving us reasons and directions to move forward. This is the cultural creation value of Yue Opera.This is the cultural inheritance value of Yue Opera.(Yang,2021)

Social value

Yue Opera originated in Shengzhou, Zhejiang province, China, so it is easy to explain why all the people in Shaoxing and Shengzhou can hum it and find pleasure in it. Obviously, in the region where It originated and developed, It has become a topic of conversation among the masses after dinner. In the folk, people are also used to organizing various performances and singing competitions of It to enrich their amateur cultural life. Therefore, in the traditional cultural matrix of Yue Opera, there is a kind of aesthetic value called social value, which has laid a solid foundation for extensive social communication among the masses. Therefore, Yue Opera gradually became a social means, which was of great significance in promoting social harmony and stability. Of course, with the continuous expansion of the overseas market of Yue Opera, it is also playing an important role in developing sino-foreign relations, consolidating sino-foreign friendship and realizing the combination of Chinese and foreign culture and art.(Jin,2012)

The Entertainment Value of Yue Opera.

As a unique type of traditional culture, History and culture have endowed it with a unique development environment, unique artistic charm, which make It a popular art form among the public. From the emergence and development of Yue Opera to its prosperity and growth, its entertainment value has been accompanied by it. Yue Opera can not only give people visual and auditory satisfaction, but also give the audience great psychological satisfaction, so as to relieve the pressure for the masses and delight the masses physically and mentally. A large number of excellent Plays of Chinese traditional Yue Opera, such as Butterfly Lovers and Peony Pavilion, brought people spiritual sustenance and was one of the important ways for people to interest their heart and soul at that time. For example, the twists and turns of the Story, the beautiful love story and the artistic stage design of the Yue Opera Peony Pavilion not only relieved people's living pressure, but also promoted people's self-cultivation.(Ye,2016)

The above research on the value of Yue Opera shows that this local opera has strong charm and development potential. Thus, we can see the reasons behind the "centennial brilliance" and strong influence of Yue Opera. Yue Opera has rich cultural value, including cultural creation value and cultural inheritance value. Shaoxing Opera also has certain social communication value, which can be called a social means. Yue Opera not only promotes social harmony, but even plays a great role in promoting the spread of Chinese culture and cultural exchanges. In addition, Yue Opera has its entertainment value. In daily life, it has enriched the lives of ordinary people and provided them with certain spiritual sustenance, which is of great significance.

The Inheritance and Development of Yue Opera

Yue Opera is one of the most important local operas in China. It has developed into the second most popular opera in China from the original Chinese Folk Rap. However, with the popularization of TV, the establishment of cinemas and the continuous expansion of the Internet, the influx of pop songs, European and American blockbusters and the change of modern people's value orientation, the traditional Yue Opera has been plunged into unprecedented crises. In today's era of vigorously protecting intangible cultural heritage and building a new socialist countryside, how to protect, inherit and develop folk Yue Opera is not only related to the survival of the opera itself, but also an important topic of "intangible cultural heritage" protection, as well as an important content to be studied in mass cultural work.(Zhang,2010)

Review the Inheritance Status of Yue Opera

Through visits to local cultural departments and literature review, we know that the performance of Yue Opera is faced with fewer and fewer audiences, and the troupe cannot survive. The number of professional Yue Opera troupes has decreased from more than 260 in the 1950s and 1960s to less than 35 now. Most folk yue troupes mainly cover the rural market, but because the market is small, they can not get a greater development. However, under the influence of various cultural and entertainment activities, the audience is mainly around 40 years old, and the younger generation is less interested in it. It can be seen that the audience of Yue Opera rarely come from the youth group, and the audience of Yue Opera is increasingly aging. Although Shengzhou is the birthplace of Yue Opera, its inheritance and development are not good. In terms of relic buildings, the original buildings about Yue Opera are very rare, and the original birthplace of Yue Opera for women can only be found in the only small village. The exhibition stand protecting the original Yue Opera props is also in disrepair and covered with dust. In terms of museums, most of the objects in the museum are restored by later generations. Props, costumes, Musical Instruments and singing stage are re-made by later generations.(Yang,2021)

Problems Faced by the Development of Yue Opera

From the early 1980s to the present, the significant reduction in the number of Yue Opera troupe is the primary problem facing the development of Yue Opera. In the early 1980s, there were seven professional Yue troupes and two professional folk Yue troupes in Jiaxing, while in the mid-1980s, there were only two professional yue troupes. Secondly, from the city to the countryside, the audience of Yue Opera is getting smaller and smaller, and the performance market is getting smaller and smaller. In the past, a company could put on a new play for two or three months. Now it can only put on two or three performances. The audience's enthusiasm for watching Yue Opera has also declined significantly. The third problem facing the development of folk Yue Opera is talent. The performance of Yue Opera has high requirements for talents. It not only requires actors to have beautiful looks and a loud voice, but also to be able to perform. Generally speaking, a good actor can play a role on the stage, no ten or five years is not out, that is to say, one minute on the stage, ten years of work off the stage. Now there is a shortage of talent in the field of Yue Opera. Fourth, repertoire creation is increasingly contracted. In the mass culture system, Yue Opera also received unprecedented cold. At present, cultural centers and art centers around the country mainly focus on the creation of music, dance and fine arts, and there is little interest in the Yue Opera of traditional Chinese opera. There are also few full-time cadres of Yue Opera of drama. In some cultural centers at the county level, full-time cadres of Yue Opera no longer exist.

The Reason Why Yue Opera Faces Confusion

Confusing in today's Yue Opera face of reason is various, but the main reason is that with the change of society and the continuous improvement of living standards. The broad masses of TV and home theater has been gradually into the people, families, people's interest constantly updated, more diverse cultural needs, and a variety of popular songs have taken young people's life. Culture is diverse, Yue Opera was gradually forgotten; Secondly, the propaganda of Yue Opera is not enough. Although the traditional Yue Opera has been quite popular with the masses, the propaganda is far less than that of Peking Opera in the whole country, which causes the dilution of Yue Opera in people's mind. The third is the lack of new strength of Yue Opera. Since the 1990s, fewer and fewer young people like Yue Opera, even fewer professional Yue Opera actors, and now the children basically do not even know what Yue Opera is; Fourth, the operating mechanism of the troupe is not working. It is far from enough for the professional troupe to rely on the financial allocation from the government alone. They have to perform outside to increase their income. (Zhang,2010)

Thoughts on Inheritance and Innovation of Yue Opera

1. Intensify Efforts to Cultivate Professional Yue Opera Actors

In the early 1950s, the period when Yue Opera flourished and developed was also the period when a large number of Art masters of Yue Opera came out. They internalized the art of Yue Opera into their lives, and their personalities and drama forms reached a harmonious unity, which became the highest condensation mode of Yue Opera art. Even when people at that time recalled the development of Yue Opera, the names of a large number of Yue Opera actors first appeared in their mind. Therefore, training a number of young actors to carry forward the Yue Opera with independent artistic life will be the first condition for Yue Opera to obtain its new development.

2. Intensify the Creation of Scripts for Yue Opera

In particular, the audience should choose the most concerned good subject matter, in the spread of "Butterfly Lovers", "Xianglin Sister-in-law" and other classic bridge based on the new culture and people's appeal, innovation. If shaoxing opera wants to get enough attention and attention in the contemporary era, it must have scripts that can reflect the values of The Times and express the demands of the people as a guarantee. This should give enough care and attention to the playwright, establish a long-term mechanism to stimulate and protect their creative enthusiasm.

3. Innovate the Promotion Method of Yue Opera

In the past, the art of Yue Opera was born as a kind of market culture of residents, but now, as a cultural heritage, Yue Opera is gradually transforming from popular culture to elegant art. Therefore, when it comes to effectively dealing with the cultural watch and spiritual breakout of Yue Opera, the first thing we need is to adjust our mentality towards the cultural phenomenon of Yue Opera. We do not advocate the Yue Opera itself directly to change to become a new culture, but should be advocated through the way of improvement and innovation make Yue Opera culture gradually in the masses of the people has the characteristics of a new era of traditional culture, such as development "Yue Opera" series of gen, create IP with Yue Opera character animation image, using new media communication way, Through a number of new channels, such as "live streaming of Internet celebrities", "school-enterprise cooperation" and "star endorsing", the new culture serves the traditional culture of Shaoxing opera and spreads the melody of Yue Opera among a wider social group. (Yang,2021)

Conclusion

As a traditional Chinese culture, Yue Opera has its own unique appreciation value. In today's multicultural world, we cannot abandon our traditional culture. We should try our best to inherit and carry forward our traditional culture, so that they can adapt to the changes of The Times and keep pace with The Times. But at the same time retain the traditional culture, let the world hear the voice of China.

References

• Jin Yingzi金英子(2012). 越剧传统文化基质和审美价值研究[Study on Traditional Culture Matrix and Aesthetic Value of Yue Opera]. 音乐探索Explorations in Music(02): 39-41.
• Liu Wenfeng刘文峰(2022). 扬长补短，再创辉煌——关于越剧传承发展的思考[Develop Strengths and Complement Weaknesses to create Brilliance -- Reflections on the Inheritance and Development of Yue Opera]. 中国非物质文化遗产China's Intangible Cultural Heritage(01): 35-39.
• Pan Yuqi潘玉琪(2009). 越剧的诞生、发展及其人文背景研究（1906-1949）[Study on the Birth, Development and Cultural Background of Yue Opera (1906-1949)].复旦大学Fudan University.
• Qian Hong, edited by the editorial board of Chinese Yue Opera Canon钱宏主编，《中国越剧大典》编委会编著(2006)．《中国越剧大典》[The Grand Ceremony of Chinese Yue Opera]．杭州市：浙江文艺出版社、浙江文艺音像出版社Hangzhou: Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House, Zhejiang Literature and Art Audio and Video Publishing house.
• Yang Ruyuan杨汝远(2021). 论非遗文化在现代化进程中的守望与传承——以越剧为例[On the Watch and Inheritance of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Modernization Process -- Taking Yue Opera as An Example]. 汉字文化Sinogram Culture(06): 175-177.
• Ye Haixiong叶海雄(2016). 越剧传统文化基质和审美价值探讨[Discussion on Traditional Culture Matrix and Aesthetic Value of Shaoxing Opera]. 戏剧之家,Home Drama(06): 52.
• Zhang Peiying张配英(2010). 浅论民间越剧的传承与创新[On the Inheritance and Innovation of Folk Yue Opera]. 大舞台Great Stage(10): 79.
• Edited by Cultural and Historical Data Committee of Shengxian CPPCC嵊县政协文史资料委员会编(1992)﹐《越剧溯源》[The Origin of Yue Opera]. 浙江人民出版社Zhejiang People's Publishing House(5): 23

Terms and expressions

Yue Opera 越剧

Chinese Folk Rap 落地唱书

Pingju opera 评剧

Little Choir 小歌班

Shaoxing Civil Opera 绍兴文戏

Peony Pavilion 牡丹亭

Questions

1.What are the five major Chinese opera genres?

2.Where is the birthplace of Yue Opera?

3.How to inherit and innovate Yue Opera?

Answers

1.Peking Opera, Huangmei Opera, Yue Opera, Pingju opera and Henan Opera.

2.Shengzhou

3.Firstly, intensify efforts to cultivate professional Yue Opera actors.Secondly,intensify the creation of scripts for Yue Opera. Thirdly, innovate the promotion method of Yue Opera.