Chapter 50 dance debris

In the eighth issue of "Times Weekly", the old Gaixian Xia Yuanyu wrote an emotional talk about the past and present of Beiping ballroom dancing. It dates back to the past before the Gengzi Year. I am really ashamed and lonely, and I can't describe it of.I can only write down the trivial things I know about the Beijing Hotel, and talk about it for everyone who loves to dance. Regarding the earliest dance venue in Peiping, according to Yan Yintong, the former teacher, the French legation in Dongjiaomin Lane was the first to have a dance floor (it was called the legation instead of the embassy at first).Yan Shi was an early graduate of the Tongwen Institute. After graduation, the graduates of the Institute were all sent to countries with diplomatic relations as study consuls.Everyone knows that there is a so-called ballroom dancing, but no one has seen it.In order to avoid being timid when going abroad, I took them to the French legation for an internship.I saw men and women embracing each other and dancing with each other. Although they felt that the dance steps were graceful and graceful, none of them dared to go down to the pool and dance with that beauty before dinner.Yuan Chang, supervisor of the Tongwen Museum, told fellow students that this is the only place in Peking that has ballroom dancing.

Some people say that Taiping Red House was the first to have dances. In fact, it was the French Embassy that actually set up a small dance floor and started to dance for meals! The only restaurant and hotel in Peking that officially has a dance floor is the Beijing Hotel.At that time, Feige Chonglou was towering and towering. The four-story building looked towering to ordinary people, and it was too high to look up. .Some people say that this place was the former site of the Huitong Pavilion for entertaining foreign envoys and commercial envoys in the pre-Ming Dynasty. At first, everyone didn't quite believe it, but it was confirmed later.

The reason is this: it turns out that in the corridors on each floor of the Beijing Hotel, jewelry, jade, leather, antiques, and handicrafts are all made in thousands of lines. The restaurant is called Xinhonglou, to distinguish it from the Taiping Redlou). There are many stalls, and there are many people who come in and out at the same time. It is really outrageous.At that time, the major shareholder of the Beijing Hotel was Sino-French Industrial Bank, so it proposed to buy a piece of land next to the Red Building and expand it.During the construction, a lot of broken Ming Dynasty porcelain pieces were dug out on the construction site. Among them, there is a complete piece of porcelain that is a green dragon pattern porcelain bowl from Chenghua kiln in Ming Dynasty. After careful identification by archaeologists, it is confirmed that this place is actually the former site of Huitong Pavilion in Ming Dynasty. , and officially included in "Shuntian House Chronicles".

The new building of the Beijing Hotel was completed, the manager Shao Baoyuan suddenly became silly and whimsical, and held an unprecedentedly grand celebration ball, and it is said that 500 posts were sent.But the number of guests who came was several times higher than the number of posts. For a while, the seats were full of golden weaves, skirts and clogs were like clouds, the flowers were full of wine, the silhouettes were fragrant, the scholars were swallowtails, and the women were bare shoulders. , Nine cities are all out, compared to Yuan Li's two public dances, it is only worse than nothing.At that time, the large dance floor was built with a parquet floor, and the dance was graceful and elastic, which seemed drunk and suspicious.The cups used for meals are also sharpened. In addition to being magnificent and elegant, each person on the table has a gold and silver handwashing bowl.Some people didn't know the purpose of the water bowl at hand, so they just picked up the water bowl and drank it, so there was a joke about someone drinking handwashing water later.

At this dance banquet, each person was presented with a specially designed silk napkin. Later, some ladies met in an open car, went for a drive, and used the napkin as a head scarf. . The atmosphere of Beiping is relatively conservative in terms of architecture. In those days, except for the altars of the two churches of "Aligan" and "Xishku", each of which had a multicolored glass relief, the Beijing Hotel had a lintel on the west side of the dance floor, with stone patterns and ink wisps. Engraved glass bricks form colorful and brilliant reliefs.It is different from the method of first casting the iron frame and inlaying colored bricks in it, and it is not like painting the pattern on the cellophane and sticking it up. All in the midst of clouds and mist, it is really an extraordinary masterpiece.

Wu Juan lights her up, takes a cup of espresso, and stares at it. Mr. Yan Junren (Hui Qing) thinks that there are any troublesome problems. With a cup in his hand, meditate and watch, while integrating his own thoughts, all problems will be solved naturally.It is proved that several other senior diplomats have the same feelings as Mr. Yan. When the Beijing Hotel first held a ball, there were very strict regulations on men's clothing, and they were allowed to enter the venue only in neat evening gowns.The only exception is Mr. Gu Tangsheng (Hongming), and Jiang Yucheng (Chaozong), but the two of them also have an unwritten rule of self-discipline, that is, they will never take off their jackets in the ballroom to show dignity.As for the Khenpos, the attendants of the Panchen Lama, who danced at the Beijing Hotel, they wore not only yellow robes and jackets, but also a lot of work that all lamas should wear (including purses, hand knives, etc.).At first everyone felt that their costumes were weird and their movements were special, but as time passed, they became more at ease.

Although this group of lamas danced clumsily, they were generous, and often took out small golden beans from their purses as rewards, so they were quite popular with the general waiters.Some courtesans are also happy to dance with them. At that time, there was a catchphrase among courtesans: "Is there a camel?" The camel refers to the group of lamas, and the others are self-evident. Back then, strolling in the Central Park at sunset, listening to Mei Lanfang sing Peking opera in "True Light", and dancing ballroom dancing at the Beijing Hotel were all occasions where high-end gentry, businessmen and ladies gathered.At the beginning of the Beijing Hotel, the most powerful people were Rui Wang Fujin, Cao Rulin and his wife Ruiqing, Gu Weijun’s original wife Mrs. Huang, and the famous ticket Li Bing’an Chong Ji Hou, followed by Mrs. Chen Qingwen’s wife, Miss Zhu San, Peking University belle Ma Jue, Kunqu opera famous tickets Yu Shan, Feng Liu and Zhao Qi are both famous in Beijing Hotel.As for the rising stars of the third generation, there are Zhu Liu, Cai Jiu, Tan Si, Zhao Si, Bai Meigui, Butterfly Girl and others.

With the passage of time, the waves behind the Yangtze River push forward the waves ahead, and the new generation replaces the old ones. One group is better than the other group, with beautiful makeup and decorations, nine colors of flowers, graceful and luxurious attitudes, even if the conversation and laughter are well-regulated, they can be just right.Compared with the modern trendy figures, it seems that the atmosphere is different.Maybe the author is old, and seems to feel that there is always some sense of not being as good as before. In the wake of the Second World War, the property rights of the Beijing Hotel were transferred from the French to the Japanese. Those Songtailiang restaurants and Zhulian Yuhu were changed by Japanese philistines who did not understand elegance into dining rooms with neither east nor west.Every time I pass by here, I always feel an indescribable feeling of melancholy in my heart when I think back to those years.