Chapter 70 The Spark of Friendship between the Chinese and Japanese People——After watching the Japanese ballet "Gion Matsuri"

In the joyful atmosphere of the Chinese people celebrating the 15th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Japan's Matsuyama Ballet performed a new play that praised "the history of the victory of the Japanese people" - "Gion Matsuri" and other wonderful plays in Beijing up.The performances of these repertoires sent out brilliant sparks of the close friendship between the Chinese and Japanese people, which will never be extinguished in the minds of Chinese audiences. Songshan Ballet is no stranger to Chinese audiences.This young, energetic Japanese ballet troupe, with the basic policy of "carrying forward the unique Japanese performance style and creating ballet in the national form", once performed in 1958 with the new Chinese opera "The White-haired Girl". The adapted ballet was invited to visit and perform in China, and was warmly welcomed by the Chinese people.At that time, like many Chinese audiences present, I admired the beauty and vigor of Ms. Matsuyama Shuko and her partners, and expressed the indomitable spirit of resistance and struggle of Xier, Dachun and the people around them. For the performance, on the one hand, I am deeply grateful to the artists of the Matsuyama Ballet Troupe for introducing this story of Chinese people's struggle to the Japanese people on stage with the form and skills of ballet. What a great contribution the mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples have!

The play "Gion Festival" is not unfamiliar to me.Last winter, when I participated in a delegation of Chinese writers visiting Japan, I watched the performance of the Japanese "Gion Festival" in Tokyo. The "Gion Festival" originated around the ninth century. It is an annual competition held at the Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto, Japan. The float parade is the main body of the sacrifice, and there are also various forms of folk dances.These dances can unite scattered working people to form a mighty mass force.The float parade was also regarded as a demonstration of the people by the rulers who oppressed the people at that time (fifteenth century).So they promulgated eight prohibitions, and dancing was also banned, and the "Gion Festival" was interrupted.The broad masses of working people in Kyoto, Japan, united to resist donations and taxes, and decided to resume the "Gion Festival".The development of the plot begins with the carpenter Xinji and his companions secretly making floats. The peasant uprising army and the citizens jointly defeated the ruler’s police officers. The injured carpenter Xinji stood firmly on the floats. The masses pulled up the colorful ropes, and the floats began to move forward and ended with majestic music.

I am a layman for ballet skills, but from the dance and music as well as the expressions of the actors, I can also see the theme of this dance drama that peace can only be achieved through struggle. A great power to unite and struggle for a happy life.Under the creative goal of "serving the people and the revolution", the artists of the Matsuyama Ballet skillfully combined the form and technique of ballet with the Japanese people's struggle, people's life and society at that time on the basis of the basic laws of ballet. Folk dances blend together naturally.There are beautiful lyrics and dances, such as bell dance, seedling dance, flower hat dance, etc., all of which have strong local flavors and are closely integrated with people's lives; there are also majestic and inspiring dances, such as torch dance, anger dance and rise up Dance and so on, showing the brave and strong courage of the working people to unite and fight against oppression!

In terms of the nationalization of dance and music, I have little understanding, but I have a deep admiration for overcoming the difficulties of performing ballet in Japanese costumes.Before watching the performance of "Gion Matsuri" in Tokyo, I thought about how the strict and well-proportioned Japanese women's costumes - heavy belts, wide and long sleeves and long clothes tightly tied to the body - can dance lightly with ease. What about the erratic ballet?Later I saw the costumes of the actresses on the stage: the wide and long sleeves were shortened, a thin ribbon replaced the heavy belt, the clothes were also shortened, and the right bottom was tucked under the right leg like a trouser leg , but the left lapel is fluttering, and it dances, looking light and fluttering, showing the ingenuity of handling.

As a person who has lived in Japan and visited Japan many times, and witnessed the sufferings of the Japanese people under the oppression of American imperialism and the heroic struggle of the Japanese people against the United States, I sat under the stage and watched the Matsuyama Ballet The wonderful performance of the troupe made my heart unstoppable with waves of excitement!I know that the Matsuyama Ballet is creating works about the struggle of the Japanese people against the US imperialist military bases. I sincerely hope that through the outstanding performances of the artists of the Matsuyama Ballet, the reality of the Japanese people’s magnificent and raging anti-American patriotic struggle will be brought to life. Come into the eyes and minds of the Chinese people, and deepen the fighting friendship between the Chinese and Japanese peoples who are fighting against US imperialism and defending peace in Asia and the world!

I wish the Songshan Ballet a successful performance. (This article was originally published in Ta Kung Pao on October 6, 1964.)