Wang Bing

Wang Bing

Wang Bing (1930-may 19, 2012) is a performing artist. His representative works include Li Hongzhang in going to the Republic and Wu Zixu in sleeping on fuel and tasting gall.

He died of illness on May 19, 2012, and a farewell ceremony was held at Babaoshan cemetery on the morning of May 23.

Personal experience

Early experience

Wang Bing joined the drama department of North China University of Arts (the predecessor of the Central Academy of Drama) in early 1949 and worked as a teacher of lines in the former Beijing Academy of Arts. Later, he went to work at the grassroots level. Work as a cultural Librarian in Daxing. He is very fond of creation and has written quyi, essays, small plays and drama plays.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Wang Bing was the pillar of the Beijing Youth Art Theater (now incorporated into the National Theatre). He starred in the stage drama Paul Kochakin, the drama Figaro's wedding and Hamlet, which have played all over China.

Wang Bing's wife is a doctor from Tsinghua University. They have two daughters. One is engaged in scientific research in the Academy of Sciences; the other is a businessman. When the two daughters became adults, Wang Bing was criticized during the "Cultural Revolution". Because Wang Bing himself was once disheartened to be an actor, neither of them was engaged in acting.

Acting experience

King of Green Arts

Born in 1930, he was 70 years old when he played Li Hongzhang in "towards the Republic" in 2000. Actor Wang Bing is the same age as Li Hongzhang in the play. He understands Li Hongzhang's mental journey. Wang Bing's life experience provides him with a very good performance experience. Wang Bing was the pillar of Beijing Youth Art Theater in the 1950s and 1960s. The theater takes two or three stage plays every year, and Wang Bing is a male star. For example, the stage play "Paul Kochakin" in the 1950s toured the country for more than 400 times, playing all over China; the drama "Figaro's wedding" has also been performed by Wang Bing for more than 100 times. In Hamlet and many other Shakespeare's plays, Wang Bing is also the leading actor and has played hundreds of plays. After Wang Bing retired in 1990, because of his health, he completely withdrew from the stage of drama. But from time to time, Wang Bing will guest star in a movie and TV series. For example, in the movie "father son classic car", Wang Bing plays a manager; in the movie "the last aristocrat", he and Lu Yan play husband and wife, playing Pan Hong's father. He plays Di Renjie, an important Minister of Wu Zetian, in the TV play Wu Zetian, and song Jing, a famous Minister of Tang Dynasty, in the TV play Emperor Tang Ming starring Liu Wei. Before shooting the TV series towards the Republic, he had just played the role of the fourth master of a gambling house owner in an 18 episode Hong Kong TV series cricket.

Encountering the Cultural Revolution

Wang Bing recalled: "at the beginning of the cultural revolution, I was listed as a black line figure and put in a cowshed. The reason is that all the roles I play are "big, foreign and ancient". At that time, I couldn't understand it. I didn't know where I was wrong, because all the roles were played by the leaders, but in the end, I was locked up. I was really upset and depressed. Originally, I was very popular, but since I was called a black line person, almost all my acquaintances ignored me. When they saw me, they would always bow their heads. But one day, a little girl of our colleagues, after seeing me, she stood opposite me and looked at me for a long time. Later, the little girl gave me a smile. This smile, for me at that time, not to mention moved, is still unforgettable.

Playing Li Hongzhang

Desire to perform

In 2000, Wang Bing was deeply moved by the script after receiving the script of the TV play towards the Republic. Wang Bing said: "although I am old and in poor health, the character Li Hongzhang in the script is very well written. More than ten years ago, I acted in the stage play "a generation of romantic", in which I played Cai E, the leading actor who fought against Yuan Shikai. The performance of that play has already had a preliminary understanding of the history of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. In the play towards the Republic, the writer takes a new perspective on Li Hongzhang's betrayal of his country. I have a strong desire to shape this new Li Hongzhang from the bottom of my heart. "

In September 2001, before the shooting of "towards the Republic", Wang Bing entered the production group one month ahead of schedule, read a lot of books about Li Hongzhang, including "Li Hongzhang's life art", "Li Hongzhang's political art", and systematically studied five books about the history of the late Qing Dynasty written by one of the screenwriters Zhang Jianwei. Of the 59 episodes, Li Hongzhang's plays are all in the first 20 episodes. Wang Bing said: "I have lived in the crew for seven months. If I can persist, I should also thank the crew for their care. As I am the oldest actor in the whole cast, the cast takes good care of me: they send a special assistant to take care of me and give me a small kitchen stove. "

Since playing "towards the Republic", Wang Bing has been in a state of rest. Wang Bing said: "I can't shoot with all my life without a play that I'm particularly interested in. The implication is that the play was shot by Wang Bing.

Wang Bing sighed: "in the play towards the Republic, I found the basis for performance in many scenes from my emotional passbook."

In the play, there is a play like this: the Sino Japanese naval battle of 1894 failed, Li Hongzhang was dismissed, and the main fighting faction created a lot of public opinion. For a moment, Li Hongzhang became a traitor who thousands of people scolded and thousands of people hated. Li Hongzhang hid in a temple to cultivate himself. He once thought about suicide. At this time, Cixi specially sent a maid in waiting on Li Hongzhang, singing operas for him, playing with him, and persuading him not to be depressed. During the performance, Wang Bing had a similar experience and was able to understand Li Hongzhang's depressed inner world.

What Wang Bing did not expect is that during the cultural revolution, Wang Bing was put into a "cowshed" to be censored, but it became the precipitation of Wang Bing's life to shape Li Hongzhang's lost mood after he was dismissed from office.

Background

Speaking of the process of taking over the role of Li Hongzhang, Mr. Wang seemed very happy. "To say that the process before and after I took over this role is actually very common, similar to the experience of ordinary actors. At that time, two plays wanted to see me, but I didn't feel particularly satisfied after watching the characters. To be honest, I'm 71 years old and it's time to quit, so I don't want to play. Once, Zhang Li (director of "towards the Republic") went to my house and said that he wanted to see the stills of Di Renjie in Wu Zetian. I showed it to him. After reading it, he talked with me and then asked me what I thought of Li Hongzhang. At this time, I had already guessed that he was looking for me to play Li Hongzhang. But at that time, I didn't say I didn't want to play. Instead, I talked with him about Li Hongzhang. Why? Because I am interested in Li Hongzhang. As an actor, whether old or young, you still want to play good roles. This is probably the so-called occupational disease. "

"I'm an actor. I came from drama. I've been on stage all my life, and I've played in several films and TV plays. Although there are differences between speech drama and film and television drama, the pursuit of art is the same, that is to create a living character. If the characterization is not successful, that is to say, the character is dead, then this work is definitely a failure. So I let go of chatting with Zhang Li at that time. On the one hand, I expressed my views. On the other hand, I also wanted to know whether his views were the same as mine and whether he wanted to create a living person. "

Role understanding

"Li Hongzhang is said to be a traitor and traitor. I don't agree with this point of view. At least it's too one-sided. We Chinese have a very bad habit, that is, the winner is the king, the loser is the enemy. As long as you fail, people will say that you can't do this or that. In my opinion, if you look at a thing or a person, you can't just look at the result. You have to look at the motivation and process to see things comprehensively. Li Hongzhang was indeed very unsuccessful. He didn't get much effect in running Westernization affairs. In running the Navy, the whole army was annihilated in the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895. He tried his best to do diplomacy, but he was basically the one who signed the Treaty of reparations for territorial separation. It can be said that nothing is good. There are two reasons. One is the environmental conditions at that time, and the other is Li Hongzhang's personal reasons. "

"I don't need to say that you know the environmental conditions. To put it simply, China couldn't do anything at that time. In that kind of environment, what can a senior marshal who has read only a subset of classics and history do? To be fair, it was very good that he could see that China was in urgent need of advanced technology at that time. What's more, he's still working hard to do it, which is even more valuable. To sum up, Li Hongzhang has done nothing more than two things: one is "struggle" and the other is "harmony". He fought with Weng Tonghe, Cixi and foreigners for the sake of military spending, factory funding, advanced technology and the safety of the Qing Dynasty. However, once he felt that he could not compete, he began to compromise with him, that is, compromise. Why compromise? There are some unavoidable elements in it. Of course, there are also his own reasons. So I sometimes think that he is a bit of a "bear humiliation" in it

"At that time, when I said these views, Zhang Li began to get excited and said that I was in complete agreement with his views. It may have been a little too much, but we were very excited at that time. The more we talked, the more speculative we became. Later, he wrote the script. Up to now, few scripts have been read all at once. But this time I really read the script in one breath. After reading, I have only one sentence, that is: "this book conquers me.". That's true. It is a new historical perspective, new ideas to shape the living

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