The fragrance leaves traces wherever the dawn breeze passes
A brief discussion of Xiaofeng’s drama (2)
Seeds are spread by the wind - Xiaofeng who serves with pen
A good script can unconsciously integrate the audience's emotions into the author's thoughts. Just like diners have certain cooking preferences or taste habits for certain ingredients, a chef with real skills can gradually "tame" the taste buds of diners through ingenuity. The same ingredients can be used to prepare exotic dishes with different flavors in the hands of the chef - what Xiaofeng serves is a dish with a taste of Christian faith. Diners (audiences) may not be used to it at first, but that shouldn’t make them think it’s an unpalatable dish. In fact, from the perspective of today's society where individualism is prevalent, if a dish lacks the chef's personal style, it has no "selling point"!
The success of Xiaofeng's drama (script) lies in her familiarity with original ingredients. She understands Chinese literature and is familiar with classics. She has worked hard to practice cooking and also studied exotic cuisine (Western drama classics), so she can create unique stages. drama. She has a healthy and lively imagination and care for the world, so she can touch people's hearts. The element of faith hidden deep in her life makes her works naturally reveal rich spiritual life.
▲Zhang Xiaofeng. The faith values in the Bible have deeply influenced Xiaofeng's drama creation.
《和氏璧》一劇中的卞和，在熟諳聖經的觀眾看來，彷彿有著耶利米的影子，那個因著神呼召，義無反顧踏上艱難不討好之路的先知。「甚麼是真，甚麼是假，失去信心的人只能做自己生命的浪子。而你卻呼召我走一條難走的路。你要我做獨自清醒著的人，你要我做獨自不眠的人，我竟逐漸忘記了我也有為自己而活的權利。但是，前路漫漫，世上條路比這條路更長嗎？」在這黑暗彎曲的世代，你我是否有「持守」的勇氣：「在這慣於『否定』的時代裡，為真理作『致命式的肯定』嗎？」1 基督徒觀眾在觀賞《和氏璧》時，是否對「做無愧的工人，按著正意分解真理的道」更覺任重道遠？
Xiaofeng did not deliberately preach through scripts as criticized by the outside world; but she did use drama to arouse the audience's "desire to ask questions." Life is like a play, play is like life, and the stage can be a microcosm of real life. The characters on the stage eat, drink, marry, and experience birth, old age, illness, and death just like you and me. Because of the love, hate and resentment that live on the stage, it caused the audience in the audience to think about universal common issues. Be it Christians or non-Christians, as long as they are human beings, they can all resonate with this theme to a greater or lesser extent.
A script written by a Christian writer, the DNA of faith contained in it has been deeply embedded in it, and may have different characteristics in the hands of different interpreters; some are explicit, some are implicit, but most of them are explicit. It changes but cannot escape from the order of its arrangement and combination - this is the basic confidence that a good work and a good author should have. I believe that the information the author wants to convey can fly like dandelion seeds in the wind and land in unknown lands, bringing unexpected prosperity.
曉風的劇本深深流露著她對生命的尊重與熱愛。她曾說信仰來帶給她的影響包括「對生命的基本問題有所認定，連帶的使她對生命中的一些小問題較看得開，能面對生或裡的個種小挫折。」2 曉風在劇本裡深入探索生命的形態與人生的奧秘─她提問，卻不強迫觀眾接受單一的解釋；她質疑，卻容許觀眾有多元的答案。不論她是否在劇本裡為那些矛盾糾葛理出了頭緒，是否替那些愛恨情仇提供了救贖，她至少成功地將觀眾提升到一個不一樣的思考高度，引領他們看見了另一種可能。
The wind blows and the grass becomes greener every year - the extension of Xiaofeng's works in today's society
曉風自述，作者如水源，可以成溪、成井、甚至成自來水，一個作者寫甚麼形式的文章也是如此，她也從不自我設限，一如她的戲劇，在表達上她總是多方嘗試，不為任何形式所囿，重要的是要忠於自己的感受，將生命中的有所感寫下來。3 作者如水源，其實，讀者﹝觀眾﹞也如水流。很多人或許認為，在大眾媒體蓬勃發展，網路媒介盛行的時代，舞臺戲劇已成了「小眾」、甚至是「夕陽文化」；但換個角度來看，人們或許早已厭倦大眾口味，若能適時端出限量發行的私房菜，可能會造成意想不到的賣座與好評。
The writer Bai Xianyong once successfully put the seemingly outdated traditional Kunqu opera "The Peony Pavilion" on the stage, causing a sensation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and three places, and even captured the hearts of the younger generation of audiences. Many elements on and off stage have contributed to the brilliance of the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion": the theme of "youth and love", loyalty to the original work without modification, the handsome and elegant appearance of the young actors, the fueling of the media, and " Kunqu Opera Volunteer" Bai Xianyong's own fame and influence... If Xiaofeng's works are "Xiaofeng" as the signature, and then infused with elements that nourish the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion", will her drama be able to succeed again? Earth shines on the stages of the three places across the Taiwan Strait?
▲Because the "life" performed by the characters on the stage caused the audience in the audience to think about the common problems faced by mankind around the world.
Xiaofeng's plays have been performed repeatedly in various places in the past, and many performers would ask her for her opinion. But she personally feels that her opinion is not important. If the author has passed away, who should the actor ask for advice? "Who can ask Shakespeare's opinion?" This seems to be the answer to "Should a play written by a Christian writer be performed by Christian actors or even a Christian theater company?" When a novel, an article, or a play is completed, it is like a fetus breaking away from its mother's umbilical cord and beginning its own growth. They are nourished by readers' knowledge, imagination, emotions and experiences, and evolve into their own styles. The same work will receive different information in the eyes of different readers; even the same reader may have different understandings of the same work as his age and life experience increase. Does a play written by a Christian author have to go through a Christian theater company to truly convey a divine message? Maybe it's not a true or false question, but a multiple-choice question that can be played freely from different angles.
曉風藉由閱讀聖經，訓練出由故事、比喻中看見真理的眼光，也練就她在創作時，能藉由一個簡單故事抓出深邃內涵的功力。4 聖經裡的文學性激發了許多中外作者的想像力；而想像力若如牧者作家畢德生所形容的，是「健康有活力」時，它們能幫助我們將屬神的生命以一種活潑有影響力的方式呈現給世人。
The faith values in the Bible have deeply influenced Xiaofeng's drama creation - a good script needs a good troupe to bring it to life on the stage. Likewise, a theater company with rich spiritual energy can bring new life to a script. Stories call for stories, and lives influence lives. A script written by a Christian writer can tug at the soul strings of an actor who is not a Christian. A theater troupe composed of Christians may also deeply impact the bottom of the lives of non-Christian audiences, triggering a distant resonance and stimulating the desire for the truth of the gospel. I hope that in this generation, more literary and artistic workers with such a vision will be raised up to shine for the Lord on the stage.
Note:
1. "He Shi Bi" Scene 8
2. "Senior Dramatist Series Zhang Xiaofeng: Young Shoots Turn Green" p. 57
3. "Senior Dramatist Series Zhang Xiaofeng: Solidity" P. 168, 169
4. "Senior Dramatist Series Zhang Xiaofeng: Young Shoots Turn Green" p. 57
Zi En also has the pen name Xiao En. A student of the first class of the North American Creation and Literature Camp, now a co-worker of Creation and Literature. I wrote compositions when I was young, and articles when I grew up. I used to write for myself, but now I give the pen to God. Cooking words to quench hunger cannot bring real spiritual satiety, but I would like to contribute five loaves and two fishes and bake word cookies to "appetite" readers, and then be willing to come into contact with the truth of faith and taste the taste of the Lord's grace.