British writer

Chapter 184 Actor

the next day.

Jay Lee Circus.

There was a babbling, clear singing voice coming from the background, which sounded like "Sifan".

This "Sifan" is an opera piece from the Kun Opera "Nie Hai Ji". It tells the story of a little nun Se Kong who was sick when she was young and was sent to live in Xiantao Temple by her parents.

He looked at us,

Let's keep an eye on him.

He and we, we share him,

A lot of worries in two moments.

Voice like a lark,

But the pronunciation is Wu Nong's soft language, which is somewhat incompatible with Kun Opera.

The singer is a Chinese girl,

She is only fifteen or sixteen years old, with fair skin, eyes that are as smart as a white rabbit, revealing her intelligence, and her hair is long and black, like a piece of silky black satin, combed into a dignified high ponytail.

"Huh~"

She sighed.

Just then, another girl came next to her,

"Xiaodai~your dad..."

The girl who sings "Sifan" is named Li Dai, and her father Li Jie is the leader of the Jie Li Circus.

The person talking to her was her friend Zhou Zhou.

Li Dai pouted,

"ignore him!"

"Pfft~"

Zhou Zhou couldn't help but sneered, leaned over, teased Li Dai's high ponytail, and whispered: "Why did you get your hair style like this again? Uncle will definitely beat you if he sees it~"

Li Dai said: "Hit? He won't bear it!"

Laugh again every week,

"That's not a fight, it's a fight! He wants to talk nonsense."

Li Dai also smiled coquettishly,

"This hair is so good. I've seen many American female ghosts do it like this. However, I guess it won't be popular soon. Have you heard of it? Now there is a popular hairstyle in New York called "Princess Hair" Anne’s princess favorite.”

Zhou Zhou asked curiously: "Princess Anne? This is the first time I have heard of it! Xiaodai, you are so amazing! You all know this."

Li Dai blushed slightly,

In fact, she didn't know what the princess's head looked like, she just heard it mentioned by guests.

There were still some keywords at that time,

What reporter?

What Lu?

What Roman holiday?

…

She knew that Rome was a beautiful city, but it was a pity that she had never been there.

The girl couldn't help but have wild thoughts.

Zhou Zhou pinched his friend's face and whispered, "What are you doing? What are you thinking about?"

Li Dai couldn't help but say "Huh?"

"I didn't... didn't think about it."

"well……"

Zhou Zhou sighed,

"I know you like Peking Opera, but you also know that with the current situation in the United States, it is not easy for us to make ends meet."

Li Dai lowered his head,

"That one is not Peking Opera, that one is Kun Opera."

How could Zhou Zhou understand this?

In her opinion, there is no difference between babbling and vomiting.

Anyway, neither makes any money in the United States.

The economy is not very good now, and even circus and acrobatics are no longer profitable, not to mention a circus like theirs with a large Chinese population, which is not popular with local people.

Fortunately, they are not Chinese workers.

Zhou Zhou heard that some Chinese workers were so oppressed that they had to form gangs.

The Chinese have formed a fighting force that cannot be underestimated.

After all, China is also martial. Such a large territory was obtained through expansion, not as a free gift when buying something.

Zhou Zhou asked: "Then what is Peking Opera?"

Speaking of this, Li Daike became interested and waved his sleeves with a smile.

"This is called Peking Opera!"

weekly:? ? ?

The little girl looked confused.

Li Dai showed an expression of "I can't teach a child" and sang: "The ice wheel on the island is turning for the first time. I see the Jade Rabbit, and then I see the Jade Rabbit rising to the east. When the ice wheel leaves the island, the universe is extremely bright. The bright moon is in the sky, just like Chang'e leaving the moon palace, like a slave. Chang'e leaves the Moon Palace."

Zhou Zhou was even more confused,

"Isn't this still the same kind of Kunqu opera?"

The origin of "The Drunken Concubine" may indeed be Kun Opera,

However, after entering Beijing during the Guangxu period, he had begun to evolve independently until Mr. Mei Lanfang gradually became a master.

So what Zhou Zhou said is not wrong,

At the beginning of the 20th century, Mei Lanfang was still a young boy.

Of course, Li Dai didn't understand the history of the development of Peking Opera, and she couldn't tell you the theoretical knowledge. She only knew that the two types of opera were different types.

She glared at her friend in embarrassment,

"If you don't understand, don't..."

As a result, before the word "nonsense" was uttered, I heard cheers from outside.

"Good! Good singing!"

Someone opened the curtain and walked in.

Zhou Zhou was shocked, and then he remembered why he came to Xiaodai.

"Well...it's over!"

The two girls lowered their heads in panic.

Li Dai asked in a low voice in her hometown dialect: "What's going on?"

Zhou Zhou said: "A few American ghosts came to see my uncle. My uncle asked me to call you over, but I forgot."

Li Dai felt dizzy.

"Ah this..."

My friend is good at everything, but he is so unreliable.

She raised her eyes carefully,

I saw my father Li Jie coming with three people.

Two of them are white men, one is old and majestic, the other is extremely noble.

They were Eliot and Wodehouse.

There is another person who is the strangest,

He was an extremely young Chinese man with no beard or hair. He was handsome and had his own bearing.

The strange thing is that he is wearing a well-tailored Western-style suit, which is worth a lot at first glance. Coupled with a ruby pocket watch, he is full of gentlemanly taste.

Can Chinese people dress like this in the United States?

Some are beyond recognition.

Eliot wondered,

"What are the two little girls muttering about?"

He was asking Lu Shi.

Lu Shi spread his hands,

"I can only get a rough idea. There's nothing I can do about it, they're speaking in dialect."

Elliot was stunned for a long time and laughed.

"Okay, okay! Professor Lu, you speak English fluently and can even freely switch between British pronunciation and American pronunciation. However, when I encountered your Chinese dialect, you actually said that you didn't understand it. I really didn't expect it."

Lu Shi also laughed,

"Chinese dialects are sometimes cross-lingual, so there is no way."

Elliot patted him on the shoulder,

The atmosphere is relaxed.

Li Dai and Zhou Zhou looked even more stunned.

Neither of them expected that a Chinese could chat and laugh so happily with an American.

Moreover, one look at the American shows that his status is not low.

What's going on?

The two girls were very puzzled.

Lu Shi was curious,

"Which of you just sang that part of "The Drunken Concubine"? Well... it was "The Drunken Concubine", right?"

In fact, he doesn’t understand Peking Opera either.

For modern people, tradition is valuable, but pop songs are still better.

Li Dai and Zhou Zhou looked at each other and at the same time glanced at Li Jie from the corner of their eyes.

The latter nodded imperceptibly.

then,

"It's her (me)!"

Zhou Zhou took a step back.

Li Dai's teeth were broken and she wanted to bite her friend hard.

Lu Shi looked at it and wanted to laugh.

These are all plastic sisters.

He said: "It doesn't matter, I think you can sing very well. But, I heard Brother Li say, you are a circus and acrobatic troupe, how can anyone sing? This shouldn't be necessary to practice, right?"

Li Dai raised her head and looked at Lu Shi.

Then it went down again,

"Um."

Lu Shi scratched his head,

Could it be that the modern Mandarin I spoke was considered a dialect at the beginning of the 20th century?

But Gu Hongming has no problem listening...

He asked the other party: "Don't you understand what I'm saying?"

Li Jie watched anxiously from the side and interrupted: "No, no, no! Mr. Lu, you are speaking Zhili dialect, which is very standard. How can you not understand it?"

After speaking, Li Jie winked at his daughter.

Li Dai then said: "I can understand."

Wu Nong said softly.

Lu Shi said "hmm" and continued the topic: "You haven't answered me yet."

"well……"

Li Dai sighed,

"Mr. Lu...eh..."

When she raised her head and stared blankly at Lu, she noticed that her father addressed him very respectfully.

What kind of "sir" is this young man?

Lu Shi asked, "What's wrong?"

Li Dai shook her head hurriedly,

"No, no, I just...I...ah, by the way, why I practice Peking Opera. Professor Lu, you have also seen that I am sixteen...um...at my age, how long can I practice acrobatics?"

She originally wanted to tell her age directly,

Children of Jianghu are normal.

However, this is not etiquette in the West or the East. When facing a "sir" like Lu Shi, one should still be cautious.

Lu Shi nodded,

"I understand. Sometimes I find it difficult to watch acrobatics."

Li Dai shook her head and said soberly: "Is it difficult? I think practicing ballet is also very difficult. I don't know what is so elegant about it. The same is true for sports. Why does a sport like boxing that hurts each other exist?"

Lu Shi was surprised,

"ah?"

Li Jie on the side said quickly: "Xiaodai! Stop talking!"

Lu Shi waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter, I want to hear it too."

Li Dai continued,

"Mr. Lu, can you easily fold the first section of your finger up? Like this..."

As she spoke, she performed a ninety-degree bend.

Lu Shi said: "I understand, you are talking about talent. Indeed, some people are born with the ability to bend their fingers like this, even more easily and flexibly than I can bend my fingers in the normal direction. This does not require any training, it is talent."

Li Dai glanced at Lu Shi and felt that Lu Shi was very keen.

She danced her right fingers on her arm,

"This is also acrobatics~"

Lu Shi nodded,

"Yes, moving to the extreme limits of the human body is not acrobatics. Acrobatics is the use of talent to choreograph eye-catching movements, such as your finger dance."

Li Dai put down her hands and slumped her shoulders.

"But people don't like this. That's why I want to practice singing~ but the Yankees don't like it."

As soon as he finished speaking, Eliot spoke,

"'Gui Lao', this is one of the few Chinese words I can understand."

Li Jie's expression changed instantly,

Zhou Zhou and Xiao Dai were not proficient in English, but they could get a general idea from just a few words. They were a little panicked.

Unexpectedly, Lu Shi turned around and joked to Elliot: "Gui Lao is a cute nickname."

Elliot laughed,

"Professor Lu, that's why I say you should come and live in the United States. It's a shame to be in the UK with your face. Of course, if you get a job in Whitehall in the UK, your face may not be thick enough."

Wodehouse's head is full of black lines,

￣□￣｜｜

"Why do you involve us!?"

The three of them were joking,

In an instant, the tense atmosphere just now relaxed.

Lu Shi turned to Li Dai and said, "It doesn't matter, I have a play that needs you circus people to perform."

Li Dai looked at Lu with some disbelief.

"Going back to your country?"

Lu Shi was stunned and realized that the other party felt that he did not have that strength in the United States.

He said, "No, at Harvard."

Li Dai doesn't know "Harvard", but she knows "university\

,""Going to act in college? Peking Opera? Where is this Harvard University?"

Lu Shi said: "I can only answer so many questions one by one. First of all, Harvard University is in Cambridge, not far from Boston. You can take the train there."

Li Dai has taken the train, but only twice.

"Take the train!"

She was a little excited.

Lu Shi nodded, pointed at Eliot, and said, "This ghost is the president of Harvard University."

Hearing the word "Ghost", Elliot nodded slightly,

"Happy to oblige."

Li Dai was a little surprised,

When she looked at Lu, she began to believe in the strength of the young man in front of her.

Lu Shi added: "Second, what we want to focus on is drama, not Eastern Peking Opera, but Western drama. Because I need more than a dozen Chinese actors, I found your circus, and Brother Li has agreed."

Li Dai looked at Lu with a strange expression.

"drama?"

Lu Shi knew that the other party still had doubts, so he explained: "You may not know that I am a playwright. I have written "Yes! Prime Minister" and "Roman Holiday". The former is popular in London, England, and the latter is even more popular in Europe. Unprecedented success.”

Therefore, "Roman Holiday" is a drama,

stare--

Zhou Zhou looked at his friend with sharp eyes.

Li Dai's face turned red.

"So, Princess Anne..."

Lu Shi was surprised,

"You actually know the name of the heroine in Roman Holiday?"

Li Dai: "..."

"Isn't Princess Anne a real person?"

Lu Shi thought of Margarita and explained: "Yes and no. Princess Anne has a prototype in reality."

Li Dai asked curiously: "Does Margarita have that kind of hair shape in real life?"

"Head shape?"

Lu Shi was confused.

He was a little confused by the other party's brain circuit.

Li Dai blushed,

"No, I didn't ask anything."

Lu Shi could only pretend that the other party didn't ask anything, and continued: "In short, we need actors."

Li Dai said: "But, American ghost...can Americans understand Chinese?"

Lu Shi shook his head,

"What are you talking about? Of course not! I wrote "Yes! Prime Minister" and "Roman Holiday" also in English."

Hearing what Lu Shi said, Li Dai instantly fell into low pressure.

She sighed,

"Professor Lu, my English is not good. Besides, I only speak English and can't read the script at all. How should I perform under such circumstances?"

Lu Shi smiled,

"It doesn't matter. Your broken English won't stop you from acting. I can guide you."

Li Dai couldn't help but feel excited.

She wants to be an actress,

Even become a big star.

After all, you can't perform acrobatics for a lifetime. When you get older, you will definitely not be able to do many moves.

She is now sixteen years old, and there are already many movements that are difficult to perform.

Lu Shi said: "It's just that our play is destined to be performed only in universities and not to be on the big stage. Because there are some... errors in this play."

Li Dai was puzzled.

"What is incorrect?"

Lu Shi remained silent,

It's hard to explain this to a little girl.

He turned back to Li Jie and said, "Brother Li, your circus looks very good. The actors here are exactly what I need."

Li Jie couldn't help but glance at his daughter and felt relieved.

I don’t know if my daughter played a positive or negative role in persuading the other party.

He said: "Professor Lu, what about remuneration?"

I don’t want to talk about money,

But there is no way to survive.

The circus has so many people to feed.

Lu Shi said: "Be calm and don't be impatient."