[Memory] Tea Garden and Paradise of Old Chengdu

The tea garden and theater of the old Chengdu

The authentic Chengdu Tea Garden has a strong characteristics of western Sichuan: a small square table, several bamboo chairs, and all tea guests, "Dr. Tea" through the tea table back and forth, inadvertently shouting "pour the bowl-" Then spatter the tea boat on the tea table, and the old Gao and the old and old dripped the boiling water in the copper pot into the tea bowl. This kind of chic and charm of Chengdu Tea Garden, as long as you "bubble" there for a few hours, keep your taste endless and linger.

Old Chengdu Tea House (Cecil Beaton)

People in Chengdu are sitting in the teahouse. There are not many people who really thirst. From morning to night, the people who follow them are naturally interesting: there are three friends and four friends, some who have negotiated business, have a nap, and there are no troubles. Those who read the newspaper read the newspaper, there are also birds and crickets in the early morning, and there are regular whistles to "siege drums" to sing Sichuan opera. In addition to these various tea guests, the tea gardens can also be seen everywhere, leather shoes, paper -selling smoke, and sneaks on people to show their fortune -telling ... A teahouse is a small social window in society. Why is a teahouse not a picture of the world.

However, the early tea gardens in Chengdu were linked to the same singing drama -the tea garden was a comprehensive service garden. Moreover, the integration of Chengdu tea culture and theater culture has a history of nearly a century.

In 1941, a reporter of "Life" magazine in the United States C. McDINS in a township teahouse shot in Longquanyi, Sichuan

As early as the thirty -two years of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, Wu Bicheng, a native of Huayang, was in Chengdu Huizhou North Street (now the section of Tai Shengnan Road between East Street and Kangzhuang Street) of the Suzhou -Hangzhou Opera Garden. Based on the Gongguan Court, the first tea garden for the acting was built. This tea garden is not only selling tea, but it is actually a comprehensive service garden. At the beginning of the business, the owner hired the Yanhe Class from Beijing to sing Peking Opera in the garden. As soon as the tea opera operated the wind, he often performed by the Sichuan opera class. The "Chengdu Trip" in the late Qing Dynasty introduced it for this:

"There was no garden in the past. In the thirty -two years of Guangxu, Wu Bicheng was founded in the garden of Huizhou North Street. Chengdu people watched the drama. It is still the rules. Each pentagon, the original maiden, because of the local atmosphere, and most people use women as a wonders, repeatedly nourishing the end, because the official bureau is banned. There are soldiers in tea ... ... Now the enlightenment, the police station, and the Commercial Bureau have advocated the opera improvement meeting set up by the Chamber of Commerce, and rehearsed new dramas to influence the foolishness.

At that time, the director of the Police General Office and persuaded Zhou Xiaoshuai to be committed to the social improvement of the "prostitutes, factories, factories, improved operas, and created a persuasion field -today's commercial venues). In these reform measures, Zhou Xiaohuai came forward to raise funds and set up Yuelai Company. One of them was to build Yue Lai Tea Garden (now Jinjiang Theater), which was originally worshiped by the original worship of the drama god in Huaxingzheng Street, Chengdu.

Farmers who enter the city to sell vegetables to drink tea in the teahouse

Since then, in the Chengdu urban area, there are three consecutive sakes of the Jinjiang Tea Garden, Shaochun Tea Garden, Shaocheng Park (now People's Park), and the Fairy Tea Garden of the President Street (later Zhiyu Cinema, Today Hongqi Theater), and The Grand View Tea Garden of Ziyi Bridge, the outer Dongjin Guanyi Xunjin Tea Garden ... Although these places are called "Tea Garden", they are all acting gardens. Even the "Sanyi Gong" (later news theater), which was later built on the alley of the new street of Chunxi Road, is also a good place to have tea and play. This is as described as a "Jincheng Bamboo Branch" described in 1924:

All the tea gardens in Liyuan,

The scene is full of the city,

How much is the selling price?

Female guests are the most ecstasy everywhere.

At that time, people called the Garden Garden as the Tea Garden because the garden at that time had only a fixed stage, and there were no fixed audience seats. Those who watched the scene were sitting around the eight immortal tables at the stage of the stage. play. In the early years of the Republic of China, the garden began to install a fixed audience seat according to the number of seats, and there were tea tables on the left and right front seats. Later, in the front of the front seat in the front hall There is a wire cage hanging on the top with tea cups and tea. The audience still drinks tea while watching the show.

Teahouse (Photo by Chen Jin)

The habit of tea and drama in Chengdu people still described it until 1938 under the poet He Qifang's writing. He wrote in the article "From Chengdu to Yan'an":

"(Yan'an) Those Shaanxi accents that can't hear the" Sanyi Gong "of Chengdu. That is a weird business place on Chunxi Road, the most lively street in Chengdu, which contains theaters, teahouses, barber shops and bathhouses."

Drink tea -watching, watching the show -drinking tea. In the past century, the legacy of this kind of tea and drama has still existed. If you are interested, you may wish to go to the Huaxing Street Jinjiang Theater of the bird, the antique street opera tea tower, the Chengdu teahouse of Shuijin Street, a bowl of incense, listen to a few folds of Sichuan opera, taste a few Beijing opera, hum about a few sections Yangqin. This must be very comfortable.

Source: Sichuan Provincial Local House Work Office

Supply: Office of the Chengdu Local Chronicle Compilation Committee

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