“我們是為神靈表演”：中國(guó)潮劇在泰國(guó)

“Anywhere they play in Bangkok, I’ll be there,” said Warin Nithihiranyakul, 73, a dedicated fan of the Sai Yong Hong Chinese Opera troupe for more than 10 years. While waiting for his friends to arrive, he helps out by starting to set up plastic red chairs for the audience to watch the evening’s performance in an area just south of Bangkok’s Chinatown.

“不管他們?cè)诼仁裁吹胤窖莩?，我都?huì)去看，”73歲的瓦林·尼西蘭亞庫(kù)(Warin Nithihiranyakul)說(shuō)。十多年來(lái)，他一直是賽榮豐潮劇團(tuán)(Sai Yong Hong Chinese Opera)的忠實(shí)粉絲。等朋友們到來(lái)期間，他幫忙擺放為觀眾準(zhǔn)備的紅塑料椅，當(dāng)晚的演出在曼谷唐人街南部一個(gè)地方舉行。

A devotee of 11 years, Wandee Tengyodwanich, 62, unwraps several small plates of Chinese dough sticks and cake, passing them around to her friends in front of the stage before the show. She says that Sai Yong Hong is the best Chinese opera in Thailand because it invests in very elaborate costumes. She and her friends go to see the group a couple of times a year. They eat and catch up as they reminisce about the first time they saw Chinese opera as children.

演出開(kāi)始前，62歲的旺迪·滕永旺希(Wandee Tengyodwanich)打開(kāi)幾小盤(pán)油條和糕點(diǎn)，分給舞臺(tái)前的朋友們。她喜歡賽榮豐11年了。她說(shuō)，賽榮豐是泰國(guó)最好的潮劇團(tuán)，因?yàn)樗岬没ㄥX(qián)購(gòu)買(mǎi)精致的服裝。她和朋友們每年都要看幾次這個(gè)劇團(tuán)的演出。她們一邊吃，一邊回憶小時(shí)候第一次觀看潮劇時(shí)的情景。

They are part of a shrinking community of people that has formed around Chinese opera in Thailand. They are preserving a cornerstone of culture and heritage dating to the seventh-century Tang Dynasty (618 to 907), making it one of the oldest dramatic art forms in the world.

她們屬于圍繞泰國(guó)潮劇形成的一個(gè)不斷縮小的群體。他們?cè)诒４嬉环N文化與遺產(chǎn)的基石，它可以追溯到七世紀(jì)的唐朝(618年至907年)，是世界上最古老的戲劇藝術(shù)形式之一。

Like so much of Chinese opera throughout the world, the performances are a product of a large Chinese diaspora. Sai Yong Hong is one of about 20 Chinese opera troupes in Thailand. The audience consists mostly of older Thai-Chinese adults, some of whom take their grandchildren to connect with a cultural memory that has been passed down for generations.

和世界各地的很多中國(guó)戲曲一樣，這些演出也是大量華人流散海外的產(chǎn)物。泰國(guó)有約20個(gè)中國(guó)戲曲劇團(tuán)，賽榮豐也是其中之一。觀眾主要是年長(zhǎng)的泰國(guó)華裔，他們中的一些人帶著孫輩來(lái)看演出，想讓他們了解這個(gè)代代相傳的文化記憶。

Chinese migration to Thailand can be traced to the 13th century, according to the Minority Rights Group. Today about 14 percent of the population is ethnically Chinese, according to World Population Review, making Thailand the home of one of the world’s largest Chinese communities outside China.

據(jù)少數(shù)民族權(quán)利組織(Minority Rights Group)稱(chēng)，中國(guó)人移民到泰國(guó)的歷史可以追溯到13世紀(jì)。根據(jù)“世界人口綜述”(World Population Review)網(wǎng)站的數(shù)據(jù)，目前約有14%的泰國(guó)人是華裔，所以，泰國(guó)是中國(guó)以外世界上最大的華人社區(qū)所在地之一。

On a recent afternoon, actors had spent two hours applying layers of makeup backstage, transforming into gods and goddesses, heroes and villains from Chinese folklore and mythology.

前不久的一個(gè)下午，演員們花了兩個(gè)小時(shí)在后臺(tái)畫(huà)上一層層的妝，變身為中國(guó)民間傳說(shuō)和神話中的男女神明、英雄和反派。

At around 7:30 p.m., the actors and actresses of Sai Yong Hong took the stage and the performance began.

晚上七點(diǎn)半左右，賽榮豐的演員們開(kāi)始登臺(tái)表演。

The performance mixes elements of martial arts, singing and dancing, accompanied by music played on traditional Chinese instruments like the hammered dulcimer and the four-stringed pipa. Their scripts are primarily based on Chinese folk stories, but some are adaptations of Indian movies. They are delivered in Teochew, a dialect originating in Southern China.

表演融合了武術(shù)、歌唱和舞蹈的元素，配樂(lè)是用揚(yáng)琴和四弦的琵琶等中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)樂(lè)器演奏的。他們的劇本主要取材于中國(guó)民間故事，但也有一些改編自印度電影。唱詞用的是潮州話，一種起源于中國(guó)南方的方言。

The show sends the sound of cymbals crashing through the night, echoing through the courtyard until the performances wind down, around midnight.

響亮的鈸聲在夜晚的庭院里回蕩，直到午夜時(shí)分演出結(jié)束。

Sai Yong Hong is one of the best-known troupes in Thailand. It has 34 actors, five of whom are from China and the rest from Thailand, and, on that night, about 60 people attended the performance. The manager, Tatchai Obthong, 52, said that when he was younger a troupe would have about 100 actors and the crowds were much larger.

賽榮豐是泰國(guó)最著名的劇團(tuán)之一。它有34名演員，其中5人來(lái)自中國(guó)，其余的來(lái)自泰國(guó)。當(dāng)晚，約有60人觀看了演出。52歲的經(jīng)理他差·奧布通(Tatchai Obthong)表示，他年輕時(shí)，一個(gè)劇團(tuán)約有100名演員，觀眾人數(shù)要多得多。

“I didn’t like it — it was loud and scary,” he said of the first time he saw a Chinese opera as a child. Mr. Tatchai, who is Chinese and Thai, has been in the industry since he was 7. His mother had left his father and was struggling with a gambling addiction. Having fallen on hard times, she took Obthong, a childhood fan of martial arts movies, to see a Chinese opera performance.

“我不喜歡——又吵又嚇人，”他說(shuō)起自己小時(shí)候第一次看潮劇的感覺(jué)。中泰混血的他差自七歲就入了這一行。他差的母親離開(kāi)了他的父親，曾為賭博成癮而苦。身陷困境的她帶著自幼喜歡武打電影的奧布通去看了一場(chǎng)潮劇演出。

At the end of the night his mother told him that he was going to stay with the troupe. “I was sold by mother for 6,000 bath,” or about $190, he said.

晚上結(jié)束時(shí)，母親告訴他差，他要留在劇團(tuán)了。“母親6000泰銖就把我賣(mài)了，”他說(shuō)，6000泰銖大約相當(dāng)于190美元。

He remembers that it was hard for him to adapt because he wasn’t allowed to speak Thai and had to learn Teochew, but he quickly realized that to survive he had to learn the craft and the language. He began by serving as a roadie and eventually went to work with a Chinese opera company in Singapore, where he learned more about the performance aspect, before returning to Thailand, where he has worked for the past 12 years.

他記得自己當(dāng)時(shí)很難適應(yīng)，因?yàn)椴辉试S他說(shuō)泰語(yǔ)，他必須學(xué)習(xí)潮州話。但他很快意識(shí)到，想活下來(lái)，自己就必須學(xué)習(xí)這門(mén)技藝和這種語(yǔ)言。他首先做起了隨團(tuán)的雜工，最后去了一個(gè)在新加坡的中國(guó)戲曲公司工作。他在那里學(xué)到了更多關(guān)于表演方面的東西后回到泰國(guó)，過(guò)去12年一直在這里工作。

Performances are free — they are commissioned by shrines in Bangkok and sometimes around the country. “We don’t perform for people, we perform for the gods,” Mr. Tatchai said. They transport the stage with a six-wheel truck and assemble it at each location where they perform. The whole troupe gets paid 20,000 bath (about $640) per night.

演出是免費(fèi)的——他們受雇于曼谷的寺廟，有時(shí)還會(huì)去全國(guó)各地的寺廟。“我們不是為人民表演，我們是為神靈表演，”他差說(shuō)。他們會(huì)用一個(gè)六輪卡車(chē)搬運(yùn)舞臺(tái)，在演出地點(diǎn)進(jìn)行組裝。全團(tuán)每晚大約能獲得兩萬(wàn)泰銖(約合640美元)。

For many of the actors, the stage is home. “Now it’s a high season, so we travel together all the time,” Mr. Tatchai said. After the show, some will sleep under the stage or set up tents nearby.

對(duì)于許多演員來(lái)說(shuō)，舞臺(tái)就是家。“現(xiàn)在是旺季，所以我們總是一起到處跑，”他差說(shuō)。在演出之后，一些人會(huì)睡在舞臺(tái)底下，或在附近搭起帳篷。

One performer, Somsak Saetae, 62, has been an actor with the group for more than 10 years. He has been in the industry since he was 8 and has seen its evolution. “In the past, women couldn’t set foot on the Chinese opera stage, and all the performers were men,” he said. “Women could not even touch the shrine, only men were allowed; now the whole industry has changed.”

62歲的演員頌薩·塞塔(Somsak Saetae)是一位已在劇團(tuán)內(nèi)待了十多年的演員。八歲就入了行的他見(jiàn)證了這個(gè)行業(yè)的演變。“在過(guò)去，女人是不能踏上中國(guó)戲曲舞臺(tái)的，所有的演員都是男的，”他說(shuō)。“女人甚至不能觸碰神龕，只有男人才可以;現(xiàn)在整個(gè)行業(yè)都變了。”

Today even some of the male roles are played by women, like Malee Saewong, 53, who has been a part of this troupe for only four years but has acted in other troupes since she was 14. “I am old now so I get to play male characters, but it’s easier because you don’t have deal with doing your hair,” she said.

如今，甚至一些男性角色也會(huì)由女性扮演，比如才加入劇團(tuán)四年、但14歲起就已在別的劇團(tuán)演出的馬莉·賽黃(Malee Saewong)。“我現(xiàn)在年紀(jì)大了，所以就去演男性角色，但也更輕松了，因?yàn)椴挥迷僮鲱^發(fā)，”現(xiàn)年53歲的她說(shuō)。

Prasong Piewnen, 56, is the group’s cook and cares for her sleeping grandson after the show. Her husband is a musician and her daughter an actress in the troupe. Ms. Prasong said that she was used to this way of life. “If I stay at home, it’s just too quiet,” she said.

56歲的巴頌·皮恩(Prasong Piewnen)是劇團(tuán)的廚師，會(huì)在演出后照顧她睡著的孫子。她的丈夫是一個(gè)樂(lè)手，女兒是劇團(tuán)的演員。巴頌表示，她已經(jīng)習(xí)慣了這樣的生活。“我要是待在家里，那就太安靜了，”她說(shuō)。

As the community ages and audiences dwindle, there is a fear that the art will die out. Performers face uncertain futures. Mr. Somsak said that he wanted to continue performing as long as he could. “In this industry when you retire you just simply say to the gods, ‘You know I’m getting old now, please protect me until the end,’” he said.

隨著這個(gè)群體的老齡化和觀眾的減少，人們擔(dān)心這個(gè)藝術(shù)形式將會(huì)消失。演員們前途未卜，頌薩表示只要可以，他會(huì)一直演下去。“在這個(gè)行業(yè)里想退休，只要簡(jiǎn)單地和神靈說(shuō)一句，‘您知道我年紀(jì)大了，請(qǐng)一直保佑我’，”他說(shuō)。

Mr. Tatchai has seen the changes as well, and he said he thought the industry would continue to get smaller but would not go away.

他差也看見(jiàn)了這些變化，他說(shuō)，他認(rèn)為這個(gè)行業(yè)會(huì)繼續(xù)縮小，但不會(huì)消失。

“As long as Chinese shrines exist and people continue praying,” he said, “the Chinese opera will be here.”

“只要有中國(guó)的佛龕存在，人們繼續(xù)祈禱，”他說(shuō)，“這里就會(huì)有潮劇。”