Old Master Meng nodded. “Go ahead, play it louder. Your screen is too small; I’ll just listen.”
Meng Jingyuan clumsily opened the video, but he wasn’t too familiar with dragging the progress bar. At first, two segments of other performances came up before finally Qi Shejiang took the stage.
“But I only saw on the left side of the tent a horse with horns, scales beneath its belly, standing eight feet tall with a back length of twelve feet, a red hare that gallops a thousand miles a day; on the right side of the tent a heavy nine hundred pounds divided into three sections, a fine iron dragon with a wide open mouth, holding pearls in its maw and clanging on golden rings while red tassels sway…” Old Master Meng raised his chin and listened intently, and even after the video finished, he remained lost in thought for quite a while. “Grandpa?” Meng Jingyuan gently called out. Old Master Meng blinked, his eyes already moist. “This is it, a children’s book. This is ‘Ten Questions and Answers’, right? But the tune sounds different from what I’ve heard before; is it a different style?” Meng Jingyuan hurriedly replied, “Young people have adjusted some of the singing styles to better suit the current aesthetic.” “The adjustments are quite good. It has a bit of the flavor of the quick percussion, but it’s faster, sharper, and more lively and fresh,” Old Master Meng had a good grasp of the nuances, and he immediately caught the essence. Meng Jingyuan nodded repeatedly.
In ‘Zha Mei An’, there’s a segment, “The prince comes to observe closely,” which is a quick tempo of the painted face. There are even faster ones, like in ‘Si Lang Tan Mu’ when in the palace they sing, “You and I have deep mutual affection,” or “Couples sit and talk deep feelings” in ‘Duan Mi Jian’, all of which are popular quick tempos.
