Ventriloquism
Ventriloquism is a disguised acrobatic project. Ventriloquism is an art of using the movement of the lips, teeth, throat, and tongue, as well as the resonance of the nasal cavity and chest cavity, to simulate the sounds of birds and animals, and even the sounds of all things in the world. Ventriloquism has a long history. According to the "Records of the Grand Historian: The Biography of Mengchangjun", Mengchangjun escaped from the Qin crisis with the help of chicken-crowing and dog-stealing. This shows that more than 2,300 years ago, ventriloquists had the skill of imitating the crowing of a rooster to announce the dawn, and had reached a level that was indistinguishable from the real thing. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, ventriloquism in Beijing has developed greatly. Whether it is the "imitation of bird calls" performed in public by "Mingchun" or the "next door play" in which "Anchun" simulates life scenes in the world behind the screen, there are wonderful pieces handed down. During the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, the "Hundred Birds Zhang" known as "the best of (Beijing) Tianqiao" imitated the singing of birds in a variety of ways. The small ones included yellow birds, red birds, pearl birds, phoenix-headed birds, and sparrows; the large ones included larks, thrushes, cuckoos, woodpeckers, mountain magpies, black-naped orioles, white storks, egrets, red-crowned cranes, etc., which could be mistaken for real birds and attract the singing of real birds. It can also imitate the sounds of golden roosters announcing the dawn, chickens hatching chicks, pigeons spraying nests, and ducks playing in the water, all of which are very lifelike and have high skills. In the past hundred years, with the development of the times and changes in the environment, Yin Shilin (stage name "Kaikouxiao") and his successors Zhou Zhiliang (stage name "Sun Tai") and Zhou Zhicheng have made substantial reforms to ventriloquism, combining Mingchun, Anchun, and Gebi Opera, and stepped out of the traditional eight-foot screen to perform on stage directly in front of the audience. While imitating the voice vividly, facial expressions and body language were added, making ventriloquism a performing art with "expression and sound". Sun Tai's performances of catching cicadas, cutting wood, and pushing carts were delicate and lifelike, humorous and moving. He won the gold medal at the 6th World Youth Festival in 1957, which triggered a new wave of ventriloquism in Beijing. Niu Yuliang, Niu Yuming and others inherited the fine traditions of Beijing ventriloquism and worshipped the Zhou brothers as their teachers. In their study and practice, they constantly explored the scientific laws of ventriloquism and breathing, and summarized the "circular breathing method" and "circular voice method", which opened up a wider source of air and sound for the breathing and voice of ventriloquism, further enriched the ventriloquism performance techniques, and gave the audience an excellent visual and auditory artistic enjoyment. Nowadays, electronic sound is changing with each passing day, and traditional ventriloquism has been hit hard, with few successors and lost skills. It is particularly urgent to protect the original ecological ventriloquism.