Personal file
Name: Ma Ji
Original name: Ma Shuhuai
Born: August 2, 1934
Dated on: December 20, 2006
Height: 178cm
Weight: 73kg
Occupation: Famous performing artist, cross talk master,
p>Born in: Beijing
Nationality: Han
Evaluation: A representative figure of new cross talk and a key figure in the inheritance of modern cross talk art. He inherited and developed Hou Pai style, blazed his own creative path, was followed by most of the late comers of cross talk, and made an indelible contribution to Chinese cross talk.
Birthplace: Huangzhuang Township, Baodi District, Tianjin
Work resume: Worked as an apprentice in Shanghai when he was a teenager. After the founding of New China, he worked at Xinhua Bookstore in Beijing and performed cross talk in his spare time. In 1956, he was transferred to the Central Radio Rap Group. In the same year, he joined the Communist Party of China. He has successively served as a standing committee member of the third, fourth and fifth committees of the All-China Youth Federation, a member of the fifth CPPCC Committee, a standing director of the Chinese Music Association, and the leader of the rap troupe of the Central Broadcasting and Art Troupe. He is a crosstalk actor in the rap troupe of China Broadcasting Art Troupe.
Works: He has published the cross talk anthology "In Praise of Mountaineering Heroes", and his cross talk works "Telephone", "Portrait" and "New Peach Blossom Spring" have been made into movies.
Ma Ji died of a heart attack at home at 10:25 a.m. on December 20, 2006, after being rescued by the Tiantongyuan Branch of Changping District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital in Beijing. He was 72 years old.
Representative works
Specific works and collaborators
Ma Ji's "Style Praise"
Ma Ji, Feng Gong, Liu Wei, Zhao Yan, etc. "Five Senses Strive for Merit"
Ma Ji Guo Qiru "Ask the Doctor"
Ma Ji Guo Qiru "Telephone Call"
Ma Ji Guo Qiru "Couplet"
Ma Ji Guo Qiru "Wang Jinlong and Zhu Yingtai"
Ma Ji Guo Quanbao "Selling Cloth Head"
Ma Ji Guo Quanbao "Amazing Wise Words"
Ma Ji Guo Quanbao Ji Guo Quanbao "The Female Captain"
Ma Ji Guo Quanbao "A Thousand Colors Around the Barracks"
Ma Ji Guo Quanbao "Acupuncture"
Ma Ji Jiangkun Zhao Yanxiao Lin Yao Xinguang Dashan "Sending Spring Festival Couplets"
Ma Ji Li Wenhua "Speaking of the Same"
Ma Ji Liu Baorui "Extracting Teeth"
Ma Ji Liu Baorui "Looking for a Church Meeting"
Ma Ji Liu Wei "Crossing Rumors"
Ma Ji Liu Wei "After Getting Rich"
Ma Ji Liu Wei Jiang Kun Zhao Yan "Crossing Rumors"
Ma Ji Liu Wei "Old and Young" Music"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "The Appearance of the Bone Demon"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "The Best of Beijing"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Courtesy"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "New Idioms"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Multi-Story Hotel"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Plateau Rainbow"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Multiple Floor Hotel" Tang Jiezhong's "Being Polite"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Smoking Smoking"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Saving People"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Old Ma's Family"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Polite Language"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Beauty"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Poetry"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Miscellaneous Talks on Drama" 》
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "New Geography"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "New Peach Garden"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Learning Yue Opera"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Ode to Friendship"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Looking for Uncle"
Ma Ji Tang Jiezhong's "Gradual Upgrade"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou "In Praise of Mountaineering Heroes"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's "Anyway"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's "How Are You Two Brothers"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou "Who to Marry"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's "Bear and Elephant"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's "Portrait"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's " The Art of Crying"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's "Labor Chant"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's "Three to Zero"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou "Foreign Country"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's "Xue Ping Opera"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's "A Street"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's "Hero" "Little Eight Road"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's "Little Guerrilla Hero"
Ma Ji Yu Shiyou's "Pretending to be a small mouth"
Ma Ji's "Universe Brand Cigarettes" 》
Ma Ji's "Universe Brand Cigarettes" Ma Ji Zhao Shizhong's "On Pleasure"
Ma Ji Zhao Shizhong's "Tongue Twisters"
Ma Ji Zhao Shizhong's "Gossip"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan's "Hundred Blowing Pictures"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan's "Bragging"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan's "Sneeze"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan "Praise to Children"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan Jiang Kun Liu Wei Feng Gong Wang Qianxiang Li Zengrui Han Lancheng Xiao Lin Chang Peiye Yao Xinguang and others "Praise to Style"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan "The Function of Crying"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan's "Joy for Old and Young"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan's "In Court"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan's "Marriage"
"Tongue Twister" by Ma Ji and Zhao Yan
Ma Ji
"Training Disciples" by Zhao Yanshi Disease"
Ma Ji, Zhao Yanwang Jinbao, Liu Wei, Feng Gong, Wang Qianxiang, Li Zengrui, Dai Zhicheng, Zheng Jian, "Five Features Struggle for Modesty"
Ma Ji, Zhao Yanwang Jinbao, "One Servant, Two Masters"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan's "Miscellaneous Talks on Drama"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan's "New Geography"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan's "Industry Terminology"
Ma Ji Zhaoyan Zhao Yan's "Happiness Village"
Ma Ji Zhao Yan's "A Burst of Wind"
Ma Ji Zhao Yan's "Recruitment"
Ma Ji Zhao Yan's "Five Senses Compete for Merit" 》
Ma Jihou Baolin's "Séance"
Ma Ji Liu Baorui's "Prescription for Drama Fans"
In 1934, Ma Ji was born into a businessman in Beijing. Home, family background is ordinary. Ma Ji's life is not easy. When he was still in elementary school, Ma Ji sold ice cores to supplement his family's income. Because he and Chang Lian'an's relatives were classmates, the young Ma Ji often went to the Qiming Tea House owned by Chang's family to listen to free cross talk with an ice core basket under his arm. He was so happy that he fell off his chair with joy. .
At the age of 13, his studies were finally unsustainable and Ma Ji was sent to Shanghai Hongde Weaving Factory as an apprentice. Get up early every day to empty the toilet, wait on the master, and do the most menial jobs. So for three years. After liberation, the weaving factory disbanded and Ma Ji returned to Beijing. In 1953, with his good cultural foundation, Ma Ji was admitted to the North China Publishing House of Xinhua Bookstore and became a member of the working class. Like all people who were "born in the old society and grew up under the red flag", Ma Ji was full of the joy of new life.
When he was an apprentice in Shanghai, Ma Ji kept listening to cross talk on the radio and continued his childhood fun by learning dialects. In 1955, Ma Ji joined the Workers Amateur Art Troupe taught by Liu Baorui and Guo Quanbao personally.
Old folk art lovers all still remember the National Staff Performance in 1956. The performance that year was quite a sensation and produced several folk music talents, among whom the most eye-catching one was Ma Ji. After the performance, these people were robbed by various cultural groups.
The coal mine art troupe took the lead in the battle for Ma Ji, but in the end it was won by the Chinese radio and rap group that gathered masters. At first, although Ma Ji liked cross talk, he did not want to be a professional cross talk actor. He wanted to make movies instead. The regiment sent an old artist to talk to him heart to heart. Liu Baorui said to him: "Boy, you said you can make a living in cross talk, but not in movies." The leader of the group told him clearly: "Why do you need to come? I want you to develop new cross talk, not traditional cross talk." "Ma Ji's old colleague Zhao Lianjia told reporters: "The belief of people in the 1950s was to listen to the party and follow the party. Ma Ji was a party member and advanced worker at Xinhua Bookstore. The party gave him the task of developing cross talk. He decided that this was his destiny. "In addition, in the history of Chinese radio and rap groups, serving radio and television is a very ironclad principle. "In the beginning, I thought about what to write to meet the needs of broadcasting, and then I thought about what to write. "It meets the needs of television." In his opinion, it is only natural for Ma Ji to take the lead in promoting cross talk to television in the future.
Although later people have quite different views on the so-called "ideological realm" of people in the 1950s, the large format and broad vision of Ma Ji's works cannot but be said to have benefited from a relatively high-ranking artist. the “ideological starting point”. Crosstalk critic Zhang Letian told this magazine: "Ma Ji's best works all point the finger at one phenomenon or one aspect, rather than the most common situation in traditional crosstalk where A and B stand there and laugh at themselves or each other. For example, he The pinnacle of his work, "Multi-Story Hotel", which satirizes travel with official seals, shows a group portrait in which everyone speaks in an official manner, so exaggerated and so realistic, the plot is so cute."
Ma. Ji joined the rap troupe at the age of 22 and served as the league branch secretary, demanding political progress. At that time, the unit conducted a current affairs assessment every two to three months, and Ma Ji came first every time. For decades, Ma Ji had to lie in bed and read "Reference News" every day before going to bed.
In the 1980s, Ma Ji had a popular short joke called "New Geography", in which he linked many place names around the world, such as "London" when queuing to go to the toilet, "Paris" on the table, etc. He wrote that cross talk in one night, but the relevant knowledge has been accumulated for decades. Ma Jichang's creative themes point to the latest trends in society, and many of his crosstalks also leave a distinct imprint of the times.
Ma Ji pioneered the singing cross talk, which some people think is an artistic compromise. Ma Ji's apprentice Xiao Lin told reporters that no matter what others said, Ma Ji once made it clear in private that he would "have no regrets for the rest of his life" about the singing cross talk.
“Ma Ji’s understanding of humor is very unique, and his ability to write songs that make people laugh shows his ability.” Crosstalk critic Zhang Letian said: “His songs are full of rhythm. In the live recording, even the audience's music is rhythmic. Like "Guerrilla Little Hero", where the business should be discussed, where it should be added to the fun, and where a song should be inserted, the arrangement is dense and uncanny, even when the vocal conditions are average.
"As an artist trained in New China, he has no miscellaneous things in the folk art world and no quaint habits. This characteristic is unique in the cross talk circle. is outstanding. But he respects tradition very much. "Ma Ji's purpose of learning traditional cross talk is very clear, that is, to return to the roots and come up with new ideas and develop new cross talk.
"It's not that he doesn't know traditional cross talk, but ordinary listeners can't hear the traces. Ma Jichu was once called Xiao Hou Baolin when he debuted, and his reputation was definitely not in vain. The deep roots of traditional cross talk in his new cross talk will shock connoisseurs. "
Ma Ji has a sports-themed joke "3:0", which is borrowed from the traditional "Shu Laibao"; "Five Senses Strive for Merit" has the shadow of the traditional cross talk "Six Livestock Prosperity"; Before "New Geographic Map", there was traditionally an old "Geographical Map", which was just a piece of work. The new and the old had nothing to do with each other in the end, but borrowing the old to create something new was unexpected; "Haiyan" In the song, the fisherman girl sings "basket after basket after basket", which actually evolved from the traditional "dirty work", and the obvious "dirty work" has long been purified as dross by Master Hou Baolin.
“When Ma Ji was young, apart from cross talk and playing basketball, he had no other hobbies and did not fall in love. After dinner every day, he would go to Xidan Entertainment Club to listen to other people's cross talk. He often went to Tianjin to listen. The old artists liked him very much, and they were very friendly when they met, saying, "Ma Ji is here!" ’ Then I would like to listen to which part and play it for him. He grabbed things (materials) outside, and when he came back, he showed them to teachers such as Hou Baolin and Liu Baorui. The teachers taught him inferences and polished them again. " Zhao Lianjia recalled.
Ma Zenghui said: "At that time, young actors were all in a dormitory, living upstairs and downstairs. Ma Ji came out with a basin to pour water, and he always hummed the cross talk he had learned. , single strings are also sung. I have never seen anyone who works as hard as him. I often sit there and write until late at night, and my cervical spine and waist suffer from problems when I write. ”
Zhao Lianjia recalled that Ma Ji joined the rap group in 1956. Two or three months later, he became famous across the country for his works such as “Wang Jinlong and Zhu Yingtai” and “Telephone Call”. By 1958, Ma Ji has become famous, and "his works are amazing." In 1960, when he went to perform in other places, Hou Baolin was not around, and Ma Ji was already able to perform.
"It sounds ridiculous now, but it felt like that at the time. There is no way out! ”
Before 1957, Ma Ji was called Ma Shuhuai. His current name was changed by Hou Baolin after he joined the group. Everyone knows that Ma Ji was Hou Baolin’s apprentice. In fact, at that time, it was Hou Baolin and Hou Baolin. Liu Baorui, Guo Quanbao, and Guo Qiru competed for Ma Ji. In the end, the rap group's art committee decided that all four of them were Ma Ji's teachers, and Hou Baolin once said something to this effect. "Everyone else is just wood, only Ma Ji is a piece of jade." In the master-disciple scene, Master Hou really loves Ma Ji as a material, and Ma Ji also respects Master Hou as a master, but they always keep a distance in life. p>
After the Cultural Revolution, Ma Ji became a prominent figure in Chinese crosstalk. In the 1983 Spring Festival Gala, Hou Baolin, who had already faded from the stage, appeared on the stage and pointed at Ma Ji and said: "Everyone is familiar with this. This is my apprentice Ma Ji." .
Then he pointed at Jiang Kun and said, "This is my apprentice's apprentice Jiang Kun." "This move is generally regarded as a sign of the thaw in the relationship between Houma and Houma.
Jiang Kun was a propagandist for the Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Team of the Heilongjiang Production and Construction Corps at that time. After discovering Jiang Kun, the rap group immediately wanted to recruit him. Ji and Tang Jiezhong performed more than 100 condolence performances in temperatures of minus 40 degrees. Then they invited Hou Baolin, Guo Quanbao, Zhao Lianjia and others to hold training courses for the Corps for more than 40 days.
Although the eulogizing cross talk was pioneered by Ma Ji, his style was not finalized by this. In fact, in terms of quantity and importance, satirical cross talk has an absolute advantage in Ma Ji's creations.
The cross talk just after the Gang of Four was crushed was the most glorious period of new cross talk so far, and Ma Ji was also one of them.
However, while everyone was still immersed in the creation of "Scars Crosstalk", Ma Ji had begun to transform. He wrote "The Best of Beijing" and "Multi-Story Hotel", using extreme sensitivity to express satire. Among them, "Beijing's Best" was quickly banned because of its harsh slander.
It is unknown how far Ma Ji tried to go. One fact is that in the late 1980s, he had greatly reduced his focus on current problems in his cross talk creations, and turned his attention to the perspective of human nature, writing works such as "Pink Eye Disease" and "Hundred Blowing Pictures" that reveal the dark side of human nature.
Xiao Lin believes that this part of the work is his peak work. "Later, the master found that he could no longer tolerate satire, so he turned to game-type cross talk. "Xiao Lin said that after satirizing human nature, Ma Ji played word games and wrote jokes such as "Four-Character Song" and "New Geographic Map".
In the 1980s, Ma Ji adapted cross talk to Being on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala is a big event for the fate of cross talk. As Ma Ji, who was an important actor in the "Spring Festival Gala" in 1963, in 1983, He was appointed as the chief planner of the first Spring Festival Gala after the Cultural Revolution. “Looking carefully now, the overall structure of the Spring Festival Gala in 1983 and 1984 was a big cross talk. "Dapeng, the host of "Laughing Forest in the Sky", highly praised the overall structure of the previous Spring Festival Galas planned by Ma Ji.
In 1982, the rapid popularity of television had prompted the sensitive Ma Ji to start thinking He was the first to propose the transformation of cross talk from an auditory art to a visual art. It was better to imitate the "sketch" in the performance examination and add some physical and role-playing parts to the cross talk. That year, Ma Ji organized a team. Together with Zhao Yan and Yao Shusen, they set up shop by the reservoir in Huairou County, Beijing, and made 13 sketches on a trial basis. They were engraved into a volume and compiled into the earliest sketch book in China, which was later named "The Window of Laughter". Among the sketches, half of them have a survival rate, including "Universe Brand Cigarettes", which became an instant hit at the 1983 Spring Festival Gala.
"The structure, language, and baggage of the earliest sketches all came from cross talk. It can only be said that Ma Ji feels too advanced. " Zhao Lianjia said. Some of Ma Ji's later works that were very promising were also killed, and gradually Ma Ji was no longer involved with the Spring Festival Gala. Jiang Kun said that Ma Ji "survived in the cracks", and Xiao Lin also said: "My master If he is allowed to express himself as much as he wants in his life, alas..."
After skits and cross talk have competed on the TV screen for many years, they finally stole the limelight of cross talk. Ma Ji, who has always been prophetic, was now With just a vague hunch, he said: “Perhaps skits are the future of cross talk. "But Ma Ji never regretted bringing cross talk to TV. Cross talk can stand out from more than 200 folk arts varieties, and TV has helped a lot.
Ma Ji's serious illness in 1987 not only This laid the foundation for the final story and became a watershed in the slowdown of Ma Ji's career. That year, Ma Ji suffered a massive heart thrombosis in Changsha and was hospitalized for three months. During this period, his third apprentice Liu Wei was reported to be in critical condition. On the side.
Ma Ji discovered Liu Wei and Feng Gong in 1975. At that time, he heard that two middle school students in Tianjin said that cross talk was good, so he went to listen to it. It was their first meeting. After listening to the cross talk, Ma Ji said His words were so modest that Liu Wei was frightened. He said: "I hope we can become friends and come to our group to sit down on Sunday." In 1989, Liu Wei ended his short overseas life and returned to China. By that time, Feng Gong had found a new partner Niu Liu Wei was very disappointed. Ma Ji was very anxious and said, "We have to rescue Liu Wei like we rescue giant pandas." He tried every means to get him to attend the Spring Festival Gala, and also persuaded his partner Zhao Yan to praise Liu Wei.
Until 2000, Ma Ji still participated in performances intermittently, but since 1991, Ma Ji has become de facto silent. He wrote calligraphy, fished, and drove cars. When he was young, he had no hobbies except playing basketball, and he began to indulge in these elegant interests. However, as long as his physical condition permits, he still goes to live in Jiaodong, Shandong and Taoyuan, Hunan, two bases where he experienced life when he was young every year. There are many old friends there.
In September 2006, the Peony Award, the highest award in the Chinese folk arts community, awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award to Ma Ji. During his speech, Ma Ji said: "I feel ashamed to receive this award. There are five or six generations of cross talk actors before me, and they have dedicated their lives to the art of cross talk. This award should belong to them." Ma Ji burst into tears when he said this. Many people present were moved to tears.
“I have heard Ma Ji shouting continuously for several years.” Zhao Lianjia said that Ma Ji was certainly not calling people to study themselves, but pointed out that there were no good cross talk works because the actors did not go deep into life. ! After watching a folk art performance this year, at the symposium the next day, Ma Ji pointed out in his speech that "the cross talk performance is very poor." He also said: "People say that I am Ma Jiajun, and I am not a good teacher."
When Ma Ji lived in seclusion in the second half of the 1990s, he had been deliberately avoiding the media and rarely expressed his opinions in public. But in private, he is outspoken about his views on cross talk and his apprentices. He once said to his disciples: "It won't be good if you sit in your room and make up stuff. You really have no place to experience life. You can just move a small pony and sit on the curb for a long time and watch. Wear sunglasses to avoid being recognized." Having said that, in fact, none of the disciples had actually sat on the side of the road.
Ma Ji accepted 20 apprentices. The first few, such as Jiang Kun and Feng Gong, became famous very early, but they could not continue to speak cross talk. Jiang Kun made a website, Feng Gong made a movie, and Xiaolin hosted an agricultural program. Ma Ji had no objection to these. He regarded these as "experience life" for cross talk. He always said to his apprentices, "With these Life, wait until the future turns around to serve cross talk..."
In fact, Ma Ji has also been involved in business activities and served as a consultant for a company. He did not refuse commercial performances. In the 1990s, an old friend invited him to perform abroad, but he was unable to make the trip due to health reasons.
Although he has no objection to his apprentice finding other reasons, Ma Ji is well aware of the loss of cross talk talents. At last year's National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Ma Ji bitterly criticized rap groups for losing all their good traditions of focusing on talent cultivation.
During his lifetime, Ma Ji always wanted to set up a cross talk school to change the traditional oral and mental teaching model. Ma Jichang said to his disciples, "In terms of life, we must abandon some old things and become more educated. Don't let the outside world laugh at us for being uneducated." This year's cross talk competition saw two students from Tsinghua University. Ma Ji was very happy , has announced that he will teach them in person, and has also prepared lesson plans.
When Guo Degang first became famous, he was suppressed by the so-called "mainstream" in the cross talk world. Some people speculated whether there were Ma Ji's disciples among them. During the interview, more than one Ma Ji disciple criticized the vulgar tendencies of some "young actors" to reporters without naming them. What was Ma Ji's attitude toward Guo Degang when he was still alive? Deyunshe’s reply to reporters was: “Very supportive. Someone once approached Mr. Ma and wanted him to do something detrimental to Deyunshe, but Mr. Ma refused to do it. It is said that Mr. Ma’s basic attitude towards this is: We It is not easy to create a person in the cross talk world. Now our three words "Deyun Society" were inscribed by Mr. Ma.
”
Ma Ji is a nostalgic person. For many years, he has kept in touch with his senior brother who took care of him when he was an apprentice in Shanghai at the age of 13. Every time Ma Ji went to Shanghai, he would entertain his senior brother, sister-in-law and them. This time, the 80-year-old senior brother insisted on coming to Beijing to express his condolences, but was dissuaded by Ma Ji's family.
Ma Ji has done this before, both in terms of creation and as a person. A frank review. At the 70th birthday party the year before last, Ma Ji also said in front of the guests, "I, Ma Ji, have many things that are not good. Please forgive me. ”
In any case, Ma Ji pursued innovation throughout his life, and his creative flourishing period lasted for more than 30 years. His creative imprint completely overlaps with the footprints he has walked since the birth of New China. He created many works in one go There are more than 300 crosstalks, about one-tenth of which have passed the test of time and become the common memory of generations of Chinese people.
“Think of yourself as the people’s artist, and think of yourself as doing what you do. Things are to serve a grand goal. Perhaps this is the fundamental reason why Ma Ji and his generation cannot surpass. Without this goal, there would be no such strong fighting spirit. "Zhang Letian said: "Ma Ji's disciples are different. They can be said to be a large sensitive group in the transition period. When the grand narrative no longer exists and everyone must consider where they are going, their loss is inevitable. Ma Ji's generation has no distractions. They have determined that one thing is worth spending their life's energy and reputation on. The times have no chance to nurture the emergence of such people. ”