Jianjun's Blog

Popular TV series Yang Guang’s Happy Life（阳光的快乐生活）brings laughs to common Chinese families.

Featuring a typical Tianjin local accent, the soap opera tells the story of an everyday normal guy Yang Guang（阳光, which means Sunshine in Chinese）, whose famous motto is: “Stop worrying about money; life is just for fun（嘛钱不钱的，乐呵乐呵得了）”. This motto actually reflects an attitude of many lower-income families in China and, interestingly, a Chinese philosophy concept that was upheld by our ancestors – as what Huangdi Neijing（黄帝内经, The Inner Canon of Huangdi）, an ancient Chinese medicinal book of more than 2,000 years old, tells us: “(People from ancient times) therefore enjoyed whatever they ate, were content with whatever they wore, happy with their way of life and not jealous of other people of a higher or lower status…（故美其食，任其服，乐其俗，高下不相慕…）”

In the play, Yang Guang is a security guard of a residential community – a role in China that nobody really cares and one of the lowest paying jobs. But just as what Charles Reade wrote in The Cloister and The Hearth, “Not a day passes over the earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words, and suffer noble sorrows.” The actors put Yang Guang, his friends, colleagues and neighbors’ happiness, sadness and love on stage – something people who are outside their circle would otherwise never knew, but something that millions of people around China are so familiar with. And this is the very reason why after Yang Guang’s Happy Life I, there are Yang Guang II, III, IV and now they founded a Yang Guang Cultural Communications Company and started preparing for the fifth child of the series.

Yang Yi（杨议）, the actor who plays the role of Yang Guang, is a famous Xiang Sheng（相声 or crosstalk, A form of entertainment where one or more performers, by employing techniques such as story telling, mimicking, joking and singing, entertain the audience. It is said that Xiang Sheng could be used as an indicator to measure how much a foreigner knows about Chinese culture.）performer. Born in 1962, Yang Yi learned Xiang Sheng from his father Yang Shaohua（杨少华）- also a famous Xiang Sheng performer, and has been recognized by the general audience since the 1990s.

If you are interested in learning more about the series, just visit the their web site: http://www.ygdklsh.com/index.asp. There are many photos of actors and actresses acting in the play. And if you are in China, especially in Tianjin, and wish to participate in the soap opera, you may also contact them for possible roles. This could be a rich cultural experience and I am sure they will be happy to have some foreigners in the play.

Note: All translations appearing in this article, including the definition of Xiang Sheng is by me were done by me. Since English is not my mother language, if you find these translations could be improved in any way, please drop me a line and I’ll be happy to modify them where appropriate. Thanks.

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