Cheng Caiping

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1959 she was admitted to the Hubei Provincial Opera School, where she studied under the celebrated Hanju Opera performers Liu Shun'e and Wan Zhandeng, specializing in qingyi (virtuous young woman) roles while also training in huadan (lively young woman) roles. Within the regional tradition and school record of Hanju Opera in Wuhan, Hubei: Han opera is popular in Hubei Province, reaching parts of Hunan, Henan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Guangdong, Anhui, Jiangxi, Guizhou and Shanxi provinces. Within Hubei it is centred on Wuhan and has several different lines of transmission, namely the Xianghe, Jinghe, Fuhe and Hanhe lines; the schools differ slightly in their vocal styles, speech delivery and repertoire preferences, and among them the Wu school and the Chen school of performance art of the Wuhan line have the greatest influence. Han opera was formerly called chudiao or handiao and is also known as chuqiang or chuqu; it first took shape during the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns of the Qing dynasty, moved towards further maturity in the Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns, and to the present has a history of more than three hundred years. In the history of the development of Chinese xiqu, Han opera made a special contribution to the formation of Beijing opera, and has also influenced, to varying degrees, local operatic genres such as Sichuan opera, Dian opera, Gui opera, Xiang opera, Yue opera and Gan opera; it is important historical material for studying the banqiang system of xiqu and the evolution of the musical structure of xiqu, and a resource for artistic innovation.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in December 1944 in Xiaogan, Hubei Province. She is a National First-Class Actor and an expert receiving the special government allowance of the State Council. In 1970 she joined the Hubei Provincial Hanju Opera Troupe, and later took Chen Bohua as her teacher. Her acting is dignified and commanding, and she is accomplished in both martial and civil roles; her singing is smooth and highly skilled, and she makes adept use of the ziqiang vocal technique. Building on the traditional vocal art of the Liu school of Hanju Opera, she explored and innovated, enriching the melodic vocabulary of the sidan (fourth dan) role type. Her representative productions include Dainuo (Dai Nu), Guifei Zui Jiu (The Drunken Beauty), Yuzhou Feng (The Cosmos Sword), Hua Tian Ba Cuo (Eight Errors in the Flower Field) and Tan Jitade Guniang (The Girl Playing the Guitar), among others. Within the documented technical tradition of Hanju Opera in Wuhan, Hubei: Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Shuang Jin Zhong (The Twin Proof of Loyalty)": Han opera has a rich repertoire, said to number eight hundred plays; more than six hundred and fifty survive today and about three hundred more are fairly popular. They draw mainly on historical romances and legendary stories, and the representative repertoire includes Shuang Jin Zhong (The Twin Proof of Loyalty), Liang Lang Shan (Two Wolves at the Mountain), Sheng Si Ban (The Board of Life and Death), Da Hua Gu (Beating the Flower Drum), Shen Tao Da (The Trial of Tao Da), He Yin Pai (The United Silver Token), Zhan Li Hu (The Beheading of Li Hu), Yuzhou Feng (The Cosmic Sword), Nao Jin Jie (Making a Scene on the Golden Steps), Ku Zu Miao (Weeping at the Ancestral Temple) and others. "Liang Lang Shan (Two Wolves at the Mountain)": Han opera has a rich repertoire, said to number eight hundred plays; more than six hundred and fifty survive today and about three hundred more are fairly popular. They draw mainly on historical romances and legendary stories, and the representative repertoire includes Shuang Jin Zhong (The Twin Proof of Loyalty), Liang Lang Shan (Two Wolves at the Mountain), Sheng Si Ban (The Board of Life and Death), Da Hua Gu (Beating the Flower Drum), Shen Tao Da (The Trial of Tao Da), He Yin Pai (The United Silver Token), Zhan Li Hu (The Beheading of Li Hu), Yuzhou Feng (The Cosmic Sword), Nao Jin Jie (Making a Scene on the Golden Steps), Ku Zu Miao (Weeping at the Ancestral Temple) and others. "Sheng Si Ban (The Board of Life and Death)": Han opera has a rich repertoire, said to number eight hundred plays; more than six hundred and fifty survive today and about three hundred more are fairly popular. They draw mainly on historical romances and legendary stories, and the representative repertoire includes Shuang Jin Zhong (The Twin Proof of Loyalty), Liang Lang Shan (Two Wolves at the Mountain), Sheng Si Ban (The Board of Life and Death), Da Hua Gu (Beating the Flower Drum), Shen Tao Da (The Trial of Tao Da), He Yin Pai (The United Silver Token), Zhan Li Hu (The Beheading of Li Hu), Yuzhou Feng (The Cosmic Sword), Nao Jin Jie (Making a Scene on the Golden Steps), Ku Zu Miao (Weeping at the Ancestral Temple) and others. "Da Hua Gu (Beating the Flower Drum)": Han opera has a rich repertoire, said to number eight hundred plays; more than six hundred and fifty survive today and about three hundred more are fairly popular. They draw mainly on historical romances and legendary stories, and the representative repertoire includes Shuang Jin Zhong (The Twin Proof of Loyalty), Liang Lang Shan (Two Wolves at the Mountain), Sheng Si Ban (The Board of Life and Death), Da Hua Gu (Beating the Flower Drum), Shen Tao Da (The Trial of Tao Da), He Yin Pai (The United Silver Token), Zhan Li Hu (The Beheading of Li Hu), Yuzhou Feng (The Cosmic Sword), Nao Jin Jie (Making a Scene on the Golden Steps), Ku Zu Miao (Weeping at the Ancestral Temple) and others.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a national representative bearer of Hanju Opera, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Dainuo was recorded as a gramophone record by the China Record Company, and the aria Xin Ru Fen (Heart Aflame) from The Girl Playing the Guitar won the outstanding performance award at the national call for outstanding arias from modern operas. She has long devoted herself to training successors and to transmitting the art of Hanju Opera, and she received the Outstanding Gardener Award from the Ministry of Culture.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Cheng Caiping · National Representative Bearer Archive