Bai Meiyun

01 · Lineage & Regional School

At the age of 18 she was admitted to the Taigu Yangge Opera Troupe, specializing in xiaosheng (young male) and huadan (young female) roles. She studied under Wang Xiaoduan (stage name Xiangmandan) and Shi Cuiling, a disciple of Liu Zhilan, a celebrated daomadan (female martial) actress of Jin Opera. Her performances in Feng Guan Meng (A Dream of the Phoenix Crown), Luan Dian Yuanyang Pu (A Random Match of Mandarin Ducks), Suan Zhang (Settling Accounts), Huan Xiaoyi (Calling the Young Aunt), Nai Wawa (Suckling the Baby), Ge Qingcai (Picking Green Vegetables), and Hui Jia (Going Home), among others, won her great popularity with audiences. Within the regional tradition and school record of Yangge Opera in Taigu, Shanxi: Taigu is one of the central areas of Qitai yangge, where troupes and “street yangge” performances once flourished; the Taigu line is noted for its chou plays and life sketches and, sharing an origin with the Qi county line, differs from it in tune and repertory. In the Zhengtong reign of the Ming, yangge transmitted orally by folk artists began to spread across the Jinzhong plain. By the Daoguang reign of the Qing, Qi county already had such yangge troupes as Tongle She, Qitai Xile Ban and Qitai Dewei She. Afterwards the artists gradually blended dance, martial arts and various skills into yangge, developing “ground yangge” and “street yangge”, and further drew on the content and forms of folk art from elsewhere, so that yangge evolved from street singing into a local short opera with more than three hundred plays.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in November 1963, a native of Taigu County, Shanxi Province. Her representative repertoire includes Mai Ronghua (Selling Velvet Flowers), Chun Jiang Yue (Moon over the Spring River), and Da Chi Cu (A Great Jealousy). Within the documented technical tradition of Yangge Opera in Taigu, Shanxi: Qitai yangge is a local short opera circulating among the people of Shanxi; it began as a folk ditty sung by farmers during their work, traceable to the Tang and Song. In this process a Qitai yangge distribution area formed, centred on Qi county and Taigu and reaching more than ten surrounding counties and districts including Wenshui and Jiaocheng. It combines music, dance, singing, recitation, acting and martial yangge, taking the life stories of the farmers of Qi county, Taigu and Jinzhong as its subject, with fine and pleasing tunes, lively language, plain and rough performance and a strong flavour of life and local character, much loved by audiences in its areas and of some research value for Jinzhong folklore and the emergence of opera. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Mai Ronghua (Selling Velvet Flowers)": A traditional Qitai yangge play and one of the representative works of the inheritor Bai Meiyun. "Chunjiang Yue (Moon over the Spring River)": A traditional Qitai yangge play and one of Bai Meiyun's representative works. "Da Chi Cu (A Great Fit of Jealousy)": A traditional domestic sketch of Qitai yangge and one of Bai Meiyun's representative works. "Da Tiaocai (Picking Greens)": A traditional domestic sketch of Qitai yangge, a piece the inheritor Sun Guiming is skilled in.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Yangge Opera (Qitai Yangge), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 1990 she won first prize at the Shanxi Provincial Traditional Opera Festival; in 2004 she received a silver award at the Sixth China Folk Art Festival; and in 2009 she took part in the recording of the program "Strolling through Taigu, Watching Yangge" for China Central Television's Folk Songs of China series. Her performing activities have extended throughout Jinzhong, and she has trained more than ten leading performers of yangge opera.

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. Bai Meiyun · National Representative Bearer Archive