Jin Xingming

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1960 he was admitted to the Luxi County Dai Opera Troupe and was later selected for the Dai Opera Troupe of the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, studying under the renowned Dai opera artist Cao Ruqun. Within the regional tradition and school record of Dai Opera in Dehongdaizujingpozuzizhi, Yunnan: Dai opera is transmitted in Luxi, Yingjiang, Ruili, Longchuan and Lianghe counties of the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province and in parts of Baoshan City where Dai people live in concentrated settlements. In the late Qing the Ganya Tusi Office of Yingjiang organised the first Dai opera troupe in the history of Dehong; afterwards the ten tusi yamen of Dehong established Dai opera troupes and built opera towers one after another, and Dai opera spread from the tusi yamen into the folk, with almost every large Dai village having an amateur performing troupe. In 1960 the first professional performing organisation, the Luxi County Dai Opera Troupe, was founded, and in 1962 it was expanded into the Dehong Prefecture Dai Opera Troupe, which became the core of transmission of the genre. Dai opera arose from Dai song-and-dance performances with definite character plots and from the chanting of Buddhist sutras; it later absorbed the artistic resources of Dian opera and shadow puppetry and gradually formed a comparatively complete operatic form. In the late Qing, the Ganya Tusi Office of Yingjiang organised the first Dai opera troupe in the history of Dehong. In 1960 the first professional performing organisation, the Luxi County Dai Opera Troupe, was founded, and in 1962 it was expanded into the Dehong Prefecture Dai Opera Troupe. Since the 1960s, Dai opera has collated, adapted and newly created a large batch of plays such as Ebing yu Sangluo, Hihan and Zhulou Qing Shen (Deep Affection in the Bamboo House). In 1962, Ebing yu Sangluo took part in the minority-drama exchange performance of the south-western region, caused a sensation and was hailed as "the pearl of Southeast Asia".

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He played the male lead in the Dai opera E Bing yu Sang Luo (E Bing and Sang Luo), and was able to integrate posture, vocal style, and expression into a coherent whole, being distinguished by his good appearance and ease of performance. He can write, direct, and sing Dai opera as well as Dai narrative poetry, mountain songs, kuaiban (clapper verse), and "hanxiu" (Dai parrot poetry). The Dai operas he wrote and directed, including Lang Ma Wu Xi, San Shi Gongzhu (The Third Princess), and A Luan Luo Yong Han, were warmly received by the Dai people when performed locally. He has collated and explicated dozens of plays, including the Dai operas A Luan Xiang Meng and Dao Anren. In 1985 he was engaged by the Luxi County Cultural Center as a rural drama instructor. He has taken as disciples Xian Siwang, Fang Ersuo, Mie Bao, Xiang Tuan, Gong Deshou, and others. Within the documented technical tradition of Dai Opera in Dehongdaizujingpozuzizhi, Yunnan: Dai opera is one of the distinctive minority opera genres of Yunnan; it is transmitted in Luxi, Yingjiang, Ruili, Longchuan and Lianghe counties of the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture and in parts of Baoshan City where Dai people live in concentrated settlements. Before long, Dai opera spread to other parts of Dehong, where the ten tusi yamen there established Dai opera troupes one after another and built opera towers. At the same time, Dai opera spread from the tusi yamen into the folk, and a large number of folk Dai opera performing organisations emerged. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Dai opera achieved new development. At first, female characters played by men in Dai opera wore Dai women's dress, and the costume of male roles as well as the conventional movement patterns of male and female characters resembled those of Dian opera and Peking opera. In performance, an actor steps forward three paces to sing or act, then steps back three paces to listen to off-stage prompting; the sung sections are accompanied by percussion such as gongs and drums. Later the vocal styles gradually developed into two basic registers, hanhun (the male voice) and hanlang (the female voice), and Dai folk song tunes were widely absorbed as vocal styles and instrumental pieces. In performance the actors wear Dai dress, the movements incorporate the steps of Dai folk dance, and the accompaniment adds instruments such as the hulusi, the erhu and the elephant-foot drum, making the ethnic style even richer. The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family. Apart from professional organisations such as the Dehong Prefecture Dai Opera Troupe, almost every large Dai village has an amateur performing troupe. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Xiang Meng": The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family. "Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus)": The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family. "Langtuihan": The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family. "Zhuangzi Tests His Wife": The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Male, Dai ethnicity, born in November 1944 and deceased in March 2016, a native of Luxi County, Yunnan Province. National representative bearer of Dai Opera, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

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. Jin Xingming · National Representative Bearer Archive