Kairuibao

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He was born into a family of opera performers; his father, Kai Jiayu, and his mother, Ma Jinlan, were both Shandong Bangzi performing artists. He learned drum conducting from childhood under Li Xingang, a renowned Shandong Bangzi drum master. Within the regional tradition and school record of Shandong Bangzi in Jiaxiang, Shandong: Jiaxiang belongs to the Jining area and is one of the main regions where Shandong Bangzi is distributed within the province. The percussion of the martial ensemble in local Shandong Bangzi has its own refinements: the representative inheritor Kai Ruibao long served as drummer (sigu) in collaboration with masters such as Dou Chaorong and Lu Shengkui, and reformed the way traditional percussion patterns (luogu jing) are played to make them more elegant and grand. The Jiaxiang County Shandong Bangzi Troupe line is especially known for qingyi plays while also performing shuaidan and laodan role types; its repertoire follows the system of the "Old Eighteen Texts", the "Seventeen Mountains" and the "Twelve Passes", and it also stages modern plays and newly written historical plays. Shandong Bangzi, also known as "Gaodiao Bangzi" and abbreviated as "Gaodiao", has a history of more than four hundred years. It originated in the bangzi vocal style of the Shaanxi-Shanxi region; when the bangzi crossed the Taihang Mountains into Shandong, it first spread to Heze, forming Caozhou Bangzi, and then moved east, forming Wenshang Bangzi. After the 1950s, traditional plays such as "The Wall Record" and "Lianglang Mountain" were edited and adapted into classic plays of the Shandong Bangzi repertoire, and a number of newly created modern plays also took the stage in this period.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

In 1958 he transferred to the Shandong Bangzi Company. Immersed in this environment from boyhood, he absorbed a large stock of artistic material and worked for many years with masters such as Dou Chaorong and Lu Shengkui. He reformed the traditional methods of playing the luogu jing (percussion patterns), making the established patterns more refined and expansive and heightening the effect of performance. Representative productions in which he served as drum conductor include Qiang Tou Ji (The Tale on the Wall-Top), Sun An Dong Ben (Sun An Petitions the Throne), Lao Yang Shan (Old Sheep Mountain) and Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy. He has trained many students, who are to be found throughout the province. Within the documented technical tradition of Shandong Bangzi in Jiaxiang, Shandong: Shandong Bangzi has an extremely wide area of circulation: east to Linyi on the banks of the Yellow River, west to Kaifeng and Zhengzhou in Henan Province, south to Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province and Fuyang and Bengbu in Anhui Province, and north to Daming County and Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province. Within Shandong Province, Shandong Bangzi is centered on Heze City and extends across Jining, Tai'an and other counties and cities. The vocal music of Shandong Bangzi belongs to the banqiang (ban-style) system, with complex ban patterns and tune patterns. Its singing is both vivid and accessible, with stylistic features of being high-pitched and bold, vigorous and stirring, graceful and harmonious, and open and bright. Its performance conventions are rich yet standardized, with attention to technique, rugged movements and exaggerated postures; the performance of each role type has its own distinctive character, competing in skill and ingenuity in a dazzling display. The Shandong Bangzi repertoire amounts to more than a thousand plays, of which more than six hundred are frequently staged; these include a body of basic plays known as the "Old Eighteen Texts", the "Seventeen Mountains" and the "Twelve Passes", their content largely drawn from folk legends and historical stories. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Qiangtou Ji (The Wall Record)": After the 1950s, traditional plays such as "The Wall Record" and "Lianglang Mountain" were edited and adapted into classic plays of the Shandong Bangzi repertoire, and a number of newly created modern plays also took the stage in this period. "Lianglang Mountain": After the 1950s, traditional plays such as "The Wall Record" and "Lianglang Mountain" were edited and adapted into classic plays of the Shandong Bangzi repertoire, and a number of newly created modern plays also took the stage in this period.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Born in December 1936 in Juye County, Shandong Province, he died in November 2017; he was of Han ethnicity. He was a national representative bearer of Shandong Bangzi, 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. Kairuibao · National Representative Bearer Archive