Yu Hongxian

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1952 she became a disciple of Zui Nichang to study pingtan; she made her formal stage debut in 1954, joined the Shanghai Long March Pingtan Troupe in 1959, and in 1960 joined the Shanghai Municipal People's Pingtan Working Troupe. Gifted with a fine voice, bright in timbre and effortless in both high and low registers, she was adept at singing in many balladry schools: the buoyant, vigorous and lucid Qin tune; the soft, restrained and finely shaded Li tune; and the fluent, steady flavour of the Jiang tune. Her singing was highly expressive and formed a distinctive style that audiences praised as having an inexhaustible "Yu" flavour, a pun on her surname. Within the regional tradition and school record of Suzhou Pingtan in Shuchanggongzuozhexiehui, Shanghai: Tanci leans more towards works of legendary narrative, which contain the rich cultural psychology of the Chinese nation, reflect the traditional moral outlook and life ideals of the people, and embody the humanistic characteristics and values of the Jiangnan region. Pinghua is popularly called 'da shu' (big book) and Tanci 'xiao shu' (small book); they flourished in the Suzhou region during the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns of the Qing dynasty. In the mid-nineteenth century Suzhou Pingtan was introduced to Shanghai. Around the 1920s the centre of Pingtan activity had already shifted from Suzhou to Shanghai.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in November 1939 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. A national first-class actor. Her representative works include Die Lian Hua (Butterflies in Love with Flowers) and Pujiang Liang'an Mu Chunfeng (Both Banks of the Huangpu Bathed in Spring Breeze). Within the documented technical tradition of Suzhou Pingtan in Shuchanggongzuozhexiehui, Shanghai: Suzhou Pingtan is the collective name for Suzhou Pinghua and Suzhou Tanci. With the rapid growth of Shanghai's economy and population, the storytelling market kept expanding and the level of performance kept rising, bringing forth a large number of famous performers and schools that caused a sensation at the time and influenced later generations. In Shanghai too, Suzhou Pingtan is still performed in the Suzhou dialect; its music is beautiful, its vocal style can narrate as well as express feeling, and it carries a strong flavour of the Jiangnan water-town region. Its performances often employ artistic devices of narration, singing, string playing, comic effect and acting. The prose portions of the text are rendered through 'shuo', which is termed 'biao' and 'bai', that is, narrating and describing the words and deeds of characters in the story and the environment of their activity in the voice of the storyteller; the versified passages, mainly in seven-syllable lines, are rendered through 'chang', accompanied by the sanxian or the pipa. In Pingtan performance, one performer is called 'dan dang' and sings while accompanying himself on the sanxian; two performers are called 'shuang dang', divided on stage into the upper seat and the lower seat, each singing while accompanying himself on the sanxian and the pipa respectively and accompanying one another in turn. To add interest, dramatic elements are inserted into the narrative portions of the story during performance; these are called 'xue'. When a performer imitates the speech, gestures and expressions of characters in the story, this is called 'yan', also known as 'zuo' or 'xue'. Over long years of performance, Tanci artists, besides developing the 'shu diao' used for Tanci singing, also absorbed tune patterns such as 'Shan Ge Diao', 'Luan Ji Ti' and 'Fei Jia Diao', enriching the music of the vocal style. Pinghua performance centres on 'shuo, xue, yan', and there is a large number of long-form traditional titles, some fifty or more, including historical romances such as 'The Three Kingdoms' and 'Sui and Tang', cases and chivalrous tales such as 'The Case of Judge Shi' and 'The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants', and mythological and fantastic works such as 'Investiture of the Gods' and 'The Biography of Ji Gong'. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Shanghai pingtan troupe": Founded in 1951 and now known as the Shanghai Pingtan Troupe, it became the city's central body for composing and performing pingtan. "The seven fearsome acts": A late-1940s Shanghai label for seven star pingtan acts; Chen Xi'an and his senior Zhou Yunrui, paired as second hand, were among them. "Signature arias of Chen Xi'an": Chen Xi'an sang chiefly in the Shen style with touches of Xue, and his signature arias include Eighteen Reasons Why, Seventy-Two He's, Bitter Reproach and Meeting Mother. "Works of Yu Hongxian": Yu Hongxian's signature works include Butterflies in Love with Flowers and Spring Breeze on Both Banks of the Huangpu; she received the Peony Award for lifetime achievement in 2014.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Suzhou Pingtan (Suzhou storytelling and Suzhou balladry), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 2001 she was named an artist of both virtue and art by Shanghai. In 2014 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the 8th China Quyi Peony Award, presented by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Quyi Artists Association.

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. Yu Hongxian · National Representative Bearer Archive