Xu Wenzhu

01 · Lineage & Regional School

From the age of 12 she studied under her father, Xu Apei, and the following year she was already performing on her own. She has been active in rural areas throughout the year and began singing sheshu (community storytelling gatherings) in 1994. Within the regional tradition and school record of Pinghubozishu in Pinghu, Zhejiang: Pinghu bozi-shu is performed in the Pinghu dialect and combines telling, singing and acting, but is especially strong in its telling. Pinghu bozi-shu is centred on the towns and countryside of Pinghu and also reaches Chuansha and Nanhui in Pudong, Shanghai, and Jinshan, Songjiang and Qingpu in Puxi. Its places of performance have passed through a transformation from “li bai di” (standing in the open ground) in the fields, to halls and houses, and then to the tea houses of the towns and countryside, and its audience is chiefly peasants; a single long standard work can be told for several months running. The performers are mostly single individuals who carry their pitch from village to village, striking a cymbal, a bamboo chopstick and a wooden block as they sing, performing in the Pinghu dialect and combining telling, singing and acting, with the telling especially their strong suit; later the erhu, xianzi, pipa and yangqin were added as accompanying instruments and the ensemble gradually took shape. The Pinghu Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Management Centre is responsible for the survey, documentation and transmission of this project; the inheritor Xu Wenzhu holds that the telling should be “fast without becoming disordered, slow without breaking off”, and she is skilled in the use of folk sayings, lays weight on unaccompanied singing and excels at improvising as she goes. It originated during the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty, took shape in the late Ming and early Qing, and has a history of more than three hundred years to the present day.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in June 1957, a native of Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province. She has a solid grounding in narration and characterization, achieving a manner that is 'fast without disorder, slow without interruption'. She is skilled in the use of folk idioms, leans towards unaccompanied singing, excels at improvising on the spot, and her style is plain and vivid, concise and humorous. Her representative works include the traditional titles Hongzong Liema (The Red-Maned Steed), Bai Yuyan (The White Jade Swallow) and Jiugeng Tian (The Ninth Watch), together with the opening pieces Chongzi Bufa (Spoiling a Child, Breaking the Law), Changshou Xian (The Immortal of Longevity) and Yi Li Mi (A Single Grain of Rice). She takes an active part in performances and exhibitions of various kinds and has conducted training for local intangible cultural heritage volunteers, thereby promoting the dissemination of Pinghu Bozi Shu. Within the documented technical tradition of Pinghubozishu in Pinghu, Zhejiang: Pinghu bozi-shu was formerly called “shuoyinguo” (telling of cause and effect); around the founding of the People’s Republic of China it was for a time called “the peasants’ book”. It is current chiefly in Pinghu, Zhejiang, and in Chuansha and Nanhui in Pudong, Shanghai, and in Jinshan, Songjiang and Qingpu in Puxi. The earliest performance form of Pinghu bozi-shu was “li bai di” (standing in the open ground); after it had developed further and medium-length and long titles had appeared, it began to move into halls and houses. Around the founding of the People’s Republic of China it was performed mainly in the tea houses of the towns and the countryside, whose audience was chiefly peasants, hence the name “the peasants’ book”. Its manner of singing is comparatively simple, using as accompaniment commonly a single cymbal, one bamboo chopstick and one wooden block (xingmu), striking them as it sings. Later the erhu, xianzi, pipa and yangqin were added as accompanying instruments, and the ensemble gradually took shape. Pinghu bozi-shu is sung by a single performer; its tunes include the long tune, the slow tune, the urgent tune and the weeping tune, with a lively rhythm, a strong local character, a thick country flavour and considerable artistic value. The sung text is chiefly in seven-character lines and carries a chanting style; the lines often end with a drawn-out note, whose lingering resonance gives it a peculiar charm. Over the long years Pinghu folk artists have created more than a hundred traditional long works, among them The Yang Family Generals, The Eight Righteous Heroes, The Heavenly Treasure Chart, Wu Long Tu (The Five Dragons), Cai Zhuang Lou (The Painted Tower), Jin Gao Zhuan, Bai He Tu (The White Crane), Hu Bi Song, Du Bi Ni Gu (The One-Armed Nun), Du Shou Feng Gai (The Madman of the Poisoned Hand), Jiu Geng Tian (The Ninth Watch) and Shi Mei Tu (Ten Beauties), many of which can be sung for as long as several months at a stretch. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Long, slow, urgent and weeping tunes": The main tunes of Pinghu bozi-shu, sung solo with lively rhythm and a chant-like seven-character line ending in a drawn-out note. "Cymbal, bamboo chopstick and wooden block": The minimal accompaniment of Pinghu bozi-shu: one cymbal, one bamboo chopstick and one wooden block. "The Yang Family Generals; The Eight Righteous Heroes; The Heavenly Treasure Chart": Titles among the hundred-odd long works created by Pinghu folk artists. "The Ninth Watch; Ten Beauties and short openers": Traditional long works and short opening pieces, among them Xu Wenzhu's Red-Maned Steed and A Grain of Rice.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a national representative bearer of Pinghu Bozi Shu, 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. Xu Wenzhu · National Representative Bearer Archive