Xiao Shunyu

01 · Lineage & Regional School

She studied under Luo Jun, a celebrated accompanist of the 'Xiahe' tune, and inherited more than a hundred traditional pieces, large and small, of Sichuan qingyin, including Zhaojun Chusai (Zhaojun Crosses the Frontier), Sifan (Yearning for the World) and Daiyu Zanghua (Daiyu Buries the Flowers); her grounding is solid. Within the regional tradition and school record of Sichuan Qingyin in Chengduyishujuyuan, Sichuan: It took shape in the late Ming and early Qing period, has long been transmitted in the Han areas of Sichuan Province, and has a history of more than three hundred years.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in December 1936, a native of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. A national first-class actor. Her voice is clear and bright; she applies techniques of bel canto and other schools to qingyin singing, so that her performance is bold and vigorous without losing brilliance and melodiousness, and she has formed a distinctive singing style of her own. Her works have been entered in the Dictionary of Chinese Opera and Quyi and the Dictionary of Chinese Artists, among other reference works. Within the documented technical tradition of Sichuan Qingyin in Chengduyishujuyuan, Sichuan: Sichuan qingyin was once nicknamed “chang xiaoqu” (singing short tunes); because it is mostly accompanied by the yueqin or the pipa when sung, it is also called “chang yueqin” (singing to the yueqin) or “chang pipa” (singing to the pipa). In performance a single performer stands and sings, striking the beat with a tanban clapper, while the instrumentalist or a small ensemble accompanies at the side and sometimes joins in the chorus as well. Besides single-tune vocal styles, Sichuan qingyin also has multi-tune vocal styles such as “yue diao”, “bei gong” and “matou diao”. These have also formed the ban-form modulating styles “han diao” and “fan xipi”, which draw on many out-of-province folk tunes and ditties, such as “Wuxi Jing”, “Macheng Ge”, “Wuchang Diao”, “Bianguan Diao”, “Fengyang Diao”, “Shan Wugeng”, “Tanhuang Diao”, “Sizhou Diao” and “Dongbei Feng”. Sichuan qingyin also absorbs vocal styles from Sichuan folk songs such as Shu Gema (Counting the Toads), Qingye (Green Leaves) and Shibashanzi (Ten Folding Fans), and adds such items as the “fan xipi” and “qijuban” of Sichuan opera together with the “yue diao”, “pingban”, “banbianyue” and “duozi” of Sichuan yangqin, making more than two hundred tune patterns in all. Sichuan qingyin preserves more than a hundred works, including traditional pieces such as Nigu Xia Shan (The Nun Descends the Mountain), Zhaojun Chu Sai (Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier), Guan Wang Miao (The Temple of the Warrior Guan), Duan Qiao (The Broken Bridge), Si Fan (Longing for the Secular World), Bei Qiu (Lamenting Autumn) and Huo Zhu Sanlang (Capturing Sanlang Alive), as well as new works produced after the May Fourth Movement under the influence of the new culture, such as Dian Ke Ku (The Sharecropper’s Hardship), Shuang Tan Mei (Two Visits to the Younger Sister) and Xiao Zhangfu (The Little Husband). Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Nigu Xia Shan (The Nun Descends the Mountain)": Sichuan qingyin preserves more than a hundred works, including traditional pieces such as Nigu Xia Shan (The Nun Descends the Mountain), Zhaojun Chu Sai (Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier), Guan Wang Miao (The Temple of the Warrior Guan), Duan Qiao (The Broken Bridge), Si Fan (Longing for the Secular World), Bei Qiu (Lamenting Autumn) and Huo Zhu Sanlang (Capturing Sanlang Alive), as well as new works produced after the May Fourth Movement under the influence of the new culture, such as Dian Ke Ku (The Sharecropper’s Hardship), Shuang Tan Mei (Two Visits to the Younger Sister) and Xiao Zhangfu (The Little Husband). "Zhaojun Chu Sai (Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier)": Sichuan qingyin preserves more than a hundred works, including traditional pieces such as Nigu Xia Shan (The Nun Descends the Mountain), Zhaojun Chu Sai (Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier), Guan Wang Miao (The Temple of the Warrior Guan), Duan Qiao (The Broken Bridge), Si Fan (Longing for the Secular World), Bei Qiu (Lamenting Autumn) and Huo Zhu Sanlang (Capturing Sanlang Alive), as well as new works produced after the May Fourth Movement under the influence of the new culture, such as Dian Ke Ku (The Sharecropper’s Hardship), Shuang Tan Mei (Two Visits to the Younger Sister) and Xiao Zhangfu (The Little Husband). "Guan Wang Miao (The Temple of the Warrior Guan)": Sichuan qingyin preserves more than a hundred works, including traditional pieces such as Nigu Xia Shan (The Nun Descends the Mountain), Zhaojun Chu Sai (Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier), Guan Wang Miao (The Temple of the Warrior Guan), Duan Qiao (The Broken Bridge), Si Fan (Longing for the Secular World), Bei Qiu (Lamenting Autumn) and Huo Zhu Sanlang (Capturing Sanlang Alive), as well as new works produced after the May Fourth Movement under the influence of the new culture, such as Dian Ke Ku (The Sharecropper’s Hardship), Shuang Tan Mei (Two Visits to the Younger Sister) and Xiao Zhangfu (The Little Husband). "Duan Qiao (The Broken Bridge)": Sichuan qingyin preserves more than a hundred works, including traditional pieces such as Nigu Xia Shan (The Nun Descends the Mountain), Zhaojun Chu Sai (Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier), Guan Wang Miao (The Temple of the Warrior Guan), Duan Qiao (The Broken Bridge), Si Fan (Longing for the Secular World), Bei Qiu (Lamenting Autumn) and Huo Zhu Sanlang (Capturing Sanlang Alive), as well as new works produced after the May Fourth Movement under the influence of the new culture, such as Dian Ke Ku (The Sharecropper’s Hardship), Shuang Tan Mei (Two Visits to the Younger Sister) and Xiao Zhangfu (The Little Husband).

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a national representative bearer of Sichuan qingyin, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Over several decades she has trained a large number of successors to Sichuan qingyin, with influence throughout the areas where the genre is disseminated, and many of them have become mainstays of its transmission and development.

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. Xiao Shunyu · National Representative Bearer Archive