Shen Shihua

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Shen Shihua, Female, Han, from Beijing, is a fourth-batch national representative bearer of Kun Qu Opera (Ⅳ-1). The tradition is documented in Beijing. Within the regional tradition and school record of Kun Qu Opera in Beijing: Kunqu, also called Kunqiang, Kunshanqiang or Kunju, is a new vocal operatic genre that came into being in the late Yuan and early Ming, when southern drama (nanxi) reached the Kunshan area and combined with the local music, song-and-dance and speech. During the Wanli reign kunqu gradually spread from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region to all parts of the country. The 'Kunshan tune' (Kunshanqiang) took shape in the Kunshan area in the early Ming dynasty. During the Jiajing reign it was reformed by Wei Liangfu and others, drawing on northern tunes as well as on the strengths of the Haiyan and Yiyang styles, and it developed a gentle, delicate, flowing and drawn-out style known as the 'water-mill tune' (shuimo diao); kunqu had by then essentially taken shape. The hundred years or more from the early Tianqi reign of the Ming dynasty to the end of the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty were the period in which kunqu flourished and prospered. After the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, kunqu gradually declined. Kunqu is a highly literati art form; many dramatists of the Ming and Qing dynasties who wrote kunqu repertoire achieved very high literary results. After the middle of the Qing dynasty kunqu was performed mainly in the form of excerpt plays (zhezixi); more than four hundred kunqu excerpt plays have survived to the present day. Because of the distinctive cultural value of kunqu, it was inscribed in 2001 in the first batch of UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. By the end of the Qing dynasty kunqu had already fallen into decline.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han, born in April 1941, a native of Shanghai. She is a professor at the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts and an expert receiving a special government allowance from the State Council. She began studying Kunqu at the age of thirteen, receiving personal instruction in the guimen dan (refined young female) role from twelve masters of the “Chuan” generation, including Zhou Chuanying, Zhu Chuanming, Yao Chuanxiang, and Zhou Chuanzheng, as well as from Yu Zhenfei and Yan Huizhu, and she is one of the key bearers who bridge the generations in the southern Kunqu “Shi” generation. In 1979 she starred in the color opera film The West Garden (Xiyuan Ji). Her performance is serene and profound, attaining the charm of precise form, vivid expression, and inner feeling, and has been widely praised by audiences. She transmits the art without cease and actively popularizes and lectures on the art of Kunqu. Within the documented technical tradition of Kun Qu Opera in Beijing: Liang Chenyu placed the chuanqi play The Story of Xi Shi (Wansha Ji) on the stage in kunqu form, so that kunqu, previously used mainly for unaccompanied singing, formally entered the sphere of dramatic performance and its influence was further enlarged. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China the art of kunqu has seen a turn for the better, and the state has successively established seven professional kunqu troupes with independent institutional status. The Lute (Pipa Ji), The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting), The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian), The Song of the Singing Phoenix (Mingfeng Ji), The Jade Hairpin (Yuzan Ji), The Red Pear (Hongli Ji), The Water Margin (Shuihu Ji), Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan) and Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan) are all representative repertoire works of kunqu, of which the first three survive in complete or nearly complete gongche notation scores. Newly written kunqu repertoire works include The Story of the Southern Tang (Nantang Yishi), The Puppet Tale (Ouren Ji), Sima Xiangru and Ban Zhao. Through long practice on the stage kunqu reached a very high achievement in the art of performance, with singing, dancing, gesture-work (jie) and spoken delivery (bai) highly integrated. Alongside the comprehensive development of performance art, the division of labour among kunqu role types has grown ever finer; the principal role types include laosheng, xiaosheng, dan, tie, laodan, wai, mo, jing, fu and chou. Each role type has formed its own performance conventions and techniques, which exerted an important influence on the formation and development of Beijing opera and other local operatic genres. The melodies of kunqu music are beautiful and elegant, and its singing techniques are standardized and thoroughly polished. The wide application of the added-board (zengban) form, the way syllables are articulated with head, belly and tail sounds, and the flowing and far-reaching artistic style give kunqu music the artistic effect described as 'graceful and charming, one phrase sighed over three times'. With its long history and its wide and far-reaching influence, kunqu is the crystallization of traditional culture and a model of operatic performance. The artistic form of kunqu is refined and its content is deep. After the founding of the People's Republic of China it was revitalized for a period. For kunqu to survive and develop, many pressing problems urgently await solution. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Pipa Ji (The Lute)": The Lute (Pipa Ji), The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting), The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian), The Song of the Singing Phoenix (Mingfeng Ji), The Jade Hairpin (Yuzan Ji), The Red Pear (Hongli Ji), The Water Margin (Shuihu Ji), Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan) and Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan) are all representative repertoire works of kunqu, of which the first three survive in complete or nearly complete gongche notation scores. "Mudan Ting (The Peony Pavilion)": The Lute (Pipa Ji), The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting), The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian), The Song of the Singing Phoenix (Mingfeng Ji), The Jade Hairpin (Yuzan Ji), The Red Pear (Hongli Ji), The Water Margin (Shuihu Ji), Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan) and Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan) are all representative repertoire works of kunqu, of which the first three survive in complete or nearly complete gongche notation scores. "Changsheng Dian (The Palace of Eternal Life)": The Lute (Pipa Ji), The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting), The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian), The Song of the Singing Phoenix (Mingfeng Ji), The Jade Hairpin (Yuzan Ji), The Red Pear (Hongli Ji), The Water Margin (Shuihu Ji), Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan) and Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan) are all representative repertoire works of kunqu, of which the first three survive in complete or nearly complete gongche notation scores. "Mingfeng Ji (The Song of the Singing Phoenix)": The Lute (Pipa Ji), The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting), The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian), The Song of the Singing Phoenix (Mingfeng Ji), The Jade Hairpin (Yuzan Ji), The Red Pear (Hongli Ji), The Water Margin (Shuihu Ji), Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan) and Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan) are all representative repertoire works of kunqu, of which the first three survive in complete or nearly complete gongche notation scores.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Kun Qu Opera, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She has performed and taught nearly one hundred plays, including Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan), The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting), The Jade Hairpin (Yuzan Ji), Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan), The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian), The Romance of the Western Chamber (Xixiang Ji), The Iron Crown Picture (Tieguan Tu), A Hundred Flowers Presenting Swords (Baihua Zengjian), The Remarkable Twin Meeting (Qishuang Hui), and Sifan Descending the Mountain (Sifan Xiashan); her disciples and students number more than one hundred, of whom more than thirty have won the Chinese Theatre Plum Blossom Award.

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. Shen Shihua · National Representative Bearer Archive