Xie Tao

01 · Lineage & Regional School

At eleven she was admitted to the Taiyuan Art School to study opera, and four years later she joined the Taiyuan Experimental Jinju Theatre; she first studied qingyi (chaste female) roles and later switched to xusheng (bearded male) roles, studying under Li Yuexian, a performing artist of the Ma school of Jinju. Within the regional tradition and school record of Jinju (Shanxi Opera) in Taiyuan, Shanxi: The Zhangjiakou branch of Jinju is likewise called “kou bangzi” (mouth bangzi): it absorbs the local dialect and takes over artistic features from Beijing opera, Pingju, Hebei bangzi and others, which makes its singing full of resonance, and it has likewise given rise to a group of repertoire works of its own. In the early years of the Qing, Puzhou bangzi (the Puzhou clapper opera) flowed into central Shanxi and was joined there to the Qitai yangge and the folk tunes of central Shanxi; through the efforts of Shanxi merchants and the local literati it grew into Jinju.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

She is a woman of the Han ethnic group, born in June 1967 in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. She is a National First-Class Actor and an expert receiving the special government allowance of the State Council. She comes from a family of theatre people; her mother was a famous qingyi performer of Jinju. Her singing has a mellow, rich savour and her acting is free and unrestrained; in characterisation in particular she shows exceptional stage intuition, emphasises the cultural connotations of her figures, and is adept at using such special techniques as kneeling steps, chair leaps, hat wings and the artificial beard to create vivid characters. Her representative pieces include Fu Shan Goes to Beijing (Fu Shan Jin Jing), Fan Jin Passes the Examination (Fan Jin Zhong Ju), Below Lanke Mountain (Lan Ke Shan Xia), Pointing the Marshal at the Three Passes, The Crouching Tiger Seal, Killing at the Post Station and The Abandoned Meal (She Fan). Within the documented technical tradition of Jinju (Shanxi Opera) in Taiyuan, Shanxi: Jinju is one of the four bangzi (clapper) genres of Shanxi Province; since it originated in central Shanxi it is also known as the “central-route bangzi” (zhonglu bangzi), and provinces outside Shanxi call it “Shanxi bangzi”. It circulates chiefly in central and northern Shanxi and in parts of Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Hebei. It underwent several changes afterwards, and then spread to central Shanxi, northern Shanxi and parts of Inner Mongolia, Hebei and northern Shaanxi. The traditional repertoire of Jinju is rich, with more than two hundred plays staged regularly, such as The Wei River (Weishui he), Beating the Golden Branch (Da jin zhi), Mount Lintong (Lintong shan), The Belt of Heaven and Earth (Qiankun dai), The Kingdom of Shatuo (Shatuo guo), The Battle of Wancheng (Zhan wancheng), White Water Shoal (Baishui tan), The Golden Water Bridge (Jinshui qiao), The Fire Colt (Huoyan ju), The Palace of the Brahma King (Fanwang gong) and Twin-Locked Mountain (Shuangsuo shan). As it developed, Jinju kept the stirring, high-spirited artistic features of Puzhou bangzi while at the same time developing a supple and finely wrought lyrical style. It has a rich variety of vocal styles, among them luantan (free-rhythm singing), qiang’er and quzi; its metrical patterns are varied and its expressiveness is strong, for the luantan alone is divided into seven metrical types: Pingban (level plate), Jiaban (double plate), Erxing (second mode), Liushui (flowing water), Jieban (interlude plate), Gunbai (rolling speech) and Daoban (conducting plate). Beneath the influence of modern lifestyles and the impact of the commodity economy, the number of Jinju plays performed has dropped sharply; urban audiences have drained away in large numbers, while among rural audiences the elderly are the main body. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Wei River": Jinju possesses a rich traditional repertoire, and upwards of two hundred plays are put on stage regularly: The Wei River (Weishui he), Beating the Golden Branch (Da jin zhi), Mount Lintong (Lintong shan), The Belt of Heaven and Earth (Qiankun dai), The Kingdom of Shatuo (Shatuo guo), The Battle of Wancheng (Zhan wancheng), White Water Shoal (Baishui tan), The Golden Water Bridge (Jinshui qiao), The Fire Colt (Huoyan ju), The Palace of the Brahma King (Fanwang gong), Twin-Locked Mountain (Shuangsuo shan) and others. "Beating the Golden Branch": Jinju possesses a rich traditional repertoire, and upwards of two hundred plays are put on stage regularly: The Wei River (Weishui he), Beating the Golden Branch (Da jin zhi), Mount Lintong (Lintong shan), The Belt of Heaven and Earth (Qiankun dai), The Kingdom of Shatuo (Shatuo guo), The Battle of Wancheng (Zhan wancheng), White Water Shoal (Baishui tan), The Golden Water Bridge (Jinshui qiao), The Fire Colt (Huoyan ju), The Palace of the Brahma King (Fanwang gong), Twin-Locked Mountain (Shuangsuo shan) and others. "Mount Lintong": Jinju possesses a rich traditional repertoire, and upwards of two hundred plays are put on stage regularly: The Wei River (Weishui he), Beating the Golden Branch (Da jin zhi), Mount Lintong (Lintong shan), The Belt of Heaven and Earth (Qiankun dai), The Kingdom of Shatuo (Shatuo guo), The Battle of Wancheng (Zhan wancheng), White Water Shoal (Baishui tan), The Golden Water Bridge (Jinshui qiao), The Fire Colt (Huoyan ju), The Palace of the Brahma King (Fanwang gong), Twin-Locked Mountain (Shuangsuo shan) and others. "The Belt of Heaven and Earth": Jinju possesses a rich traditional repertoire, and upwards of two hundred plays are put on stage regularly: The Wei River (Weishui he), Beating the Golden Branch (Da jin zhi), Mount Lintong (Lintong shan), The Belt of Heaven and Earth (Qiankun dai), The Kingdom of Shatuo (Shatuo guo), The Battle of Wancheng (Zhan wancheng), White Water Shoal (Baishui tan), The Golden Water Bridge (Jinshui qiao), The Fire Colt (Huoyan ju), The Palace of the Brahma King (Fanwang gong), Twin-Locked Mountain (Shuangsuo shan) and others.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a national representative bearer of Jinju (Shanxi Opera), a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She is the recipient of the title of National Young and Middle-aged Literary and Art Worker of Both Virtue and Art at the fourth session, the Fourteenth China Drama Plum Blossom Award in 1997, a second Plum Blossom at the Twenty-fourth China Drama Plum Blossom Award in 2009, the Ministry of Culture Wenhua Performance Award, and the leading-role award of the Shanghai Magnolia Theatre Performing Arts Awards. For many years she has attached great importance to training talent; since 2000 she has taken disciples and taught them her art, transmitting all her classic pieces to them.

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. Xie Tao · National Representative Bearer Archive