Wang Yongchang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1956 he joined the Guangrao County Luju Opera Troupe as a music teacher, and during that period he studied under Shang Yexing, a veteran artist of Eastern Route Qinshu; in 1969 he was transferred to the Luju Opera Troupe of Huimin Prefecture, now Binzhou City. Within the regional tradition and school record of Luju Opera in Binzhou, Shandong: Around 1870 natural disasters were frequent in the northern Shandong region, and some peasants acted out small stories of local custom and feeling with local alley ballads and countryside ditties to make a living. Drawing on the Shandong volume of the Annals of Chinese Xiqu and local Binzhou materials, Binzhou city in Shandong adjoins the Bohai and was formerly called the “Huimin prefecture”, an important area of Lu opera circulation; around 1940, when the Bohai base area was established, the Bohai Daily published the Lu opera script The Two Seek Their Husbands, and the name “Lu opera” has spread widely to this day.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in April 1936, a native of Guangrao County, Shandong Province. He is a composer for Luju Opera. He has been engaged in Luju Opera creation for more than fifty years, persistently visiting folk artists, drawing his material from the people, learning songs by singing them himself and notating them on the spot; he has composed music for more than one hundred and fifty staged Luju productions. Through long practice, performance, exchange and appraisal he has summed up the basic features and developmental laws of Luju vocal art: fast passages are simple and slow passages elaborate; change is slight and gradual; one tune serves many uses; and variation never departs from the source. Within the documented technical tradition of Luju Opera in Binzhou, Shandong: Binzhou city adjoins the Bohai and was formerly called the “Huimin prefecture”. Because in the earliest short play Wang Xiao Drives the Cart the “second maiden” rides a donkey-shaped prop, it was popularly called “donkey opera” and later “Lu opera”. Its music takes “erban” and “siping” as its basic ban styles, later creating “fan siping” and “kuaiban”, its melodic line simple, plain and unadorned. Lu opera's creation comes from life, performing people and things in life and even directly using life's raw movements, with a strong rustic flavour. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Two Seek Their Husbands": The Lu opera script published in the Bohai Daily around 1940, which made the name “Lu opera” widely known. "Wang Xiao Drives the Cart": The earliest short play of Lu opera, whose donkey-shaped prop ridden by the “second maiden” gave it the nickname “donkey opera”. "Li Ersao Remarries": One of the representative plays of Lu opera. "Erban and Siping (The Basic Ban Styles)": The basic ban styles of Lu opera's music, later giving rise to “fan siping” and “kuaiban”, simple, plain and unadorned in melodic line.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Luju Opera, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. His works have won awards many times within and beyond Shandong, and he has published numerous articles in national forums, providing valuable material for the development and study of Luju Opera while promoting its wider circulation.

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. Wang Yongchang · National Representative Bearer Archive