Li Xianmin

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He is the third-generation transmitter of the renowned Yu opera drummer Chen Keyu. Within the regional tradition and school record of Yuju (Henan Opera) in Henan: Yuju is popular mainly in Henan Province and is circulated throughout the country. Owing to differences of locality and speech it has formed different vocal styles within Henan, such as Yudong Diao, Xiangfu Diao, Yuxi Diao, Shahe Diao and Gaodiao: Yudong Diao centres on the Shangqiu area and makes much use of falsetto with a high register; Yuxi Diao centres on the Luoyang area, is sung mainly in the natural voice and carries its melodic line downward; Xiangfu Diao is current in the Kaifeng area, while Shahe Diao is current on both banks of the Shahe River in southeastern Henan. The various schools resemble and differ from one another both in repertory and in performing style. Yuju has now been transmitted for more than a hundred years, and as early as the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty it had already become a highly influential operatic genre in Henan.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in July 1945 in Heze City, Shandong Province. His drumming is highly accomplished and his grounding solid. He compiled Luogu Jing of Yu Opera, a notation of drum and gong patterns, providing a fairly systematic theoretical summary of Yu opera drumming technique and of the gong-and-drum notation repertory. Within the documented technical tradition of Yuju (Henan Opera) in Henan: Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Beheading the Son": Yuju has abundant repertory resources, among them close to a thousand traditional plays. In past times there was the saying "three thousand in the Tang, eight hundred in the Song, and the Three Kingdoms can never be exhausted", and such traditional plays as Beheading the Son, The Shepherd's Scroll, Liu Quan Carrying the Melon, Embracing the Pipa, The Execution of Guo Huai, The Red Monk Descends the Mountain, The Great Sacrifice, Borrowing the Wife, The Matchmaker, Hua Mulan, Mu Guiying Takes Command, The Flower Spear Duel and Magistrate Tang Judges the Imperial Decree have long remained on the stage without decline. "The Shepherd's Scroll": Yuju has abundant repertory resources, among them close to a thousand traditional plays. In past times there was the saying "three thousand in the Tang, eight hundred in the Song, and the Three Kingdoms can never be exhausted", and such traditional plays as Beheading the Son, The Shepherd's Scroll, Liu Quan Carrying the Melon, Embracing the Pipa, The Execution of Guo Huai, The Red Monk Descends the Mountain, The Great Sacrifice, Borrowing the Wife, The Matchmaker, Hua Mulan, Mu Guiying Takes Command, The Flower Spear Duel and Magistrate Tang Judges the Imperial Decree have long remained on the stage without decline. "Liu Quan Carrying the Melon": Yuju has abundant repertory resources, among them close to a thousand traditional plays. In past times there was the saying "three thousand in the Tang, eight hundred in the Song, and the Three Kingdoms can never be exhausted", and such traditional plays as Beheading the Son, The Shepherd's Scroll, Liu Quan Carrying the Melon, Embracing the Pipa, The Execution of Guo Huai, The Red Monk Descends the Mountain, The Great Sacrifice, Borrowing the Wife, The Matchmaker, Hua Mulan, Mu Guiying Takes Command, The Flower Spear Duel and Magistrate Tang Judges the Imperial Decree have long remained on the stage without decline. "Embracing the Pipa": Yuju has abundant repertory resources, among them close to a thousand traditional plays. In past times there was the saying "three thousand in the Tang, eight hundred in the Song, and the Three Kingdoms can never be exhausted", and such traditional plays as Beheading the Son, The Shepherd's Scroll, Liu Quan Carrying the Melon, Embracing the Pipa, The Execution of Guo Huai, The Red Monk Descends the Mountain, The Great Sacrifice, Borrowing the Wife, The Matchmaker, Hua Mulan, Mu Guiying Takes Command, The Flower Spear Duel and Magistrate Tang Judges the Imperial Decree have long remained on the stage without decline.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Yuju (Henan Opera), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He served as a teacher of percussion at the Henan Provincial Opera School for more than ten cohorts, training a large number of percussion talents for Yu opera; his graduates are distributed among the First, Second and Third Yu Opera Troupes of Henan Province, the Henan Provincial Quju Troupe and numerous municipal troupes.

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. Li Xianmin · National Representative Bearer Archive