Yin Jiaqi

01 · Lineage & Regional School

She belongs to the Ji generation of Su-Kun opera performers. In 1956 she entered the Jiangsu Provincial Su-Kun Opera Troupe, taking the zhengdan (principal female) role, and studied under the Kun opera masters Shen Chuanzhi, Wang Chuanqu and Zhuang Zaichun. Within the regional tradition and school record of Su Opera in Suzhou, Jiangsu: The traditional repertoire of Su opera is the same as that of the costumed Su tan, and is divided into two main categories, qiantan and houtan. In 1912 the spoken-and-sung nanci already had a simple costumed form of performance; in 1941 Zhu Guoliang founded the Guofeng New-style Su Opera Troupe in Shanghai, attempting to develop the spoken-and-sung nanci into the independent operatic vocal genre Su opera and to have Su opera performed in mixed bills together with kunqu. The great majority of the qiantan repertoire works derive from kunqu. The Romance of the Western Chamber, The Peony Pavilion, The Red Pear, Lanke Mountain, The Jade Hairpin, The Embroidered Tunic, The West Tower, Taking the Flower Champion and Yu Jia Le are its representative plays; in performance they are given mainly as excerpt plays, their plots and dialogue are basically the same as in kunqu, while the sung lines have been changed from the mixed long-and-short line into the plain and easily understood seven-syllable line.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

A woman of Han ethnicity, she was born in August 1940 in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. Her acting is delicate and unaffected, natural and vivid; she excels at conveying a character's inner sorrow, and the roles she creates have sharply defined personalities. She has deep accomplishment in singing and recitation: her voice is broad, full and bright, her timbre pure, and her articulation and projection forceful. Her representative works include The Courtesan Hua Kui, The Injustice to Dou E, The White Rabbit, Chai Tou Feng (The Phoenix Hairpin) and The Civet Cat Exchanged for the Crown Prince. Within the documented technical tradition of Su Opera in Suzhou, Jiangsu: Su opera was formed by the confluence of huagu tanhuang with nanci and kunqu, and is popular in the towns and villages of southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. Its predecessor, Su tan, was originally called the spoken-and-sung nanci and is popularly known as “da shantou” (“going up the hilltop”); it is a form of folk art in which the performers sit in a circle and sing a cappella. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Su opera grew up healthily. The music and vocal styles of Su opera have three main sources: first, kunqu tune patterns; second, nanci; third, tanhuang tunes. Because it is deeply influenced by kunqu, the musical style of Su opera is supple and clear, delicate and moving, while retaining the plain and flowing character of Su tan. Its accompaniment is led by the erhu, together with Jiangnan sizhu. Commonly used traditional tunes include several dozen items such as the Taiping tune, the Xiansuo tune, the Fei family tune, the Chai tune, the Mind-Snatching tune, the Silver Whirl and the Flowing Water mode; in addition there are tunes deriving from kunqu such as [A River Breeze], [Crimson Lips], [Locking the South Branch] and [Yudiao Pai Ge], together with folk ditties current in the Suzhou area such as [Spring Tune], [Splitting the Jade], [Great Nine Links] and [Little Nine Links]; there are also various ban forms such as manban, kuaiban and sanban. The role types of Su opera are basically the same as those of kunqu. They now include laowai, laosheng, fumo, guansheng, jinsheng, pheasant-tail sheng, qiongsheng, laodan, zhengdan, zuodan, sidan, wudan, liudan, jing, fu and chou. Actors often double in several lines: laosheng also plays laowai and fumo, fu also plays chou, and zhengdan also plays zuodan, sidan, wudan and liudan, and so on. The performance of Su opera also draws fully on the experience of kunqu; it is graceful and varied, fine and expressive. To suit the fact that Su opera actors are not skilled at dance, the plot is sometimes modified to an appropriate degree. The houtan repertoire works include material adapted and transplanted from kunqu and other genres and from folk art, as well as shidiao ditties and topical sketches sung solo by the chou role; Jiao Ge, Zhang San Borrows the Boots, Song Shou, Visiting Kin and Quarreling, Selling the Haystack, Begging for a Vegetarian Meal and Touring the Eighteen Views are all representative houtan plays. Suzhou tanhuang, the foundation and soul of Su opera, has a long history, deep traditions and rich resources; Su opera itself is closely connected with kunqu in literature, music, performance and many other respects, fully embodying the character of Suzhou culture. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Xi Xiang Ji (The Romance of the Western Chamber)": The great majority of the qiantan repertoire works derive from kunqu. The Romance of the Western Chamber, The Peony Pavilion, The Red Pear, Lanke Mountain, The Jade Hairpin, The Embroidered Tunic, The West Tower, Taking the Flower Champion and Yu Jia Le are its representative plays; in performance they are given mainly as excerpt plays, their plots and dialogue are basically the same as in kunqu, while the sung lines have been changed from the mixed long-and-short line into the plain and easily understood seven-syllable line. "Mudan Ting (The Peony Pavilion)": The great majority of the qiantan repertoire works derive from kunqu. The Romance of the Western Chamber, The Peony Pavilion, The Red Pear, Lanke Mountain, The Jade Hairpin, The Embroidered Tunic, The West Tower, Taking the Flower Champion and Yu Jia Le are its representative plays; in performance they are given mainly as excerpt plays, their plots and dialogue are basically the same as in kunqu, while the sung lines have been changed from the mixed long-and-short line into the plain and easily understood seven-syllable line. "Hongli Ji (The Red Pear)": The great majority of the qiantan repertoire works derive from kunqu. The Romance of the Western Chamber, The Peony Pavilion, The Red Pear, Lanke Mountain, The Jade Hairpin, The Embroidered Tunic, The West Tower, Taking the Flower Champion and Yu Jia Le are its representative plays; in performance they are given mainly as excerpt plays, their plots and dialogue are basically the same as in kunqu, while the sung lines have been changed from the mixed long-and-short line into the plain and easily understood seven-syllable line. "Lanke Shan (The Rotten Axe)": The great majority of the qiantan repertoire works derive from kunqu. The Romance of the Western Chamber, The Peony Pavilion, The Red Pear, Lanke Mountain, The Jade Hairpin, The Embroidered Tunic, The West Tower, Taking the Flower Champion and Yu Jia Le are its representative plays; in performance they are given mainly as excerpt plays, their plots and dialogue are basically the same as in kunqu, while the sung lines have been changed from the mixed long-and-short line into the plain and easily understood seven-syllable line.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a representative bearer of Su opera, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Her performances in The Courtesan Hua Kui and Setting Out to Hunt were praised by the renowned drama artists Chen Bohua, Yu Zhenfei, Li Qianghua, Fu Quanxiang and Xu Yulan. She has taken an active part in training performers of the Hong and Yang generations.

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. Yin Jiaqi · National Representative Bearer Archive