Li Ruifang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Li Ruifang, Female, Han, from Xiquyanjiuyuan, Shaanxi, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Meihu (Ⅳ-99). The tradition is documented in Xiquyanjiuyuan, Shaanxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Meihu in Xiquyanjiuyuan, Shaanxi: The performance forms of Meihu are of two types. The first is the quasi-dramatic form that still retains open-air ('ditanzi') singing, mostly excerpt plays such as Meeting at the Ancient City (Gucheng Hui) and The Imperial Princess Takes the Veil (Huanggu Chujia), sung right through with very little spoken dialogue. Since the late Qing dynasty, with the expansion of its area of circulation, five branches of quzi opera appeared. By the 1940s, the Minzhong Theatre Troupe of the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region boldly innovated, beginning to use traditional Meihu opera to portray modern life and creating such works as Twelve Sickles and Everybody Likes It; from then on Meihu was carried to every part of the country.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in November 1935 in Tianshui City, Gansu Province. In 1952 she was admitted to the Shaanxi Provincial Academy of Traditional Chinese Opera, specializing in the guimendan (young lady) and qingyi roles. Her performances in Twelve Sickles, Apricot Blossom Village and The Singing Girl of Qujiang have remained perennially popular. She became renowned throughout the Three Qin region above all for her successful performance in the modern Meihu play Liang Qiuyan, and among the people there was a saying that after seeing Liang Qiuyan one could go three days without eating. Striving for perfection in her art and bold in exploration, when performing the newly written historical Wanwanqiang play Yang Guifei she created the character of Yang Guifei with originality while respecting the laws of traditional performing art, to critical acclaim. She has received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Opera Performing Artists conferred by the Chinese Opera Performance Society. Since retirement she has continued to direct plays for numerous actors in the five provinces and autonomous regions of northwest China, and has travelled to the grassroots to give voluntary guidance to county-level troupes in rehearsing and performing. Within the documented technical tradition of Meihu in Xiquyanjiuyuan, Shaanxi: Meihu belongs to the tune-pattern system and is also called 'quzi xi', 'qingqu', 'mi huzi' or 'donglu quzi'; it is now generally known as 'Meihu'. It is the second largest local opera genre of Shaanxi Province, circulating mainly in Shaanxi Province, Gansu Province, Qinghai Province, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, as well as in southern Shanxi, western Henan, northern Sichuan and the Shaanxi-Hubei border area, and is especially widespread in the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Province. The vocal system and melodies of Meihu absorbed much of the folk tunes of the Guanzhong area from the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it broadly passed through two stages of development, the family stage play and the theatre stage play. By the end of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty it had entered a period of prosperity; in Fengxiang County alone as many as twenty-two Meihu troupes appeared. The sheng, dan, jing and chou role types of Meihu are all complete; its basis is chiefly the life, labour, love, marriage and funerals of the broad labouring masses, and its traditional repertoire is very rich. The second is the stage form: its repertoire includes full-length plays such as The Flame Steed (Huoyan Ju) and The Late-Blooming Rose (Chi Kai de Meigui), as well as excerpt plays such as Zhang Lian Sells Cloth and Madam Du (Du Shiniang). It mixes spoken dialogue, singing and acting, uses tune patterns freely, has a vocal style that is gentle and delicate, beautiful and moving, and is skilled at expressing depth, pathos and sorrow. The costumes of Meihu are plain, its make-up is bold and coarse-lined, its performance movements are true to life and lifelike, and its overall style is comparatively modern. It is rich in melody, and there is a saying that it has 'seventy-two great tunes and thirty-six minor tunes'. The great tunes are mainly for singing sorrowful plots; the minor tunes are mainly for singing joyful plots. Its accompanying instruments are led by the sanxian (three-stringed fiddle), supported by the banhu and the haidi, with the erhu, the daqin and both Chinese and Western string and wind instruments gradually added later. Its percussion instruments and gong-and-drum patterns all borrow from the local full-length operas with slight modification. It is skilled at portraying modern life; it is a very 'down-to-earth' local opera with strong artistic appeal. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Twelve Sickles": By the 1940s the Minzhong Theatre Troupe of the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region boldly innovated, beginning to use traditional Meihu opera to portray modern life, and created and performed works such as Twelve Sickles and Everybody Likes It; from then on Meihu was carried to every part of the country. "Everybody Likes It": By the 1940s the Minzhong Theatre Troupe of the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region boldly innovated, beginning to use traditional Meihu opera to portray modern life, and created and performed works such as Twelve Sickles and Everybody Likes It; from then on Meihu was carried to every part of the country. "The Flame Steed (Huoyan Ju)": The second is the stage form: its repertoire includes full-length plays such as The Flame Steed (Huoyan Ju) and The Late-Blooming Rose (Chi Kai de Meigui), as well as excerpt plays such as Zhang Lian Sells Cloth and Madam Du (Du Shiniang). It mixes spoken dialogue, singing and acting, uses tune patterns freely, has a vocal style that is gentle and delicate, beautiful and moving, and is skilled at expressing depth, pathos and sorrow. "The Late-Blooming Rose": The second is the stage form: its repertoire includes full-length plays such as The Flame Steed (Huoyan Ju) and The Late-Blooming Rose (Chi Kai de Meigui), as well as excerpt plays such as Zhang Lian Sells Cloth and Madam Du (Du Shiniang). It mixes spoken dialogue, singing and acting, uses tune patterns freely, has a vocal style that is gentle and delicate, beautiful and moving, and is skilled at expressing depth, pathos and sorrow.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Meihu, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In the 1990s she was the first to adapt the Nordic stage play Really, Really into Wanwanqiang and bring it to the Chinese opera stage, performing it in Denmark and winning an 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. Li Ruifang · National Representative Bearer Archive