Wang Guifeng

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1943 she became a pupil of the wulindiao artist Hu Changgen, and later followed her master into the Chunqiu Society, the guild organization of wulindiao. Within the regional tradition and school record of Wulindiao in Hangzhou, Zhejiang: The spoken parts are settled by role type: the sheng, dan, jing and mo roles all use the written standard of Hangzhou speech, while the chou role uses the colloquial dialect of the city of Hangzhou; the effect is vivid and lively, with sharply marked characteristics. It evolved from the preaching sessions of folk baojuan (precious scrolls) of the Qing dynasty, gradually took shape in the late Qing period, and has a history of more than a hundred years to the present. In April 1969 the Hangzhou Quyi Troupe was dissolved, and most of the Wulindiao artists in it turned to other occupations to make a living, which caused this fine form of southern folk quyi to decline rapidly.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in January 1929 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, she is of Han ethnicity. In 1955 she joined the Hangzhou Quyi Experimental Group. In 1958 she joined the Hangzhou Quyi Troupe. Her voice is high and powerful and her melodic line vigorous; her representative traditional pieces include The Jade Chain: Composing a Poem in the Flower Garden (Yu Lian Huan: Hua Yuan Yong Shi), The Pearl Tower: Meeting the Aunt (Zhenzhu Ta: Jian Gu), Qin Xianglian: The Palace Gate (Qin Xianglian: Gong Men) and The Mother Tattoos Her Son's Back (Yue Mu Ci Zi). She has taken part many times in performances in Zhejiang Province and at national level. Within the documented technical tradition of Wulindiao in Hangzhou, Zhejiang: Wulindiao is also called “hangqu” (Hangzhou quyi); it is current in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, and in the surrounding area. Wulindiao is flexible and varied in form, places no restriction on the venue of performance, and is normally presented by four to five people; its chief feature is that singing and speaking are divided by role type, the performers using the sheng, dan, jing, mo and chou role types to portray characters and to imitate their identities, movements, expressions, tones of voice and so on. Sometimes a single performer simulates several characters, stepping out of and back into them, with endless changes. The lyrics of Wulindiao mostly use seven-character and ten-character lines, rhyming on the lower line; the style is plain and clear, popular and easy to follow. The vocal music of Wulindiao belongs to the banqiang (set-metre) system; besides its principal melodic types such as “Dalu ban”, “Erliu ban”, “Pingban” and “Youhun diao”, it also introduces folk songs, ditties and tunes of other sister genres according to the needs of the content, drawing on many sources and displaying a dazzling variety. The erhu, the sanxian and the pipa are the principal accompanying instruments of Wulindiao; early performances used a wooden fish to mark the beats, and later they used clappers and a drum. Over long performance practice Wulindiao has accumulated more than forty traditional repertoire works; Fang Qing Jiangu (Fang Qing Meets His Aunt), Yue Fei Zhuan (The Story of Yue Fei), Yu Tangchun, He Wenxiu and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers) are among its representative works. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Fang Qing Jiangu (Fang Qing Meets His Aunt)": Over long performance practice Wulindiao has accumulated more than forty traditional repertoire works; Fang Qing Jiangu (Fang Qing Meets His Aunt), Yue Fei Zhuan (The Story of Yue Fei), Yu Tangchun, He Wenxiu and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers) are among its representative works. "Yue Fei Zhuan (The Story of Yue Fei)": Over long performance practice Wulindiao has accumulated more than forty traditional repertoire works; Fang Qing Jiangu (Fang Qing Meets His Aunt), Yue Fei Zhuan (The Story of Yue Fei), Yu Tangchun, He Wenxiu and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers) are among its representative works. "Yu Tangchun": Over long performance practice Wulindiao has accumulated more than forty traditional repertoire works; Fang Qing Jiangu (Fang Qing Meets His Aunt), Yue Fei Zhuan (The Story of Yue Fei), Yu Tangchun, He Wenxiu and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers) are among its representative works. "He Wenxiu": Over long performance practice Wulindiao has accumulated more than forty traditional repertoire works; Fang Qing Jiangu (Fang Qing Meets His Aunt), Yue Fei Zhuan (The Story of Yue Fei), Yu Tangchun, He Wenxiu and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers) are among its representative works.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a national representative bearer of Wulindiao, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 1958 she went to Beijing to take part in the First National Quyi Festival held by the Ministry of Culture and in the First Congress of Chinese Quyi Workers, where she received a medal of honour and was received by state leaders and by leading figures of the literary and art circles. In 1958 she received the Award for Outstanding Performance at the First Zhejiang Provincial Quyi Festival, conferred by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture.

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 Guifeng · National Representative Bearer Archive