Dingzhangfu

01 · Lineage & Regional School

At the age of four he was apprenticed to a master to learn the art, and he developed a great interest in jinqianban. Within the regional tradition and school record of Jinqianban in Wanzhou, Chongqing: Jinqianban is transmitted among the folk in the Sichuan and Chongqing regions. In the Wanzhou area of Chongqing, the density of river ports and market towns once made speaking-and-singing activity very lively; the Wanzhou District Cultural Centre is the protecting unit. According to the project archive, Ding Changfu combined the striking technique and vocal style of both the 'hua school' and the 'za school'. In 2013 he was appointed visiting professor by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Promotion Centre of Sichuan International Studies University, promoting Jinqianban among local young people. Jinqianban performers from Wanzhou and from Chengdu and the main urban area of Chongqing have long kept in contact, borrowing each other's repertoire and board patterns, which produced the eastern Sichuan line, with tightly matched rhymes and a rich variety of striking patterns. It evolved from the kuaiban (quick-clapper recitation) and lianhua nao (lotus dance) forms. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Jinqianban entered a new stage of development, reaching its climax in the 1970s and 1980s.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in October 1952 in Wan County, Sichuan Province (present-day Wanzhou District, Chongqing), he is of Han ethnicity. He held the rank of National First-Class Actor. Through more than twenty years of study and observation he gained a fairly systematic command of the art of jinqianban performance. His clapper technique is solid and forceful and his performance vivid and true to life; his singing is round and smooth, harmonious in sound, brisk in rhythm and cadenced in its rise and fall. Combining the Hua and Za schools and absorbing the strengths of others, he has achieved a thorough mastery with strong artistic appeal. For many years he has persisted in promoting and teaching jinqianban among young people, and in 2013 he was appointed a visiting professor at the intangible cultural heritage promotion base of Sichuan International Studies University. Within the documented technical tradition of Jinqianban in Wanzhou, Chongqing: Jinqianban is one of the traditional folk genres of speaking-and-singing quyi in the Sichuan and Chongqing regions. The prop used in Jinqianban performance is three small bamboo boards. In the earliest performances, copper coins were strung through the holes in the boards, so that alongside the sound of the boards being struck one could also hear the coins knocking against one another. Later, for ease of manufacture, the coins were dropped in the process of making the prop, and Jinqianban became three plain bamboo boards. Jinqianban performance centres on four forms of expression: striking, speaking, singing and acting. A performance is given by one or several performers, who combine striking with singing, supported by acting. As for striking, the boards are struck: the performer holds three bamboo boards, one in each hand, clapping them together in time to produce the basic 'di, da, kua' sounds as well as a great variety of embellished rhythms, used to enliven the atmosphere. In singing there is both speech and song; the language is witty and the vocal style easy to sing. Acting stresses the use of the body and of the hands and fingers, conveying the spirit and the meaning. The lyrics are refined, lay stress on the description of plot, and are strict in metre and rhyme. Lines may be long or short and are handled flexibly; a mere few lines suffice to portray a character vividly, and the structure of the repertoire is rigorous. Most of the lyrics sung in Jinqianban are drawn from Chinese folk legends or historical stories. For example, The Fourth Sister Descends to the Mortal World, Zhaojun Passes the Frontier, Meng Jiangnu and Qin Xianglian. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Jinqianban pieces came not only to include historical and legendary subjects but also new works praising new people or new things, such as Delivering Goods to the Countryside, Three Times over the Cultural Post, Champion Rice Transplanter, Lei Feng, Jiao Yulu Visits the Poor in Wind and Snow, and No Spare Time to Return to My Parents' Home. The characteristics of Jinqianban are a complete structure, harmonious sound and rhyme, lively rhythm, vivid characterisation, simple props and flexible singing. The performers may be male or female, old or young, and the form can be staged anywhere. As society develops, the living space of this traditional art grows ever smaller. As old performers pass away one after another, too few successors remain in the ranks, and many performing skills have not been handed down. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Three bamboo slips and their coins": The instrument is three bamboo slips; originally coins were strung through their holes so the jingling joined the clatter, but later they were dropped. "The tick, stroke and crash patterns": Holders of the three slips produce the basic tick, stroke and crash beats and numerous colour sounds, which the singer joins to speech, song and gesture. "Traditional storytelling items": Most of the sung texts take up folk legend and history; these four are representative, prized for their rhyme and vivid scene-painting. "New-life pieces after 1949": After 1949 the repertoire added praise songs for new people and things, of which these and pieces on Lei Feng and Jiao Yulu were representative.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of Jinqianban, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

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. Dingzhangfu · National Representative Bearer Archive