Liu Yinhong

01 · Lineage & Regional School

At the age of twelve she studied under the drum-singing artists Xu Tianbao and Hu Zepei, and at fifteen, having completed her training, she founded the Zhangzi County Youth Quyi Troupe (renamed the Zhangzi County Yongxing Quyi Storytelling Troupe in 1990) and began performing in public. Within the regional tradition and school record of Zhangzigushu in Zhangzi, Shanxi: Especially during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the anti-Japanese publicity teams composed mainly of Zhangzi drum-ballad performers were extremely active in the southeastern part of Shanxi. Zhangzi drum-ballad storytelling is a form of quyi storytelling that took shape in Zhangzi County, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in August 1972 in Zhangzi County, Shanxi Province, she is of Han ethnicity. She loved the art of drum singing from childhood. Her voice is soft and sweet, her diction clear and her singing gently modulated, and she has developed a distinctive style of her own. She has appeared many times in Beijing, Tianjin and elsewhere on the same stage as leading quyi artists, and in July 2013 she travelled with the China Quyi Artists Association to Paris, France, to take part in the Paris Chinese Quyi Festival. Her representative works include Zhang Meiying's Beauty Treatment (Zhang Meiying Meirong), The Young Couple Visits the Bride's Family (Xiao Liangkuo Hui Niangjia), The Young Couple Carries Water (Xiao Liangkuo Tai Shui) and Come Home Often (Chang Hui Jia Kankan). Within the documented technical tradition of Zhangzigushu in Zhangzi, Shanxi: The performance form alternates between spoken narration and singing, is sung mainly, and is performed in the local Zhangzi accent. Performance most often involves a single person striking a storytelling drum and clapper boards while pulling a two-stringed fiddle to accompany his own singing; later there also appeared performances in which two or more people divided the accompanying instruments and performed together. Since the middle of the twentieth century, performers other than the old masters have mostly used the local Mandarin; the vocal system belongs to the clapper-pattern type, its main clapper patterns being the flowing clapper, the counted clapper, the stacked clapper and the lament clapper; apart from the storytelling drum, the clapper boards and the two-stringed fiddle, bamboo clappers, the banhu and the low two-stringed fiddle are also used. The accompaniment method is of the interlude type: while singing, the instruments are not played. There are also instrumental tune patterns used for the 'naochang' performance that opens the show before the storytelling begins. From the 1980s onward, amplified instruments together with the accordion, gong and cymbals were added, used both for the 'chaotai' performance before a show and for accompaniment when bangzi-style and luozi-style passages are inserted into the singing. Traditional repertoire is mainly of medium and long length, including Jin Zhuo Yu Huan Ji (The Golden Bracelet and Jade Ring), The Bao Gong Case, The Xu Gong Case, The Shi Gong Case, The Hai Gong Case, The Returned Cup, The Returned Dragon and White Jade Tower. Works newly composed since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression are mainly short pieces, including Wind and Thunder, Xiao Erhei Gets Married, Sister Jiang and Fiery Steel. Zhangzi drum-ballad storytelling has a proud artistic tradition. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Zhangzi County quyi troupe built on this foundation stayed active in the county's urban and rural areas, performing for the ordinary people all year round. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Drum, bamboo clappers and self-played erhu": A single performer usually beats the story drum and clappers while bowing his own erhu; accompaniment falls between vocal phrases rather than under them. "The four main metres": Its arias are of the metrical type with flowing, counting, piled and lamenting metres, later joined by electric instruments, accordion and gongs. "Middle- and long-length items": Traditional items run mostly middle- or long-length; these and the court-case cycles were told over many days in the villages. "New items from the war years onward": From the War of Resistance onward new items were mostly short, drawing on modern literature and revolutionary stories.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a national representative bearer of Zhangzi Gushu, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She performs in rural areas throughout the year and has trained a number of young performers by having them learn through performance, and she takes an active part in performances and teaching activities that bring quyi into schools, classrooms and communities.

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. Liu Yinhong · National Representative Bearer Archive