Ye Shengjian

01 · Lineage & Regional School

From the age of seventeen he studied under the renowned local artists Dong Shunfa and Ye Rongbiao, and two years later he began performing independently. Within the regional tradition and school record of Changxinwen in Xiangshan, Zhejiang: Changxinwen is also called "luogushu"; it is widely transmitted in Xiangshan County under Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, and in neighbouring Beilun and Yinzhou. The Xiangshan County Cultural Centre is the protecting unit. Within Xiangshan it is always performed in the local Xiangshan speech and tunes, and its content largely reflects local customs and conditions, so it is also called "Xiangshan changxinwen", abbreviated as "xinwen". The old performers there are growing ever older and young and middle-aged performers are extremely scarce; since the late 1980s audiences have dwindled, many performers having left the art to seek a living elsewhere. Since the late 1980s, the number of people watching changxinwen has steadily dwindled, and many performers have left the art to make a living elsewhere.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in March 1960 in Xiangshan County, Zhejiang Province, he is of Han ethnicity. His singing is pure and his voice clean and resonant, with great carrying power and emotional appeal. His representative works include the long-form Three Counties Try a Case Together (San Xian Bing Shen) and the short pieces Xu Fu Comes to Xiangshan (Xu Fu Dao Xiangshan) and Evergreen Scallion (Changnian Cong). Each year he gives more than sixty free public performances in villages and communities, and he has often performed in other provinces. He is actively committed to transmitting changxinwen: he has collected and collated songbook materials such as The Strange Case of Xinchang (Xinchang Qi'an) and Ciyun Travels the Realm (Ciyun Zou Guo), and his student Li Suqin has already become a rising stage talent. Within the documented technical tradition of Changxinwen in Xiangshan, Zhejiang: Changxinwen is also called "luogushu" (gong-and-drum book); it is an ancient genre of quyi widely transmitted in Xiangshan County under Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, and in neighbouring Beilun and Yinzhou. It is called "singing the news" because what is sung is mostly current events that have just taken place. Within Xiangshan, changxinwen is always performed in the local Xiangshan speech and tunes, and its content largely reflects local customs and conditions, so it is also called "Xiangshan changxinwen", abbreviated as "xinwen". Performance alternates between speech and song, with song predominating. Lyrics are mostly in seven-syllable lines, though long and short lines occur as well, and paired lines rhyme. There are two forms of staging: dan kou (single mouth, one performer) and shuang kou (double mouth, two performers). In the single-mouth form the performer holds a small gong and bamboo clappers in the left hand and a drumstick and a gong plate (a bamboo slip) in the right, with a small waist drum set on the left thigh; sometimes the performer speaks and sings while beating, sometimes sings a passage, then plays a burst of gong and drum before resuming the narrative. In the double-mouth form one performer leads and beats the drum board himself, while the other joins in as a second singer. Before the performance it is usual to beat a burst of gong and drum to draw in the audience, a practice known as "naochang" (livening the venue). When the show opens the performer first sings four or six lines of text, called the "shu maozi" (book cap), after which the piece moves into the "zheng shu" (main book), sung with occasional spoken narration. Changxinwen uses many tunes, most of which took shape by absorbing the various local tunes. In the Ningbo area, including the Xiangshan region, the vocal styles and tunes in common use comprise, besides the basic tune "Xinwen Diao", such pieces as "Zhenhai Diao", "Ci Diao" and "Fu Diao". Traditional repertoire includes the full-length "zheng shu", also called "dangjia shu", such as "The Two Lan Yings", "Wu Yulin", "The Sun-and-Moon Zither", "The Story of Nailing Shoes", "The Cage and the Chest", "Returning the Gold Bracelet", "The White Jade Sash", "The Drugged Dog", "Parting the Mandarin Ducks", "The Ingot", "The Generals of the Yang Family", as well as "The Hair Loop", unique to Xiangshan; there are also "opening books", usually sung before the main book, such as "Practising Health", "Warning Against Gambling", "The Bachelor" and "The Man with the Sore Head Carries His Wife". Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Solo and duet performance": In the solo form the singer holds a gong, clappers, stick and bamboo blade over a small waist drum; in the duet one leads at the drum while the other sings along. "The warming drum and the book cap": A drum roll called the "noisy ground" gathers the crowd, after which a four- or six-line "book cap" opens the main narration. "The principal tunes": Beyond the basic News Tune, performers in Ningbo and Xiangshan draw on the Zhenhai, ci and fu tunes among many local melodies. "The long household books": The long "household books" include these titles and the Xiangshan-only Coil of Hair, told over many evenings.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of Changxinwen, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. His work Evergreen Scallion (Changnian Cong) won the Xingxing Award at the Tenth China Art Festival in 2013.

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. Ye Shengjian · National Representative Bearer Archive