Lu Yihong

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Lu Yihong, Female, Han, from Zhangzhou, Fujian, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Gezaixi Opera (Ⅳ-64). The tradition is documented in Zhangzhou, Fujian. Within the regional tradition and school record of Gezaixi Opera in Zhangzhou, Fujian: Gezaixi is a Minnan-dialect operatic genre built on the foundation of the Minnan gezi ballads; it took shape by drawing nourishment from such operatic forms as Liyuan opera, Beiguan opera, Gaojia opera, Chaoju and Peking opera. In addition, it absorbed local Taiwanese folk songs, ditties and a portion of operatic music by way of supplement. Gezaixi (Taiwanese opera) rose in the early twentieth century inside the island of Taiwan, reached Xiamen not long afterwards, and soon spread rapidly over the Minnan region and to the places where overseas Chinese have settled in Southeast Asia.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Lu Yihong is anchored in the documented technical standards of Gezaixi Opera in Zhangzhou, Fujian. Within the documented technical tradition of Gezaixi Opera in Zhangzhou, Fujian: Gezaixi at first consisted mainly of antiphonal singing by one man and one woman; it later developed into a mature theatre art with the three rows of sheng, dan and chou, complete in ke (acting), qu (singing) and bai (speech). Its sheng row includes xiaosheng, laosheng, wensheng and wusheng; its dan row includes kudan and zhengdan; and its chou row includes sanhua, laopo and other roles. All the roles are sung in the natural voice, and the kudan role is the most distinctive among them. The content of Gezaixi consists above all of folk stories that are sung; its plays include Chen San Wu Niang (Chen San and the Fifth Lady), Liu Xiu Fu Guo (Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom), Ba Xian Guo Hai (The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea), Ji Gong Zhuan (The Tale of Jigong) and Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers), and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, moral integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performances still follow the practice of having a “play teacher” (xi xiansheng) expound the play and assign the roles. Gezaixi has much speech and little song and its metrical rules are free; among its more than one hundred traditional melodies there are the haunting and lofty Qi Zi Diao (Seven-Syllable Air), the Da Diao (Great Air) and the Bei Si Diao (Recollection Air), together with the ballad-recitative style Taiwan Zanian Diao (Taiwanese Miscellany Air) and a range of melancholy, sorrowful crying tunes. The main accompanying instruments of Gezaixi are the yehu, the large two-string fiddle, the jinghu, the suona, the single-skin drum, gong, nao and cymbals and the like. According to the differing forms of performance and the shape of the theatre, it is divided into ground-sweeping gezi troupes, open-air gezi theatre and indoor gezi theatre; and with the rise of mass media such as radio, film and television, radio gezi opera, gezi opera films and televised gezi opera have appeared in turn. Ever since its birth, troupes and artists on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have kept exchanging performances. As a precious art form created and possessed jointly by the people on both sides of the Strait, Gezaixi has become an important link binding together their spiritual and cultural life. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Chen San Wu Niang (Chen San and the Fifth Lady)": The content of Gezaixi consists above all of folk stories that are sung; its plays include Chen San Wu Niang (Chen San and the Fifth Lady), Liu Xiu Fu Guo (Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom), Ba Xian Guo Hai (The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea), Ji Gong Zhuan (The Tale of Jigong) and Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers), and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, moral integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performances still follow the practice of having a “play teacher” (xi xiansheng) expound the play and assign the roles. "Liu Xiu Fu Guo (Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom)": The content of Gezaixi consists above all of folk stories that are sung; its plays include Chen San Wu Niang (Chen San and the Fifth Lady), Liu Xiu Fu Guo (Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom), Ba Xian Guo Hai (The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea), Ji Gong Zhuan (The Tale of Jigong) and Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers), and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, moral integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performances still follow the practice of having a “play teacher” (xi xiansheng) expound the play and assign the roles. "Ba Xian Guo Hai (The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea)": The content of Gezaixi consists above all of folk stories that are sung; its plays include Chen San Wu Niang (Chen San and the Fifth Lady), Liu Xiu Fu Guo (Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom), Ba Xian Guo Hai (The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea), Ji Gong Zhuan (The Tale of Jigong) and Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers), and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, moral integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performances still follow the practice of having a “play teacher” (xi xiansheng) expound the play and assign the roles. "Ji Gong Zhuan (The Tale of Jigong)": The content of Gezaixi consists above all of folk stories that are sung; its plays include Chen San Wu Niang (Chen San and the Fifth Lady), Liu Xiu Fu Guo (Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom), Ba Xian Guo Hai (The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea), Ji Gong Zhuan (The Tale of Jigong) and Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers), and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, moral integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performances still follow the practice of having a “play teacher” (xi xiansheng) expound the play and assign the roles.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Lu Yihong was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Gezaixi Opera, with Zhangzhou, Fujian as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Gezaixi Opera in Zhangzhou, Fujian: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2006 (batch 1), with Zhangzhou, Fujian as its declared area, and Zhangzhou Gezaixi (Xiangju) Transmission Safeguarding Center as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

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. Luyihong (Zhangzhou, Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Luyihong · China ICH Official Archive