Yan Huifang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Yan Huifang, Female, Han, from Yuncheng, Shanxi, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Meihu (Ⅳ-99). The tradition is documented in Yuncheng, Shanxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Meihu in Yuncheng, Shanxi: Yuncheng Meihu is popular in Yuncheng, Linyi, Wanrong, Yongji and the surrounding areas of southern Shanxi Province, and belongs, together with the Meihu of Linfen, Jincheng and other places, to the southern Shanxi branch. It began as open-air storytelling and singing with time beaten on four tiles and accompaniment on the sanxian, later developed into household theatre, and finally professional performance troupes appeared; most of its plays draw on everyday folk life; its vocal repertoire has seventy-two great tunes and thirty-six minor tunes; and its performance absorbed conventional devices of Puzhou Bangzi such as water sleeves, hat wings, boots and pheasant feathers, giving it a look of its own. The Linyi County Meihu Theatre is the principal professional performance troupe of the area. There are two traditions about the origin of Meihu. One holds that it came from Mei County and Hu County in Shaanxi, taking its name from those places; the other holds that it came from Huayin and Hua County in Shaanxi and that, because its tunes are pleasant to the ear, it was called 'the play that enchants', abbreviated to 'mi xi' and commonly known as 'mi hu'.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Yan Huifang is anchored in the documented technical standards of Meihu in Yuncheng, Shanxi. Within the documented technical tradition of Meihu in Yuncheng, Shanxi: Meihu is also called 'mi hu', 'quzi' and 'qingqu', and is widely circulated in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and other places. Meihu grew out of the continuous singing of folk songs: it moved by degrees from open-air storytelling and singing into staged performance. It has two main performance forms. The first still keeps the quasi-dramatic form of open-air singing, in which the scripts are mostly excerpt plays (zhezi xi) sung right through with very little spoken dialogue; the other uses the staged form, with spoken dialogue, singing and acting together, and the choice of tune patterns is comparatively free. Meihu is a local opera genre with sharply distinctive character, rich in melody and wide in circulation, and it occupies an important position in the theatre culture of China. Yuncheng Meihu began as a form of folk-song singing and, over long circulation, gradually developed into storytelling and singing; some blind people and the poor beat time on four tiles (siye wa), accompany themselves on the sanxian (three-stringed fiddle), and go from street to street performing in the open air or singing at weddings and funerals to add to the festive mood, earning their living by it. This storytelling and singing then developed further into household theatre, performed in costume on the stage by amateur actors. Professional performance troupes appeared last, and Yuncheng Meihu thereby entered its period of maturity. The vocal music of Yuncheng Meihu belongs to the tune-pattern system (qupaiti); it has seventy-two great tunes and thirty-six minor tunes, is rich in content and is circulated over a fairly wide area. Its performance, on the basis of absorbing such conventional devices of Puzhou Bangzi as water sleeves (shuixiu), hat wings (maoxiao), boots, pheasant feathers (lingzi), chairs and handkerchiefs (pazi), formed a look of its own that won the unanimous recognition of local audiences. Yuncheng Meihu accumulated a body of repertoire works as it developed; Selling Water (Mai Shui), The Baked Bowl (Lao Wanji), The Ruyi Shop (Ruyi Dian), Beating the Scripture Hall (Da Jing Tang), Three Jinshi (San Jinshi) and Zhang Lian Sells Cloth are all representative works among them. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Selling Water": Yuncheng Meihu accumulated a body of repertoire works as it developed; Selling Water (Mai Shui), The Baked Bowl (Lao Wanji), The Ruyi Shop (Ruyi Dian), Beating the Scripture Hall (Da Jing Tang), Three Jinshi (San Jinshi) and Zhang Lian Sells Cloth are all representative works among them. "The Baked Bowl": Yuncheng Meihu accumulated a body of repertoire works as it developed; Selling Water (Mai Shui), The Baked Bowl (Lao Wanji), The Ruyi Shop (Ruyi Dian), Beating the Scripture Hall (Da Jing Tang), Three Jinshi (San Jinshi) and Zhang Lian Sells Cloth are all representative works among them. "The Ruyi Shop": Yuncheng Meihu accumulated a body of repertoire works as it developed; Selling Water (Mai Shui), The Baked Bowl (Lao Wanji), The Ruyi Shop (Ruyi Dian), Beating the Scripture Hall (Da Jing Tang), Three Jinshi (San Jinshi) and Zhang Lian Sells Cloth are all representative works among them. "Beating the Scripture Hall": Yuncheng Meihu accumulated a body of repertoire works as it developed; Selling Water (Mai Shui), The Baked Bowl (Lao Wanji), The Ruyi Shop (Ruyi Dian), Beating the Scripture Hall (Da Jing Tang), Three Jinshi (San Jinshi) and Zhang Lian Sells Cloth are all representative works among them.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Yan Huifang was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Meihu, with Yuncheng, Shanxi as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Meihu in Yuncheng, Shanxi: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Yuncheng, Shanxi as its declared area, and Linyi County Meihu Troupe 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. Yanhuifang (Yuncheng, Shanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Yanhuifang · China ICH Official Archive