Qin Zhifeng

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Qin Zhifeng, Female, Miao, from Sinan, Guizhou, is a second-batch national representative bearer of Hua Lantern Opera (Ⅳ-78). The tradition is documented in Sinan, Guizhou. Within the regional tradition and school record of Hua Lantern Opera in Sinan, Guizhou: In the course of its circulation, different singing and performance styles developed under the influence of local dialects, folk songs and customs. Huadeng opera is a principal local genre in Guizhou and Yunnan; differences in regional culture have given rise to differing stylistic features. In northern and western Guizhou it is called "dengjia xi" (lantern-sandwiched play), around Dushan it is called "taideng" (platform lantern), and in Sinan, Yinjiang and other places it is called "gaotai xi" (high-platform play) or "huadeng xi" (flower lantern play). Huadeng opera (flower lantern play) grew out of folk flower-lantern song-and-dance and is a form of local drama that took shape in the late Qing and early Republican period. Guizhou huadeng opera developed on the basis of local folk song-and-dance in the late Qing and early Republican period.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Miao ethnicity, born in 1961 in Sinan, Guizhou. From 1970 to 1984 Qin Zhifeng studied Sinan Tujia lantern performance and Tujia mountain songs with her maternal grandmother Luo Shuzhi and her mother Li Shengfang; in 1984 she joined the Sinan County Ethnic Cultural Work Troupe, where she studied operatic performance, lantern song and dance, and vocal music under Liu Chaosheng, a senior quyi artist formerly of the Sinan County Cultural Centre, and Liu You, formerly of the Sinan County Ethnic Cultural Work Troupe. She has long been engaged in stage performance and in publicity work for mass culture, and since 2005 she has taken part in the tutoring and training work of the Sinan County lantern training classes. A gifted singer and dancer, she is especially accomplished in lantern opera performance, with a deep grounding in the craft; she is familiar with the original folk singing style of lantern performance and has mastered the techniques of basic lantern song-and-dance training as well as the skills of dramatic arrangement. Her representative works include Hongbao Cang Qing (Love Hidden in a Red Envelope). Within the documented technical tradition of Hua Lantern Opera in Sinan, Guizhou: Huadeng opera is a form of operatic art that is widely popular among the Han people. Its most striking feature is that the fan and the handkerchief never leave the performer's hands; it joins singing and dancing, and singing is closely combined with acting. At first the flower lantern performance was called "cai hua deng" (gathering flower lanterns) and consisted only of song and dance; small plays were then woven into the song-and-dance, and later, under the influence of imported opera, it developed into the performance of full plays. Guizhou huadeng opera is popular mainly in Dushan, Zunyi, Bijie, Anshun, Tongren and other places, and different localities have different names for it. The earliest huadeng performances were simple in form and consisted mainly of short folk plays; their subjects were taken largely from rural life and folk stories, such as New Year Greetings, Sisters Viewing the Flowers, Three Visits to the Bride's Family, Liu Sanmei Drawing Water and The Cowherd Blocks His Wife. Its performance is characterised by "twisting"; performers commonly use the folding fan and the handkerchief as props to express feeling. The dance steps include the two-and-a-half step, the four-direction step, the quick and slow three steps, the pheasant step, the shuttle step, the crushed-rice step, the low-stump step, the women's-field step and the quick rising step; fan play includes the small flower fan, the large flower fan, the crossing fan, the covering fan, the slanting fan and the butterfly-catching fan; and the body movements include the rhinoceros gazing at the moon, the flower planted on the knee, the yellow dragon twining the waist, the moon scooped from the sea floor, the snow covering the summit and the rock eagle spreading its wings. Some of the tunes of Guizhou huadeng opera are strongly dramatic, while others derive from lyrical folk songs and minor tunes; of these "Embroidering the Purse" is the best known. In the course of its circulation, Guizhou huadeng opera gradually broke free of the song-and-dance formula of "lantern, fan and handkerchief"; its role types were no longer confined to the "two small" and "three small" but came to include jing, mo, laodan (old woman) and caidan (coloured woman) roles. The melodies and vocal styles of its music also underwent extension and change on the basis of the original tunes, gradually forming their own "banqiang" and "qupai". The banqiang in common use include the stage-entrance tune, the travel tune, the road tune, the counting pattern, the scolding pattern, the crying pattern, the one-syllable tune, the chuma men, the yin erhuang, the hill-slope lamb, the mourning son and the four-levels tune. The qupai in common use include Four Small Scenes, Four Seasons of Longing, the Moon Tune, the Seeing-Off-the-Husband Tune, the Skillful Dressing, the White Peony, the Comparing-Antiquity Tune, the Serving-Tea Tune, the Viewing-Flowers Tune and the Drifting Snow. When presenting plot and characterising figures, banqiang and tunes are used in combination, giving rise to the silk-string lantern tune family, the platform-lantern tune family and the gong-and-drum lantern tune family, and making the music far more richly expressive. The Sinan Tujia huadeng opera absorbs elements of the Tujia nuo opera and the waving-hand dance and has formed its own character; its stirring and moving melodies, its strong local flavour and its distinctive ethnic style that combines lantern play with drama reflect the humanistic grace of the Wujiang river basin. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "New Year Greetings": The earliest huadeng performances were simple in form and consisted mainly of short folk plays; their subjects were taken largely from rural life and folk stories, such as New Year Greetings, Sisters Viewing the Flowers, Three Visits to the Bride's Family, Liu Sanmei Drawing Water and The Cowherd Blocks His Wife. "Sisters Viewing the Flowers": The earliest huadeng performances were simple in form and consisted mainly of short folk plays; their subjects were taken largely from rural life and folk stories, such as New Year Greetings, Sisters Viewing the Flowers, Three Visits to the Bride's Family, Liu Sanmei Drawing Water and The Cowherd Blocks His Wife. "Three Visits to the Bride's Family": The earliest huadeng performances were simple in form and consisted mainly of short folk plays; their subjects were taken largely from rural life and folk stories, such as New Year Greetings, Sisters Viewing the Flowers, Three Visits to the Bride's Family, Liu Sanmei Drawing Water and The Cowherd Blocks His Wife. "Liu Sanmei Drawing Water": The earliest huadeng performances were simple in form and consisted mainly of short folk plays; their subjects were taken largely from rural life and folk stories, such as New Year Greetings, Sisters Viewing the Flowers, Three Visits to the Bride's Family, Liu Sanmei Drawing Water and The Cowherd Blocks His Wife.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a second-batch national representative bearer of flower-lantern opera (Sinan flower-lantern opera), a 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. Qin Zhifeng · National Representative Bearer Archive