Wang Yuying

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1961 she was admitted to the Shaoxing quyi training class, where she studied Pinghu Diao under Hu Shaozu and Qian Dake. In 1966 she joined the Shaoxing County quyi troupe as a leading performer, in 1981 she was transferred to the Shaoxing County Cultural Center as a quyi officer, and from 2004 she has devoted herself to transmitting and teaching Shaoxing Pinghu Diao. Within the regional tradition and school record of Shaoxing Pinghudiao in Shaoxing, Zhejiang: The centre of activity for Shaoxing Pinghu diao was the city of Shaoxing prefecture and the water-town market towns of Keqiao, Anchang, Dongpu and Gaobu; those who took part were mostly private tutors, bookkeepers, shop assistants and the sons of the gentry, who made friends through nanci without making a living by it. Nanci societies would often keep in touch by singing antiphonally the same hui from the same book, each bringing its own copy and instruments, and after a performance they would appraise one another's choice of words, vocal patterns and sanxian fingering. In the old days of Shaoxing the restaurants, teahouses and private household gatherings (tang hui) of wealthy families would all invite nanci societies to attend: weddings, birthdays and other celebrations called for the short 'jie shi', while long 'hui shu' were sung hui by hui in succession, one or two hui in an evening, over a stretch of ten days or more. After the 1950s, the Shaoxing City Cultural Centre organised elderly performers to record their singing and collate the scores, writing down the 'suoyi pu' and 'xi diao' pieces that had been scattered among the nanci societies. According to legend, this form of quyi was first created in the early Ming dynasty and took shape in the early Qing dynasty. Shaoxing Pinghu diao has refined literary language, beautiful tunes, rich melodic variety and a distinctive style; it is highly literary, musical and artistic. It is the inheritance and development in Shaoxing of the singing art of Ming-Qing Jiangnan quyi, and it plays a very important part in cultivating and raising the cultural literacy of the people of the area where it is transmitted.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in 1945 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Her singing and recitation are correct in pronunciation and full in tone, with one phrase sung and three sighs, evoking a profound mood. Her representative works include Zeng Ji Li Hua (Remembering the Pear Blossoms) and Bai She Zhuan (The Legend of the White Snake). Within the documented technical tradition of Shaoxing Pinghudiao in Shaoxing, Zhejiang: Shaoxing Pinghu diao is also called 'Yuejun nanci' and is abbreviated as 'Shaoxing pingdiao'; it is a form of quyi popular in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and the surrounding area, and it takes its name from the fact that the principal tune sung is the 'Pinghu diao'. Shaoxing Pinghu diao is performed by one person accompanying his own singing on a sanxian, with singing as the main element and occasional spoken passages interspersed. There are also two-person, four-person or six-person accompaniment groups, called the 'three ranks', 'five ranks' or 'seven ranks'. The principal vocal style and tune is the 'Pinghu diao', which is further divided into two kinds, the 'suoyi pu' and the 'xi diao'. Its programmes fall into two kinds, 'jie shi' (metrical verse) and 'hui shu' (book returns); the 'jie shi' are short sung pieces, while the 'hui shu' are of medium or long length. The traditional programmes of Shaoxing Pinghu diao include Ganluo Ji, Guyu Bei, Shuangyu Zhui, Shuangzhu Feng, Bai She Zhuan, Yu Qingting and Shimei Tu. Pinghu diao takes the 'Pinghu diao' as its principal mode; in singing, the melodic line follows the 'suoyi pu' or the 'xi diao', with few words and long drawn notes, and the places where a note is drawn out call for control of the breath and of its release and closure; there is little spoken text, and it is delivered in the Shaoxing accent in an unhurried tone. The singer holds the sanxian in his arms and accompanies himself, and besides plucking the strings with the right hand and stopping the notes with the left he must also keep the beat patterns, while the accompanists answer on the xiao, the flute, the erhu, the yangqin, the pipa and other instruments, the lead singer and the accompaniment responding to each other through tacit understanding rather than through any conductor's direction. The scores are refined, drawing material mainly from romances, novels and folk tales, and paying attention to the correspondence between literary wording and musical rhythm. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Section poems and returning tales": The repertory divides into short section poems and long returning tales sung in nightly instalments. "The two tune variants": The two subdivisions of the principal Pinghu tune, distinguished by their long drawn-out cadences. "The three ranks of accompaniment": The names for accompaniment forces: two, four or six players beside the singer, called three, five and seven grades. "Remembering the Pear Blossoms": A signature piece shared by the inheritors Zheng Guanfu and Wang Yuying.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Shaoxing Pinghu Diao, a second-batch 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. Wang Yuying · National Representative Bearer Archive