Shi Xiaomei

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Shi Xiaomei, Female, Unspecified, from Jiangsu, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Kun Qu Opera (Ⅳ-1). The tradition is documented in Jiangsu. Within the regional tradition and school record of Kun Qu Opera in Jiangsu: Kunqu, also called Kunqiang, Kunshanqiang or Kunju, is a new vocal operatic genre that came into being in the late Yuan and early Ming, when southern drama (nanxi) reached the Kunshan area and combined with the local music, song-and-dance and speech. During the Wanli reign kunqu gradually spread from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region to all parts of the country. The 'Kunshan tune' (Kunshanqiang) took shape in the Kunshan area in the early Ming dynasty. During the Jiajing reign it was reformed by Wei Liangfu and others, drawing on northern tunes as well as on the strengths of the Haiyan and Yiyang styles, and it developed a gentle, delicate, flowing and drawn-out style known as the 'water-mill tune' (shuimo diao); kunqu had by then essentially taken shape. The hundred years or more from the early Tianqi reign of the Ming dynasty to the end of the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty were the period in which kunqu flourished and prospered. After the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, kunqu gradually declined. Kunqu is a highly literati art form; many dramatists of the Ming and Qing dynasties who wrote kunqu repertoire achieved very high literary results. After the middle of the Qing dynasty kunqu was performed mainly in the form of excerpt plays (zhezixi); more than four hundred kunqu excerpt plays have survived to the present day. Because of the distinctive cultural value of kunqu, it was inscribed in 2001 in the first batch of UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. By the end of the Qing dynasty kunqu had already fallen into decline.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in January 1949 in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. A National Class One actress and an expert receiving the special government allowance of the State Council. She studied under masters including Shen Chuanzhi, Zhou Chuanying and Yu Zhenfei, and specializes in the xiaosheng (young male) role. A representative figure of the southern Kunqu (Nankun) style, she excels in jinsheng (scholar) and xiaoguansheng (young official) roles. Her voice is smooth, penetrating, clear and bright; her articulation and rhyming are meticulously controlled; her stage presence is free and unrestrained, while her performing style is cool and restrained, her acting nuanced, and her command of the stage exceptionally strong. Her signature pieces include Tao Hua Shan (The Peach Blossom Fan) and Bai Luo Shan (The White Silk Robe); her representative works include full-length plays such as Mu Dan Ting (The Peony Pavilion), Yu Zan Ji (The Jade Hairpin) and Gong Ji (Palace Sacrifice), as well as the excerpt plays Ji Zi (Entrusting the Son), You Dian (Roaming the Hall), Wang Xiang (Gazing Homeward), Shi Hua Jiao Hua (Picking Up the Painting and Calling the Portrait) and Ti Hua (Inscribing the Painting). Within the documented technical tradition of Kun Qu Opera in Jiangsu: Liang Chenyu placed the chuanqi play The Story of Xi Shi (Wansha Ji) on the stage in kunqu form, so that kunqu, previously used mainly for unaccompanied singing, formally entered the sphere of dramatic performance and its influence was further enlarged. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China the art of kunqu has seen a turn for the better, and the state has successively established seven professional kunqu troupes with independent institutional status. The Lute (Pipa Ji), The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting), The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian), The Song of the Singing Phoenix (Mingfeng Ji), The Jade Hairpin (Yuzan Ji), The Red Pear (Hongli Ji), The Water Margin (Shuihu Ji), Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan) and Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan) are all representative repertoire works of kunqu, of which the first three survive in complete or nearly complete gongche notation scores. Newly written kunqu repertoire works include The Story of the Southern Tang (Nantang Yishi), The Puppet Tale (Ouren Ji), Sima Xiangru and Ban Zhao. Through long practice on the stage kunqu reached a very high achievement in the art of performance, with singing, dancing, gesture-work (jie) and spoken delivery (bai) highly integrated. Alongside the comprehensive development of performance art, the division of labour among kunqu role types has grown ever finer; the principal role types include laosheng, xiaosheng, dan, tie, laodan, wai, mo, jing, fu and chou. Each role type has formed its own performance conventions and techniques, which exerted an important influence on the formation and development of Beijing opera and other local operatic genres. The melodies of kunqu music are beautiful and elegant, and its singing techniques are standardized and thoroughly polished. The wide application of the added-board (zengban) form, the way syllables are articulated with head, belly and tail sounds, and the flowing and far-reaching artistic style give kunqu music the artistic effect described as 'graceful and charming, one phrase sighed over three times'. With its long history and its wide and far-reaching influence, kunqu is the crystallization of traditional culture and a model of operatic performance. The artistic form of kunqu is refined and its content is deep. After the founding of the People's Republic of China it was revitalized for a period. For kunqu to survive and develop, many pressing problems urgently await solution. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Pipa Ji (The Lute)": The Lute (Pipa Ji), The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting), The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian), The Song of the Singing Phoenix (Mingfeng Ji), The Jade Hairpin (Yuzan Ji), The Red Pear (Hongli Ji), The Water Margin (Shuihu Ji), Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan) and Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan) are all representative repertoire works of kunqu, of which the first three survive in complete or nearly complete gongche notation scores. "Mudan Ting (The Peony Pavilion)": The Lute (Pipa Ji), The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting), The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian), The Song of the Singing Phoenix (Mingfeng Ji), The Jade Hairpin (Yuzan Ji), The Red Pear (Hongli Ji), The Water Margin (Shuihu Ji), Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan) and Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan) are all representative repertoire works of kunqu, of which the first three survive in complete or nearly complete gongche notation scores. "Changsheng Dian (The Palace of Eternal Life)": The Lute (Pipa Ji), The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting), The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian), The Song of the Singing Phoenix (Mingfeng Ji), The Jade Hairpin (Yuzan Ji), The Red Pear (Hongli Ji), The Water Margin (Shuihu Ji), Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan) and Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan) are all representative repertoire works of kunqu, of which the first three survive in complete or nearly complete gongche notation scores. "Mingfeng Ji (The Song of the Singing Phoenix)": The Lute (Pipa Ji), The Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting), The Palace of Eternal Life (Changsheng Dian), The Song of the Singing Phoenix (Mingfeng Ji), The Jade Hairpin (Yuzan Ji), The Red Pear (Hongli Ji), The Water Margin (Shuihu Ji), Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan) and Fifteen Strings of Cash (Shiwu Guan) are all representative repertoire works of kunqu, of which the first three survive in complete or nearly complete gongche notation scores.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Kunqu Opera, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 1988 she received the Fifth China Drama Plum Blossom Award, in 1998 the Eighth Wenhua Performance Award of the Ministry of Culture, and in 2002 she was conferred the title of “Artist with Outstanding Achievements in Long-Term Dedication to the Art of Kunqu Opera” by UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China. She has performed in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and many other countries and regions, and has trained a number of outstanding young core performers.

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. Shi Xiaomei · National Representative Bearer Archive