Zuoquanxiaohua Opera

Ⅲ-113Traditional DanceZuoquan, ShanxiBatch 4 (2014)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

Its process of development and change reflects the historical trajectory of regional folk culture, and it is a window through which to understand and study the folk customs of Shanxi Province and Chinese folk dance.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Zuoquan small flower play is a local folk traditional dance that covers the whole of Zuoquan County, Shanxi Province and radiates to the neighbouring Heshun County, Yushe County, Wuxiang County, Licheng County and other places. In former times it was called "shehuo", and it integrates folk songs, dance and drama into one, expressing feeling through song, conveying the spirit through dance and conveying meaning through play. Zuoquan County in Shanxi Province was anciently called "Yangyi", "Liaohe", "Liaozhou", "Liaoshan" and "Liaoxian". According to the "Liaozhou Zhi" (Gazetteer of Liaozhou), at every Lantern Festival lanterns were hung and fires were piled at the entrances of the streets and lanes, and the men and women of the village marched out in procession led by the "shehuo" in a practice called "walking the hundred ailments", which was meant to ward off disaster and pray for blessing. At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the "civil shehuo" within the "shehuo" had already come to be called "small flower play". The main characteristics of Zuoquan small flower play are as follows. First, there are many fan techniques, more than fifty kinds, including "butterfly fan", "rolled-back fan", "scattered fan", "turned-over fan" and "large and small spinning fans". Second, the dance postures are beautiful: the women mainly use "lying carp", "mandarin ducks playing in the water", "little swallow spreading its wings" and "golden rooster standing on one leg", while the men use "riding a horse in a squat", "phoenix spreading its wings", "pulling out of the sea", "bow and arrow" and so on. Third, the melodies are pleasing: most of them use folk song tunes and the linked-tune form, in which instrumental interludes and transitional passages join one vocal line to the next. The tunes are broad and stirring, full of the flavour of mountain country. Fourth, the dancing is refined, its principal steps being "three-tremble step", "husuo step", "cross step", "four-six-eight step", "trembling leap step" and "large and small arrow step". Fifth, there are humorous and witty dramatic plots that convey feeling. Zuoquan small flower play arose from the life and daily production labour of the people and went hand in hand with folk customs and sacrificial rites. It draws both on the internal inheritance of music, dance and drama in this region and on neighbouring art forms such as song-and-dance, drama, music, mountain songs and little tunes, and religious music (for example the tune patterns of the Shangdang Eight Sounds Association). Zuoquan small flower play combines the characteristics of drama and of song-and-dance play. It has the three role types of sheng, dan and chou, and can perform short story plots; the scale of performance can be large or small, from four or six people up to dozens or even hundreds of people on a stage or in a large public square. In performances on every kind of occasion, folk instrumental music, folk songs and small flower play are inseparable from one another and form a comprehensive art. Representative works include Kaihua Diao, Zhulu Gege, Xiyi Shang, Lao Jing Ren, Da Ying Tao, Song Xiaoyi, Fang Fengzheng, Mai Bianshi and Da Qiu Xian. Zuoquan small flower play has played an important role in enriching and invigorating the spiritual and cultural life of the people, in promoting spiritual civilisation and cultural identity, and in building a harmonious society.