Yongandaqiang Opera

01 · Historical Records

Yongandaqiang opera was formed in the mid-Ming dynasty as one school of Yiyangqiang (Yiyang tune). Because it is performed with 'big gong, big drum and big plays, and with a full voice singing the high register', it is called daqiang opera, the 'big-register play'. As members of the Xiong family clan migrated into the surrounding areas, daqiang opera spread to Datian, Youxi, Shaxian and other places. After the Xianfeng reign of the Qing dynasty, because xiaoqiang opera (the small-register play) became popular in north-western Fujian, daqiang opera began to decline. By the 1920s a number of daqiang opera troupes had dissolved one after another, and the surviving troupes saw their range of activity gradually shrink. Fengtian village lies among high mountains and dense forest, with the roads cut off; by virtue of this isolation the ancient genre formed in the Ming dynasty has been preserved to the present, unbroken for more than five hundred years. The performing movements, stage blocking and stagecraft forms of daqiang opera are all precious survivals of Ming drama, and are first-hand important material for the study of the history of Chinese theatre, of cultural history and of the history of social life.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The traditional repertoire of Yongandaqiang opera numbers more than one hundred plays; those frequently staged include The White Rabbit (Bai Tu Ji), The Golden Seal (Jin Yin Ji), First in All Three Examinations (Zhong San Yuan), The Sunflower (Kui Hua Ji), Taking the Armour (Qu Kai Jia), Huang Feihu, Breaking Qingyang (Po Qing Yang), Three Generations of Glory (San Dai Rong), The Joined Blades (He Dao Ji), The White Silk Robe (Bai Luo Shan), A Dream on the Moon Terrace (Yue Tai Meng) and Selling Water (Mai Shui Ji), among others. In daqiang opera the vocal style has many characters to the syllable and few melodic turns; it is bold and high-pitched, plain and even. The actors sing chiefly in the full voice, combining the full voice with the half voice; throughout the performance the singers and musicians backstage keep up the choral support without pause, preserving the characteristic of Yiyang tune that 'one man starts the singing and the many join in the support'. The role types of daqiang opera are divided into 'four sections and nine heads': the four sections are sheng, dan, jing and chou, and the nine heads are zhengsheng, xiaosheng, fusheng, zhengdan, xiaodan, fudan, dahua, erhua and sanhua; besides these there are also laodan and tiedan. A daqiang opera troupe is generally made up of fifteen people, and the accompanying instruments are only a few kinds: gong, drum, cymbals, suona and clappers. In performance the stage is furnished with only one table and two chairs; the actors' costumes are fairly simple, or they wear no costume at all and are made up in just three colours, red, black and white, then put on a distinctive 'beard set' and come forward to the table to perform. The drum leader sits on a chair and beats the drum, and from beginning to end sings without accompaniment in a continuous dry recitative, playing along with the actors. In Fengtian village, daqiang opera is normally performed for the villagers' own amusement, and it also often appears at the village's deity-worship festivals, ancestral rites and seasonal celebrations.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

During the Jingtai reign of the Ming dynasty, the Xiong family of Fengtian village in Qingshui She township, Yong'an city, Fujian Province, sent people to Shicheng in Jiangxi every year to offer ancestral rites and to learn Yiyang tune from local artists; combining what they had learned with the local mountain songs, ditties and Daoist music, they founded the daqiang opera troupe. In recent years, as cultural life has grown ever richer, the interest of the people of Fengtian in daqiang opera has declined year by year, amateur performances have become fewer and fewer, the artists are growing old, and poverty in the mountain areas leaves a young generation eager to change its economic situation with no time to learn and inherit this ancient genre.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Today the daqiang opera troupe of Fengtian village has fewer than twenty members, and its performances are confined to this village and this township. The shrinking performance market and the awkward situation of having no successors have placed Yongandaqiang opera in an endangered state, and it urgently needs rescue and protection. Xiong Deqin (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han, born in 1954, a native of Yong'an, Fujian Province. In the roles of zhengdan and xiaodan that he plays, his appearance is handsome and his performance vivid, fully expressing the traditional flavour of the performing art of daqiang opera. His representative works include The White Rabbit (Bai Tu Ji) and The Double Whip Record (Shuang Bian Ji), among others. Representative inheritor of Yongandaqiang opera under the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects, and deputy head of the daqiang opera troupe of Fengtian village, Qingshui township, Yong'an city, Fujian Province. Xing Chengbang (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han, born in 1953, a native of Yong'an, Fujian Province. His performance is delicate and rigorous, and his movements precise. His representative works include The White Rabbit (Bai Tu Ji) and The Double Whip Record (Shuang Bian Ji), among others. Representative inheritor of Yongandaqiang opera under the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects, and head of the daqiang opera troupe of Fengtian village, Qingshui township, Yong'an city, Fujian Province.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Xiong Deqin 02-0442
• Xing Chengbang 02-0443

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Yongandaqiang Opera (Yongan, Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Xiong Deqin · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Xing Chengbang · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗