Siping Opera

01 · Historical Records

Siping Opera goes by several variant names, all of them pronounced sìpíngxì or sìpéngxì; it developed out of Yiyang qiang, one of the four principal vocal systems that circulated in the middle of the Ming. It was thriving around Huizhou (She County, Anhui Province) in the Jiajing reign of the Ming, and was carried into Zhenghe, in the deep mountains of northeastern Fujian, at the close of the Ming and the start of the Qing; in Yangyuan Township of Zhenghe County and Longtan Township of Pingnan County it has survived to this day in its complete historical form. Siping Opera keeps the vocal art forms of the Ming dynasty comparatively well, and has been hailed by scholars of theatre history as a “living fossil of Chinese theatre”.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The traditional repertoire of Siping Opera comprises dozens of plays, among them The Hairpin of Jing (Jingchai ji), The White Rabbit (Baitu ji), The Moon Pavilion (Baiyue ting ji), The Killing of the Dog (Shagou ji), The Lute (Pipa ji), Su Qin, The Meeting of Heroes (Yingxiong hui), The Nine-Dragon Pavilion (Jiulong ge), Chen Shimei, The Meeting in the Reed Grove (Lulin hui) and The Eight Trigrams Diagram (Bagua tu). Its singing belongs to the gaoqiang (high-tune) system — simple and rough in manner, fresh and agreeable to the ear, elegant and moving to hear; the chorus that supports the end of each line is sung in drawn-out notes. The surviving Siping Opera scripts note only the strong and weak stress marks and never the notes of the vocal lines: there is no notation for the melodies but there is notation for the modes, and the vocal styles pass from generation to generation entirely through the mouth. Its role types were already fairly complete by the Yongzheng reign of the Qing dynasty. In performance the sheng (male) roles lay stress on literary elegance, the dan (female) roles require fineness of detail, the jing (painted-face) roles emphasise a bold and rough manner, and the chou (clown) roles aim at the comic, so that a performance style peculiar to Siping Opera takes shape. The movements of the roles include leaps (teng), shifts (nuo), rolls (gun) and blows (da); the performers go forward and back in response to the slower or faster stroke of the drum, and the hand and foot movements of the different role types each have prescribed formulas that are recited as mnemonics. In performance it keeps the accompaniment in which percussion instruments such as the drum, the cymbals and the ban-gu (the small high-pitched drum used in opera) provide the backing while the drum remains the leading instrument, carrying on the ancient Yiyang qiang tradition that “one voice sounds alone and the multitude answers in harmony”. Because it is situated deep in the mountains where conditions are backward, its survival has been filled with hardship.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Spoken lines are recited in a “tuguanhua”, a form of speech midway between Putonghua and the local dialect, commonly known as “jiang zhengzi” (speaking the standard words).

Other submitting regions for the same item: Siping Opera.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Under the impact of the economic boom, the transmission of this ancient opera genre has run into serious problems, and rescue measures must be taken as soon as possible. Zhang Xiaoyou (per the official records of associated inheritors): male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1951, native of Zhenghe, Fujian. In October 2006, with the support of the local government and Yangyuan Primary School, he formed a small Siping Opera troupe, of which he became the teacher, transmitting the performance skills of Siping Opera. His representative works include The White Rabbit (Baitu ji) and Qin Xianglian. Representative inheritor of the second national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item Siping Opera; head of the Siping Opera troupe of Yangyuan Township, Zhenghe County, Fujian Province. Li Shiqing (per the official records of associated inheritors): male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1949, native of Zhenghe, Fujian. Through many years of stage practice and exploration he gradually formed a performance style of his own, solid and profound in foundation and rigorous and delicate in detail. His representative works include The Picture of the Son of Heaven (Tianzi tu). Representative inheritor of the second national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item Siping Opera; head of the Siping Opera troupe of Heyang Village, Yangyuan Township, Zhenghe County, Fujian Province.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Chen Xiuyu 02-0444
• Chen Dabing 02-0445
• Zhang Xiaoyou 02-0446
• Li Shiqing 02-0447

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Siping Opera (Zhenghe, Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zhang Xiaoyou · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Li Shiqing · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗