Xiangju Opera

01 · Historical Records

In October 1952 the play Drunken Fight at the Mountain Gate, in which he starred, took part in the first national showcase of Chinese opera and was highly praised by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other Party and state leaders, as well as by such eminent performing artists as Mei Lanfang.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Xiang opera is the principal local vocal genre of Hunan Province, circulating in the seventeen counties and cities of eastern southern Hunan, in western southern Jiangxi, and in Pingshi, Qimen, Lechang, Guitou, Lishi, Shaoguan and other places in Guangdong. Because its centre of activity was once Changsha and Xiangtan, it is also called Changsha Xiang opera. Hengyang Xiang opera has an abundant repertory, with six serial plays, 113 full-length plays and 465 single scenes and excerpt plays; Investiture of the Gods, The Story of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, Chronicle of the Golden Seal, Chronicle of the Thrown Brush, Chronicle of the White Rabbit, Chronicle of the Worship of the Moon, The Four Jinshi and The Extraordinary Meeting of the Pair are among its representative works. The role types of Xiang opera are finely divided, into twelve lines including dakaoba, erkaoba, singing specialists, xiaosheng, dachalian, erhualian, zilian, sanhualian, zhengdan, zuogongdan and others; xiaosheng is further divided into wenjin, luomao, zhiwei and mang’ao, and has four performance schools, the poor, the civil, the rich and the martial. The performance of Xiang opera fully absorbs artistic elements of Kun opera, combining singing and dancing in a lively and nimble way, and it has a body of plays renowned for their staging and their performance technique. In sheng-role performance the “slippers walk”, in which one strides forward in slippers, the “boat walk”, in which one stands on one leg like a golden rooster, the “drunken walk”, in which one staggers, and in dan-role performance the “big-footed woman walk” all carry a marked genre character. Xiang opera has more than three hundred tune patterns, mainly southern qu; besides the southern and northern roads, its tanqiang also includes the reverse southern road, the reverse northern road, pingban, Anqing diao, qichuiban and others. In performance the singing is accompanied by suona, flute and such instruments. The accompaniment of Xiang opera is divided into a civil section and a martial section: the civil section matches the singing with bowed and wind instruments such as erxian, yueqin, flute and suona, while the martial section heightens the performance with percussion such as the ban drum and clapper, the great cymbals and the large and small gongs. After several hundred years of artistic practice, Hengyang Xiang opera has become an independent operatic genre in Hunan. Tan Baocheng is the founder of the Tan-school performing art of Hengyang Xiang opera. His performance is deeply influenced by Kun opera and is vigorous and elegant, quite distinct in its own way.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Xiang opera incorporates several vocal styles, among them kun, gaoqiang, tanqiang, and miscellaneous tunes and ditties. From the early Ming to the Jiajing reign, the kun and Yiyang styles brought into Hunan were combined with the local dialect and folk music, and Xiang opera took shape.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Xiangju Opera.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Kun opera made Hengyang Xiang opera, and Hengyang Xiang opera looks on Kun opera as its soul; at the same time it joins the lofty art of Kun opera to regional culture, reaching a state in which the refined and the popular can both be enjoyed. This practice of making an imported lofty art local and rooted in the soil is of important value for the study of the history of Chinese opera and even of the history of art. At present, under the impact of modern culture, the bond between Xiang opera and its audiences is growing ever thinner; added to shortages of funding and the loss of talent, the survival of the genre faces a grave situation, and it deserves the attention of the departments concerned. Tan Dongbo (per the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1949, a native of Leiyang, Hunan. From 1980 to the present Tan Dongbo has been engaged in the composition, research and teaching of Xiang opera music; his representative works include Marshal He Long and The Red Detachment of Women. A representative inheritor of Xiang opera in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects, and a national second-class performer. Xia Chuanjin (per the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1969, a native of Hengyang, Hunan. Xia Chuanjin once performed the kun-style Xiang opera Drunken Fight at the Mountain Gate on the same stage as Mr Tan Baocheng, and played the role of Jiao Zan in the newly composed historical play The Affection of the Saddle Horse; his performance in both was highly praised. A representative inheritor of Xiang opera in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects, and a national second-class actor.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Tan Dongbo 02-0454
• Xia Chuanjin 02-0455
• Cengjingui 03-1139
• Cao Rulong 03-1140
• Xie Zhongyi 03-1141
• Zuo Dabin 05-2457

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Xiangju Opera (Hengyang, Hunan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Tan Dongbo · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Xia Chuanjin · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗