Hebei Bangzi
01 · Historical Records
Hebei Bangzi is the most representative local vocal operatic genre of Hebei Province. It has been known as "Jing Bangzi", "Zhili Bangzi", "Wei Bangzi" and "Qinqiang", and in 1952 it was formally given the name "Hebei Bangzi". Qinqiang and Shanxi Bangzi that had flowed into Beijing during the middle of the Qing dynasty combined with the dialects and folk music of the Hebei region, and Hebei Bangzi was formally formed during the Daoguang reign. It is now popular chiefly in Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin and parts of Shandong and Northeast China. From the 1930s onward, Hebei Bangzi began to show a trend of decline.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The singing music of Hebei Bangzi belongs to the banqiang system, with ban patterns such as the manban, erliu, liushui and jianban, together with various introductory and closing phrases. In performance the bangzi wooden clapper keeps the beat, accompanied by the banhu, flute, bangzi and sheng. The tone, while high, resonant and impassioned, constantly gives way to a gentle and plaintive quality, and the genre is adept at expressing lofty and tragic feeling. Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
The Lotus Lantern
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
Qin Xianglian
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
Jinshui Bridge
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
Du Shiniang
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
The Butterfly Cup
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
The Injustice to Dou E
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
Teaching the Son
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
The Broken Bridge
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
Three Visits to the Bridge
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
Joyful Return Home
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
Beating the Golden Branch
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
Xun Guanniang
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
The Northern and Southern Union
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
Su Wu Herding Sheep
Hebei Bangzi has more than five hundred traditional plays, of which The Lotus Lantern, Qin Xianglian, Jinshui Bridge, Du Shiniang, The Butterfly Cup, The Injustice to Dou E, Teaching the Son, The Broken Bridge, Three Visits to the Bridge, Joyful Return Home, Beating the Golden Branch, Xun Guanniang, The Northern and Southern Union and Su Wu Herding Sheep have the greatest influence.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Hebei Bangzi fully expresses the regional cultural characteristics of Hebei and has produced a group of famous performers who are deeply loved by audiences; Hebei Bangzi performances in Beijing and in Tianjin also each have a style of their own.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Hebei Bangzi · Hebei Bangzi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present this genre, pressed by the market economy, survives with great difficulty and is on the verge of extinction, so that urgent rescue and protection are needed. Liu Junying (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Female, of Han ethnicity, born in April 1939, native of Shulu County, Hebei Province. A national first-class performer. At the same time she received guidance in turn from senior artists such as Yin Dazi, Han Junqing and Liu Jinxiu, studying respectively the qingyi, guimendan and wudan roles. In 1958 she became a lead performer of a theatrical troupe, toured the country, and was warmly received many times by national leaders. She has a solid vocal foundation, a comparatively wide range and free control of the breath. She is able to devise vocal styles of differing inner meaning according to the age, status and emotions of the characters, and her vocal expression is extremely powerful. Her representative repertoire includes The Joining Phoenix Skirt, The Butterfly Cup and The Injustice to Dou E. For many years she has been devoted to teaching, passing her skills on to young performers. At the same time she has actively taken part in public-benefit lectures, teaching the history and the singing techniques of Hebei Bangzi. Representative inheritor of Hebei Bangzi under the fourth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. Yan Jianguo (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in July 1938, native of Cang County, Hebei Province. A national first-class performer. Steeped in local custom, he was already a well-known little laosheng (young bearded-male role) in the area at the age of ten. He afterwards became a disciple of the great master Yin Dazi and studied laosheng roles, and studied xiaosheng roles under Dong Ruixi (stage name "Famous in Seven Provinces"), a noted master of the northern-road Bangzi. Building on the traditional vocal styles, he kept studying and drawing on sister arts, enriching the vocal repertoire of Hebei Bangzi. At the same time he brought the various performance techniques of "lingzi kung" — the flicking of hairpieces, pheasant feathers, wings, false beards and the riding whip — into the interpretation of his roles; the characters in such plays as The Loyal and Righteous Knight, The Killing of the Post Station and The Small Banquet are sharply individualised, lifelike in image and graceful in movement. In 1986 he performed in the newly composed historical play Yuan Kai Pretends to Be Mad, whose presentation of "the beauty of madness" won high praise from his peers in the theatre and from the general audience. His representative repertoire includes Beating the Golden Branch, Sitting in the Palace and The Legend of the White Snake. Representative inheritor of Hebei Bangzi under the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Qi Huatan 02-0475
- Zhang Huiyun 02-0476
- Pei Yanling 02-0477
- Tian Chunniao 03-0996
- Liu Yuling 04-1608
- Liu Junying 04-1609
- Xu Heying 04-1610
- Yan Jianguo 05-2319
- Chen Chun
- Liu Fengling
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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