Dapingdiao
01 · Historical Records
Dapingdiao was originally called “Pingdiao”, also “Big Oil Bangzi” and “Big Bangzi Opera”, and is now generally known as “Dapingdiao”; it covers the border towns and countryside of the five provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan and Anhui and has a history of more than five hundred years. It had many troupes in its early period, and since the Ming and Qing nineteen have been relatively well known. Heze lies in south-western Shandong and is one of the central areas of the Hedong pingdiao line; drawing on local opera annals, Dapingdiao flourished there in the Qing, troupes and artists around Heze and the Mudan district were in frequent contact in the late Qing and early Republic, and after 1949 local troupes continued professional performance.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Over several centuries the genre has produced many celebrated artists renowned among the people. Its vocal music belongs to the banqiang system, with rich ban styles and qupai; the singing is both vivid and plain, and amid high, unrestrained and vigorous excitement it keeps a gentle, harmonious and expansive beauty. Its performance conventions are varied, true within exaggeration and perfect within boldness, showing fineness within roughness and softness within hardness, with a most distinctive personality. In performance its artists have absorbed folk martial-arts routines and wield real swords and spears on stage, a style all its own. Its repertory is mostly adapted from such classic novels as the Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cases of Judge Bao and the Yang Family Generals, and some is drawn from folk legend and history. After the founding of New China a number of modern plays were created and well received. Heze Dapingdiao is noted for the xusheng, black-jing and huadan roles; its singing is high and unrestrained yet disciplined in diction and beat, led by the “big oil bangzi” with lively drums and gongs, and the creation of modern plays is also valued by local troupes.
Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms
A classic novel from which much of the Dapingdiao repertory is adapted, alongside folk legend and historical story.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
A classic novel from which much of the Dapingdiao repertory is adapted.
Cases of Judge Bao
A classic novel from which much of the Dapingdiao repertory is adapted.
The Yang Family Generals
A classic saga from which much of the Dapingdiao repertory is adapted.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In modern times Dapingdiao has gradually formed three branches—eastern-road pingdiao, western-road pingdiao and Hedong pingdiao—and the Dapingdiao popular in Dongming, Heze and elsewhere in Shandong belongs to the Hedong pingdiao.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Dapingdiao · Dapingdiao · Dapingdiao · Dapingdiao · Dapingdiao · Dapingdiao.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Its repertory, drawn from chapter novels and folk legend, together with its tradition of real-weapon martial plays, makes it a precious sample for the study of south-western Shandong folklore and local opera; the locality, relying on the Mudan District Dapingdiao Intangible Heritage Conservation and Transmission Centre in Heze, sustains the genre through performance and teaching. He Xiliang (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in November 1963 in Heze, Shandong. A national first-grade actor. Fond of opera from childhood, in 1980 he entered the Heze county (now Mudan district) Dapingdiao troupe and in 1984 took as his master Guo Shenggao (stage name Xiao Hei Niu), known as the “king of pingdiao”. Under his teacher's example and through his own diligence his art improved greatly. His voice is round and clear, his diction crisp and his beat steady, plain and even; in lyrical passages he is gentle and deep, in excited passages high and unrestrained; his bearing tends to boldness without losing discipline, and he learns broadly from many masters without being bound by the ancients. His representative works include more than ten traditional plays such as Shou Jiang Wei, Fan Xu Zhou and Yuanmen Zhan Zi, and he has successfully shaped characters in such modern plays as Fa Hun and Chai Xuejin. He is a representative inheritor of Dapingdiao in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects, was named an advanced worker of the national cultural system by the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Culture in 2000, and won a gold award at the Second China Opera Red Plum Singing Competition in 2004.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhang Xiangbin 02-0489
- Wei Shouxian 02-0490
- Du Xuezhou 02-0491
- Cao Xiuzhi 02-0492
- He Xiliang 03-1000
- Li Deping 04-1612
- Wu Congyin 05-2323
- Zhoukuisheng
- Han Xuerong
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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