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Peking Opera

Ⅳ-28Traditional OperaJingjuyuan, HubeiBatch 2 (2008)Extension ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

Owing to its distinctive geographical position Hubei became a birthplace of “pihuang” and went on to pioneer the “pihuang ensemble” that is Han opera (Han xi), known in the Qing as “Handiao”, “Chudiao” and “Chuqu”. In long performance practice the Handiao characterised by xipi and erhuang merged with the Huidiao characterised by chuiqiang and banzi, as well as Kunqu, Qinqiang (bangzi tunes), northern quyi and folk melodies, and finally evolved into Peking opera. At the end of the nineteenth century Peking opera came south and swept Wuhan, which has since remained one of its major centres; in 1950 the Zhongnan Peking Opera Work Troupe was founded and later renamed the Wuhan Peking Opera Troupe.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Peking opera belongs to the pihuang genres and has a history of more than two hundred years. Later Handiao artists brought Han opera's music, performance and repertory into the Hui troupes, creating the performance arrangement summed up as “the troupe is Hui, the tunes are Han”. In Peking opera's early formation such Hubei artists as Mi Yingxian, Yu Sansheng and Tan Xinpei all made important contributions to its development.

Xu Jiujing Sheng Guan Ji (Xu Jiujing's Promotion)

A representative newly written historical play of the Hubei Peking Opera Theatre and one of the representative works of the inheritor Zhu Shihui.

Gao Yao Zhang (The Plaster Chapter)

One of the representative works of the Peking opera chou role, starred in by Zhu Shihui to much acclaim.

Famen Zhongsheng Xiang (Portraits of All Beings at Famen)

A newly written play of the Hubei Peking Opera Theatre and one of Zhu Shihui's representative works.

Yuzhou Feng (The Cosmic Sword)

A celebrated traditional Peking opera piece, the work with which the inheritor Yang Zhifang first came to notice.

Yutangchun

A traditional dan-role Peking opera piece and one of Yang Zhifang's commonly performed plays.

Wang Baochuan

A celebrated traditional Peking opera piece and one of Yang Zhifang's commonly performed plays.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Peking opera centres on Wuhan in Hubei. After Peking opera came south and swept Wuhan at the end of the nineteenth century, Wuhan long remained one of its major centres; the Zhongnan Peking Opera Work Troupe founded in 1950 was later renamed the Wuhan Peking Opera Troupe, and bodies such as the Hubei Peking Opera Theatre have carried on the tradition, Hubei Peking opera attending to the creation of newly written historical plays while transmitting the schools.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Zhu Shihui (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in January 1947 in Jingxian, Anhui. A national first-grade actor and an expert receiving a special government allowance from the State Council. At twelve he entered the Hubei Provincial Opera School, first studying the laosheng role and later the chou. He studied under such masters as Zhang Shaozhuang, Chen Hefeng, Li Siguang and Ai Shiju and took the celebrated Peking opera artist Sun Shengwu as his master. Wide in range, able to act and sing, he works mainly in the chou role without being confined to it, his performance having both the verve of the chou and the temperament of the sheng, and the characters he plays are all superbly realised and refreshing, earning him renown as a leading chou of contemporary Chinese Peking opera. Such representative plays as Xu Jiujing Sheng Guan Ji, Gao Yao Zhang and Famen Zhongsheng Xiang have won him acclaim. He is a representative inheritor of Peking opera in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects and a winner of the China Drama Plum Blossom Award “second plum”, the Ministry of Culture Wenhua Performance Award and the Shanghai Yulan Drama Performing Arts Award leading-role prize; he was named a “Ministry of Culture outstanding expert” in 1994 and has trained many fine chou actors. Yang Zhifang (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): female, Han, born in September 1945 in Zhijiang, Hubei. A national first-grade actor and an expert receiving a special government allowance from the State Council. At twelve she entered the Hubei Songzi Peking Opera Troupe and at fourteen first came to notice starring in Yuzhou Feng. In 1983 she took Wang Yurong as her master and devoted herself to the Wang school art. Her voice is broad, round and mellow, her singing plaintive and fine, pure in flavour and full of feeling. Her commonly performed plays include Yue Fei Furen, Xie Yaohuan, Ji Jiang, Yutangchun and Wang Baochuan. For many years she has worked tirelessly to pass on her craft to many Peking opera actors, contributing to the transmission of the art; she is a representative inheritor of Peking opera in the fourth batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects and has won the gold award of the Mei Lanfang Gold Award Competition dan category, the China Drama Plum Blossom Award and the title of National March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter. Peking opera is the representative genre of Chinese xiqu, carried worldwide by its pihuang vocal system and its complete singing, recitation, acting and acrobatics conventions and possessing broad cultural influence; as an important birthplace of pihuang, Hubei preserves important historical traces of the relationship between Handiao, Chudiao and the formation of Peking opera, and the Hubei Peking Opera Theatre sustains transmission through the creation of plays and the training of talent.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Peking Opera (Jingjuyuan, Hubei) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Zhu Shihui · National Representative Bearer Archive
  3. Yang Zhifang · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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