Chinese Craft Stories NATIONAL HERITAGE INVENTORY
Home / Inventory / Ⅳ-28

Peking Opera

Ⅳ-28Traditional OperaHuaian, JiangsuBatch 3 (2011)Extension ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

Peking opera took shape in the Daoguang reign of the Qing from the fusion of Hui and Handiao artists and matured during the Tongzhi–Guangxu years through the creations of such masters as Cheng Changgeng, Yu Sansheng and Tan Xinpei. Since the twentieth century it has spread widely across the country and produced many schools; the Jiangsu Changrong Peking Opera Theatre is noted for transmitting the Xun school of huadan art, and the practice of the Xun school founder Xun Huisheng and his successor Song Changrong has made Huai'an an important base for the Xun school.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Xun school stands out among Peking opera's four great dan actors; Song Changrong is a Xun-school successor formally apprenticed to Master Xun Huisheng and the only representative male dan (qiandan), famed as the “living Hongniang”. The huadan images he creates on stage most fully display the Xun school's characteristic charm and softness. The Xun school huadan's distinctive “life-like” performance not only enriches the expressive means of classical opera but also narrows the inner link between classical and modern opera, giving it special significance for the study of the history of Chinese xiqu. In retransmitting the Xun school art Song Changrong has played a unique role, with disciples all over the country and outstanding results. He has also been invited many times to perform and lecture in Taiwan and Hong Kong and in the United States and Canada, playing an important cultural-exchange role in promoting Xun-school performance art. The Xun school huadan distils gesture and gaze from everyday manners, its recitation close to speech and its singing pretty within softness, forming a stage character distinct from the Cheng school's depth and the Mei school's grace.

Hongniang (The Maid Hongniang)

A representative Xun-school play; Song Changrong's Hongniang won fame at home and abroad with more than two thousand performances, earning him the name “living Hongniang”.

Jin Yunu

One of the representative huadan plays of the Xun school and one of Song Changrong's starring works.

Kan Yu Chuan (Examining the Jade Bracelet)

A traditional Xun-school play noted for the huadan role's acting and recitation.

Huo Xiaoyu

A traditional Xun-school play expressing the school's emotionally moving huadan style.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Peking opera has many schools, the four great dan actors Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqiu and Xun Huisheng each with their own style. The Xun school excels in huadan plays, with life-like acting, strongly Beijing-flavoured recitation and soft, melodious singing; Song Changrong, the only male dan among Xun Huisheng's direct disciples, is famed as the “living Hongniang”, and his disciples are spread nationwide, keeping the Xun school alive in Jiangsu, Beijing and elsewhere.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Peking Opera · Peking Opera · Peking Opera · Peking Opera · Peking Opera · Peking Opera · Peking Opera · Peking Opera.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Song Changrong (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): a national first-grade actor. In 1949 he entered the Shuyang county Changzi Peking Opera class to study Peking opera performance and in 1961 took the Peking opera master Xun Huisheng as his master, seeking change and innovation. He has starred in more than seventy plays including Hongniang and Jin Yunu, some of which have been filmed, televised or issued as audio-visual products and widely circulated. Hongniang in particular has won fame at home and abroad, performed more than two thousand times in the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada and the United States, ever fresh and enduring. He is a National Model Worker and has published books such as Living Hongniang: Song Changrong's Own Account and articles such as “My Hongniang” and “The Life of Art Lies in Constant Innovation”. He devoted his life to transmitting Peking opera, and several of his disciples have become pillars of the Xun school. Male, Han, born in July 1935, died in December 2022, a native of Shuyang county, Jiangsu; a representative inheritor of Peking opera in the fourth batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects. The Xun-school art of Peking opera is an important model of the huadan performance system, and its life-like performance is of special significance for studying the transition from classical to modern opera; the Changrong Peking Opera Theatre sustains the school by reviving Xun-school classics and training young actors.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Peking Opera (Huaian, Jiangsu) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Songzhangrong · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。