Huiju Opera

01 · Historical Records

Hui opera (Hui Ju) took shape at the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing. After the luandan vocal system was brought into Anhui, it combined with local vocal styles and folk music and produced the bozi style in Shipai, Zongyang, Tongcheng and other places under Anqing Prefecture; during the Qianlong reign the bozi gradually merged with the chuiqiang style, which had itself emerged from the Siping style, forming the erhuang style; the erhuang style in turn joined with the Xipi of Hubei as a pihuang ensemble, laying the foundation of Hui opera.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Hui opera is an important local operatic vocal system, circulating mainly within Anhui Province and around Wuyuan County in Jiangxi Province. At the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing, the luandan vocal system was brought into Anhui, where it combined with local vocal styles and folk music to form the bozi style in Shipai, Zongyang, Tongcheng and other places under Anqing Prefecture. During the Qianlong reign the bozi gradually merged with the chuiqiang style, which had developed out of the Siping style, forming the erhuang style. The erhuang style in turn joined with the Xipi of Hubei as a pihuang ensemble, laying the foundation of Hui opera. The music and vocal styles of Hui opera fall into such categories as huikun, chuiqiang, bozi, erhuang, Xipi and huachang xiaodiao (ornamental folk ditties). Huikun devotes itself above all to martial plays and makes liberal use of the suona, gongs and drums for a grand, sweeping manner; chuiqiang exists both in the qupai (tune-pattern) form and in the banqiang (metrical) form, and takes the flute and the small suona as its principal instruments; bozi marks the beat with jujube-wood clappers and is accompanied by the suona, the flute and the huihu; erhuang takes the huihu as its principal instrument and has such ban patterns as daoban, yuanban, huilong and liushui; Xipi likewise has such ban patterns as the literary and martial daoban, sanban, yaoban and erliu, again with the huihu as its principal instrument; huachang xiaodiao consists for the most part of popular folk tunes, rich in the flavour of everyday life. The role types (jiaodang) of Hui opera include mo (elder male), sheng (male), xiaosheng (young male), wai (elder male with painted face), dan (female), tie (young female), jing (painted face) and chou (clown). Its performance is fiery and ardent, its manner bold and heroic, its movements rough and vigorous, and it is especially accomplished in martial plays, with such techniques as flipping over the stage table, jumping through the ring, darting through fire, flying tridents, rolling a lamp and quick face changes. Hui opera has an abundant traditional repertoire. Its huikun plays are chiefly martial ones, including Seven Captures of Meng Huo, Eight Formation Diagram, Badaling, Heroic Righteousness, The Overturned Bronze Banner and White Deer Blood; its kunyi-style plays include Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier, The Drunken Imperial Consort and Reed Catkins; its chuiqiang and bozi plays include A Thousand-Li Colt, The Twin Seals, Phoenix Mountain and The Muddy River; its Xipi plays include Battle at Fan City and Ceding Chengdu; its pihuang plays include Dragon and Tiger Fight, Reversing Zhaoguan, The Cosmic Dagger and A Mistake in the Flower Field; and its huachang xiaxi include Li Da Keeping the Night Watch and Visiting Kin and Quarreling. Hui opera has a history of more than three hundred years and once played an important role in the history of Chinese opera; it not only gave birth to Peking opera, but dozens of local operatic genres in northern and southern China stand in an inseparable blood relationship with it.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Within Jiangxi Province, Hui opera circulates mainly around Wuyuan. Wuyuan formerly belonged to Huizhou; after the Hui troupes moved south along the old Huizhou-Raozhou road they stayed and performed there for a long time, and the Wuyuan County Hui Opera Troupe inherited from this one local line of Hui opera. Its performers for the most part sing in the Huizhou dialect, and its repertoire and tune patterns preserve a large number of old Hui troupe texts, forming a pattern of common origin but divergent branches with the troupes inside Anhui Province.

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

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At the same time, Hui opera is an important component of Huizhou culture; in a direct and visible way it reflects many characteristics of Huizhou culture and of Chinese traditional culture at large, and it deserves study in depth. At present, however, Hui opera faces the danger of dying out as a genre: the actors are ageing, too few successors are coming forward, funding is tight, and the number of practitioners keeps shrinking. Rescue, excavation and systematic sorting-out of Hui opera must now be pressed ahead, starting with the protection of the old artists; otherwise a golden opportunity will be missed and an enormous regret will follow. Jiang Yumin (official dossier record of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1944, native of Wuyuan, Jiangxi. In 1957 Jiang Yumin began studying the da hua (painted-face) role with his first teacher Jiang Yenting; in 1959 and 1960 he studied Hui opera repertoire in turn with the veteran artists Cui Yelou and Wang Xinding. He later became head of artistic affairs, director and leading performer of the Wuyuan County Hui Opera Troupe. Jiang Yumin's performance foundation is deep and solid, and he is well versed in Wuyuan Hui opera; his representative works include The Great Wall Sharpens Its Sword. Representative inheritor of Hui opera in the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. Jiang Xiang'ao (official dossier record of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1943, native of Wuyuan, Jiangxi. Jiang Xiang'ao joined the Wuyuan Hui Opera Troupe in 1956, and in 1958 began to study instrumental performance under Chen Panhua; he gradually became familiar with the music of Wuyuan Hui opera and with the playing techniques of its instruments, becoming the principal musician of the troupe. Over decades of professional work Jiang Xiang'ao not only inherited and mastered a large and rich body of Hui opera scores and tune patterns but also composed Hui opera music; On the Wind-and-Rain Road, which he composed, took part in the arts exchange performance of the Shangrao region and won first prize for composition. Representative inheritor of Hui opera in the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects, and musician of the Wuyuan Hui Opera Troupe in Jiangxi Province.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Zhang Qixiang 02-0518
• Li Longbin 02-0519
• Jiang Yumin 02-0520
• Jiang Xiangao 02-0521
• Gu Huamin 03-1015
• Wang Danhong 04-1632

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Huiju Opera (Wuyuan, Jiangxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Jiang Yumin · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Jiang Xiangao · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗