Tainingmeilin Opera
01 · Historical Records
Meilin opera originates from Hui opera and to this day preserves the artistic characteristics of Hui opera fairly well; for studying the arts of the Hui school and exploring the development of the history of Chinese theatre, Meilin opera is undoubtedly an invaluable piece of physical evidence.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Meilin opera is popularly called tuxi (native drama) or tujingxi (native Beijing opera); it is one of the local theatre genres of Fujian Province, circulating in Taining, Jiangle, Shunchang, Shaowu, Guangze and other places. Its spoken dialogue uses the local Guanhua, and its vocal styles are chiefly luantan, xipi and xiajiang. The vocal styles of Meilin opera are mellow and moving; they centre on pihuang, bozi and chuiqiang, and there are further the southern-ci northern-tunes, string-and-plucked forms, Huizhou ci, Zhejiang diao, Siping diao, qingban and xiaodiao. The accompanying instruments are divided into wenyue (civil music) and wuyue (martial music): wenyue includes jinghu, erhu, sanxian, yueqin, pipa, yangqin, suona, bamboo flute and so on, while wuyue includes the large drum, large flat drum, Beijing gong, small gong, and large and small cymbals. Meilin opera has a fairly complete set of role types, known as the 'five gates and seventeen head costumes'; the 'seventeen head costumes' are zhengsheng, fusheng, xiaosheng, laosheng, wawa sheng, touliang dan, erliang dan, sanliang dan, huadan, jinbang dan, chepan dan, cai dan, laodan, dahua, erhua, sanhua and sihua. Its performance style is archaic and unadorned and follows strict conventions; singing, acting, speech and combat all have a marked personality of their own, while costumes and makeup are comparatively plain. Performance includes mimetic and stagecraft gestures reminiscent of the ancient practice of 'entertaining the gods' and of string-puppetry movements, together with numerous traditional special skills such as 'playing with the teeth', 'flame and skirt change', 'face changing', 'juggling daggers', 'the stiff corpse' and 'stepping down from the high platform'.
The Flying Dragon Sash
Meilin opera has more than 330 traditional repertoire works, of which over 130 have been collected and recorded in script; more than thirty of the better traditional plays, among them The Flying Dragon Sash, The Blue Sash, The Mandarin Duck Sash and The Male-and-Female Whips, have been sorted out and put on stage.
The Blue Sash
Meilin opera has more than 330 traditional repertoire works, of which over 130 have been collected and recorded in script; more than thirty of the better traditional plays, among them The Flying Dragon Sash, The Blue Sash, The Mandarin Duck Sash and The Male-and-Female Whips, have been sorted out and put on stage.
The Mandarin Duck Sash
Meilin opera has more than 330 traditional repertoire works, of which over 130 have been collected and recorded in script; more than thirty of the better traditional plays, among them The Flying Dragon Sash, The Blue Sash, The Mandarin Duck Sash and The Male-and-Female Whips, have been sorted out and put on stage.
The Male-and-Female Whips
Meilin opera has more than 330 traditional repertoire works, of which over 130 have been collected and recorded in script; more than thirty of the better traditional plays, among them The Flying Dragon Sash, The Blue Sash, The Mandarin Duck Sash and The Male-and-Female Whips, have been sorted out and put on stage.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
During the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns of the Qing dynasty, Hui tunes entered Taining by the two routes of Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and there fused with the local dialect, folk songs and ditties, and Taoist music, giving rise to a theatrical genre with distinct local character.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Meilin opera has more than 330 traditional repertoire works, of which over 130 have been collected and recorded in script; more than thirty of the better traditional plays, among them The Flying Dragon Sash, The Blue Sash, The Mandarin Duck Sash and The Male-and-Female Whips, have been sorted out and put on stage. Yet in a time of rapid social development Meilin opera has fallen into a survival predicament: although troupes still tour the countryside, performance fees are far too low and the economic situation is extremely tight, so that the danger of a troupe disbanding and the genre dying out is ever-present; protective measures need to be drawn up as soon as possible. Li Xiuzhen (official archive record of the associated inheritor): male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1946, a native of Taining, Fujian. His performance carries the artistic character peculiar to Meilin opera, in which inner feeling moves outward and is expressed through the words, and his manner is archaic and unadorned. His representative works include The Demoted Official, Zou Yinglong and Guan Gong's Anger. Representative inheritor of Taining Meilin opera in the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects; national third-grade director.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Xiuzhen 02-0525
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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