Minxihan Opera

01 · Historical Records

During the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, after luantan (foreign tunes) spread into western Fujian it continually absorbed local dialect and folk music, and during the Jiaqing reign it gradually evolved into a local opera genre of western Fujian. It was originally called luantan; in the early 1930s it was named Han opera, and in the late 1950s, in order to distinguish it from Hubei Han opera, it was formally renamed Minxihan Opera.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Minxihan Opera is one of the principal local opera genres of Fujian Province. It belongs to the xipi and erhuang vocal-system family, was formerly called waijiang xi (foreign river opera) and is also known as luantan. It circulates mainly in western Fujian, eastern Guangdong, southern Jiangxi, southern Fujian and Taiwan, and its influence reaches throughout Southeast Asia. According to the repertoire list, the total number of traceable traditional plays of Minxihan Opera is 836. Zui Yuan (The Drunken Garden), Lan Jizi (Orchid, the Adopted Son), Shi Qian Steals a Chicken, Zangmei Temple, The Trial of Six Quatrains, The Lost Seal of Luoyang, Baili Xi, The Great Brawl at Kaifeng Prefecture and Erjingong (Second Entry into the Palace) are among the representative works. The role types of Minxihan Opera fall into six major categories: sheng (male roles), dan (female roles), chou (clowns), gong (male officials), po (elderly women) and jing (painted-face roles). The performance conventions differ from one role type to another, and there are differences even within the same role type. Each role type has its own traditional body-work repertoire; martial arts skills such as 'the hanging lotus', 'the brow-painting frame leap', 'crossing the fire pit', 'the knife-tip leap' and 'the table somersault' are peculiar to Minxihan Opera. The vocal music of Minxihan Opera is based mainly on xipi and erhuang, while also using kunqu, bangzi, yiyang and other vocal systems, and it has absorbed a large amount of folk xiaodiao widely popular in western and southern Fujian together with Buddhist and Daoist music. Within the vocal system of Minxihan Opera, each role type has a different method of vocal production. Xiaosheng, qingyi, huadan and zhengdan use falsetto; laosheng, laodan and chou use the natural voice; black jing roles produce 'explosive' tones; red jing roles combine falsetto and natural voice, stressing resonance in the nasal cavity and at the back of the head. Their voices are pure and resonant, the melodic lines broad and vigorous yet relaxed, balancing hardness and softness — a treatment rarely seen elsewhere in China. The orchestral constitution of Minxihan Opera differs markedly from that of other pihuang genres. It is founded on the 'four principal instruments' — diaogui, tihu, yangqin and the small sanxian — supplemented by ethnic instruments such as the yehu, zhonghu, ruan, bamboo flute, suona and haotou. Two of the instruments, the diaogui and the large suogong, are highly distinctive. Shaped like a bull's horn, the diaogui is also called the 'bull-horn fiddle'; it sounds high, piercing and clear, and is the leading instrument of Minxihan Opera. The large suogong has a diameter of about 80 centimetres and weighs seventeen or eighteen jin; its enormous body produces music that is archaic, elegant and serene, slow and lingering. Minxihan Opera is closely related both to luantan and to Hubei Han opera, and the basic trajectory of the evolution of local vocal-system genres can be traced through it.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Spoken dialogue and sung lyrics are based on Mandarin, rhyming in the Zhongzhou rhyme scheme, and also incorporate the western Fujian dialect; hence the label 'rustic Mandarin'.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In today's accelerating process of modernisation, Minxihan Opera has likewise met with a survival crisis and urgently needs to be rescued and protected. Deng Yuxuan (official archival record of the associated inheritor): female, Han nationality, born in August 1936, a native of Meizhou City, Guangdong Province. A recipient of the State Council's special government allowance. Her vocal style is beautiful and rounded, forming a style and character of her own, and she is honoured as the 'golden voice'; her delineation of character is delicate and vivid, and she is honoured as the 'queen of Han opera'. Representative works include Chen Kemo, Baili Xi Recognises His Wife, The Song of Chunniang, The West Chamber and Qin Xianglian. A representative inheritor of Minxihan Opera in the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage programme. She won the performer award at the first 'Wuyi Spring' concert of Fujian Province, first prize in the vocal-style performance competition of the principal local genres of Fujian Province, the outstanding performer award at the seventeenth drama performance festival of Fujian Province, the instructor award at the first young and middle-aged performer competition of Fujian Province, and the outstanding instructor award for new dramatic talent at the 'Narcissus' awards, among others. To cultivate reserves for Minxihan Opera, she began teaching in the Longyan opera class of the Fujian Provincial Art School in 1984, training a large number of performers who became the backbone of the transmission of Minxihan Opera.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Deng Yuxuan 03-1018
• Wu Yinlian

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Minxihan Opera (Longyan, Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Deng Yuxuan · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗