Lingqiuluoluoqiang

01 · Historical Records

Luoluo qiang is an operatic genre popular in Lingqiu County, Shanxi Province and the surrounding area; it evolved from the Yiyang qiang, flourished during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, and gradually declined from the late Qing to the Republican period. This ancient Luoluo qiang has fallen into a survival dilemma in modern society: short of funds, with a shrinking performance market and actors leaving one after another, the Luoluo qiang troupe of Lingqiu County, founded in 1960, is the only professional performing group that remains.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

In Luoluo qiang one person sings on the stage in front while the rest join in the chorus from behind, and the singing is accompanied by the refrain of luo luo yo yo; the name Luoluo qiang derives from this. Luoluo qiang has a long history and a primitive form, and its vocal music preserves early traditional tune patterns such as Wazi, Cai Qiang and Shan Po Yang. In its long course of development the structure of its vocal music has also kept changing. The traditional musical and vocal forms of Luoluo qiang number more than ten, including shuaiban (whipping ban), shuci (numerical recitation), liushui (flowing water), pingban (level ban), daoban (inverted ban), sanban (free ban), wazi, kuchiang (weeping style) and qitang (the opening section), of which shuci, the most strongly declamatory, is the representative vocal form. Within its vocal music there is a special structure in which tune-pattern singing and ban-pattern singing are organically combined, for instance combining shuaiban, shuci and liushui into a single musical set, and so on. In Luoluo qiang singing, falsetto shuaqiang (flourishing of the voice) is commonly used at the close of each line, and its manner of accompaniment is rather special: while singing there is no accompaniment, and the instrumental interlude enters only at the final note of each line. Luoluo qiang formed a body of traditional plays in its development, with representative repertoire including Fei Tian Zha, Miao Jin Gui, Shen Tu Di, Xiao Er Jie Zuo Meng, Jin Duan Ji, Long Bao Si, Hei Lü Gao Zhuang, Liang Lang Shan, Yang Jia Jiang, Luo Tong Sao Bei and others, more than forty in all. Luoluo qiang provides living material for understanding xiqu tradition and for grasping the laws of the development and change of xiqu.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Luoluo qiang is popular in Lingqiu County, Shanxi Province and the surrounding area; it evolved from the Yiyang qiang, flourished during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, and gradually declined from the late Qing to the Republican period. The Luoluo qiang troupe of Lingqiu County, founded in 1960, is the only professional performing group still extant; its activities centre on the temple fairs and gathering stages of Lingqiu county town and the surrounding townships, and it is similar to the other small genres of northern Shanxi in the way its troupes are organised and in its performance season.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The moment has now arrived when the rescue and protection of this precious genre is critically urgent. Fan Zeng (as recorded in the official dossier of the associated inheritor): male, Han, born in March 1956, a native of Lingqiu County, Shanxi Province. On the basis of what he learned from his masters, and in line with his own characteristics, he drew widely on the strengths of others and boldly borrowed and innovated, forming an artistic style of his own. His singing is fine in melodic delivery, especially in his use of falsetto shuaqiang at the close of the line in beigong yin (back-palace tone) an octave higher, which is round and free, winding and fluent; and he is good at using the various ban-pattern vocal forms and singing techniques to portray the inner life of characters and to create all manner of stage images. Representative plays include Yan Zhi, Tao Li Mei, Hui Long Zhuan, Yang Ba Jie You Chun, Xiao Er Hei Jie Hun, Jia Bu Chu Qu De Gu Niang, Chun Sao Qu Fu and others. Representative inheritor of Lingqiu Luoluo qiang in the third national-level batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. In recent years he has devoted his main energy to training new performers and has actively taken disciples to transmit the art.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Fan Zeng 03-1022

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Lingqiuluoluoqiang (Lingqiu, Shanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Fan Zeng · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗