Gaojia Opera

01 · Historical Records

In the mid-Qing period, Songjiang opera absorbed performance forms from other art categories and developed into the hexing play that combined civil and martial roles; in the late Qing it further absorbed artistic elements of Hui opera, Kunqu, Yiyang tune and Beijing opera, and so took shape as Gaojia opera, a local drama genre of southern Fujian with a style entirely its own.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Gaojia opera took shape in the late Ming and early Qing. At the beginning it consisted only of improvised costumed performance to the accompaniment of folk tunes; it later developed into professional troupes, whose repertoire was mainly stories of Song Jiang, and it was for that reason known as Songjiang opera. The repertoire of Gaojia opera falls into three main groups — daqi plays (grand-scale plays), xiufang plays (boudoir plays) and chou-dan plays (clown and dan-role plays) — and martial plays, chou-dan plays and gong'an plays (cases of officialdom) are the most numerous. It has more than six hundred traditional plays, among them Da Nao Hua Fu (The Great Uproar in the Flower Mansion), Kun Hedong (Besieged East of the River), Zhan Huangpao (Beheading at the Yellow Robe), Lin Wensheng Gao Yu Zhuang (Lin Wensheng Petitions the Throne), Guan Fu Song (Guan Fu's Escort), Xingyuan Si Chai (Xingyuan Longing for the Hairpin), Meng Jiangnu (The Lady Meng Jiang), Fanpo Nong (The Old Woman's Plottings), Tang Er Bie (Tang Er's Parting), as well as the serial stage plays Sanguo (Three Kingdoms) and Yue Zhuan (The Biography of Yue Fei) and others. The tune patterns of Gaojia opera music belong to the nanyin (southern music) system and come for the most part from nanyin and from puppet theatre, though their rhythm and melody are altered. Singers use their own natural voice; the melodic lines are sonorous and high, yet there is no lack of clear, gentle and delicate colour in the tones. The instruments used in Gaojia opera fall into two kinds, wen music and wu music. Wen music is led by the suona and supported by the pinxiao, dongxiao, erxian, sanxian, pipa and similar instruments; wu music includes the baigu, large and small drums, large and small gongs, large and small cymbals, the xiangzhan and the xiao jiao, displaying a strong local character. The role types of Gaojia opera originally comprised only three, sheng, dan and chou; later jing, tie, wai, mo, beijing (jing) and zha were added one after another. Of these role types, the chou is the most prominent. The chou role divides into male chou and female chou, and the male chou is further divided into wen chou (civil clown) and wu chou (martial clown). Wen chou comprises the longshan chou (long-gown clown) and the duanshan chou (short-jacket clown), while wu chou comprises the shayi chou (secretary clown) and the kunshen chou (bound-body clown). Female chou includes dozens of types, such as the furen chou (madam clown), the meiren chou (matchmaker clown), the laopo chou (old-woman clown) and the bi chou (maid clown). The performing art of the chou role is rich and varied. Artists draw material out of everyday life and have created types such as the gongzi chou (young-master clown), the poshan chou (tattered-clown) and the kuilei chou (puppet clown), taking as their means of expressing a character's temperament either the simulated rendering of the typical behaviour of different figures or the imitation of puppet-theatre and animal movements. It is light-hearted and humorous, full of lively wit, exaggerated yet never untrue to life, and it carries a strong flavour of everyday existence. The martial fighting in Gaojia opera has taken in the skills of string-puppetry and of the folk lion dance, producing movements of its own such as leng jian pan (cold sizzling plate), da peng chang (great collision) and feng bai wei (the phoenix swaying its tail). Standing quite apart within the tradition of Chinese theatre, Gaojia opera is a typical representative of southern Fujian local culture and exercises great influence at home and abroad.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Gaojia opera is one of the local drama genres of southern Fujian. It is also called yijia opera, jiujiao opera, daban or tuban, and it is current in the southern-Fujian dialect areas of Fujian Province, in Taiwan, and in the overseas-Chinese and Chinese settlements of the countries of Southeast Asia.

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

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Ji Yafu (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1948, native of Xiamen, Fujian. Ji Yafu has a wide range, being equally competent in civil and martial work, and is known as the xidoulong, the 'cock of the fighting pen' of the theatre. In more than fifty years on the stage he has created a series of vivid and lifelike character images; representative works include Feng Guan Meng (The Dream of the Phoenix Crown), Qian Li Ju (The Thousand-Mile Steed) and Shu Jian Qi Yuan (The Injustice of Sword and Book). Representative inheritor of Gaojia Opera, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second batch, and a first-class performer. Chen Bingcong (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1966, native of Quanzhou, Fujian. Representative works include Shen Chen San (The Trial of Chen San), Shu Jian Qing (Sword, Book and Affection), Chun Cao Chuang Tang (Spring Grass Breaks into the Hall) and Tan Yin Shan (Searching for Mount Yin). Representative inheritor of Gaojia Opera, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second batch, and a first-class performer.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Lai Zongmao 02-0547
• Cengwenjie 02-0548
• Yan Peiqiong 02-0549
• Ji Yafu 02-0550
• Chen Bingcong 02-0551
• Lvzhongwen 03-1030
• Su Yanyu 03-1031
• Lin Yingli 03-1032
• Chen Juanjuan 05-2353
• Yao Daocheng 05-2354
• Ouyang Yanqing 05-2355
• Wu Jingjing 05-2356

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Gaojia Opera (Xiamen, Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Ji Yafu · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Chen Bingcong · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗