Gaojia Opera
01 · Historical Records
It was nurtured in the late Ming and early Qing, first called “Song Jiang zai” and “Song Jiang opera”, and only at the end of the Qing did the name “Gaojia opera” appear. Ke-school Gaojia opera's chou performance art originated in Minnan, matured in the Philippines and flourished in Jinjiang, and is closely bound up with the cultural life of the Minnan-speaking region. Drawing on the Fujian volume of the Annals of Chinese Xiqu, early Gaojia opera was dominated by the martial plays of the “Song Jiang opera”; it gradually absorbed the repertory and performance of Liyuan opera, puppet theatre, and the Hui and Beijing troupes, forming a pattern in which civil and martial plays carried equal weight, and the Ke-school chou role took shape in this process.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Gaojia opera, formerly called “Gejia opera” and “Jiujia opera”, is one of Fujian's five major genres. In its role system the chou role is the most distinctive, the most attractive and the most influential. The famous chou artist Ke Xianxi, with a performance art all his own, was active on stage for nearly a century, winning over several generations of audiences and opening a new era for Gaojia opera. The Ke-school chou role is divided into male and female chou; the male chou includes the tattered-shirt chou, the young-gentleman chou, the puppet chou, the servant chou and the household-servant chou, while the female chou, which may be played by a male actor, is especially distinctive. The Ke-school chou's performance is fine and vivid, witty and humorous, fiery and lively, full of fun and everyday life, the female chou's performance being especially exaggerated and comic. Its recitation rises and falls, opens and closes with measure, is accurate and clear and full of flavour, with a strong wild-mountain air, long relished by Minnan audiences. In playing female chou, actors design the pose, expression and movement according to the character's age, forming a complete set of conventions that finely distinguish a girl of seventeen or eighteen, a young woman of twenty or thirty and an old woman of seventy or eighty. The Ke school also has a “female chou eighteen methods”, systematically recording the craft of female chou performance. Commonly performed representative plays of the Ke-school Gaojia chou include Tang Er Bie Qi, Jinpo Da, Guanfu Song and Qi Lü Tan Qin, while the sung items include “Siji Ge”, “Fuma Lang”, “Jiangshui Ling”, “Jinqian Hua” and “Deng Hong Ge”.
Tang Er Bie Qi (Tang Er Parts from His Wife)
A commonly performed representative play of the Ke-school Gaojia chou.
Jinpo Da (Aunt Beats)
A commonly performed representative play of the Ke-school Gaojia chou.
Guanfu Song (Guanfu Escorts)
A commonly performed representative play of the Ke-school Gaojia chou.
Qi Lü Tan Qin (Visiting Kin on a Donkey)
A commonly performed representative play of the Ke-school Gaojia chou.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Gaojia opera is popular in Minnan and in the Minnan-speaking communities of Taiwan and Southeast Asia, with different troupe traditions around Quanzhou, Xiamen and Zhangzhou; Ke-school Gaojia opera centres on the chou performance system created by Ke Xianxi, forming a stable transmission group in Jinjiang, its commonly staged plays closely bound up with the folk life of the Minnan-speaking area.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Gaojia Opera · Gaojia Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
It has witnessed the historical development of the Minnan region and carries clear regional cultural characteristics; it is at once a precious historical and cultural asset of Minnan and a spiritual bond that keeps alive the native ties of overseas Chinese and compatriots in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, and is of important reference value for folklore, linguistics and the study of Minnan local history and culture. The Ke-school chou system, and the “female chou eighteen methods” in particular, stands alone in Chinese operatic chou performance and has important value for the study of performance and folklore; the Jinjiang Gaojia Ke-School Performing Arts Centre sustains the school through reviving plays and training young actors.
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
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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