Wanwanqiang

01 · Historical Records

There are two accounts of the origin of the pichang vocal type: one holds that it formed during the Northern Song period, the other that it formed during the Warring States period.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Xiaoyi City lies on the eastern foot of the middle section of the Luliang Mountains in Shanxi Province, at the southwestern corner of the Jinzhong Basin. Xiaoyi Wanwanqiang is transmitted in Xiaoyi City and in the cities and counties around it. Xiaoyi Wanwanqiang has two vocal types: pichang and wanwanqiang. Both vocal types derive from Xiaoyi shadow puppetry — that is, paper-window shadow puppets sing pichang while gauze-window shadow puppets sing wanwanqiang. Because pichang uses the suona as its main accompanying instrument, it is also called chuiqiang, the blown vocal type. Some scholars hold that Xiaoyi chuiqiang is one of the ancient vocal types of Chinese opera. The pichang vocal style takes two forms. One is a four-line form built on the structure of qi, cheng, zhuan and he (opening, continuation, turn and close), which performers generally call pingban (the slow metre), and which is called liushui (the flowing metre) when patterns of gong and drum are added. The other is an upper-and-lower-line vocal style that can be repeated many times, which performers call duoban. The accompaniment is divided into a martial ensemble and a civil ensemble. Wanwanqiang takes its name from the bowl-shaped bronze bell that takes part in the accompaniment. It belongs to a special metre-and-vocal-type structure, and its rhythm cannot be regulated by the usual regular beat and division of the beat. A characteristic of the wanwanqiang vocal style is the mixing of real voice and falsetto, with frequent use of falsetto for function words. Falsetto singing takes two forms: one is the eryinzi, the other the jianyinzi, and the jianyinzi is produced by turning the pitch higher again on the basis of the eryinzi. Outstanding wanwanqiang plays such as Liushuping (Willow Flat), Sanshang Taofeng (Ascending Taofeng Three Times), Fengliu Fuzi (The Romantic Father and Son), Fengliu Jiemei (The Romantic Sisters), Fengliu Poxi (The Romantic Mother-in-Law and Daughter-in-Law) and Suanzaopo (Sour Jujube Slope) have played an important part in forging the national spirit, strengthening national unity and inspiring national resolve.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Xiaoyi Wanwanqiang is transmitted in Xiaoyi City and in the cities and counties around it, and has two vocal types: pichang and wanwanqiang. Both derive from Xiaoyi shadow puppetry — that is, paper-window shadow puppets sing pichang while gauze-window shadow puppets sing wanwanqiang. Because pichang uses the suona as its main accompanying instrument, it is also called chuiqiang, the blown vocal type, and some scholars hold that Xiaoyi chuiqiang is one of the ancient vocal types of Chinese opera. Xiaoyi City lies on the eastern foot of the middle section of the Luliang Mountains and at the southwestern corner of the Jinzhong Basin, and across the Fen River it has close exchanges with the shadow puppet and puppet troupes of the Pingyao and Jiexiu area.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Wanwanqiang · Wanwanqiang.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Zhang Jianqin (as recorded in the official dossier of the associated inheritor): female, Han, born in 1959, from Xiaoyi, Shanxi. Since 1970 Zhang Jianqin has performed and worked continuously in the Wanwanqiang Theatre Troupe of Xiaoyi City, Shanxi. Her representative works include Suanzaopo (Sour Jujube Slope), Fengliu Fuzi (The Romantic Father and Son), Fengliu Jiemei (The Romantic Sisters), Fengliu Poxi (The Romantic Mother-in-Law and Daughter-in-Law), Jiemei Yi Jia (The Sisters Exchanging Marriages) and Bihunji (The Forced Marriage). She is a representative inheritor of Wanwanqiang (Xiaoyi Wanwanqiang) in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects, a first-class actor, and a winner of the sixteenth China Theatre Plum Blossom Award. Tian Xuesi (as recorded in the official dossier of the associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1944, from Xiaoyi, Shanxi. Tian Xuesi worked at the Xiaoyi Yuejin Theatre Troupe, the Luliang Arts School, the artistic troupe of the Luliang Clean Coal Dispatch Station and other units, and is now a specialist teacher of wanwanqiang at the Xiaoyi City Arts School. His playing has a pure, delicate and moving timbre, and is rich in the plain and dense local flavour of Xiaoyi. His representative works include Bihunji (The Forced Marriage), Zhuangyuan Yu Gaiqig (The Scholar and the Beggar), Maimailang (Selling the Young Son), Fengliu Fuzi (The Romantic Father and Son) and Suanzaopo (Sour Jujube Slope). He is a representative inheritor of Wanwanqiang (Xiaoyi Wanwanqiang) in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects, and a national third-grade composer.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Zhang Jianqin 02-0552
• Tian Xuesi 02-0553
• Liu Baoping

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Wanwanqiang (Xiaoyi, Shanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zhang Jianqin · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Tian Xuesi · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗