Sipingdiao
01 · Historical Records
Sipingdiao evolved from northern Jiangsu huagu (flower-drum); among the people it was once popularly called “sipingdiao”, and around 1930 it changed from costumed singing to stage performance in theatrical dress. Moreover, because its course of evolution is clear and well evidenced, it has been called “an epitome of the development of Chinese xiqu”, holding a special place in Chinese operatic art and being a rare flower of Chinese folk art. Fanxian lies on the Henan–Shandong border and is one of the main areas of its distribution in Henan; drawing on local opera annals, Fanxian formed a Sipingdiao troupe in the 1950s, which was for a time reorganised as a propaganda team in the 1970s and restored in the 1980s, performing for years along the north-eastern Henan and south-western Shandong border.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The female voice is plain yet plaintive and pretty, while the male voice is high and bold, combining hardness and softness and keeping a strong narrative-singing character. Sipingdiao is a genre with a deep popular base, and Chen Sanliang Pa Tang, Xiao Bao Gong and Ya Nü Gao Zhuang are all plays much welcomed by the people. Fanxian Sipingdiao's singing, on the basis of the huagu Pingdiao ban patterns, absorbs vocal elements of Pingju, Yuju and Peking opera; the gaohu leads the orchestra, the sheng, dan and chou roles are complete, and its plays are mostly on family ethics and folk story.
Chen Sanliang Pa Tang (Chen Sanliang at Court)
One of the plays much welcomed by the people and a representative piece of Sipingdiao.
Xiao Bao Gong (The Young Judge Bao)
One of the plays much welcomed by the people and a representative piece of Sipingdiao.
Ya Nü Gao Zhuang (The Mute Girl's Suit)
One of the plays much welcomed by the people and a representative piece of Sipingdiao.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Sipingdiao, based on huagu yet also absorbing much artistic nourishment from sister genres, has formed a style with strong regional characteristics. It has a wide distribution, the adjoining areas of Henan, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu all being its range of activity; in Henan there are at present still two professional troupes, the Shangqiu Sipingdiao Troupe and the Puyang Fanxian Sipingdiao Troupe. In Henan the genre has two main centres of activity, Shangqiu and Fanxian; because the Fanxian line was in close contact with Jining, Chengwu and elsewhere in Shandong, its singing is closer to south-western Shandong style, and besides traditional short plays its repertory also adapts works from Yuju and Pingju.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Sipingdiao · Sipingdiao · Sipingdiao · Sipingdiao.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Cui Taixian (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1965 in Fanxian, Henan. Cui Taixian works mainly in the laosheng role and also the xiaosheng, accomplished in singing, recitation, acting and martial skills; his voice is deep and pure, his diction clear, his appearance handsome and bold, and he is deft in tumbling and combat. His representative works include Yang Bajie Zhiqu Jindao, Li Shimin Gua Yudai, Taohua Xianzi, Wang Baochuan and San Zi Zheng Fu. He is a representative inheritor of Sipingdiao in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects. Zhang Xubin (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1964 in Fanxian, Henan. In 1975 Zhang Xubin joined the Fanxian Sipingdiao Troupe as an accompanying musician, in 1986 entered the Henan Puyang Opera School to study music, after graduating in 1989 returned to the troupe as Sipingdiao composer and lead string player, and in 1993 transferred to the Fanxian cultural centre. His compositions combine north and south, having both southern plaintiveness and northern highness and roughness, achieving the plain without being rustic and the refined within the popular, pleasing both. His representative works include Yang Bajie Dao Dao, San Zi Zheng Fu and Po Xi Qing. He is a representative inheritor of Sipingdiao in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects. Fanxian Sipingdiao preserves the varied forms of the huagu opera's transition to xiqu and is a living sample for studying folk opera exchange along the Henan–Shandong border; the Fanxian Sipingdiao Art Propagation and Research Centre sustains the genre through recording transmitters and rehearsing plays.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zou Aiqin 02-0554
- Baijinrong 02-0555
- Cui Taixian 02-0556
- Zhang Xubin 02-0557
- Liu Yuzhi 03-1033
- Wang Fengyun 03-1034
- Fumei
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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