Pingju Opera

01 · Historical Records

Pingju was formerly called bengbeng opera or luozi opera; it is also called pingqiang bangzi opera and is briefly known as Pingxi, and the name Pingju was officially adopted in 1935. Cheng Zhaocai was the founder of Pingju and its first playwright; his representative works Ma Guafu Kai Dian (The Widow Ma Opens an Inn), Hua Wei Mei (The Flower as Matchmaker), Yang Sanjie Gao Zhuang (Yang Sanjie's Suit) and others have become the classic retained repertoire of Pingju.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

It is current in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and the Northeast, and has a broad popular basis. Around 1910, the bengbeng opera performers headed by Cheng Zhaocai took as their base the antiphonal “lianhualuo” of the Luanzhou area in eastern Hebei Province, absorbing the music and plays of the northeastern errenzhuan, and later also the music and performance art of Peking opera, shadow puppetry and dagu; in performance they adopted the full set of Hebei bangzi instruments for accompaniment, and so the basic form of Pingju was created. This newly emergent operatic genre of several vocal styles was later further developed and perfected in practice. Pingju also has a body of representative plays such as Wang Erjie Si Fu (Wang Erjie Longs for Her Husband), An'an Song Mi (An'an Delivers Rice), Ma Siyuan Kai Chaguan (Ma Siyuan Opens a Teahouse), Xiao Nü Xu (The Young Son-in-Law), Liu Qiao'er (The Girl Liu Qiao'er), Xiao Erhei Jiehun (The Marriage of Xiao Erhei), Qin Xianglian (The Widow of Chen Shimei) and Du Shiniang (The Courtesan Du Shiniang). The music of Pingju belongs to the banqiang system, and it has jianban, dabban, da anban, xiao anban, sanchui, daoban, duoban and liushui ban among its ban styles, and in addition it also has fandiao. The accompanying instruments fall into three kinds — bowed and plucked, percussion and wind. The bowed and plucked include the banhu, erhu, sanxian and others; the percussion include the clappers, digu, tanggu, small gong and large gong; and the wind instruments include the dizi, suona and others. The vocal styles of Pingju draw on the music of Peking opera and bangzi, and are divided into a male voice and a female voice. Early Pingju distinguished only male and female roles; in the course of development it gradually acquired the three role types sheng, dan and chou, and later, under the influence of Peking opera and bangzi, formed role types such as qingyi, huadan, laodan, xiaosheng, laosheng and xiaochou. Its performance absorbs the movement vocabulary and vocal styles of bangzi and Peking opera, yet it still keeps the free and lively character of the folk small play and is full of the flavour of everyday life. As the times develop, the audience for Pingju has fallen sharply and is also ageing, and the influence of Pingju is greatly weakening; concrete measures ought to be formulated to give it the necessary support.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

In the male voice “laosheng style” and “painted-face style” were created and developed, and in the female voice there are numerous schools of singing.

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

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Pingju is a principal genre of the Northeast and North China and has spread widely to the Northwest and Southwest; it has become a rising genre that embodies deep folk cultural traditions while also expressing a modern aesthetic consciousness, and at the same time it carries the folk culture of the eastern Hebei area, so it is closely watched by researchers into the history of xiqu and of folklore.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Liu Xiurong 02-0558
• Hong Ying 02-0559
• Feng Yuping 02-0560
• Xiaojunting 02-0561
• Zhou Dan 03-1035
• Liu Ping 03-1036
• Gu Wenyue 03-1037
• Chen Peihua 03-1038
• Zhang Junling 04-1640
• Yuan Shumei 04-1641
• Lihongxia 04-1642
• Cengzhaojuan 05-2357
• Wang Guanli 05-2358
• Luo Huiqin 05-2359
• Wang Xiangyang 05-2360
• Ma Huimin
• Li Weiquan

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Pingju Opera (Baodi, Tianjin) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗