Pingju Opera

01 · Historical Records

Pingju was first known as bengbeng opera or luozi opera, was also called pingqiang bangzi opera, and was abbreviated to Pingxi; the designation Pingju came into official use in 1935. Cheng Zhaocai, the founder of Pingju and its first playwright, wrote such representative works as Ma Guafu Kai Dian (The Widow Ma Opens an Inn), Hua Wei Mei (The Flower as Matchmaker) and Yang Sanjie Gao Zhuang (Yang Sanjie's Suit), which have now become the classic retained plays of the genre.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

It circulates in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and the Northeast, and enjoys a wide popular basis. Around 1910, the bengbeng opera artists led by Cheng Zhaocai used the antiphonal “lianhualuo” of the Luanzhou area in eastern Hebei Province as their base, taking over the music and plays of northeastern errenzhuan, and afterwards the music and performance art of Peking opera, shadow puppetry and dagu; they also used a complete set of Hebei bangzi instruments for accompaniment in performance, and thus the basic shape of Pingju was formed. This newly emergent operatic genre of several vocal styles was later developed and perfected still further in practice. Apart from these, Pingju has a whole list of representative repertoire, Wang Erjie Si Fu, An'an Song Mi, Ma Siyuan Kai Chaguan, Xiao Nü Xu, Liu Qiao'er, Xiao Erhei Jiehun, Qin Xianglian, Du Shiniang and others. The music of Pingju is of the banqiang type, and it has jianban, dabban, da anban, xiao anban, sanchui, daoban, duoban and liushui ban among its ban styles; besides these there is also fandiao. The accompanying instruments are divided into three categories, bowed and plucked, percussion and wind: the bowed and plucked include the banhu, erhu, sanxian and others, the percussion include the ban (clappers), digu, tanggu, diluo and daluo, and the wind include the dizi, suona and others. The singing of Pingju takes as its model the music of Peking opera and of bangzi, and is divided into a male voice and a female voice. In its early days Pingju only distinguished male from female roles; as it developed it gradually acquired the three role types sheng, dan and chou, and afterwards, influenced by Peking opera and bangzi, formed such role types as qingyi, huadan, laodan, xiaosheng, laosheng and xiaochou. Its performance draws on the gestures and vocal styles of bangzi and of Peking opera, yet it still keeps the free and lively character of a folk small play and is full of the flavour of life. As the times develop, the audience for Pingju has dropped sharply and is also growing older, the influence of Pingju is being greatly weakened, and concrete measures should be laid down to give it the necessary support.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Among the male voices, styles such as “laosheng style” and “painted-face style” were created and developed, and the female voice has a great many schools of singing of its own.

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 one of the main genres of the Northeast and of North China and has spread far and wide through the Northwest and the Southwest, becoming a new genre that carries deep traditions of folk culture while also giving expression to a modern aesthetic consciousness; it moreover embodies the folk culture of the eastern Hebei area, and is of great interest to scholars of xiqu history and of folkloristics. Zhang Junling (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Han, born in August 1964, a native of Tangshan, Hebei Province. A national first-grade actress. In 1981 she took Hong Ying as her teacher, and came to understand and master the performance characteristics of the “Hong school” art; she is a representative figure of the female xiaosheng in Pingju. In the use of breath, in vocal emission and in bodily performance she closely resembles Hong Ying, and she expresses the “Hong school” art to the fullest in such matters as the “spurt” of her diction, the “punch” of her emission, the “flash” of her technique and the “pet” of her bearing. In singing her high notes are resonant and lofty and her low notes supple and turning; she leads the voice with feeling, and voice and emotion thrive together. Her representative plays include Liu Ling Zui Jiu (Liu Ling Gets Drunk), Liang Zhu (The Butterfly Lovers), Liuguo Feng Xiang (The Six States Confer a Title), Shiwu Guan (Fifteen Strings of Cash), Honglong Zhuan (The Red Dragon), Zhou Ren Xian Sao (Zhou Ren Presents His Sister-in-Law), Yu He Qiao (The Imperial River Bridge) and others. Representative inheritor of Pingju, inscribed in the fourth national-level batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage. In 2007 she won the twenty-third Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award. Luo Huiqin (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Han, born in August 1965, a native of Yutian County, Hebei Province. A national first-grade actress. After graduation she was assigned to the Tangshan Pingju Troupe, where she played the daomadan, huadan and guimendan roles. In 1992 she took the Pingju performing artist Xin Fengxia as her teacher. She has successively starred in more than twenty representative plays of the “new school”, such as Hua Wei Mei, San Kan Yu Mei (Viewing the Younger Sister Three Times), Yang Sanjie Gao Zhuang and Liu Qiao'er. She now has three second-generation disciples of the “new school”. Representative inheritor of Pingju, inscribed in the fifth national-level batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage. In 2007 she won the twenty-third Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award.

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 (Luannan, Hebei) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zhang Junling · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Luo Huiqin · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗