Yueju (Shaoxing Opera)
01 · Historical Records
Yue opera originated in Sheng county, Zhejiang; in the early twentieth century the narrative-singing artists of “floor-singing” began to appear in costume on stage, and from then on it gradually developed into an independent operatic genre, popular in Zhejiang, Shanghai and Jiangsu and forming many artistic schools in stage practice. The Yin school of Yue opera created by Yin Guifang took shape in the early 1940s, when famous Yue opera artists gathered in Shanghai and each led the field; the Yin school emerged and matured amid this fierce competition, and in 1959 the Yin school moved with the Fanghua Yue Opera Troupe from its birthplace Shanghai to Fujian, striking root and bearing fruit throughout Fujian. Drawing on Yue opera historical materials, the Yin school entered its second peak in the 1950s and 1960s, its performance, singing and stage art growing more mature and marking its establishment as a system; after the Fanghua troupe moved to Fujian in 1959 it became the core force spreading Yue opera there.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
It powerfully advanced the reform of Yue opera, laying a solid foundation for its change from a genre led by the huadan role to one led by the xiaosheng. The Yin-school Yue opera performance is plain and elegant, lifelike and expressive, its singing free and fluent, mellow and enduring, and once it appeared it became fashionable at once and long flourished. In the 1950s and 1960s Yin-school Yue opera entered its second peak, its performance, singing and other stage arts all growing more mature and perfect, marking the school's establishment as a system. With its unique style and enduring charm it won over countless Fujian audiences while exerting a positive influence on the development and innovation of Fujian local opera.
Pan Qi Suo Qi (Questioning and Seeking the Wife)
A representative Yin-school Yue opera play and one of the representative works of the inheritor Wang Jun'an.
He Wenxiu
A celebrated traditional Yin-school Yue opera play and one of Wang Jun'an's representative works.
Yu Qingting (The Jade Dragonfly)
A traditional Yin-school Yue opera play and one of Wang Jun'an's representative works.
Shamo Wangzi (The Desert Prince)
A celebrated Yin-school Yue opera play, fully expressing the dashing and enduring singing style of the Yin-school xiaosheng.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yin school of Yue opera takes the Fujian Fanghua Yue Opera Troupe as its main body of transmission; moving from Shanghai to Fuzhou in 1959, it has long performed across Fujian and trained Fujian-born actors, exerting some influence on the performance and musical innovation of local Fujian genres such as Minju; the Fanghua Yue Opera Troupe is the principal Yue opera performing body in Fujian.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Yueju (Shaoxing Opera) · Yueju (Shaoxing Opera).
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Wang Jun'an (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): female, Han, born in May 1970 in Sheng county, Zhejiang. A national first-grade actor and a direct disciple of Master Yin Guifang, founder of the Yin school. In 1981 she entered the trainee class of the Fujian Fanghua Yue Opera Troupe and graduated from the Fujian Art School in 1986 as a xiaosheng. Combining the “bel canto” of operatic vocal music with the formal features of Yin-school singing, she has gradually formed her own Yin-school vocal character—reserved, round and pure, bright and firm in the high register, deep and plaintive in the low; in the distinctive small tunes of the Yin school especially she makes the tune follow the word, moving with the voice like drifting clouds and flowing water, natural and plain. Her representative works include Pan Qi Suo Qi, He Wenxiu and Yu Qingting. She is a representative inheritor of Yue opera (Yin school) in the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects and has won the twenty-seventh China Drama Plum Blossom Award, the outstanding actor award of the third China Drama Festival, the Ministry of Culture Wenhua Performance Award, the gold award of the China Xiaobaihua Yue Opera Festival and the leading-role prize of the Shanghai Yulan Drama Performing Arts Award. Centring on the xiaosheng role and an unrestrained, enduring singing, the Yin school is an important branch of the Yue opera school system, its “tune follows the word” small tunes exerting a far-reaching influence on Yue opera's vocal development; the Fanghua troupe 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:
- Mao Weitao 02-0564
- Dong Kedi 02-0565
- Yuan Xuefen 02-0566
- Xu Yulan 02-0567
- Fu Quanxiang 02-0568
- Wang Wenjuan 02-0569
- Fan Ruijuan 02-0570
- Zhang Guifeng 02-0571
- Jin Caifeng 03-1039
- Lvruiying 03-1040
- Bi Chunfang 03-1041
- Qian Huili 05-2362
- Wang Junan 05-2363
- Fang Yafen
- Wu Fenghua
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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