Huju Opera

01 · Historical Records

Huju opera originated in the field songs and folk ditties of the farmers on both banks of the Pu River. In the course of transmission it was influenced by tanci (ballad singing) and other folk narrative singing, and developed into tanhuang, a form that combines speech and song. During the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty, tanhuang in the Pu River area developed into the 'duizi xi' (paired play), in which two performers both played and accompanied themselves, and into the 'tongchang xi' (same-stage play), in which three or more actors costumed the characters while separate musicians provided accompaniment. By 1898, performers had already been moving into Shanghai and singing at fixed venues in teahouses; this was called bentan. In 1914, bentan was renamed shenqu. After 1927, shenqu began to stage wenmingxi (civilised drama) and plays on current affairs. In 1941 the Shanghai Huju Society was founded and shenqu was formally renamed Huju opera. In the course of this evolution, male and female vocal registers had already been differentiated.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Huju opera is the representative genre of Shanghai, circulating in Shanghai, southern Jiangsu and the Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou areas of Zhejiang Province. Huju music is gentle and soft, its melodies beautiful and pleasing, carrying a strong flavour of the Jiangnan water-town landscape. Its vocal music derives from the field songs of the farmers, and over long practice it gradually formed a rich repertory of melodies and a distinctive style. Huju vocal music is good at narration and equally skilful in lyrical expression; its melodies fall mainly into two large classes, the banchiang-ti (metrical-section) system and the qupai-ti (tune-pattern) system. The banchiang-ti vocal system includes metrical variations built mainly on the long-section forms. It represents the style of Huju, is applied widely, and is generally called the 'basic tune' (jiben diao). Most qupai-ti vocal patterns are tune patterns from Ming-Qing folk tunes, folk narrative singing and Jiang-Zhe ditties; others are patterns absorbed from other genres, together with mountain songs and miscellaneous tunes. In most cases, however, they are used only to suit the scene and the moment, as interpolated pieces of an incidental character. The accompanying instruments of Huju opera are led by the bamboo-tube erhu, supported by the pipa, yangqin, sanxian, flute, xiao and other instruments. Later a small number of Cantonese instruments were taken on, and the inflections of some Jiangnan sizhu music and Cantonese tunes were folded into the interludes between vocal phrases. The role types of Huju opera differed from period to period. In the period of the paired play a single sheng and a single dan predominated; in the period of the same-stage play the sheng line and the chou line became distinct. The sheng line included xiaosheng and laosheng, and xiaosheng was further divided into the formal xiaosheng and the gallant xiaosheng. The dan line was also called baotou and was divided into the formal baotou, the empress baotou, the painted baotou, the old baotou, the slovenly baotou and so on. At the time, because troupes had few personnel, actors often had to double several roles. As Huju performance moved towards wenmingxi and spoken drama, the classification of its role types gradually blurred; neither movement nor speech developed role-specific conventions, and singing in every part also used the natural voice. Huju opera has a rich repertory, including traditional plays such as An Tang Xiang Hui (Meeting at the Convent Hall), Yang Naiwu and Little White Cabbage, The Pearl Tower, Meng Lijun and The Twin Pearl Phoenixes, as well as newly written plays on modern subjects such as Qiu Haitang (Autumn Begonia), Family, Thunderstorm and Luohan Qian (Arhat Coin).

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Huju opera is a typical representative of Shanghai's regional culture. It reflects the appearance of the modern Chinese metropolis from different aspects, and throughout its growth it has shown considerable vitality and vigour.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In recent years, as the process of modernisation has accelerated, the art of Huju opera faces an increasingly serious survival crisis: the performance market is shrinking day by day, audiences are dwindling, practitioners earn low incomes, and talent drain and generational breaks have appeared. Of the dozens of Huju performing troupes that once existed in the Jiangnan region, only three remain today. Rescuing and protecting Huju opera by effective measures can no longer be delayed and must be carried out without fail. Yang Feifei (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Yang Feifei was born Weng Fengqing. At twelve she began to perform wenmingxi, and in 1938 she entered the children's shenqu class of the Wanshe society, took Ding Wan'e as her teacher and switched to singing shenqu, that is, today's Huju opera. In 1942 she joined the Wenyan Theatre Troupe; in 1949 she and Zhao Chunfang, Ding Guobin and others founded the Qinyi Huju Troupe and served as its head. After the Cultural Revolution she rebuilt the Baoshan Huju Troupe and served successively as its head and as adviser. Her performance is emotionally sincere and she is especially skilled in tragedy; she created the 'Yang school' vocal style, whose main characteristics are breadth, resonance, plainness and gentleness. Her most representative aria is 'Jinyuan's Lament' from The Courtesan's Tears. This aria is built from eight Huju melodies, is very widely circulated, and is called by audiences the 'Yang Eight Melodies'. Representative works include Family, Thunderstorm, A Mother Sold into Slavery, Selling Red Water Chestnuts and The Courtesan's Tears. Female, Han nationality, born in 1923, died in 2012, a native of Cixi, Zhejiang Province. A representative inheritor of Huju opera in the second national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage programme, and a first-class performer. Ma Lili (official archival record of the associated inheritor): female, Han nationality, born in 1949, a native of Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. Ma Lili entered the Huju class of the opera school of the Yangpu District in 1961 and, after graduating, joined the Aihua Huju Troupe as an actor. In 1973 she began work at the Shanghai Huju Troupe (now the Shanghai Huju Theatre), where she has remained ever since. Her performance was strongly influenced by Ling Aizhen and Han Yumin; she was later coached by such Huju masters as Ding Shi'e and Shi Xiaoying. Her vocal style is distinctive in its own right, and she founded the new Huju school known as the 'Ma school'. Her performance is steady and dignified, elegant and composed; her singing is sweet and pleasing, and she is good at shaping female characters of every type. Representative works include The Red Lantern, The Death of Zhang Zhixin, The Man in the Fog, In Search of the Mother, Sunrise, Fellow Sufferers in Wind and Rain and The Tangled Web of Laughter and Tears. A representative inheritor of Huju opera in the second national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage programme, formerly deputy director of the Shanghai Huju Theatre, a first-class performer, winner of the eleventh China Drama Plum Blossom Award, and a recipient of the State Council's special government allowance.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Yang Feifei 02-0572
• Ma Lili 02-0573
• Wang Pansheng 02-0574
• Chen Yu 02-0575
• Han Yumin 03-1042
• Shen Renwei 03-1043
• Mao Shanyu 03-1044
• Chen Suping 05-2364

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Huju Opera (Shanghai) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Yang Feifei · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Ma Lili · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗