Chu Opera

01 · Historical Records

Chu opera was formerly known as ohe qiang, the Huangxiao flower drum opera and the Xilu flower drum opera. In the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty the ohe qiang then current in eastern Hubei was fused with the mountain songs, daoqing, bamboo-horse dances, stilts and folk storytelling and singing of the Huangpi and Xiaogan area, and out of this fusion an independent local operatic genre with its own vocal system took shape; it was renamed Chu opera in 1926 and by now has a history of more than a hundred and fifty years.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Chu opera circulates mainly in the seven prefecture- and city-level divisions of Wuhan, Xiaogan, Huanggang, Jingzhou, Xianning, Yichang and Huangshi, and in more than forty counties. About five hundred Chu opera plays survive today and more than two hundred of them are performed regularly; the more important among them include Qin Xuemei Diao Xiao (Qin Xuemei in Mourning for Her Mother-in-Law), Yinping Gongzhu (Princess Yinping), Gan Zhai (Rushing to the Vegetarian Offering), Sha Gou Jing Qi (Killing the Dog to Startle the Wife), San Shi Chou (Feuds of Three Generations), Wu Han Sha Qi (Wu Han Slays His Wife), Cai Mingfeng Ci Dian (Cai Mingfeng Leaves the Inn), Ge Ma (Hemp and Sesame), Bai Ri Yuan (A Hundred Days of Affinity), Jiu Jian Yi (The Nine-Piece Garment), Wu Jin Ji (The Record of Black Gold), Mai Miansha (Selling Cotton Yarn), Ya Nu Gao Zhuang (The Mute Girl Files Her Complaint), Bai Shan Ji (The White Fan), Si Fan (Longing for the Mortal World), Lai Hun (Breaking Off the Marriage), Ji Shui (Drawing Water) and Dong Yong Mai Shen (Dong Yong Sells Himself). The vocal system of Chu opera falls into three parts — banqiang, xiaodiao and gaoqiang. The banqiang include the ya qiang, the xian qiang, the Yingshan qiang, siping, shizhi mei and others; the xiaodiao include the tune patterns Shixiu diao (Ten Embroidery Airs), Macheng diao (the Macheng Air), Taoxue qian (Begging for School Fees) and Mai Miansha (Selling Cotton Yarn); the gaoqiang include the tune patterns Suo Nan Zhi (Locking the Southern Branch), Wu Tong Yu (The Parasol Tree Rain) and Shan Po Yang (Song on the Hillside). The accompanying instruments of Chu opera are chiefly the huqin, the Beijing erhu, the erhu, the sanxian, the ban drum, cymbals and gongs of various sizes. Chu opera performance stresses closeness to life and naturalness, its use of set techniques is unrestrained and varied, and it is rich in local flavour; well-known performers include Shen Yungai, Gao Yuelou, Guan Xiaobin, Li Yaqiao and Xiong Jianxiao.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The role types of Chu opera are divided chiefly into the three categories of sheng, dan and chou; the other role types too are doubled by actors coming from these three. Chu opera is close to everyday life, keeps pace with the times, and has rich and varied means of expression together with a strong capacity for taking in what it encounters; it fully displays the distinctive character of the local culture of eastern Hubei.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Chu Opera.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present Chu opera faces a host of difficulties — a sharp decline in the number of troupes, an ageing personnel, financial hardship, a shortage of successors and a shrinking audience. The rescue of precious materials and of the skills of the older generation of artists is also hard to carry out for lack of funds, and the genre urgently needs the care and support of the relevant departments. Xiong Jianxiao (as recorded in the official archival record of an associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1922, a native of Wuhan, Hubei. Xiong Jianxiao has served as an actor in the second company of the Wenyi Chu opera anti-enemy propaganda troupe, and as deputy head of the First Wuhan Chu Opera Troupe, of the Wuhan Chu Opera Troupe and of the Hubei Provincial Chu Opera Troupe. His performance is restrained and delicate and his diction exact; colloquial speech (renhua) and rhymed recitation (yunbai) are ingeniously combined into one and run on naturally and fluently, giving him a style of his own. The roles he plays are full of the flavour of real life without falling into naturalism. His representative works include Ge Ma (Hemp and Sesame), Yang Ban Tuo Qin (Yang Ban Goes to Sue for the Marriage) and Jiu Xianggong Nao Guan (The Ninth Official Makes a Scene in the Inn). Representative inheritor of Chu opera under the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects, and a first-class actor. Zhang Yiping (as recorded in the official archival record of an associated inheritor): Female, of Han ethnicity, born in April 1948, a native of Wuhan City, Hubei Province. A national first-class actor, and a specialist who enjoys the special allowance of the State Council. Of delicate and refined appearance, with finely wrought performance, in her many years on the stage she has formed a style that shows splendour within plainness and grace within depth. Representative plays include Xiu Xie An (The Case of the Embroidered Shoe), Yang Ming de Erzi (The Son Who Sustains a Life), Ni Shi Yi Tiao He (You Are a River), Mu Guiying Xiu Fu (Mu Guiying Takes Back Her Husband), Hai Ying and Zhaojun Chu Sai (Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier). Representative inheritor of Chu opera under the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. She has won the first prize in the Wuhan City Young Actor Competition, the Hubei Drama Peony Flower Award, the Ministry of Culture Wenhua Performance Award, the Outstanding Supporting Performance Award at the first Cao Yu Drama Awards and other honours. In recent years she has actively carried out transmission activities, handing on the plays of the “Shen school” to young actors.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Xiong Jianxiao 02-0582
• Zhang Yiping 03-1052
• Zhang Qiaozhen 03-1053
• Rong Mingxiang 04-1643
• Zhang Guangming 04-1644
• Peng Qinglian 05-2368
• Zhong Huiran 05-2369
• Xia Qingling
• Tuchonghua
• Li Zuxun

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Chu Opera (Hubei) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Xiong Jianxiao · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Zhang Yiping · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗