Chu Opera

01 · Historical Records

Chu opera was formerly called "ohe qiang" (the Oh-he tune), "Huangxiao flower drum opera" and "Xilu flower drum opera". It is a local operatic genre and vocal style that took shape during the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty, formed by the merging of the ohe qiang then current in eastern Hubei with the mountain songs, daoqing, bamboo-horse, stilts and folk storytelling and singing of the Huangpi District of Wuhan City, Xiaogan City and neighbouring areas of Hubei Province. In 1926 it was renamed "Chu opera", and it now circulates in more than 40 counties and cities within 7 prefecture- and city-level divisions of Hubei Province: Wuhan, Xiaogan, Huanggang, Jingzhou, Xianning, Yichang and Huangshi. The ya qiang, which evolved out of the ohe qiang, became the principal vocal system of Chu opera. Huangxiao flower drum took shape in the middle of the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty; in the twenty-eighth year of the Guangxu reign it entered the teahouses and theatres of the various concessions in Wuhan City, and in 1923 it began performing outside the concessions, its chorus of human voices being changed to huqin accompaniment. In 1926 the theatrical circles of Hankou, in organising the Hubei Drama Study Association, formally named the Huangxiao flower drum opera "Chu opera".

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The ohe qiang was formed by the peasants of Xiaogan City, Hubei Province, as they worked: accompanied by percussion (daweigu, "beating the encircling drum"), one person leads the singing while the rest join in the chorus. The vocal styles of Chu opera are based mainly on gaoqiang, xiaodiao and banqiang. The gaoqiang section has a rich repertory of qupai (tune patterns); its melodies are beautiful, its rhythm smooth and even, and it serves to express feeling and narrate events. Xiao diao fall into two kinds: in the first, words are fitted to a given melody, and the number of sentences in each sung passage and the length of each sentence must be filled in according to the melodic pattern; in the second, baizi are joined directly onto the melody — the melodic formulas of the opening and the closing are comparatively fixed, while the middle may be divided into an upper and a lower sentence according to the length of the words. The baizi are flexible and close to spoken speech. The banqiang vocal styles include ya qiang, bei qiang, xian qiang, Yingshan qiang, siping, shizhi mei and others. The ya qiang is the principal tune of Chu opera and is divided into four kinds: male ya qiang, female ya qiang, tragic ya qiang and xipi ya qiang. Among them, the male form is rugged and simple, the female form is euphonious and gentle, the tragic form is deep and plaintive, and the xipi form is plain and vigorous. Representative plays include Ganhui (Rushing to the Fair) and Lanma (Halting the Horse).

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The rhythm of the ya qiang is flexible and varied; it can both narrate events and express feeling, it is used widely and has strong expressive power, and it is sung in the dialect of the Huangpi and Xiaogan area, so it has marked regional features. Chu opera has strong local characteristics and enjoys considerable influence in Xiaogan City, Hubei Province. Whether in the villages or out in the fields, scenes of people learning and singing Chu opera can be seen everywhere, which is of great significance for enriching the cultural life of the local people, bringing communities into harmony and transmitting local culture.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Chu Opera.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In the urban and rural areas of Xiaogan City, Hubei Province, there are many keen Chu opera audiences; the groups that transmit the art include not only professional Chu opera troupes but also amateur Chu opera troupes and Chu opera guilds known as "Chu opera nests". Membership of the village guilds is not fixed, and people combine themselves freely: they farm in the busy season and mount stages to sing in the slack season, sometimes singing without costumes and sometimes performing in formal dress. They are warmly welcomed by the masses and have stayed popular for a long time without declining.

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 (Xiaogan, Hubei) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗