Liuqin Opera

01 · Historical Records

Liuqin opera is popularly known as “lahun qiang”, and also goes by the names “lahu qiang” and “lahou qiang”; in 1953 it was formally named “Liuqin opera”. It took shape after the mid-Qing period and is distributed mainly in the border area where the four provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong, Anhui and Henan meet.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The singing of Liuqin opera is centred on the zhi mode and the gong mode; the zhi mode is gentle and lingering, the gong mode bright and vigorous. Its melodies include “qiban”, “daoban”, “laqiang”, “sheqiang”, “ye li cang hua”, “huilong diao”, “sili changqiang”, men's and women's “lala qiang”, “die duanqiao”, “da yapai” and the tune “the young lady enters the garden”; its ban patterns divide roughly into manban, erhangban, shuban, jinban and wuzi jinban. In performance it is accompanied by such instruments as the liuyeqin, dizi, zhuiqin, erhu, banhu, suona and sheng, together with the ban drum and the large gong. The performance of Liuqin opera is rough and unadorned, its rhythm brisk and lively, its local flavour strong, and the actors' movements and step patterns clearly bear the marks of folk song-and-dance. The traditional repertoire of Liuqin opera is extraordinarily rich; close to two hundred plays have been transcribed by the opera research institute of Shandong Province alone, and Liuqin opera in Jiangsu has more than three hundred plays large and small, most of them adapted from folk stories and chapter-novels. Siping Mountain, Bapan Mountain, Chronicle of the Fresh Flowers, Chronicle of the Fish Basket, Breaking the Two Nails, Little Ao Mountain, Yanmen Pass, The White Silk Robe, Eating Mianye Noodles and The Small Study are among its representative plays. In the course of its long development Liuqin opera absorbed the strengths of various sister arts and kept close ties with the life of the people in the area where it circulates.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

There are two accounts of the origin of Liuqin opera: one holds that it grew out of the folk ditties of southern Shandong under the influence of the local Liuzi opera, the other that it was spread from Haizhou in Jiangsu.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Liuqin Opera · Liuqin Opera.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

It is a vehicle of regional culture and is of considerable research value for the study of operatic theory, folklore and local culture. Zhu Shulong (per the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, of the Han ethnic group, born in March 1958, native of Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. A national first-class actor. He has had a strong interest in traditional drama since childhood. In 1971 he was admitted to the Liuqin opera troupe of Jiangsu Province. The work that made him famous is The Red Silk Robe; after starring in The Lament of the Han Palace he became widely renowned in Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, Anhui and elsewhere. Through the play White Jade Tower he became a well-known performer in the Liuqin world. He is an all-round performer, skilled in xiaosheng, wusheng, xusheng, laosheng and xiaochou, with solid accomplishment in both civil and martial plays. His representative plays include The Red Silk Robe, The Lament of the Han Palace, White Jade Tower and Visiting the Parental Home, and his works have been broadcast many times by China Central Television. So that Jiangsu Liuqin opera can be handed down from generation to generation, he took Yang Cheng as his apprentice. He is a representative inheritor of Liuqin opera in the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. In 1988 he became a disciple of the Jiangsu Liuqin opera master Li Renqing, becoming a fourth-generation inheritor.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Wang Chuanling 03-1054
• Zhu Shulong 03-1055
• Zhang Jinlan 03-1056
• Liu Lili
• Wang Xiaohong

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Liuqin Opera (Xuzhou, Jiangsu) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zhu Shulong · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗