Gezaixi Opera

01 · Historical Records

Gezaixi (Taiwanese opera) rose in the early twentieth century inside the island of Taiwan, reached Xiamen not long afterwards, and soon spread rapidly over the Minnan region and to the places where overseas Chinese have settled in Southeast Asia.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Gezaixi at first consisted mainly of antiphonal singing by one man and one woman; it later developed into a mature theatre art with the three rows of sheng, dan and chou, complete in ke (acting), qu (singing) and bai (speech). Its sheng row includes xiaosheng, laosheng, wensheng and wusheng; its dan row includes kudan and zhengdan; and its chou row includes sanhua, laopo and other roles. All the roles are sung in the natural voice, and the kudan role is the most distinctive among them. The content of Gezaixi consists above all of folk stories that are sung; its plays include Chen San Wu Niang (Chen San and the Fifth Lady), Liu Xiu Fu Guo (Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom), Ba Xian Guo Hai (The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea), Ji Gong Zhuan (The Tale of Jigong) and Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers), and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, moral integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performances still follow the practice of having a “play teacher” (xi xiansheng) expound the play and assign the roles. Gezaixi has much speech and little song and its metrical rules are free; among its more than one hundred traditional melodies there are the haunting and lofty Qi Zi Diao (Seven-Syllable Air), the Da Diao (Great Air) and the Bei Si Diao (Recollection Air), together with the ballad-recitative style Taiwan Zanian Diao (Taiwanese Miscellany Air) and a range of melancholy, sorrowful crying tunes. The main accompanying instruments of Gezaixi are the yehu, the large two-string fiddle, the jinghu, the suona, the single-skin drum, gong, nao and cymbals and the like. According to the differing forms of performance and the shape of the theatre, it is divided into ground-sweeping gezi troupes, open-air gezi theatre and indoor gezi theatre; and with the rise of mass media such as radio, film and television, radio gezi opera, gezi opera films and televised gezi opera have appeared in turn. Ever since its birth, troupes and artists on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have kept exchanging performances. As a precious art form created and possessed jointly by the people on both sides of the Strait, Gezaixi has become an important link binding together their spiritual and cultural life.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Gezaixi is a Minnan-dialect operatic genre built on the foundation of the Minnan gezi ballads; it took shape by drawing nourishment from such operatic forms as Liyuan opera, Beiguan opera, Gaojia opera, Chaoju and Peking opera. In addition, it absorbed local Taiwanese folk songs, ditties and a portion of operatic music by way of supplement.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Gezaixi Opera.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Protecting and developing Gezaixi is of significance for carrying forward the operatic culture of the Chinese nation and for advancing the cause of the peaceful reunification of the motherland. Yet as society has advanced, and under the influence of modern forms of culture and art and of passing fashions, Gezaixi now circulates only among the middle-aged and the old; young people have lost interest in it. This state of affairs gravely affects the survival and the continuation of the genre, and measures must be formulated for its protection. Zheng Xiuqin (as recorded in the official archival record of an associated inheritor): Female, of Han ethnicity, born in 1944, a native of Longhai, Fujian. In 1957 Zheng Xiuqin entered the Xunzai troupe Xiangju company of Zhangzhou City to study the art of Xiangju performance. She was taught by such masters as Shao Jianghai and Lin Wenxiang, mastered in full the performance conventions of Xiangju and in particular those of the guimen dan and qingyi roles, and inherited the “zasui diao” vocal art of Shao Jianghai, in which the melody is shaped to the words. Representative works include Chai Tou Feng (The Hairpin Ode) and Pipa Ji (The Lute). Representative inheritor of Gezaixi under the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects, a first-class actor, and a recipient of the special allowance of the State Council. Wu Ziming (as recorded in the official archival record of an associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1948, a native of Xiamen, Fujian. Wu Ziming began studying at the Zhangzhou Art School in 1959, where he was taught by such Xiangju masters as Shao Jianghai, Song Jianwei and Chen Yueming. In 1964 he joined the Zhangzhou Youth Experimental Xiangju Troupe; from 1969 to 1975 he worked at the Peking opera troupe of the Longxi region, and from 1975 to 1981 he served as a teacher at the Zhangzhou Art School. He has mastered the artistic performance system of Xiangju and the performance conventions of each role type, and is competent to direct traditional Xiangju plays, historical plays and modern plays alike. Representative works include The Soul of the Theatre and Xi Shi and Wu Yuan. Representative inheritor of Gezaixi under the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects, and a national first-class director.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Zheng Xiuqin 02-0591
• Wu Ziming 02-0592
• Ji Zhaozhi 02-0593
• Chen Zhiming 02-0594
• Lu Yihong
• Zhuang Hairong

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Gezaixi Opera (Zhangzhou, Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zheng Xiuqin · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Wu Ziming · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗