Gezaixi Opera
01 · Historical Records
Gezai opera (Taiwanese opera) arose in the interior of Taiwan island in the early twentieth century, soon reached Xiamen, and spread rapidly across the southern Fujian region and to the places of Southeast Asia where overseas Chinese had settled.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Gezai opera in its beginnings consisted mainly of antiphonal singing between one man and one woman; it later developed into a mature operatic form with the three role lines of sheng, dan and chou, combining spoken parts (ke), singing (qu) and recitation (bai). Its sheng line includes xiaosheng, laosheng, wensheng and wusheng; the dan line includes kudan and zhengdan; the chou line includes such role types as sanhua and laopo. All the role types sing in the true voice, and the kudan role is the most distinctive among them. The content of Gezai opera consists chiefly of singing folk tales. Its repertoire works include Chen San and Wu Niang, Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom, The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, The Life of Ji Gong and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performance still follows the practice in which the “play-teacher” expounds the story and assigns the roles for performance. Gezai opera has much spoken text and little singing, and its metrics are free. Among its more than one hundred traditional tune patterns are the melodious and high-pitched [Qizi diao] seven-syllable tune, the [Da diao] great tune and the [Beisi diao] recalling tune, as well as the folk-ballad, declamatory [Taiwan zainian diao] miscellaneous-chant tune, and still more various crying tunes full of melancholy and sorrow. The principal accompanying instruments of Gezai opera are the yehu, the large sanxian, the jinghu, the suona, the single-skin drum, the gong and the naobo. According to the differences in performance form and theatre type, it is divided into such forms as the ground-swept Gezai arrays, the open-air stage Gezai opera and the indoor stage Gezai opera; as radio, film, television and other mass media have risen, broadcast Gezai opera, Gezai opera films and televised Gezai opera have also appeared one after another. Since its birth, performing troupes and artists on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have exchanged performances continuously. As a precious art form created and possessed in common by the people of both sides, Gezai opera has become an important bond linking the spiritual culture of the people of the two sides.
Chen San and Wu Niang
The content of Gezai opera consists chiefly of singing folk tales. Its repertoire works include Chen San and Wu Niang, Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom, The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, The Life of Ji Gong and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performance still follows the practice in which the “play-teacher” expounds the story and assigns the roles for performance.
Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom
The content of Gezai opera consists chiefly of singing folk tales. Its repertoire works include Chen San and Wu Niang, Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom, The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, The Life of Ji Gong and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performance still follows the practice in which the “play-teacher” expounds the story and assigns the roles for performance.
Ba Xian Guo Hai (The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea)
The content of Gezai opera consists chiefly of singing folk tales. Its repertoire works include Chen San and Wu Niang, Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom, The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, The Life of Ji Gong and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performance still follows the practice in which the “play-teacher” expounds the story and assigns the roles for performance.
Ji Gong Zhuan (The Life of Ji Gong)
The content of Gezai opera consists chiefly of singing folk tales. Its repertoire works include Chen San and Wu Niang, Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom, The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, The Life of Ji Gong and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performance still follows the practice in which the “play-teacher” expounds the story and assigns the roles for performance.
Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers)
The content of Gezai opera consists chiefly of singing folk tales. Its repertoire works include Chen San and Wu Niang, Liu Xiu Restores the Kingdom, The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, The Life of Ji Gong and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and most of them stress loyalty, filial piety, integrity and righteousness. There is generally no fixed script, and to this day performance still follows the practice in which the “play-teacher” expounds the story and assigns the roles for performance.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Gezai opera is a southern Fujian dialect operatic genre founded on Minnan gezai songs and formed by absorbing the artistic resources of such operatic genres as Liyuan opera, Beiguan opera, Gaojia opera, Chaozhou opera and Beijing opera. In addition, it absorbs local Taiwanese folk ditties and part of the operatic music of these genres as a supplement.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Gezaixi Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Protecting and developing Gezai opera is of great significance for carrying forward the operatic culture of the Chinese nation and for promoting the peaceful reunification of the motherland. However, as society has advanced and under the influence of modern forms of culture and art and of popular fashion, Gezai opera is now current only among the middle-aged and elderly, and young people are no longer interested in it. This state of affairs has greatly affected the survival and continuation of Gezai opera, and measures need to be drawn up to protect it. Ji Zhaozhi (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Female, of Han ethnicity, born in 1933, native of Xiamen, Fujian Province. Through years of stage practice and exploration she gradually formed her own distinctive artistic performance style. Her representative works include An'an Recognising His Mother and The Legend of the White Snake. Representative inheritor of Gezai opera under the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. Chen Zhiming (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1964, native of Longhai, Fujian Province. Through years of study he mastered the performance techniques and characteristics of the sheng, dan, jing, mo and chou roles of Gezai opera. His representative works include The Egret Goddess and Shao Jiang Hai. Representative inheritor of Gezai opera under the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects, and a first-class performer.
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
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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