Quzi Opera
01 · Historical Records
Huating quzi opera originated in the Song and Yuan, flourished in the Ming and Qing and reached its height in the Republican period. After the Republic, with the introduction of Qinqiang and Meihu, the area north of the Nahe river kept the old tunes and performance modes of quzi opera, while the area south of the Nahe absorbed certain features of Meihu opera but remained fundamentally based on quzi opera's modes and performance forms.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Huating county in Gansu lies at the eastern foot of the Guanshan mountains and was in antiquity the Silk Road route from Guanlong to the Western Regions. It covers an area of 1,186.55 square kilometres, with five towns and five townships, 112 villages and a population of 155,017. Huating quzi opera is a form of drama, also called locally “xiao quzi”, “xiaotan”, “ditanzi” and “xinzi qiang”, bearing traces of Yuan zaju. Its singing belongs to the linked-tune form strung from many qupai. The piece opens with the qupai Qianyue Diao and Houbeigong and closes with Yuediao Wei, announcing the play's title in the closing lyrics, sung right through; the variable line lengths and gong modes of the lyrics have the air of Yuan qu and Song ci. It retains traces of the transformation of narrative-song into opera. Its plays are all short excerpts with simple plots, performed only from the fifth to the twenty-third day of the first lunar month and at weddings, funerals and temple fairs at other times, still keeping a self-entertaining character. Its acting rests mainly on expression and movement, with no martial plays and no fixed conventions—a flag serves as a sedan, a drum as a mill, a whip as a horse, a curtain as a bed. Its band divides into civil and martial: the civil band is based on sanxian with banhu, erhu, flute and dihu, while the martial band opens with gong and drum to clear the ground and the singing keeps time with “siye wa” and shuizi (碰 bell). Huating quzi opera has played a positive role in livening the cultural life of mountain people, edifying them through cultivating the spirit, promoting good and suppressing evil and teaching through entertainment.
Longfeng Pei (The Dragon and Phoenix Match)
One of the representative plays of Huating quzi opera and a piece the inheritor Zhang Zhixue is skilled in.
Shuang Guan Gao (Two Imperial Edicts)
A traditional Huating quzi opera play rescued and collated by Zhang Zhixue and one he is skilled in.
Shuang Fangniu (Two Herding Boys)
A traditional short play of Huating quzi opera performed by both the inheritors Kang He and Zhang Zhixue.
Xia Sichuan (Journey Down to Sichuan)
One of the traditional plays of Huating quzi opera.
Mei Jiangxue (Plum Brings Snow)
A traditional Huating quzi opera play and one of the representative works of the inheritor Kang He.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In content it divides into serious, comic and tragic plays, and in role types into sheng, dan and chou.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Quzi Opera · Quzi Opera · Quzi Opera · Quzi Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
With the rapid development of society, economy and technology, quzi opera has faced a severe and unprecedented challenge: the penetration of pluralistic culture, the spread of the information network and television, the diversification of entertainment, and the passing or ageing of its transmitters. In the 1990 survey more than fifty plays had been lost and fifty per cent of the qupai, leaving quzi opera on the verge of extinction. It preserves traces of the transformation of narrative-song into opera, and the links between its qupai and line patterns and Yuan qu and Song ci offer precious examples for the study of operatic history and folk music. Kang He (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): he farms as his main occupation and, in the slack season, studies, sings and transmits quzi opera as a sideline to this day. Over nearly half a century in the art he has, through diligent study, gradually formed his own singing style—his voice sweet and delicate, his diction correct and his tune true, his singing soft and beautiful, his performance full of feeling with natural expression, his characterisation lifelike and his movements skilled and well placed, being especially accomplished in the dan role. His representative works include Shuang Fangniu and Mei Jiangxue. Male, Han, born in 1935, died in 2013, a native of Huating, Gansu; a representative inheritor of quzi opera (Huating quzi opera) in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects. Zhang Zhixue (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in August 1957 in Huating county, Gansu. He commands more than thirty singing styles and tunes and is humorous and witty in the dan roles of Longfeng Pei and Shuang Guan Gao. At the Spring Festival of 1980 he brought quzi opera from fields and courtyards onto the stage. He has rescued and collated such endangered traditional plays as Qiulian Jian Chai, Chen Gu Gan Chuan and Shuang Guan Gao, over twenty in all. He was the first to break the old tradition that women could not perform quzi opera on stage; the troupe he formed grew from five or six members to more than thirty today, and he has taken part in arranging and directing over thirty quzi opera plays. His representative plays include Longfeng Pei, Shuang Guan Gao, Shuang Fangniu and Xia Sichuan. He has trained more than fifty disciples. He is a representative inheritor of quzi opera (Huating quzi opera) in the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Kang He 02-0600
- Xiao Dejin 03-1059
- Zhang Zhixue 05-2380
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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