Quzi Opera
01 · Historical Records
Minqin quzi opera originated in the early Ming and took shape in the mid-Ming. Because Minqin county was called “Zhenfan” in the Ming and Qing it is also known as “Zhenfan quzi opera”. From the Chenghua to the Zhengde reigns of the Ming it circulated mainly in Minqin, Wuwei and surrounding areas and in Alxa in Inner Mongolia; in the Yongzheng reign of the Qing it spread to Xinjiang. Drawing on local opera annals and Minqin county cultural materials, Minqin quzi opera developed along the trade routes and migration flows between the Hexi Corridor and Alxa and, after the mid-Qing, spread to Ningxia and Qinghai and influenced and was influenced by local ditties, forming a singing character combining southern and northern charm.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Minqin quzi opera is a qupai-system local genre popular in the towns and countryside of Minqin county, Wuwei city, Gansu. Minqin county lies in the north-eastern part of the Hexi Corridor and is a famous “land of culture” in Gansu, praised as “a people beyond the Great Wall, a culture foremost among the Xia”, and named for its “plain customs and honest, hard-working people”. Minqin quzi opera has a rich repertory, with more than four hundred and sixty named plays, of which more than fifty are unique to it, mainly on punishing evil and promoting good and admonishing filial piety. The Pan Futang manuscript held in the Gansu Provincial Library contains more than sixty plays, over forty of them restored, most of them unique. Its qupai are rich, more than one hundred in number; its singing belongs to the qupai-linking form, divided into diao, qiang and xiaodiao, with “eight diao and twelve qiang”, fine and pleasing. Its make-up is distinctive, the dan often wearing a “guzhuang lou” hairstyle with a thread-braid adorned at the back with a black silk tassel reaching the ground, dignified and elegant; its costumes also have the colour of the frontier peoples. Its performance style is distinctive, with the character of the ground-hopping yangge, lively and full of fun, with such skills as the coloured-fan and handkerchief work, the cross-step, broken step, sliding step, shoulder-shaking, lamp-balancing and dwarf skills. It is not limited by venue, personnel or costume and is vivid and humorous. After the mid-Qing it spread to Ningxia and Qinghai and exerted a broad and far-reaching influence on the formation and development of Hexi quzi opera and Xinjiang quzi opera. There are more than twenty relatively influential troupes.
The Pan Futang Manuscript Repertoire
The Pan Futang manuscript held in the Gansu Provincial Library contains more than sixty plays, over forty of them restored, most unique to Minqin quzi opera.
Eight Modes and Twelve Tunes (The Singing System)
Minqin quzi opera's singing divides into diao, qiang and xiaodiao, known as “eight modes and twelve tunes”, with more than one hundred qupai and noted for its beauty.
Xia Sichuan (Journey Down to Sichuan)
One of the traditional plays circulating among the quzi opera of the Hexi region and commonly staged in Minqin quzi opera.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Its recitation and lyrics use the Minqin dialect. Minqin quzi opera is a folk art much loved by the local people, and whenever it is sung the streets and lanes and farm courtyards can all become its stage, to great bustle.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Quzi Opera · Quzi Opera · Quzi Opera · Quzi Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present the forty-six registered folk troupes are spread across the towns and countryside of Minqin, transmitted as a living art by oral teaching and master-to-disciple apprenticeship. Minqin quzi opera, “combining the northern air and southern charm and circulating through the five north-western provinces” and “fusing the bleak vigor of northern ditties with the soft prettiness of southern ones”, has relatively high reference value for studying the history of Chinese opera, especially the history of the fusion of northern and southern local opera. Protecting this cultural heritage has positive practical significance for promoting operatic culture, enriching popular cultural life and advancing people-to-people exchange along the Silk Road. Taking as its background the cultural deposits of “a people beyond the Great Wall, a culture foremost among the Xia”, Minqin quzi opera preserves more than four hundred and sixty plays and more than one hundred qupai, of which the Pan Futang manuscript provides precious texts for studying the folk opera of the Hexi Corridor; relying on the cultural centre, the locality sustains the genre through registering troupes, collating material and training.
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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