Yangge Opera
01 · Historical Records
Xiangwu yangge is found mainly in the Shangdang and Jinzhong areas of Shanxi; it grew out of the folk shehuo activities of the late Ming and early Qing, beginning as a yangge called “tiaogao”, and later took shape on the basis of local narrative-singing and folk dance while absorbing artistic elements of Xihuo yangge and Shangdang bangzi, flourishing by the mid-Qing. Drawing on local opera annals, it flourished in the mid-Qing with professional troupes by the late Qing and early Republic, and in the 1950s Xiangyuan county formed a professional troupe and systematically collated its traditional repertory and music.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xiangwu yangge singing belongs to the banqiang form in the zhi mode; in its early days it sang mainly xiaoqu and xiaodiao, later forming a complete musical system with twelve basic ban patterns such as Liushui, Luantan and Gelianban together with various auxiliary patterns and qupai-system music, its singing brisk yet free and melodious amid high excitement. Its roles began with the “three smalls” of xiaosheng, xiaodan and xiaochou, later adding xusheng, qingyi and hualian. Its recitation is mainly in the Shangdang dialect and its performance plain, with a strong flavour of life. It preserves more than one hundred and fifty traditional and more than two hundred and fifty modern plays, mostly on family and social life, simple in plot and plain and humorous in language, fully displaying the joys and sorrows of ordinary people; among them such traditional costume plays as Jia Qi and Luohua Ji and such modern plays as Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang and Xiao Erhei Jiehun are its most influential representative works.
Jia Qi (Marrying Off the Wife)
One of the most influential traditional costume plays of Xiangwu yangge.
Luohua Ji (The Fallen Blossom)
One of the most influential traditional costume plays of Xiangwu yangge.
Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang
One of the most influential modern plays of Xiangwu yangge.
Xiao Erhei Jiehun (Xiao Erhei Marries)
One of the most influential modern plays of Xiangwu yangge.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Xiangwu yangge is popular in the Shangdang and Jinzhong areas, centred on Xiangyuan and Wuxiang; through absorbing the artistic elements of Xihuo yangge and Shangdang bangzi its singing formed a banqiang form on a yangge-xiaodiao basis, making it, together with Huguan yangge and Zezhou yangge, one of the different branches of south-eastern Shanxi yangge.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Yangge Opera · Yangge Opera · Yangge Opera · Yangge Opera · Yangge Opera · Yangge Opera · Yangge Opera · Yangge Opera · Yangge Opera · Yangge Opera · Yangge Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
With social development Xiangwu yangge's space for survival grows ever smaller under the impact of modern civilisation and it is gradually declining, urgently needing protection. Its more than one hundred and fifty traditional and more than two hundred and fifty modern plays, close to the life of the people, give it value for folklore and for the study of operatic form; relying on the Xiangyuan County Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association, the locality sustains the genre through composition, rehearsal and training actors. Yang Shengxiang (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in July 1945 in Xiangyuan county, Shanxi. He is a representative inheritor of yangge opera (Xiangwu yangge) in the fourth batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects. He has composed 186 works for Xiangyuan yangge and 58 for Xiangyuan gushu, more than ten of which won provincial awards and four national awards. After retiring he has actively arranged and adapted plays for the troupe while teaching at the Changzhi Culture and Art School, training several cohorts of solidly grounded opera actors and continuing to contribute to yangge art.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Liu Qiaoju 02-0601
- Wu Niancheng 02-0602
- Zhang Zhanyuan 02-0603
- Zhang Yuanye 02-0604
- Zhang Fu 03-1060
- Zhang Runlai 03-1061
- Miao Gensheng 03-1062
- Bai Meiyun 03-1063
- Ren Senkui 03-1064
- Wu Yumei 04-1650
- Yang Shengxiang 04-1651
- Wang Zhilan 05-2381
- Sun Guiming 05-2382
- Li Yingying 05-2383
- Qu Dengmei
- Zhang Fenran
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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