Errentai

01 · Historical Records

Errentai is a folk small opera popular in the central and western regions of Inner Mongolia and in northern Shanxi, northern Shaanxi and Zhangjiakou in Hebei, and its original melodies are local folk songs. Hequ lies on the eastern bank of the Yellow River in north-west Shanxi, faces Shaanxi's Fugu and Inner Mongolia's Jungar across the river, and is an important starting point of "walking the west pass"; the local Errentai takes as its backbone vocal styles developed from northern Shanxi folk songs such as [Zou Xi Kou] (Walking the West Pass), [Wu Ge Fang Yang] (Fifth Brother Herding Sheep) and [Zhen Zhu Dao Juan Lian] (Pearls Rolling Up the Blind), while also taking in folk songs from northern Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and the Jianghuai region, forming the school centred on Hequ.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Errentai is a folk small opera popular in the central and western regions of Inner Mongolia and in northern Shanxi, northern Shaanxi and Zhangjiakou in Hebei. Its original melodies are local folk songs: vocal styles developed from Han folk songs of the central and western regions of Inner Mongolia such as [Da Ying Tao] (Cherry-Striking), [Ya Gao Mian] (Pressing Cake Flour) and [Da Hou Tao] (Back-Harness); vocal styles developed from northern Shanxi folk songs such as [Zou Xi Kou] (Walking the West Pass), [Wu Ge Fang Yang] (Fifth Brother Herding Sheep) and [Zhen Zhu Dao Juan Lian] (Pearls Rolling Up the Blind); vocal styles developed from northern Shaanxi folk songs such as [Song Da Ge] (Seeing Off the Elder Brother), [Shi Li Dun] (Ten-Li Mound) and [Xiu He Bao] (Embroidering the Purse); vocal styles developed from Mongolian folk songs such as [Ala Ben Hua] and [Wang Ai Zhao]; the northern Hebei folk song [Shi Dui Hua] (Ten Flower Pairs); and Jianghuai folk songs such as Jasmine Flower and Beauty Yu. The paizi qu (banner tunes) also draw on many Jinju (Shanxi opera) tune patterns, folk wind-and-percussion music and religious music. Western-route Errentai was originally called Menggu qu and was mainly popular in the city of Hohhot, the city of Baotou, Bayannur League, Yeke Zhao League, the Yulin area and the Xinzhou area; eastern-route Errentai was first called "bengbeng" or simply Errentai and was mainly popular in Ulanqab League, the Yanbei area and the Zhangjiakou area. Traditional Errentai repertoire deals mainly with labour and production, exposes the darkness of the old society and sings of marriage and love; some plays tell mythological and historical stories. Western-route Errentai has plays such as Money-Striking, Cherry-Striking, Back-Harness, Climbing the Mountain Top and Ala Ben Hua, while eastern-route Errentai has Return from South of the Pass, Leading the Donkey, Picking Sichuan Pepper, Selling Malt Sugar and Lanzhou City. The performing forms of Errentai fall into three large categories: yingma xi, daibian xi and duichang. Yingma xi stresses singing, recitation and acting and demands a good voice from the performer; daibian xi stresses dance performance; duichang is sung alternately by two performers.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Taking Hohhot as the dividing line, the style schools of Errentai fall into a western route and an eastern route.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Errentai · Errentai · Errentai · Errentai · Errentai.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The places where Errentai is popular lie mostly in the farming districts on both banks of the middle reaches of the Yellow River and inside and outside the Great Wall; because the region is remote and transport is inconvenient, excavation, sorting and protection have faced many difficulties. In recent years, with the passing of old performers, many tunes and plays have come close to being lost and urgently need rescue and protection. Du Huanrong (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Female, Han, born in July 1954, a native of Hequ County, Shanxi Province. At fourteen she joined the small play troupe of her village, and at sixteen she was selected into the Hequ County opera troupe, where she received instruction from noted masters such as Lü Guiying, Ren Aiying and Han Yunde and systematically learned the basic skills of song, dance and operatic performance, gradually growing into a leading performer of the troupe. At seventeen she became famous at a stroke for playing Hong Sao (The Red Sister-in-Law). Her singing is round, resonant and stirring, her performance is fine-grained and generous, and she fuses song and dance with the basic skills of operatic performance into a style of her own. Her representative works include Cherry-Striking, Sisters-in-Law Picking Vegetables, The Widow Visiting the Grave, Visiting the Sick, Paying the New Year Greeting and Walking the West Pass. In 1985 she was transferred to the Hequ County Cultural Centre, where she was given charge in full of training folk-song Errentai. Over several decades she has taught the art of Errentai to more than a hundred performers and amateur enthusiasts. In recent years she has also set up amateur Errentai troupes in order to promote and transmit the art of Errentai. A representative inheritor of Errentai in the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. Jia Deyi (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han, born in September 1943, a native of Hequ County, Shanxi Province. After graduating from Wuzhai Normal School (now the Wuzhai branch of Xinzhou Normal University) he became a music teacher, and was later transferred to a unit of the cultural system, where he engaged in mass cultural work. From the 1990s onward he began to collect and sort out large numbers of shanqu (mountain tunes) scattered among the folk, and assisted in the filming of more than forty folklore productions; to date more than ten of his monographs have been published. After retirement he has often given lessons to lovers of the drama on folk-song Errentai and on the writing of plays, and has also formed folk ensembles and organised performance activities. A representative inheritor of Errentai in the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. He has a thorough command of the musical characteristics, forms and melodies of Errentai, and afterwards turned to creating plays and designing tunes; his works Mi Guo Yuan (The Bond of the Honeyed Fruit) and Er Fen Shui Di (Dividing the Land at the Boundary Marker) won prizes in regional joint performances.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Feng Laisuo 02-0611
• Shi Wanfu 02-0612
• Feng Juncai 02-0613
• Wu Liping 03-1065
• Du Huanrong 03-1066
• Jia Deyi 03-1067
• Danwenzhen 03-1068
• Xu Yueying 04-1654
• Huo Banzhu 04-1655
• Gaolemei 05-2387
• Zhang Meilan
• Hao Yunjing
• Duan Bawang

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Errentai (Hequ, Shanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Du Huanrong · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Jia Deyi · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗