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. Taking Hohhot as the dividing line, it is split into a western route and an eastern route: 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 as well as the Yulin and Xinzhou areas. As the centre of western-route Errentai, the Hohhot area carries the most prominent Mongolian folk-song element in its vocal styles; styles such as [Ala Ben Hua] and [Wang Ai Zhao] arose from there.

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. Feng Laisuo (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han, born in 1965, a native of Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia. Feng Laisuo entered the Ulanqab branch of the Inner Mongolia Art School in 1980 to study Errentai performance, and after graduating in 1984 he and some of his fellow students formed the Ulanqab Errentai Experimental Troupe, of which he is now the head. He studied eastern-route Errentai performance under Zhao Yougen, Wu Liping and Zhao Dehou in turn, is skilled in the san hualian ("three-flower-face") type of role, combines the techniques of yingma xi and daibian xi in a single performer, and has a distinctive style that is humorous and witty. His representative works include Mai Wan (Selling Bowls) and Zui Ren (The Sinner). A representative inheritor of Errentai in the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects, and a national second-class actor. Wu Liping (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han, born in February 1960, a native of Liangcheng County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. A national first-class actor and an expert enjoying a special government allowance from the State Council. Born into a family of performers, his acting is humorous, lively and droll, his technique is refined, and he has won all sorts of performance awards many times. His main representative works are the eastern-route Errentai plays Zhai Hua Jiao (Picking Sichuan Pepper), Mai You (Selling Oil), Xi Shang Xi (Joy Upon Joy) and Guang Gun Han Yu Wai Lai Mei (The Bachelor and the Woman from Outside), together with the western-route Errentai play Zou Xi Kou (Walking the West Pass). On the basis of the tradition he inherited, he dares to break through and innovate boldly, injecting the spirit of the times into the traditional art of Errentai and winning the warm welcome of a broad audience. A representative inheritor of Errentai in the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. In 1997 he was named an artist of both virtue and art by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and in 2002 he won the nineteenth China Drama Plum Blossom Award.

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 (Huhehaote, Inner Mongolia) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Feng Laisuo · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Wu Liping · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗