Lantern Opera

01 · Historical Records

The middle of the Qing dynasty was the height of the development of Liangshan lantern opera. Northern Sichuan lantern opera began to be popular in the Ming dynasty in what are now Langzhong, Nanbu, Yilong and Shunqing of Nanchong, and, like lantern opera in other regions, it too went through stages of carrying lanterns, hanging lanterns, playing with lanterns and dancing lanterns before becoming lantern opera.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Lantern opera is not only a folk small play with strong local character in Chongqing and Sichuan, but also one of the important vocal styles of Chuan opera. Because its performances are mostly combined with folk-custom activities such as the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, the shehuo and the qingt'an altar celebration, it has come to be marked by many small plays, many comic plays and many farce plays; plays with grand scenes, complicated plots and large numbers of characters are generally not performed. Liangshan lantern opera originated in the folk "playing with lanterns" and "yangge drama": it is the product of combining the dance movements of the former with the storytelling-and-singing performance form of the latter. The vocal music of Liangshan lantern opera consists mainly of the dengxianqiang of the pangtongtong class, the shengeqiang of the tune class and the xiaodiao of the lizu (vulgar melody) class; among them the dengxianqiang known as "Liangshan diao" is fairly distinctive. The performance characteristics of Liangshan lantern opera are described as "mischief, laughter and uproar" and "twist, pull and jump". Its repertoire is quite rich, numbering more than 200 works in all. The most representative are Chi Kang Jian Fa (Eating Bran and Cutting the Hair), Song Jing Niang (Escorting the Lady to the Capital), Xiang Zi Du Qi (Xiangzi Saving His Wife) and Qing Chang Nian (Hiring a Long-term Farmhand); most of these works are adapted from folk plays or folk stories. Lantern opera is performed in the local dialect, its sung and spoken texts are plain, natural, vivid and lively, and it is full of the flavour of everyday life. In addition, because lantern opera is strongly entertaining, its plots are exaggerated, its conflicts are conspicuous and its fooling is humorous, actors often exaggerate their movements when performing, and the performance has the quality of dancing, which makes it deeply loved by the local masses. On festival gatherings or on occasions of marriage and funeral, the common people can never do without lantern opera. The performance of northern Sichuan lantern opera is vivid and lively; its content mostly praises righteousness and lashes out at evil, and puts moral instruction into amusement. Its repertoire works are generally comedies and farces; serious and tragic subject matter is also usually presented in a comic manner. The performance of northern Sichuan lantern opera is rough and simple, humorous and popular, combining singing with dancing, full of marvellous interest, and its sung texts are plain and healthy, with a strong local colour. Because it has many small plays, many comedies and many farces, the chou role occupies a special position in the performance of northern Sichuan lantern opera. The chou roles in lantern opera are divided into male chou and female chou; the male chou is also called xiaohualian (small painted face) or sanhualian (three-painted face), and the female chou is also called caili dan (coloured dan), yaodan (shaking dan) or po (the old woman). Chou may portray negative characters, but also positive characters and middle-of-the-road characters. Among the many lantern opera repertoire works, more than half cannot do without a chou character. Northern Sichuan lantern opera developed out of flower-lantern song-and-dance, and contains folk songs and ditties of the northern Sichuan mountain countryside, qingyin, shengge and duangong tunes, while also absorbing tunes such as the Shaanxi tune and the Wuxia repairing-the-jar tune. It has a zhidiao-class vocal system based on ban-form variation as well as vocals built by linking tune patterns in succession. In the play Cai Feng Tou Bu (The Tailor Who Stole Cloth), for example, the vocal line is linked together from tune patterns such as Taipingnian, Jinniusi, Yinniusi, Mai Xianhua, Die Duanqiao, Shi Lidun and Hua Bei Gong. Ban forms and linked tune-pattern singing may also be used together in the same play. The principal accompanying instruments of northern Sichuan lantern opera are the pangtongtong and the huqin; when played they give out a low, deep and hollow "weng" sound, hence the opera is also called "wengtongtong". Besides these there are flower-lantern gongs and drums, and later the erhu, the dizi and other instruments were gradually added. The performance of northern Sichuan lantern opera incorporates folk lantern dancing and techniques from puppetry, shadow puppetry and acrobatics, which are used to delineate characters and to represent the plot. Furthermore, lantern opera is accompanied by folk instruments such as the yangqin, the dizi, the pipa and the erhu; because trained instrumentalists have dwindled away, electrified instruments have had to be combined with the folk instruments to "make do".

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Before the liberation of 1949, Liangping County was also called Liangshan County, so the local play of the area was called Liangshan lantern opera by the people, and the name has been used ever since. At present the local people also call it "baotouxi" (before the liberation of 1949 female roles were played by men, popularly called "baotou"), "duanggongxi" or "pangtongtong diao".

Other submitting regions for the same item: Lantern Opera · Lantern Opera.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present the performing personnel of the professional lantern opera troupes are ageing; the old artists who can sing lantern opera can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and large numbers of orally transmitted repertoire works have been lost. Young people, influenced by popular culture, find it difficult to accept traditional and folk things; the inheritance of lantern opera is becoming increasingly difficult, it faces the danger of being lost, and it urgently needs rescue and protection. Chen Dehui (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Han, born in 1943, a native of Liangping, Chongqing. Chen Dehui entered the Liangping County Chuan opera troupe in 1953 and studied under Zhu Nianfang, learning the performance of the huadan, daomadan, qingyidan and yaodan roles. After 1980 she again took Zhu Nianfang and Tian Bingyou as her masters and studied the performance art of Liangshan lantern opera, mainly working on the performance, direction and choreography of Liangshan lantern opera. After retiring in 1994 she went on working on the creation, training and performance of Liangshan lantern opera. Representative inheritor of lantern opera (Liangshan lantern opera) of the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects, and a national third-grade actor. She has been active for more than forty years, has played leading roles in hundreds of large-scale plays such as Shuang Bai Yue, and has directed and choreographed dozens of Liangshan lantern operas such as Zhao Xu Xi; she has won national, provincial and municipal prizes many times. Que Taichun (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han, born in 1950, a native of Liangping, Chongqing. Que Taichun began to learn the performance of Liangshan lantern opera from his father Que Defang in 1957. In 1964 he was taken on as a trainee by the Liangping theatre troupe and gradually began to appear on stage. He studied in turn the wen sheng and wu sheng roles, the wen chou and wu chou roles and the hualian role, and became an actor able to undertake any type of role. From 1990 he worked as a drama instructor at the cultural centre, and carried out experimental performances and research on Liangshan lantern opera; after retirement he again took an active part in the creation, performance and study of Liangshan lantern opera. His performing technique is exquisite, and he has mastered many unique folk special skills such as instantaneous face-changing and the body technique of lantern-shadow puppetry. His representative works include Mai Lv (Selling the Donkey) and Qiang Gong Gong (Seizing the Father-in-law). Representative inheritor of lantern opera (Liangshan lantern opera) of the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects, and a national third-grade actor.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Chen Dehui 02-0617
• Que Taichun 02-0618
• Peng Juan 02-0619
• Wang Yang 02-0620
• Meng Yongxiang 03-1070

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Lantern Opera (Liangping, Chongqing) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Chen Dehui · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Que Taichun · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗