Hua Lantern Opera
01 · Historical Records
Huadeng opera (flower lantern play) grew out of folk flower-lantern song-and-dance and is a form of local drama that took shape in the late Qing and early Republican period. Guizhou huadeng opera developed on the basis of local folk song-and-dance in the late Qing and early Republican period.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Huadeng opera is a form of operatic art that is widely popular among the Han people. Its most striking feature is that the fan and the handkerchief never leave the performer's hands; it joins singing and dancing, and singing is closely combined with acting. At first the flower lantern performance was called "cai hua deng" (gathering flower lanterns) and consisted only of song and dance; small plays were then woven into the song-and-dance, and later, under the influence of imported opera, it developed into the performance of full plays. Guizhou huadeng opera is popular mainly in Dushan, Zunyi, Bijie, Anshun, Tongren and other places, and different localities have different names for it. The earliest huadeng performances were simple in form and consisted mainly of short folk plays; their subjects were taken largely from rural life and folk stories, such as New Year Greetings, Sisters Viewing the Flowers, Three Visits to the Bride's Family, Liu Sanmei Drawing Water and The Cowherd Blocks His Wife. Its performance is characterised by "twisting"; performers commonly use the folding fan and the handkerchief as props to express feeling. The dance steps include the two-and-a-half step, the four-direction step, the quick and slow three steps, the pheasant step, the shuttle step, the crushed-rice step, the low-stump step, the women's-field step and the quick rising step; fan play includes the small flower fan, the large flower fan, the crossing fan, the covering fan, the slanting fan and the butterfly-catching fan; and the body movements include the rhinoceros gazing at the moon, the flower planted on the knee, the yellow dragon twining the waist, the moon scooped from the sea floor, the snow covering the summit and the rock eagle spreading its wings. Some of the tunes of Guizhou huadeng opera are strongly dramatic, while others derive from lyrical folk songs and minor tunes; of these "Embroidering the Purse" is the best known. In the course of its circulation, Guizhou huadeng opera gradually broke free of the song-and-dance formula of "lantern, fan and handkerchief"; its role types were no longer confined to the "two small" and "three small" but came to include jing, mo, laodan (old woman) and caidan (coloured woman) roles. The melodies and vocal styles of its music also underwent extension and change on the basis of the original tunes, gradually forming their own "banqiang" and "qupai". The banqiang in common use include the stage-entrance tune, the travel tune, the road tune, the counting pattern, the scolding pattern, the crying pattern, the one-syllable tune, the chuma men, the yin erhuang, the hill-slope lamb, the mourning son and the four-levels tune. The qupai in common use include Four Small Scenes, Four Seasons of Longing, the Moon Tune, the Seeing-Off-the-Husband Tune, the Skillful Dressing, the White Peony, the Comparing-Antiquity Tune, the Serving-Tea Tune, the Viewing-Flowers Tune and the Drifting Snow. When presenting plot and characterising figures, banqiang and tunes are used in combination, giving rise to the silk-string lantern tune family, the platform-lantern tune family and the gong-and-drum lantern tune family, and making the music far more richly expressive. The Sinan Tujia huadeng opera absorbs elements of the Tujia nuo opera and the waving-hand dance and has formed its own character; its stirring and moving melodies, its strong local flavour and its distinctive ethnic style that combines lantern play with drama reflect the humanistic grace of the Wujiang river basin.
New Year Greetings
The earliest huadeng performances were simple in form and consisted mainly of short folk plays; their subjects were taken largely from rural life and folk stories, such as New Year Greetings, Sisters Viewing the Flowers, Three Visits to the Bride's Family, Liu Sanmei Drawing Water and The Cowherd Blocks His Wife.
Sisters Viewing the Flowers
The earliest huadeng performances were simple in form and consisted mainly of short folk plays; their subjects were taken largely from rural life and folk stories, such as New Year Greetings, Sisters Viewing the Flowers, Three Visits to the Bride's Family, Liu Sanmei Drawing Water and The Cowherd Blocks His Wife.
Three Visits to the Bride's Family
The earliest huadeng performances were simple in form and consisted mainly of short folk plays; their subjects were taken largely from rural life and folk stories, such as New Year Greetings, Sisters Viewing the Flowers, Three Visits to the Bride's Family, Liu Sanmei Drawing Water and The Cowherd Blocks His Wife.
Liu Sanmei Drawing Water
The earliest huadeng performances were simple in form and consisted mainly of short folk plays; their subjects were taken largely from rural life and folk stories, such as New Year Greetings, Sisters Viewing the Flowers, Three Visits to the Bride's Family, Liu Sanmei Drawing Water and The Cowherd Blocks His Wife.
The Cowherd Blocks His Wife
The earliest huadeng performances were simple in form and consisted mainly of short folk plays; their subjects were taken largely from rural life and folk stories, such as New Year Greetings, Sisters Viewing the Flowers, Three Visits to the Bride's Family, Liu Sanmei Drawing Water and The Cowherd Blocks His Wife.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In the course of its circulation, different singing and performance styles developed under the influence of local dialects, folk songs and customs. Huadeng opera is a principal local genre in Guizhou and Yunnan; differences in regional culture have given rise to differing stylistic features. In northern and western Guizhou it is called "dengjia xi" (lantern-sandwiched play), around Dushan it is called "taideng" (platform lantern), and in Sinan, Yinjiang and other places it is called "gaotai xi" (high-platform play) or "huadeng xi" (flower lantern play).
Other submitting regions for the same item: Hua Lantern Opera · Hua Lantern Opera · Hua Lantern Opera · Hua Lantern Opera · Hua Lantern Opera · Hua Lantern Opera · Hua Lantern Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Qin Zhifeng (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Female, Miao ethnicity, born in 1961, native of Sinan, Guizhou. From 1970 to 1984 Qin Zhifeng studied Sinan Tujia huadeng performance and Tujia mountain songs with her maternal grandmother Luo Shuzhi and her mother Li Shengfang. In 1984 she entered the Sinan County Ethnic Cultural Troupe and studied operatic performance, huadeng song-and-dance and vocal music under Liu Chaosheng, a senior folk-arts worker of the former Sinan County Cultural Centre, and under Liu You of the former Sinan County Ethnic Cultural Troupe. She has long worked in artistic performance and in mass cultural work, and since 2005 has taken part in coaching and training for the Sinan County huadeng training classes. She sings and dances well and is especially skilled in huadeng dramatic performance; she has a solid performance foundation, is familiar with the original ecological singing style of huadeng, and masters the basic training techniques of huadeng song-and-dance and the skills of dramatic staging. Her representative works include The Red Packet Conceals Love, among others. Representative inheritor of Huadeng opera (Sinan huadeng opera) in the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. Liu Fang (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Female, Dong ethnicity, born in 1962, native of Sinan, Guizhou. From 1976 to 1984 Liu Fang studied Sinan huadeng song-and-dance under Liu Chaosheng, a senior folk-arts worker of the former Sinan County Cultural Centre. In 1984 she entered the Sinan County Ethnic Cultural Troupe, studying operatic performance, dance and other subjects under Liu You, then business director of that troupe, and has long worked in artistic performance and in publicity. She excels in huadeng dance and belongs to the performance school of the eastern route of huadeng in Guizhou; her basic huadeng technique is solid, her movements flowing and expansive, and she is able to create and direct huadeng song-and-dance. Her representative works include The Wujiang Boatmen, among others. Representative inheritor of Huadeng opera (Sinan huadeng opera) in the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Qin Zhifeng 02-0621
- Liu Fang 02-0622
- Li Hongyuan 02-0623
- Chen Keqin 02-0624
- Liu Shengyang 04-1657
- Shao Zhiqing 05-2389
- Chen Shenhua 05-2390
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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