Hua Lantern Opera
01 · Historical Records
Drawing on the Guizhou volume of the Annals of Chinese Xiqu, huadeng opera derives from folk lantern song-and-dance and developed into local opera in Guizhou in the late Qing and early Republic; the Guizhou Provincial Huadeng Troupe was founded in the 1950s and has since long borne the genre's creation and performance, advancing it from short plays to grand plays.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Huadeng opera is a performing art form that is folk, self-entertaining, song-and-dance and half-sung half-spoken, with a comprehensive character including drama and acrobatics. After entering Guizhou, huadeng absorbed the local language and musical tunes, forming the distinctive Guizhou huadeng. Qianxi huadeng is the representative of north-western Guizhou huadeng and has a history of more than two hundred years, now popular in Zunyi, Bijie, Anshun and Tongren. In the early twentieth century Qianxi huadeng added martial performance, the “tongzi shu” tune, twin-fan dance and filler words, now uncommon in other Guizhou huadeng lines and distinctive to Qianxi. Its representative plays include Bai Nian, Jiemei Guan Hua, San Fang Qin, Liu Sanmei Tiao Shui and Fangniu Lan Qi. Guizhou huadeng sings and dances, speaks and sings, its roles mainly xiaosheng, xiaodan and xiaochou, its singing based on huadeng ditties while absorbing Guizhou dialect and folk song, its performance humorous and lively with a strong flavour of life.
Bai Nian (New Year Greetings)
A representative play of Guizhou huadeng opera.
Jiemei Guan Hua (Sisters Admire the Flowers)
A representative play of Guizhou huadeng opera.
San Fang Qin (Three Visits to Kin)
A representative play of Guizhou huadeng opera.
Liu Sanmei Tiao Shui (Liu Sanmei Carries Water)
A representative play of Guizhou huadeng opera.
Fangniu Lan Qi (The Cowherd Stops His Wife)
A representative play of Guizhou huadeng opera.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Guizhou huadeng is popular in Zunyi, Bijie, Anshun and Tongren, with such names as “dengjiaxi”, “taideng” and “high-platform opera” according to region; the Guizhou Provincial Huadeng Theatre, centred on Guiyang and drawing on the tunes and repertory of the western and northern Guizhou lines, is the genre's principal professional transmission body in Guizhou.
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
In recent years, because huadeng's art form contrasts with modern mainstream culture, artists versed in the traditional performance are steadily fewer and older, and the young generation's enthusiasm for learning traditional huadeng performance is being lost; the art is in an endangered state and protection and support urgently need strengthening. Its preservation of a large number of folk ditties and life-subject plays makes it an important sample for studying the transformation of Guizhou folk song and dance into opera; the Guizhou Provincial Huadeng Theatre sustains the genre through creating plays, reviving them and training talent. Shao Zhiqing (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): female, Han, born in September 1962 in Guiyang, Guizhou. A national first-grade actor. She began learning Guizhou huadeng performance in her early teens and mastered its skills in youth, with solid artistic grounding and strong expressive power; her singing, bearing and characterisation are unanimously affirmed by those in the field. She has taken part in creating many artistic works, her main works including Qimei and She Lang, Yue Zhao Fenglin Du, Wujiang Yun · Bashan Yu, Deng Ban Chuanqi, Zheng Ren Xing, Su Erjie Tiao Lang, Fu Yu Zhi Hou, Yue'er Wanwan and Yan Dao. She published the academic paper “A Brief Discussion of the Construction of Realistic Rural-Subject Works in Guizhou Huadeng Drama”, included in the 2009 Research Series on Modern Chinese Opera. She is a representative inheritor of huadeng opera in the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects and won the twenty-third China Drama Plum Blossom Award in 2007.
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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