Dong Opera

Ⅳ-83Traditional OperaLiping, GuizhouBatch 1 (2006)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

Dong opera probably arose between the Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns of the Qing dynasty, founded by Wu Wencai, a Dong singing master from Ladong Village in Liping County; it has a history of more than 150 years to the present day.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

On the basis of the long narrative chanting-and-singing songs of the Dong, Wu Wencai adapted the Han narrative text "Erdu Mei" (Second Plum Blossom) into the first Dong opera, Mei Liangyu. Afterwards Dong opera continually absorbed nourishment from other operatic genres such as Gui opera, Caidiao, Qiyang opera and Guizhou huadeng opera, was gradually raised and refined, and finally evolved into an independent genre in which performance joins speech and song, with rich melodies and a style of its own. Dong opera is performed mainly in the Dong villages of Liping, Congjiang and Rongjiang counties in Guizhou Province, Tongdao in Hunan Province, and Sanjiang and Longsheng counties in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Its principal melodies include the Pingban (also called Putongban, the common pattern, or Huqinban, the huqin pattern) and the Aidiao (also called Kudiao, the weeping tune), together with the Xianqiang and the Xiqu Da Ge, the great opera song; the accompanying instruments include the erhu, the ox-leg fiddle, the Dong pipa, the yueqin, the low hu, the yangqin, the bamboo flute and the lusheng, with drums, gongs, cymbals and small gongs used for the opening of the show and for the entrances and exits of characters. The performance of Dong opera is plain and simple; costumes and props are ordinary everyday articles of the ethnic group, or everyday articles lightly embellished. In performance two people generally sing antiphonally in the Dong language; each time the last line has been sung the performers trace the figure "∞" during the musical interlude to exchange positions, and then go on with the next line, repeating this back and forth until the passage is finished. Dong opera has no strict division of role types; only the chou role has a distinctive set of conventions, for whichever direction it enters from it may only hop inward, and this is popularly called the "hopping chou step". Mei Liangyu, Mao Hong Yuying, Liu Zhiyuan, Jiangnu Wanliang, Zhulang Niangmei and the like are traditional Dong opera plays, of which Zhulang Niangmei has been filmed as a picture. In the Dong areas, most villages have amateur Dong opera troupes organised by the people themselves. But with social change and the development of modern media, Dong opera no longer holds an absolute advantage in the entertainment life of the people. The Dong have no script of their own; in the past drama masters memorised entire plays, sometimes several of them, and then passed them on to the actors, while some used Chinese characters to record the sounds and borrowed Chinese writing to record traditional Dong opera.