Dai Opera · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

Dai opera arose from Dai song-and-dance performances with definite character plots and from the chanting of Buddhist sutras; it later absorbed the artistic resources of Dian opera and shadow puppetry and gradually formed a comparatively complete operatic form. In the late Qing, the Ganya Tusi Office of Yingjiang organised the first Dai opera troupe in the history of Dehong. In 1960 the first professional performing organisation, the Luxi County Dai Opera Troupe, was founded, and in 1962 it was expanded into the Dehong Prefecture Dai Opera Troupe. Since the 1960s, Dai opera has collated, adapted and newly created a large batch of plays such as Ebing yu Sangluo, Hihan and Zhulou Qing Shen (Deep Affection in the Bamboo House). In 1962, Ebing yu Sangluo took part in the minority-drama exchange performance of the south-western region, caused a sensation and was hailed as "the pearl of Southeast Asia".

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Dai opera is one of the distinctive minority opera genres of Yunnan; it is transmitted in Luxi, Yingjiang, Ruili, Longchuan and Lianghe counties of the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture and in parts of Baoshan City where Dai people live in concentrated settlements. Before long, Dai opera spread to other parts of Dehong, where the ten tusi yamen there established Dai opera troupes one after another and built opera towers. At the same time, Dai opera spread from the tusi yamen into the folk, and a large number of folk Dai opera performing organisations emerged. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Dai opera achieved new development. At first, female characters played by men in Dai opera wore Dai women's dress, and the costume of male roles as well as the conventional movement patterns of male and female characters resembled those of Dian opera and Peking opera. In performance, an actor steps forward three paces to sing or act, then steps back three paces to listen to off-stage prompting; the sung sections are accompanied by percussion such as gongs and drums. Later the vocal styles gradually developed into two basic registers, hanhun (the male voice) and hanlang (the female voice), and Dai folk song tunes were widely absorbed as vocal styles and instrumental pieces. In performance the actors wear Dai dress, the movements incorporate the steps of Dai folk dance, and the accompaniment adds instruments such as the hulusi, the erhu and the elephant-foot drum, making the ethnic style even richer. The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family. Apart from professional organisations such as the Dehong Prefecture Dai Opera Troupe, almost every large Dai village has an amateur performing troupe.

Xiang Meng

The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family.

Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus)

The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family.

Langtuihan

The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family.

Zhuangzi Tests His Wife

The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family.

Ganlu Temple

The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family.

Yang Men Nujiang (The Women Warriors of the Yang Family)

The subjects of Dai opera's traditional plays come partly from Dai folk tales, narrative long poems or Buddhist stories, such as Xiang Meng, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus) and Langtuihan; partly they are translated and imported from Han drama, such as Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, Ganlu Temple and The Women Warriors of the Yang Family.

Ebing yu Sangluo

Since the 1960s, Dai opera has collated, adapted and newly created a large batch of plays such as Ebing yu Sangluo, Hihan and Zhulou Qing Shen (Deep Affection in the Bamboo House).

Hihan

Since the 1960s, Dai opera has collated, adapted and newly created a large batch of plays such as Ebing yu Sangluo, Hihan and Zhulou Qing Shen (Deep Affection in the Bamboo House).

Zhulou Qing Shen (Deep Affection in the Bamboo House)

Since the 1960s, Dai opera has collated, adapted and newly created a large batch of plays such as Ebing yu Sangluo, Hihan and Zhulou Qing Shen (Deep Affection in the Bamboo House).

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Dai opera is transmitted in Luxi, Yingjiang, Ruili, Longchuan and Lianghe counties of the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province and in parts of Baoshan City where Dai people live in concentrated settlements. In the late Qing the Ganya Tusi Office of Yingjiang organised the first Dai opera troupe in the history of Dehong; afterwards the ten tusi yamen of Dehong established Dai opera troupes and built opera towers one after another, and Dai opera spread from the tusi yamen into the folk, with almost every large Dai village having an amateur performing troupe. In 1960 the first professional performing organisation, the Luxi County Dai Opera Troupe, was founded, and in 1962 it was expanded into the Dehong Prefecture Dai Opera Troupe, which became the core of transmission of the genre.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present Dai opera is basically liked only by old people; young people take little interest in it because they cannot understand it. The difficulties Dai opera faces in transmission are becoming increasingly conspicuous. Dao Baoshun (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Dai ethnicity, born in 1937, native of Yingjiang, Yunnan. Dao Baoshun was influenced by his mother from childhood and learned the creation and performance of Dai opera from her; he later became a monk and, at Pelong Temple in his home village, studied systematically and comprehensively under the venerable monks Longfu (called Zhaolong in Dai) and Ranfa (called Zhaoji in Dai), mastering the techniques of Dai opera creation and performance, vocal styles, costume, makeup and props. He is publicly recognised by the Dai people of Dehong Prefecture as an inheritor and researcher of Dai opera; his representative works include Langtuihan, Qianban Lianhua (A Thousand-Petal Lotus), Ebing yu Sange and Zhizhun Guniang (The Spider Girl). Representative inheritor of Dai opera in the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. Jin Xingming (official archival record of the associated inheritor): He played the male lead in the Dai opera Ebing yu Sangluo, combining body postures, vocal styles and the use of the eyes in an organic way, and is noted for his good looks and his free, uninhibited acting. He can create, direct and sing Dai opera as well as Dai narrative poems, mountain songs, kuaiban and "hanxiu" (Dai parrot poems); Dai operas he created and directed, such as Langma Wusi, Sanshi Gongzhu (The Princess of the Three Periods) and Alun Luoyonghan, were warmly received by the broad masses of Dai people when performed locally. He collated and explained dozens of Dai plays, including Alun Xiang Meng and Dao Anren. In 1985 he was engaged by the Luxi County Cultural Centre as a rural drama instructor. He took as apprentices Xian Siwang, Fang Ersuo, Miebbao, Xiangtuan, Gong Deshou and others. Male, Dai ethnicity, born in November 1944, died in March 2016, native of Luxi County, Yunnan Province. Representative inheritor of Dai opera in the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗