Zhuizi Opera
01 · Historical Records
Drawing on the Hebei volume of the Annals of Chinese Xiqu and local Shenze materials, zhuizi opera developed out of the costumed performance of the narrative-singing art zhuizi; around the 1920s professional troupes formed in southern Hebei and northern Henan, and Shenze is one of the main areas where Hebei zhuizi opera circulates.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Zhuizi opera comes from the narrative-singing art of zhuizi and is named for its chief accompanying instrument, the “zhuizi xian” (today called “zhuihu”), and is widely found in Henan, Hebei, Anhui, Shanxi and Beijing. Zhuizi was formed by the combination of the narrative-singing daoing, Yingge Liu Shu, sanxian shu and zhuizi shu popular in Henan, Hebei and northern Anhui; zhuizi opera takes the tunes of Henan zhuizi as its basis and absorbs some performing methods of Peking opera and Yu opera, finally forming a local operatic genre of a style all its own. Its traditional musical singing includes “guoban”, “yinzi”, “pingqiang”, “great and small hanyun”, “wuzi qian”, “shizi yun” and “kuaiban zha”, and may be sung solo, as a duet or divided among several singers, flowing and gentle in style and easy to understand, much welcomed by audiences. Its principal instrument, the zhuiqin also called “zhuihu”, is a bowed instrument converted from the small sanxian, played mostly with portamento and other strokes, its tone melodious and its expressiveness extremely rich. Besides this it has such accompanying instruments as the erhu, erxian, flute, sheng, suona and cello.
Huilong Zhuan
A traditional play commonly staged by Shenze zhuizi opera, in which the inheritor played Kou Zhun and the King of Song.
The Hai Gong Cases
A traditional play in which the inheritor played Shen Zongrong.
Wang Mang Chases Liu Xiu
A traditional play in which the inheritor played Emperor Ping of Han.
The White Silk Robe
A traditional play in which the inheritor played Xu Jizu.
Qin Xianglian
A traditional play in which the inheritor played Chen Shimei.
Homesickness, A Daughter's Love, Wang Lingfen
Newly created modern zhuizi operas written and staged by the inheritor, in which he also starred.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Shenze zhuizi opera centres on Shenze county, Hebei, and is popular in Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and the counties of southern Hebei; the Shenze county zhuizi troupe is the main professional body of Hebei zhuizi opera, performing both traditional and modern plays in more than three hundred shows a year.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Zhuizi Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Zhuizi opera is a traditional genre of considerable influence with some reference value for the study of folk art and local history and culture, deserving attention and protection. The inheritor entered the Shenze county zhuizi troupe in 1977, studying under the second-generation zhuizi artist Yang Huanqing, and trained solid basic skills and such techniques as wrist-work, fan-work, hat-wing work and beard work, forming his own performing style and becoming a principal actor, playing Kou Zhun and the King of Song in Huilong Zhuan, Shen Zongrong in The Hai Gong Cases, Emperor Ping of Han in Wang Mang Chases Liu Xiu, Xu Jizu in The White Silk Robe and Chen Shimei in Qin Xianglian, much loved by audiences. Head of the troupe since 1994 with more than three hundred shows a year, taking disciples from 1995, he has created and staged the new modern zhuizi operas Homesickness, A Daughter's Love and Wang Lingfen, starring in them himself, and raised funds to publish Shenze Zhuizi Opera and three volumes each of Selected Zhuizi Plays of Shenze and The Musical Scores of Shenze Zhuizi Opera.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhu Yuemei 03-1097
- Cui Yansheng 05-2427
- Zhang Li
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。