Huaiju Opera
01 · Historical Records
Huai opera, also called “Jianghuai opera”, “Yancheng opera” and “Jiangbei small opera”, originated in the incense-fire opera of northern Jiangsu and spreads widely through Huaiyin, Yancheng and Yangzhou between the Huai and the Yangzi and through Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou on the Shanghai-Nanjing line as well as Chuzhou in Anhui and Changxing in Zhejiang. In the late Qing and early Republic the Jianghuai small opera pushed into Shanghai, passing through its early stages of mounted platforms, ground stalls and curtained booths, and gradually moved from teahouses and theatres onto the professional stage.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Shanghai's Huai opera troupes took in some Peking opera actors and formed the feature of “Peking mingled with Huai” in performance, making great progress. After the founding of New China the genre was uniformly named “Huai opera”. Huai opera's singing music originated in folk storytelling and work chants and is known for its ringing vigour and beautiful plainness; its main tunes include “Huai diao”, “La diao” and “Ziyou diao”, with a distinctive regional character. Through several generations of artists it has complete sheng, dan, jing and chou roles and full conventions of singing, recitation, acting and combat, and has accumulated a great body of traditional plays known as the “nine lian”, “thirteen ying” and “seventy-two ji”. Martial plays are a great feature of Huai opera, its martial technique deeply influenced by Hui opera, with such feats as the split, the handstand and the “black dragon stir” counted unsurpassed. Praised as “a lingering resonance of ancient nuo, a rare flower of the pear garden”, Huai opera “blooms in Shanghai with its roots in Jiangsu”, a flower of operatic art nurtured by both Jiangsu and Shanghai.
The Golden Water Bridge
One of the representative plays of Huai opera, listed as a teaching play of the opera school.
Beating the Princess
One of the representative plays of Huai opera, listed as a teaching play of the opera school.
Praising Diao Chan
One of the representative plays of Huai opera's laosheng and red-face roles.
Guan Yu Takes Leave of Cao Cao
One of the representative plays of Huai opera's red-face role.
Beheading Yan Liang
One of the representative plays of Huai opera's red-face role.
The Nine Lian, Thirteen Ying and Seventy-Two Ji
The collective name for Huai opera's traditional repertory, reflecting the richness of its accumulated plays.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Yancheng Huai opera centres on Yancheng city, Jiangsu, and is one of the important birthplaces of Huai opera; because Jianghuai incense-fire opera, work chants and tongzi opera meet here, its vocal music takes Huai diao and La diao as its basis, with complete roles and notable martial plays, and it has accumulated traditional plays known as the “nine lian”, “thirteen ying” and “seventy-two ji”.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Huaiju Opera · Huaiju Opera · Huaiju Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Huai opera is both an inseparable part of Jiangsu local culture and closely bound up with Shanghai-style culture, reflecting the deeply deposited traits of Jiangsu culture and the actively innovative Shanghai spirit, with research value in folklore, religion, history and culture. The inheritor, a national first-class actor born into a pear-garden family and on stage with his father at seven, specialises in laosheng and also in red-face and black-face roles; boldly absorbing the “Qi school” of Peking opera, he is steady, weighty and natural in performance, his singing loud, broad and thick, known as a “steel throat and iron voice”, and of an innovative spirit attending to inner character portrayal. Taking part in founding the Jiangsu provincial Huai opera troupe in 1956, his representative plays include The Golden Water Bridge, Beating the Princess, Praising Diao Chan, Guan Yu Takes Leave of Cao Cao, Beheading Yan Liang and Sacrificing the Wife to Try the Wife, of which The Golden Water Bridge and Beating the Princess have been listed as teaching plays of the opera school.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xiaowenyan 03-1102
- Ma Xiuying 03-1103
- Zhang Yunliang 03-1104
- Yixiaoping 03-1105
- Wu Xiaofeng 04-1673
- Cheng Shaoliang 04-1674
- He Shuanglin 04-1675
- Chen Delin 04-1676
- Shi Yuee 05-2431
- Liang Weiping 05-2432
- Rong Guanghui 05-2433
- Chen Cheng
- Wang Shulong
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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