Xiju Opera
01 · Historical Records
Tanhuang narrative-singing has flourished in the Wu-speaking region since the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns of the Qing dynasty, and by the Daoguang reign professional or semi-professional tanhuang performers had already appeared. On the basis of long practice, this folk art of speech and song gradually developed and evolved into an independent opera genre with a vocal system of its own.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xiju opera, formerly called tanhuang, is one of the main opera genres of Jiangsu Province. Its place of origin is said by one account to be the northeastern countryside of Wuxi City and by another to be the De'anqiao area of Changzhou City, hence the names “Xi tan” and “Chang tan”. The vocal music of Xiju opera takes “huangdiao” as its basic tune pattern, while at the same time incorporating dozens of other tune patterns such as “Dalu ban” and “Lingling diao”. Over years of performance Xiju opera has formed a number of vocal schools with strongly individual artistic character, including the Yao (Cheng) school, the Wang (Lanying) school, the Shen (Peihua) school, the Wang (Binbin) school, the Mei (Lanzhen) school, the Wang (Hanqing) school and the Wu (Yatong) school, and these have actively promoted the development of the genre. The role types of Xiju opera are dominated by huadan (young female) and xiaosheng (young male); the representative plays Shuang Tuimo (Two People at the Mill), An Tang Xiang Hui (Meeting at the Convent Hall), An Tang Ren Mu (Recognising the Mother at the Convent Hall) and Shuangzhu Feng (The Twin Pearl Phoenixes) have all been filmed as opera feature films. Besides its traditional repertoire Xiju opera also has a body of fine modern plays, among which Hongse De Zhongzi (The Red Seeds) is the most highly spoken of. In recent years the traditional play Zhenzhu Ta (The Pearl Tower), reworked by a new generation of Xiju opera performing artists, won the Ministry of Culture's New Repertoire Award, marking a further stage in the development of Xiju opera in the new period. The melodies of Xiju opera are elegant and lyrical, steeped in the flavour of everyday life and distinctive of the Jiangnan water-town style; it is a precious treasure in the storehouse of Wu culture.
Shuang Tuimo (Two People at the Mill)
The role types of Xiju opera are dominated by huadan (young female) and xiaosheng (young male); the representative plays Shuang Tuimo (Two People at the Mill), An Tang Xiang Hui (Meeting at the Convent Hall), An Tang Ren Mu (Recognising the Mother at the Convent Hall) and Shuangzhu Feng (The Twin Pearl Phoenixes) have all been filmed as opera feature films.
An Tang Xiang Hui (Meeting at the Convent Hall)
The role types of Xiju opera are dominated by huadan (young female) and xiaosheng (young male); the representative plays Shuang Tuimo (Two People at the Mill), An Tang Xiang Hui (Meeting at the Convent Hall), An Tang Ren Mu (Recognising the Mother at the Convent Hall) and Shuangzhu Feng (The Twin Pearl Phoenixes) have all been filmed as opera feature films.
An Tang Ren Mu (Recognising the Mother at the Convent Hall)
The role types of Xiju opera are dominated by huadan (young female) and xiaosheng (young male); the representative plays Shuang Tuimo (Two People at the Mill), An Tang Xiang Hui (Meeting at the Convent Hall), An Tang Ren Mu (Recognising the Mother at the Convent Hall) and Shuangzhu Feng (The Twin Pearl Phoenixes) have all been filmed as opera feature films.
Shuangzhu Feng (The Twin Pearl Phoenixes)
The role types of Xiju opera are dominated by huadan (young female) and xiaosheng (young male); the representative plays Shuang Tuimo (Two People at the Mill), An Tang Xiang Hui (Meeting at the Convent Hall), An Tang Ren Mu (Recognising the Mother at the Convent Hall) and Shuangzhu Feng (The Twin Pearl Phoenixes) have all been filmed as opera feature films.
Hongse De Zhongzi (The Red Seeds)
Besides its traditional repertoire Xiju opera also has a body of fine modern plays, among which Hongse De Zhongzi (The Red Seeds) is the most highly spoken of.
Zhenzhu Ta (The Pearl Tower)
In recent years the traditional play Zhenzhu Ta (The Pearl Tower), reworked by a new generation of Xiju opera performing artists, won the Ministry of Culture's New Repertoire Award, marking a further stage in the development of Xiju opera in the new period.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
One account places the birthplace of Xiju opera in the De'anqiao area of Changzhou City, hence the name “Chang tan”; the Changzhou line has achieved distinctive results in the chou role and in paodai costume plays. Wu Yatong, the principal founder of the Changzhou Xiju Opera Troupe, had a wide range of roles and solid training, hence the saying “Wang Binbin is unmatched in singing, Wu Yatong is unmatched in acting”. He created a chou vocal style that uses real and falsetto voice together, blends male and female timbres, contains spoken delivery within singing and links speech with song; and, drawing on the swaying, floating movements of marionettes and absorbing the “snake” figure among the five poisons of Kunqu, he devised a set of gestural sequences that give form to a prop, filling a gap in Xiju opera's paodai chou roles.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Xiju Opera · Xiju Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Together with Huju opera, Yongju opera and Su opera, which belong to the same tanhuang system, it forms one of the brightest scenes in the landscape of Jiangnan opera art, and it provides rich material for the study of Jiangnan local culture. Wu Yatong (official inheritor record of the associated inheritor): A national first-grade performer and the principal founder of the Changzhou Xiju Opera Troupe. His range of roles was wide, his training solid and his performance strong, hence the saying “Wang Binbin is unmatched in singing, Wu Yatong is unmatched in acting”. The characters he played, such as Liang Shanbo, Wen Bizheng, Fang Qing and Xu Xian, were each given a distinct interpretation within the same role type. The different villain roles he played were all cunning and well judged, each with its own character. In particular the Jiang Mengsheng he created in Hong Lou Ye Shen (Night Trial in the Red Chamber) broke new ground from vocal style to performance. He created a chou vocal style that uses real and falsetto voice together, blends male and female timbres, contains spoken delivery within singing and links speech with song. In performance he drew on the swaying, floating movements of marionettes and absorbed the “snake” figure among the five poisons of Kunqu, devising a set of gestural sequences that give form to a prop and filling the gap in Xiju opera's paodai chou roles; he was accordingly honoured as “a chou artist of Xiju opera with a style all his own”. Male, of Han ethnicity, born in September 1919, died in April 2016, a native of Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Representative inheritor of Xiju opera in the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ni Tongfang 03-1106
- Wang Lanying 03-1107
- Shen Peihua 03-1108
- Yao Cheng 03-1109
- Wu Yatong 03-1110
- Wang Genxing 04-1677
- Zhou Dongliang 05-2434
- Wang Jianwei 05-2435
- Huang Jinghui
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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