Huagu Opera · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

Macheng huaguxi, also called “dongluzi” (eastern road), circulates in Macheng, Luotian and Hong'an at the southern foot of the Dabie Mountains in north-eastern Hubei, and in the border belt between Henan and Anhui. Flower-drum singing arose out of folk song, later developed into the “two-small play” of one dan and one chou, and then into an independent operatic genre; the dongluzi singing styles include “dong qiang”, “er gaoqiang”, “erhang”, “dui qiang” and “tan qiang”, with a high and bright melodic line and crisp spoken lines, closely combined with the local accent of the eastern Hubei mountains and clearly distinct in vocal character from Jingzhou huaguxi of south-central Hubei.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Huaguxi is the general name for the “flower-drum” local short operas of various places in China, circulating mainly in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui and Zhejiang. The Ming-dynasty chuanqi of Fan Wenruo already depicts a scene of flower-drum singing, showing the earliest aspect of this art form. Flower-drum singing came out of folk song and gradually developed into the “two-small play” performed by one dan and one chou. In practice it drew on the performing modes of local grand opera and absorbed various artistic elements, finally becoming an independent local operatic genre. Its music belongs basically to the qupai-linking form, aided by some ban-style variation. Its performing means are rich and varied, lively and vivid, with a distinctive local character and folk song-and-dance style. Its traditional repertory mainly reflects productive labour, love between men and women and family conflict, and later development also produced new works on modern life. Its vocal music divides into the two great categories of “gong-qiang” and “qin-qiang”: gong-qiang has southern-road, northern-road and special gong-qiang sanqu, and qin-qiang has zhengdiao qin-qiang and qin-qiang xiaodiao. Shaoyang huaguxi has rich singing and many qupai, forming a musical system fusing the chuan-diao, paizi and xiaodiao categories, its performance and music divided into eastern, southern and western roads according to basic artistic style. The main tunes of Huaibei huaguxi include “Suzhou diao”, “Huibei diao”, “kouzi diao pingban” and “hanban”, the “han diao” being especially individual. Its performance is also distinctive, the “flower-drum great procession” being its most characteristic feature, regarded as the “consummate skill” of Huaibei huaguxi. Wannan huaguxi has the four main arias of “tao qiang”, “beiniuzi”, “siping” and “bei qiang”, with flower arias made up of lantern tunes and folk ditties besides. Its traditional plays include Saohua Tang, Daguayuan, Jiabaoxi, Dangchayuan and Dabuding. Suizhou huaguxi's singing divides into the four modes of “man diao”, “tai diao”, “Liangshan diao” and “cai diao”. Macheng huaguxi, also called “eastern road”, has such singing as “dong qiang”, “er gaoqiang”, “erhang”, “dui qiang”, “tan qiang” and “xiaodiao”, and such plays as Maihua Ji, The Pearl Tower, Suing the Dyke Tyrant and Storming the Court.