Huagu Opera
01 · Historical Records
Drawing on the Hunan volume of the Annals of Chinese Xiqu and local Linxiang materials, Linxiang huaguxi, popularly called “wengqin opera”, originated in the Taolin river basin within Linxiang, Hunan, and grew out of such local music as mountain songs, folk songs, night songs, mourning songs and ditties, named for being led by the wengqin (weng fiddle); it is a dramatic form of distinctive local character in northern Hunan. Its traditional and modern plays number nearly a hundred, among them such representative works as Wang Meizi Returns to Her Parents' Home, Madam Meng Cuts Her Thigh and Daxing and Lanlan.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Linxiang huaguxi is mainly in the qin-qiang with the gong-qiang, chui-qiang, suites and local ditties besides, five categories of vocal style with more than three hundred and ninety tunes; its vocal styles grew out of Linxiang folk and mountain songs and bear fairly clear traces of Yao music, and it is regarded as a “living fossil” carrying Yao cultural information. Its accompaniment is led by the wengqin (weng fiddle) with drum, gong and suona besides, and both singing and recitation use the Linxiang dialect, with a strong rustic flavour.
Wang Meizi Returns to Her Parents' Home
A representative work of Linxiang huaguxi.
Madam Meng Cuts Her Thigh
A representative work of Linxiang huaguxi.
Daxing and Lanlan
A representative work of Linxiang huaguxi.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Linxiang huaguxi centres on Linxiang city, Hunan, and is popular in Linxiang, Yueyang and Yunxi and in the Hunan-Hubei border area of Chibi and Tongcheng in Hubei, its troupes mostly performing at temple fairs and festivals; its artists transmit it through family troupes and master-disciple teaching, and after the 1980s the Linxiang city huaguxi troupe became a professional performing body.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Linxiang huaguxi preserves a great deal of Yao musical inheritance and northern Hunan folk tune material, with nearly a hundred traditional and modern plays; it is an important example for studying the blending of folk music and Yao culture in the Dongting lake area, its wengqin-led accompaniment also being distinctive, and the locality sustains the genre through troupe performance, tune recording and collation and in-school transmission.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Lvjinling 03-1119
- Zhou Qinquan 03-1120
- Chixiuyun 03-1121
- Yang Yuping 03-1122
- Yang Jiane 03-1123
- Pan Aifang 04-1684
- Yang Xiaolan 04-1685
- Ouyang Juewen 04-1686
- Zhou Yuling 05-2440
- Wei Guifeng 05-2441
- Wan Baoying 05-2442
- Cengmeiling 05-2443
- Hu Ruishi 05-2444
- Du Meishuang 05-2445
- Liao Hanmei 05-2446
- Li Xiaojia 05-2447
- Li Saijian
- Liu Liurong
- He Xiangan
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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