Huagu Opera

01 · Historical Records

Guangshan huagu opera was gradually conceived out of local folk-song ditties and flower-fair dances; it is a genre combining the banqiang (set-metre) type with the qupai (tune-pattern) type, circulating mainly in Guangshan County of Xinyang city, Henan Province, and in some townships of Xin County, with its area of activity lying chiefly in the tri-border region of Hubei, Henan and Anhui. Its formation passed through five stages: the flower-fair lantern-play stage, the beating of the five percussion pieces (also called beating the dragon boat), the two-against-three, the ground-lamp troupe, and finally the huagu opera stage in which the role types and the music and vocal styles reached maturity, becoming a distinctive genre handed down through generations.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Huagu opera is the general name for the flower-drum local small operas of the various regions of China, circulating mainly in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang and elsewhere. Flower-drum singing originates in folk song, and later gradually developed into the two-small play performed by one dan and one chou. In the course of practice it borrowed the performance models of local large operas and absorbed various artistic elements, finally developing into an independent local operatic genre. The musical tunes of huagu opera basically belong to the qupai-linked system, while being supplemented by some ban-style variations. Its means of performance are varied and rich, lively and animated, and it has distinctive local characteristics and the style of folk song and dance. Traditional plays deal mainly with the content of folk life such as productive labour, love between men and women and family conflict; later there also appeared some new works reflecting modern life. Guangshan huagu opera was gradually conceived out of local folk-song ditties and flower-fair dances; it is a genre combining the banqiang (set-metre) type with the qupai (tune-pattern) type, circulating mainly in Guangshan County of Xinyang city, Henan Province, and in some townships of Xin County, with its area of activity lying chiefly in the tri-border region of Hubei, Henan and Anhui. The formation of Guangshan huagu opera passed through five stages: first, the flower-fair lantern-play stage, in which dragon dance, boat dance and cart dance were performed and various allusions were enacted; second, the stage of beating the five percussion pieces, also called beating the dragon boat, in which one person played five percussion instruments and went from village to village giving improvised performances; third, the two-against-three stage, in which two people divided the work of playing three percussion instruments, one singing and the other answering in support, and plays with simple plots could be performed; fourth, the ground-lamp troupe stage, with five to seven people to a troupe, having a division of roles, having vocal qupai, and performing excerpt plays and local small operas; and fifth, the huagu opera stage, in which the role types, music and vocal styles and the rest reached maturity, becoming a distinctive genre handed down through generations. Guangshan huagu opera performs in the form of assembled small troupes, seven or eight people to a troupe. It performs mainly small plays, but also staged multi-part plays. The accompaniment is mainly percussion, but there is also wind-and-string accompaniment. Its role types are complete, one person playing several roles, and the stage appearance is simple but not disorderly. Its vocal styles are rich, divided into four classes — manban (slow ban), xingban (walking ban), kuaiban (quick ban) and sanban (free ban) — and it has absorbed a great deal of folk music. Its singing texts insert a good deal of padding words and particles such as a, ai, lie, yo and wei, which both enrich its expressiveness and give it local colour. On some occasions one person sings solo while the rest join in with the chorus or take up the refrain, forming resonance between the stage and the audience below it. Its representative plays include Fuqi Guandeng (Husband and Wife Watching Lanterns), Jia Baoxi (A False Report of Good News), Ding Yi (Balancing the Chair) and Da Liushan (Beating the Six Doors), and they are transmitted mainly by oral teaching from master to disciple.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The spoken lines use the local dialect. Guangshan huagu opera appeals to both the refined and the popular, is an art form embodying the blending of northern and southern cultures and the crystallisation of the collective wisdom of the labouring people; in the locality it has long been an important form of entertainment for the broad masses, its rich repertory carries folk memory, and it has a positive influence on social mores and on economic development as well.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Wei Guifeng (as recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Female, of Han ethnicity, born in August 1954, a native of Guangshan County, Henan Province. Her skills are exquisite and her training solid. Active on the stage for more than thirty years, she has sung over sixty huagu opera plays and enjoys wide influence and fame in the tri-border region of Hubei, Henan and Anhui; she is accomplished in the huadan, guimendan and sheng role types. Her voice is mellow and sweet, her pronunciation accurate and her articulation clear, and she is much loved by the audience. She has been active in taking disciples to teach the art, and has taught more than ten disciples in all. Representative inheritor of huagu opera (Guangshan huagu opera), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project of the fifth national-level batch.

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

1. Huagu Opera (Guangshan, Henan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Wei Guifeng · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗