Tiqin Opera
01 · Historical Records
From 1994 to the present, Chongyang County has held six consecutive editions of the Tiqin opera art festival, which have won unanimous praise from provincial and municipal leaders and experts. On this basis the Tiqin Opera Development Foundation was founded, and in 2000 the county finance allocated a special sum of twenty thousand yuan for the training and protection of the performers and staff of the Tiqin opera troupe and for the development of Tiqin opera.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Tiqin opera is an operatic genre with distinctive local character in Chongyang County, Hubei Province. It gradually developed where the Liangshan tunes circulating in south-eastern Hubei, northern Hunan and northern Jiangxi combined with the local small tunes and folk music of Chongyang, and it takes its name from the tiqin, which is its principal accompanying instrument. The tiqin is a traditional instrument made of snake skin, nan bamboo tube and pear wood. It resembles the erhu, but the two pegs at the top are mounted on the two sides of the neck respectively, while the lower part is fixed to the sound box; the player clasps the neck in the web of the hand, holds the sound box against the waist, and can play it standing. The ban-style music of Tiqin opera is divided into the zhengqiang (main register) and xiaodiao (small tunes). The main register includes tune patterns such as “zhengdiao” (level tune), “yizidiao” (one-syllable tune), “yindiao” (soft tune), “tuozi” (drawn-out phrase), “xihudiao” (West Lake tune) and “fandiao” (reverse tune), all of which consist of an upper and a lower musical phrase. The accompanying band of Tiqin opera distinguishes the wenchang (civil) from the wuchang (martial). It was originally made up of four persons: the “shangshou”, the “jiashou”, the drummer and the small-gong player. The shangshou carries the main accompanying part, playing the first tiqin and also blowing the suona; the jiashou assists in the accompaniment, playing the second tiqin and also the gong and drum; the drummer handles the ban drum and plays all percussion instruments except the small gong; and the small-gong player, an apprentice, plays the small gong and clears the stage between items. In the early days of Tiqin opera performance, the role types mainly included laosheng, xiaosheng, naisheng, zhengdan, huadan, guimendan, podan and xiaochou, collectively called “three sheng, four dan and one chou”; the chou role also played yaodan and jing roles, and folk saying has it that “seven are tight, eight are loose”. Tiqin opera has a large repertoire, with full-length plays such as The Story of Wujin, The Story of the Lantern, The Story of the Three Treasures, The Breeze Pavilion and Liu Yi Descends to the Sea, as well as small plays such as Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Respects and The Humpback Returns Home. Certain plays such as The Story of the Lantern, Drawing Water at the Flower Well and Patching the Back Apron are highly distinctive and rarely found in other genres.
The Story of Wujin
Tiqin opera has a large repertoire, with full-length plays such as The Story of Wujin, The Story of the Lantern, The Story of the Three Treasures, The Breeze Pavilion and Liu Yi Descends to the Sea, as well as small plays such as Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Respects and The Humpback Returns Home. Certain plays such as The Story of the Lantern, Drawing Water at the Flower Well and Patching the Back Apron are highly distinctive and rarely found in other genres.
The Story of the Three Treasures
Tiqin opera has a large repertoire, with full-length plays such as The Story of Wujin, The Story of the Lantern, The Story of the Three Treasures, The Breeze Pavilion and Liu Yi Descends to the Sea, as well as small plays such as Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Respects and The Humpback Returns Home. Certain plays such as The Story of the Lantern, Drawing Water at the Flower Well and Patching the Back Apron are highly distinctive and rarely found in other genres.
The Breeze Pavilion
Tiqin opera has a large repertoire, with full-length plays such as The Story of Wujin, The Story of the Lantern, The Story of the Three Treasures, The Breeze Pavilion and Liu Yi Descends to the Sea, as well as small plays such as Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Respects and The Humpback Returns Home. Certain plays such as The Story of the Lantern, Drawing Water at the Flower Well and Patching the Back Apron are highly distinctive and rarely found in other genres.
Liu Yi Descends to the Sea
Tiqin opera has a large repertoire, with full-length plays such as The Story of Wujin, The Story of the Lantern, The Story of the Three Treasures, The Breeze Pavilion and Liu Yi Descends to the Sea, as well as small plays such as Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Respects and The Humpback Returns Home. Certain plays such as The Story of the Lantern, Drawing Water at the Flower Well and Patching the Back Apron are highly distinctive and rarely found in other genres.
Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Respects
Tiqin opera has a large repertoire, with full-length plays such as The Story of Wujin, The Story of the Lantern, The Story of the Three Treasures, The Breeze Pavilion and Liu Yi Descends to the Sea, as well as small plays such as Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Respects and The Humpback Returns Home. Certain plays such as The Story of the Lantern, Drawing Water at the Flower Well and Patching the Back Apron are highly distinctive and rarely found in other genres.
The Humpback Returns Home
Tiqin opera has a large repertoire, with full-length plays such as The Story of Wujin, The Story of the Lantern, The Story of the Three Treasures, The Breeze Pavilion and Liu Yi Descends to the Sea, as well as small plays such as Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Respects and The Humpback Returns Home. Certain plays such as The Story of the Lantern, Drawing Water at the Flower Well and Patching the Back Apron are highly distinctive and rarely found in other genres.
The Story of the Lantern
Tiqin opera has a large repertoire, with full-length plays such as The Story of Wujin, The Story of the Lantern, The Story of the Three Treasures, The Breeze Pavilion and Liu Yi Descends to the Sea, as well as small plays such as Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Respects and The Humpback Returns Home. Certain plays such as The Story of the Lantern, Drawing Water at the Flower Well and Patching the Back Apron are highly distinctive and rarely found in other genres.
Drawing Water at the Flower Well
Tiqin opera has a large repertoire, with full-length plays such as The Story of Wujin, The Story of the Lantern, The Story of the Three Treasures, The Breeze Pavilion and Liu Yi Descends to the Sea, as well as small plays such as Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Respects and The Humpback Returns Home. Certain plays such as The Story of the Lantern, Drawing Water at the Flower Well and Patching the Back Apron are highly distinctive and rarely found in other genres.
Patching the Back Apron
Tiqin opera has a large repertoire, with full-length plays such as The Story of Wujin, The Story of the Lantern, The Story of the Three Treasures, The Breeze Pavilion and Liu Yi Descends to the Sea, as well as small plays such as Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Respects and The Humpback Returns Home. Certain plays such as The Story of the Lantern, Drawing Water at the Flower Well and Patching the Back Apron are highly distinctive and rarely found in other genres.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Tiqin opera circulates in Chongyang County of Hubei Province and in the Xianning, Tongcheng and Tongshan area of south-eastern Hubei, and extends into northern Hunan and northern Jiangxi. It gradually took shape where the Liangshan tunes circulating in this region combined with the local small tunes and folk music of Chongyang, and it takes its name from the tiqin, its principal accompanying instrument; the tiqin is made of snake skin, nan bamboo tube and pear wood, resembles the erhu but has its two upper pegs mounted on the two sides of the neck, and the player clasps the neck in the web of the hand with the sound box held against the waist, so it can be played standing. Chongyang County has held six consecutive editions of the Tiqin opera art festival and has founded the Tiqin Opera Development Foundation.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Tiqin opera is a rare and distinctive flower in the garden of Chinese operatic arts, and it has research value for the history of local opera and for folk music. Gan Bolian (per the official archive of the associated inheritor): a man of the Han ethnicity, born in December 1929 in Chongyang County, Hubei Province. As a boy he became a disciple of the old artists Jiang Chuanyu, Xu Guonan and Zhou Yisheng to learn Tiqin opera, specialising in the xiaosheng and laosheng roles, and he starred in succession in more than fifty traditional Tiqin opera productions, including The Story of the Lantern, Snow Plum Viewing the Painting, the Beheading of the Son at the Barracks Gate, The Story of the Three Treasures and The Butterfly Lovers. He taught the vocal styles and passed on the skills, and in succession founded several amateur Tiqin opera troupes and served as their artistic director, staging works such as The Twin Lotus; he trained a large number of core performers for the transmission and development of Tiqin opera. He is a representative inheritor of Tiqin opera in the fourth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Gan Bolian 04-1689
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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