Xiangju Opera
01 · Historical Records
Xiang opera is one of the local operatic genres of Hunan with a history of nearly six hundred years, circulating mainly in Changsha, Xiangtan, Zhuzhou and Guiyang county. Its traditional repertory is rich, most of it from Song-Yuan nanxi, Yuan zaju and Ming-Qing chuanqi, a few created and adapted by artists.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xiang opera embraces the four great vocal styles of high-pitched, tan, Kun and dipaizi, with rich drum-and-gong scores and interlude music, strict conventions, and performance, costume and facial designs all bearing a distinctive Huxiang local style. Its large and small plays together number more than a thousand, over ninety-eight per cent being high-pitched and luantan items, its representative plays including The Moon-Worship Record, The Golden Seal Record, The Letter-Throwing Record, The Pipa Record and The White Rabbit Record, among which the high-pitched “four great serials” and “six great records” are the earliest performed and longest preserved representative works.
The Moon-Worship Record
One of the representative plays of Xiang opera.
The Golden Seal Record
One of the representative plays of Xiang opera.
The Letter-Throwing Record
One of the representative plays of Xiang opera.
The Pipa Record
One of the representative plays of Xiang opera.
The White Rabbit Record
One of the representative plays of Xiang opera.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Guiyang Xiang opera centres on Guiyang county, Hunan, and is popular in southern Hunan in the Chenzhou and Yongzhou area; sharing an origin with Hengyang Xiang opera yet diverging from it, its high-pitched repertory and tan-vocal singing are completely preserved in southern Hunan, with the Guiyang county Xiang opera troupe as the local professional body.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Xiangju Opera · Xiangju Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The inheritor, a national third-class actor who loved drama from childhood under family influence, served as deputy head for business of the Guiyang county Xiang opera troupe in 1992 and as its union chairman in 1996; thoroughly versed in Xiang opera's three vocal styles, he has a style of his own in sheng-role singing, and besides acting has guided amateur troupes in rehearsal, enriching the cultural life of Guiyang's people. He won an outstanding actor award at the provincial young actors' showcase, the seventh “Three Xiang Outstanding Persons” award for contribution to safeguarding intangible heritage and a Tian Han performance award at the sixth Hunan art festival in 2018, and has always persisted in learning, performing and teaching opera, training a great many Xiang opera students and bringing up batch after batch of pillars for the Xiang opera safeguarding and transmission centre.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Tan Dongbo 02-0454
- Xia Chuanjin 02-0455
- Cengjingui 03-1139
- Cao Rulong 03-1140
- Xie Zhongyi 03-1141
- Zuo Dabin 05-2457
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。