Huaibeibangzi Opera
01 · Historical Records
In 1960 it was named Huaibei Bangzi, and the Anhui Province Huaibei Bangzi Opera Troupe was established.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In its vocal system Huaibei Bangzi belongs to the bangzi (bangziqiang) family and is related by blood to Henan bangzi, Shangdang bangzi, Puzhou bangzi and Laiwu bangzi. In performance the beat is marked with jujube-wood clappers; the lyrics carry a large measure of filler syllables, and the melodies absorb intonations from Huaibei's Zao Wang opera, the zhuzi weng, drum-ballad narrative singing, hawkers' cries, as well as labour haozi and bargee haozi. Its characteristic is a vocal style that is high-pitched and stirring, plain and unadorned. For this mode of performance people habitually call it “gao bang”. What distinguishes it from its sibling bangzi genres is the abundance of flowery melisma and of flung-out long phrases. The ban-style (banshi) structure of Huaibei Bangzi is close to that of Henan Yuju, yet on close examination it differs markedly, especially in the black-face and red-face vocal styles, which have their own distinctive flavour, many changes, and a singular character in vocal delivery. The repertoire of Huaibei Bangzi is for the most part adapted or transferred from historical subjects. The dan-role plays include more than twenty pieces such as The Severing of the Loom, Persuading the Husband, Daji and Chen Miaochang; the xiaosheng plays include more than ten pieces such as Presenting the Robe, Yang Long, Yang Bailang and Bowing to the Master; the chou-role plays include more than ten pieces such as The Beggar Picks Up Gold, The Two Pushers of the Mill and The Bald Child Makes a Scene in the Bridal Chamber; the red-face plays include more than ten pieces such as Kneeling on the Slope, Lintong Pass, Beheading the Son and Crossing Five Passes; and the black-face plays include The Execution of Chen Shimei and Wang Mang Usurps the Throne. At the same time a large batch of plays has been adapted and newly created, such as Kou Zheng Carries His Boots, Meng Jiangnü, Meeting in the Mulberry Garden, Mu Guiying, Sorrow in the Palace of Chu, Lintong Pass, together with modern plays such as Two Pieces of Flowered Cloth, An Important Lesson and The Towering Tree.
Kou Zheng Carries His Boots
At the same time a large batch of plays has been adapted and newly created, such as Kou Zheng Carries His Boots, Meng Jiangnü, Meeting in the Mulberry Garden, Mu Guiying, Sorrow in the Palace of Chu, Lintong Pass, together with modern plays such as Two Pieces of Flowered Cloth, An Important Lesson and The Towering Tree.
Meng Jiangnü
At the same time a large batch of plays has been adapted and newly created, such as Kou Zheng Carries His Boots, Meng Jiangnü, Meeting in the Mulberry Garden, Mu Guiying, Sorrow in the Palace of Chu, Lintong Pass, together with modern plays such as Two Pieces of Flowered Cloth, An Important Lesson and The Towering Tree.
Meeting in the Mulberry Garden
At the same time a large batch of plays has been adapted and newly created, such as Kou Zheng Carries His Boots, Meng Jiangnü, Meeting in the Mulberry Garden, Mu Guiying, Sorrow in the Palace of Chu, Lintong Pass, together with modern plays such as Two Pieces of Flowered Cloth, An Important Lesson and The Towering Tree.
Mu Guiying
At the same time a large batch of plays has been adapted and newly created, such as Kou Zheng Carries His Boots, Meng Jiangnü, Meeting in the Mulberry Garden, Mu Guiying, Sorrow in the Palace of Chu, Lintong Pass, together with modern plays such as Two Pieces of Flowered Cloth, An Important Lesson and The Towering Tree.
Sorrow in the Palace of Chu
At the same time a large batch of plays has been adapted and newly created, such as Kou Zheng Carries His Boots, Meng Jiangnü, Meeting in the Mulberry Garden, Mu Guiying, Sorrow in the Palace of Chu, Lintong Pass, together with modern plays such as Two Pieces of Flowered Cloth, An Important Lesson and The Towering Tree.
Lintong Pass
At the same time a large batch of plays has been adapted and newly created, such as Kou Zheng Carries His Boots, Meng Jiangnü, Meeting in the Mulberry Garden, Mu Guiying, Sorrow in the Palace of Chu, Lintong Pass, together with modern plays such as Two Pieces of Flowered Cloth, An Important Lesson and The Towering Tree.
Two Pieces of Flowered Cloth
At the same time a large batch of plays has been adapted and newly created, such as Kou Zheng Carries His Boots, Meng Jiangnü, Meeting in the Mulberry Garden, Mu Guiying, Sorrow in the Palace of Chu, Lintong Pass, together with modern plays such as Two Pieces of Flowered Cloth, An Important Lesson and The Towering Tree.
An Important Lesson
At the same time a large batch of plays has been adapted and newly created, such as Kou Zheng Carries His Boots, Meng Jiangnü, Meeting in the Mulberry Garden, Mu Guiying, Sorrow in the Palace of Chu, Lintong Pass, together with modern plays such as Two Pieces of Flowered Cloth, An Important Lesson and The Towering Tree.
The Towering Tree
At the same time a large batch of plays has been adapted and newly created, such as Kou Zheng Carries His Boots, Meng Jiangnü, Meeting in the Mulberry Garden, Mu Guiying, Sorrow in the Palace of Chu, Lintong Pass, together with modern plays such as Two Pieces of Flowered Cloth, An Important Lesson and The Towering Tree.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Huaibei Bangzi was originally called “Shahe diao” or “Shahe bangzi”; it is popular in the Huaibei area of Anhui Province, where the locals habitually call it “gao bang” and it is also known as “bangzi opera”. It has a history of more than one hundred years to the present. In its full-length plays the plot is gripping, while in its small plays the flavour of everyday life is strong; both are much favoured by audiences in the Huang-Huai area.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Huaibeibangzi Opera · Huaibeibangzi Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In recent years, newly created plays and performers of Huaibei Bangzi have repeatedly won awards at major national-level and provincial or ministerial art events. Zhang Xiaodong (per the official archive of the associated inheritor): a woman of the Han ethnicity, born in November 1959 in Taixing County, Jiangsu Province. She specialises in the huadan role, and also plays qingyi, daomadan and laodan, and can even take male roles such as xiaosheng in cross-dressing. Her stage appearance is sweet and her vocal style is extremely expressive, euphemious and pleasing; she often mixes in vocal-production methods from bel canto and from popular songs, drawing on the strengths of many schools, and draws on elements of modern dance and folk dance in her performance, so that she loses neither the traditional flavour nor fails to bring out the spirit of the times. Her representative works include Mu Guiying Breaks the Tianmen Formation, The Towering Tree and The Three Restings of Fan Lihua. She is a representative inheritor of Huaibei Bangzi opera in the fourth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. She has trained young performers such as Du Yun, Ying Hui and Li Yuping. In 2002 she won the nineteenth China Drama Plum Blossom Award, and she has considerable influence among audiences in Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Anhui.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhang Xiaodong 04-1695
- Wang Yonglan 05-2471
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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