Yongxiuyaya Opera

01 · Historical Records

Yongxiu Yaya opera is a small local theatrical genre that arose in and was chiefly circulated in Wucheng Town, a commercial port in the north of Yongxiu County, Jiangxi Province. In its plays the dan roles have always been played by men, who wear their hair in two small ya buns. Wucheng Town has since ancient times been a north-south thoroughfare of Jiangxi Province, and after the Song dynasty it became the largest harbour in the province for the collection and distribution of goods by water. Early folk performers sat on benches to sing, opening their stalls for merchants and providing leisure entertainment; they used only gongs and drums to mark the beat, with no string or wind accompaniment, and everything they sang was folk minor tunes together with flower-drum tea-picking songs, so it was then called 'bench opera'. During the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns it left the benches and moved onto the stage for costumed performance, yet its repertoire, music and acting still kept the appearance of the seated-singing period.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Yongxiu Yaya opera is a small local theatrical genre that arose in and was chiefly circulated in Wucheng Town, a commercial port in the north of Yongxiu County, Jiangxi Province. In its plays the dan roles have always been played by men, who wear their hair in two small ya buns. Wucheng Town in Yongxiu County, Jiangxi Province has since ancient times been a north-south thoroughfare of Jiangxi Province, and after the Song dynasty it became the largest harbour in Jiangxi Province for the collection and distribution of goods by water. Early folk performers sat on benches to sing, opening their stalls for merchants and providing leisure entertainment, using only gongs and drums to mark the beat with no string or wind accompaniment. Everything they sang was folk minor tunes and flower-drum tea-picking songs, so it was then called 'bench opera'. Centred on Wucheng Town in Yongxiu County, it spread to the neighbouring Wuning County and Jing'an County. During the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns Yongxiu Yaya opera left the benches, moved onto the stage and was performed in costume, but its repertoire, music and acting still kept the appearance of the seated-singing period. It long remained in a state of amateur performance, with no professional troupes and no professional actors, and it circulated and was sung in many townships and villages of Yongxiu County, De'an County and Wuning County along the Xiu River. The role types in the performance of Yongxiu Yaya opera are popularly called the 'nine lines and twelve characters', and include the blue-whiskered, the white-whiskered, the Great King, the Boy, the Upper Sheng, the Upper Dan, the Young Lady, the Maid and the Old Woman Dan, as well as Zha Jiang, Ya Jiang and the Curved Sheng. Stage technique is simple: the sheng roles brandish their sleeves, the dan roles wave their fans, the chou roles run and leap, and the jing roles stride. Old friends meeting on the stage kneel and bow three times; husband and wife parting embrace and hold each other. Stage movement is limited to inserting the flowers left and right, stroking the whiskers and shaking the sleeves, running a horse on the spot, and sitting opposite one another to sing. Feeling is conveyed through the voice, with no accompanying dance. The repertoire includes more than sixty plays such as Boundary-Stone Bell, Seven-Storeyed Tower and Lady Huang's Well. The actions and intentions of the characters are conveyed entirely in the sung lines and dialogue, with much singing and little speech, and sometimes a single scene is sung from beginning to end. The vocal music uses gongs and drums to mark the beat, with the human voice singing dry. During singing the gongs and drums are inserted into the vocal line, and the lyrics are often interspersed with proverbs and refrain syllables, which gives them a local character. The melodies comprise two kinds, banqiang (metrical) and xiaoqu (minor tunes). The banqiang are divided between men and women and number more than ten, including the 'level ban', 'walking ban', 'urgent ban', 'reduplicated ban', 'sad ban', 'bridge ban' and 'returning-soul ban'. The minor tunes are classified as those for single use, those in which one tune serves many purposes, and those in which several tunes are used in combination, and include 'flower qiang', 'northern words in matched dialogue' and 'Selling Cotton Yarn'. To this day Yongxiu Yaya opera still stands in the transitional form between quyi (narrative singing) and staged drama: the script structure is not divided into scenes, and characters appear and leave as required; the scene changes move with the lyrics; there is much singing and little speech, presenting the marked characteristics of narrative-and-singing literature. From beginning to end the singing never uses string accompaniment; gongs and drums accompany the dry singing. The role types have no fixed names and are designated by the type of character rather than as sheng, dan, jing, mo and chou; they are called the Great King, the Boy, the Maid and the Young Lady. The performance is simple and the types of stage movement few, resembling nothing so much as costumed singing.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Yongxiu Yaya opera was centred on Wucheng Town in Yongxiu County; in its early period it spread to the neighbouring Wuning County and Jing'an County, and afterwards it circulated and was sung in many townships and villages of Yongxiu County, De'an County and Wuning County along the Xiu River. It long remained in a state of amateur performance, with no professional troupes and no professional actors, and the role types in its performance are popularly called the 'nine lines and twelve characters'. Even today it still preserves the transitional form between quyi (narrative singing) and staged drama.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Yongxiu Yaya opera has considerable historical value for understanding the formation, evolution and development of small local theatrical genres. The subject matter of its plays, the emotions of its characters and its artistic tastes were shaped by the entertainment demands of the townspeople; it rests on a broad mass base and is local opera that the people of the area are glad to hear and see, possessing social and cultural value that cannot be ignored. Zhou Wenbin (as recorded in the official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in August 1944, a native of Yongxiu County, Jiangxi Province. In 1957 he apprenticed himself to the old artist Zhang Yixi and studied Yongxiu Yaya opera. From 1960 to 1966 he served as an actor in the Longguang Theatre Troupe, playing xiaosheng roles. In 1978 the Longguang Theatre Troupe was re-formed and he became its head, actively taking part in the artistic exchange performances of amateur rural troupes at provincial, municipal and county level. He frequently toured his own county at his own expense to give performances of encouragement and comfort, produced recorded and video materials of the plays performed and presented them to the various homes for the elderly. As a folk artist charged with the task of transmitting Yongxiu Yaya opera, he has long been devoted to performing the art and to training successors. Representative inheritor of Yongxiu Yaya opera, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fifth batch. In 2010 he took part in the provincial 'Meeting in Spring' Arts Festival, performing the Yaya play Laying the Quilt Base and Urging the Husband, and won favourable reviews from the audience.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Zhou Wenbin 05-2474

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Yongxiuyaya Opera (Yongxiu, Jiangxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zhou Wenbin · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗