Suzhou Pingtan
01 · Historical Records
In the early years of the 1960s there were more than one hundred Suzhou Pingtan storytelling houses in the towns of Zhejiang, and in the countryside there were tea-house storytelling houses too numerous to count. From 1959 onward Zhejiang successively established the Zhejiang Quyi Troupe, the Hangzhou Municipal Quyi Troupe and ten Suzhou Pingtan professional troupes in Jiaxing, Huzhou, Jiashan, Haining, Tongxiang, Haiyan, Deqing and Anji. By September 1984 the province had a total of more than one hundred and forty Suzhou Pingtan performers. Since 1977 many important conferences of the Suzhou Pingtan world have been held in Zhejiang. In October 1984 the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China issued a document establishing the 'Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai Pingtan Leading Group', which also shows fully that Zhejiang is one of the indispensable and important bases for the Pingtan cause, and that the Suzhou Pingtan contingent of Zhejiang is an important arm of the whole undertaking.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In the one hundred and fifty years since the late Xianfeng reign of the Qing dynasty (1851-1861) down to the present, Zhejiang has always been one of the main bases of Suzhou Pingtan activity. Over these one hundred and fifty years Zhejiang has produced many famous masters of Suzhou Pinghua and Tanci, who have made a great contribution to the development of Suzhou Pingtan. Among them are a group of renowned Suzhou Pinghua and Tanci performers such as Wang Xiongfei, Wang Baiyin, Xing Ruiting, Hu Tianru, Xu Tianxiang and Zhang Xuelin. Over the past thirty years, the long-form Suzhou Tanci written and performed by Zhejiang artists, such as 'Dong Xiaowan', 'Empress Dowager Xi' and 'Shen Wanshan', and the medium-length Suzhou Tanci 'The New Pipa Ballad', 'Li Shuangshuang' and 'Cai E and Xiao Fengxian', have enjoyed a high reputation in the Suzhou Pingtan world and among broad audiences; the 'Xiang tune' created by Xu Tianxiang, a performer of the Zhejiang Quyi Troupe, stands out as a distinctive school among Suzhou Tanci vocal styles and is much loved by audiences.
Zhejiang long-form tanci
Long tanci works created by Zhejiang performers, together with the medium-length New Song of the Pipa and others, won wide acclaim.
Xiang style
A tanci vocal school created by the Zhejiang troupe's Xu Tianxiang, unique among the genre's melodic styles.
Zhejiang's ten pingtan troupes
The provincial and municipal pingtan troupes of Zhejiang formed the organisational base of the region's performers.
Zhejiang masters
Zhejiang produced a notable group of pinghua and tanci masters over a century and a half, among them Wang Xiongfei and Wang Baiyin.
The three-region pingtan leading group
Established by the Ministry of Culture in October 1984 to coordinate pingtan work across Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Zhejiang is one of the main bases of Suzhou Pingtan activity; storytelling houses stretch from urban theatres all the way to rural tea houses. From 1959 onward Zhejiang successively established the Zhejiang Quyi Troupe, the Hangzhou Municipal Quyi Troupe and ten Suzhou Pingtan professional troupes in Jiaxing, Huzhou, Jiashan, Haining, Tongxiang, Haiyan, Deqing and Anji; by September 1984 the province had a total of more than one hundred and forty Suzhou Pingtan performers. Among the masters produced by Zhejiang are Wang Xiongfei, Wang Baiyin, Xing Ruiting, Hu Tianru, Xu Tianxiang and Zhang Xuelin; the 'Xiang tune' created by Xu Tianxiang of the Zhejiang Quyi Troupe stands out among Suzhou Tanci vocal styles. The Zhejiang Quyi Troupe, now part of the Zhejiang Quyi and Acrobatics Troupe, is the only intact Pingtan troupe in the province and performs Suzhou Tanci more than one thousand times a year.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Suzhou Pingtan · Suzhou Pingtan · Suzhou Pingtan.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Zhejiang ought to be one of the protection bases for Suzhou Pingtan. The Zhejiang Quyi Troupe (now part of the Zhejiang Quyi and Acrobatics Troupe) is the earliest founded and strongest Suzhou Pingtan organization in Zhejiang Province, and is today the only intact Pingtan troupe in the province, with ten middle-aged and young performers, of whom two are first-grade performers and one is a second-grade performer; it performs Suzhou Tanci more than one thousand times a year. This troupe has both the responsibility and the conditions to serve as a protection and transmission unit for Suzhou Pingtan.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xing Yanzhi 02-0707
- Jin Lisheng 02-0708
- Wang Yuexiang 03-1151
- Xing Yanchun 03-1152
- Zhang Guoliang 03-1153
- Jin Shengbo 03-1154
- Yang Naizhen 03-1155
- Chen Xian 03-1156
- Yu Hongxian 03-1157
- Jiang Wenlan 04-1700
- Zhao Kaisheng 04-1701
- Gao Jun
- Wang Zhenghua
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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