Lanzhou Guzi
01 · Historical Records
In the late Qing and early Republican period, Lanzhou Guzi was further influenced by the danxian bajiaogu (single-string octagonal drum) transmitted from Beijing and the mihuzi (meihu) transmitted from Shaanxi, and its artistic form took further shape. In the mid-1940s Li Haizhou (1907—1983), an enthusiast devoted to Lanzhou Guzi, organized the Nanshanxue Guzi Research Society, which investigated and preserved a good deal of artistic material on Lanzhou Guzi.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Lanzhou Guzi is a form of quyi singing that took shape in and is mainly current in the Lanzhou area of Gansu Province, performed in the local Lanzhou pronunciation. It is said that the song yangge (rice-seedling sending song) form circulating in the countryside of Gansu, sung chiefly to [Dazao Ge] and [Qiediao], spread into Lanzhou and was then performed in a cappella style, forming Lanzhou Guzi in the middle and late Qing period. Its performance form is seated singing by several people each holding a sanxian, yangqin, pipa, yueqin, huqin, xiao, dizi and the like; once it moves onto a raised platform, one person sings standing while beating a small moon drum, accompanied by several others on sanxian, yangqin, pipa, yueqin, huqin and the like. The musical structure of the Lanzhou Guzi vocal system belongs to the linked-suite form built from tune patterns; the tune patterns most commonly used in the vocal style include [Po'er Xia], [Luojiang Yuan], [Bianguan Diao] and more than forty others. For a long time Lanzhou Guzi was sung mainly by amateur enthusiasts, with very few professional performers; Wang Yidao, Cao Yeru, Tang Jianghu, Ma Dongbashi, Zhang Guoliang, Lu Yingkui and others were the comparatively famous singers of early Lanzhou Guzi. The content of its traditional repertoire is extremely broad, comprising both medium-length and long pieces on historical stories and folk legends and short passages that praise scenery or celebrate occasions of rejoicing. The programmes most welcomed by listeners fall into two categories, boudoir sentiment pieces and heroic pieces. The former include Biehou Xinshang (Heartache after Parting), Kaohong (Beating the Matchmaker), Yingying Jianxing (Seeing Yingying Off) and Duzhan Huakui (Sole Occupant of the Flower Crown); the latter include Wusong Dahu (Wu Song Fights the Tiger), Linchong Yeben (Lin Chong's Night Flight) and Yanqing Dalei (Fighting the Ring at Yanqing). There are also works reflecting a passive attitude towards life, of which Hongchen Kantou (Seeing Through the Red Dust) and Yuqiao Wenda (Fisherman and Woodcatter Q&A) are the most typical. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lanzhou Guzi began to be performed on raised platforms, and a number of new programmes appeared, representative ones being Yangzirong Jianghu (Yang Zirong Subdues the Tiger), Duoqu Shanlan Zhan (Seizing Shanlan Station), Jie Xingche (Robbing the Prison Cart) and Han Ying Jian Niang (Han Ying Meets His Mother); well-known performers include Duan Shutang, Wang Ziying, Zhang Linyu and Wang Yalu.
Three tune titles
Three of some forty tune titles in the genre's linked-suite musical structure.
Boudoir and heroic songs
The two most popular categories, boudoir songs such as Cursing Hongniang and heroic songs such as Wu Song Kills the Tiger.
The ten modes
The ten modes named drum, seize, grief, sea, yue, level, ode, sway, order and hundred.
The small moon drum and sanxian
The genre's instruments: seated ensembles of plucked and bowed strings, with a small moon drum for the standing singer.
Cursing Hongniang and others
Representative boudoir songs, drawn like the heroic songs from history, legend and romance.
The Nanshan drum-song research society
Founded in the mid-1940s by the enthusiast Li Haizhou, who surveyed and preserved much of the genre's material.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Lanzhou Guzi is centred on the urban area of Lanzhou and the districts of Gaolan, Yuzhong and Yongdeng, and also spreads to Lintao, Baiyin and a few towns in the Hexi corridor. Its singers are mostly amateur enthusiasts from town and countryside alike, who form learning societies or associations by street, lane and courtyard and gather to sing at New Year and other festivals, at weddings and birthday celebrations, and at temple fairs. Because the singers are usually seated in a circle indoors without a raised platform, the local term is zuochang (seated singing) or xiaoqu (little tunes); once they move onto a raised platform, one person sings standing while beating a small moon drum, accompanied by several others on sanxian, yangqin, pipa, yueqin, huqin and the like.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
For a long time the inheritance and development of Lanzhou Guzi has been left to drift on its own; there are very few performers, staged performances are rarely seen, and effective measures are urgently needed to support and protect it. Wei Shifa (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han nationality, born in August 1940, native of Gaolan County, Gansu Province. He received oral instruction and demonstration from his father Wei Wanyu and other old performers from childhood, and began to appear on stage in 1960. He successively learned four of the ten great modes of Lanzhou Guzi — gu, duo, bei and yue — out of gu, duo, bei, hai, yue, ping, fu, dang, ling and bai, and broke through the two difficult ones, the hai mode and the zhengping mode. His singing emphasises five-tone technique, the level and oblique tones of rhyme, and clear diction with pure and rounded tone; his skill ranks among the foremost in the Lanzhou Guzi community. He has actively carried out transmission work and now has more than ten disciples, some of whom have already become backbone members of the profession. He now keeps in his possession one small-drum sanxian inherited from his ancestors from the Qing period and one Lanzhou Guzi manuscript copied in small regular script from the 1930s, recording the texts of more than thirty pieces. Representative inheritor of Lanzhou Guzi in the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. Chen Zengsan (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han nationality, born in February 1950, native of Gaolan County, Gansu Province. His singing takes the Lanzhou dialect as its standard and pays attention to chi, ji, o and yun; his guttural, labial, dental and nasal timbres are clearly marked, giving his style clear pronunciation, correct diction with pure and rounded tone, emotion carried by the voice, and a balance of force and gentleness; he can perform more than thirty pieces proficiently. He has created five representative works including Qianli Longyuan Kua Jun (Galloping Steeds across a Thousand Li of Longyuan), and has collected and organized more than 260 vocal passages. He has been actively devoted to training successors, with more than ten disciples, and has also mobilized and organized women to take part in Guzi singing. Every year he organizes two or three Guzi concert evenings for the whole township, and extends the venues of performance to the county seat and to Lanzhou, promoting and transmitting Lanzhou Guzi. Representative inheritor of Lanzhou Qingqu in the fourth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. He has repeatedly organized participation in provincial, municipal and county-level art exchange performances and won awards.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wei Shifa 03-1164
- Chen Zengsan 04-1708
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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