Xinjiang Quzi
01 · Historical Records
Barkol lies at the eastern part of the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, and in the Qing dynasty Zhenxi Prefecture was established there, making it a place of garrison settlement and an important station on the trade route where the Han, Hui, Kazak, Mongol and other peoples lived together; migrants, merchants and garrison troops from the Shaanxi and Gansu area brought the little tunes of their home districts here. The formation of Xinjiang quzi here came about mainly through the convergence of three streams: first the quzi (yuediao) that came from Shaanxi, second the guzi (guzi diao) of the Lanzhou area, and third the pingxian (pingdiao) of Qinghai. These tunes intermingled with the word tones of the local Han dialect of Barkol and with the musical tastes of the Kazak and Hui people, and further absorbed local folk songs and tunes, gradually forming a local quzi centred on seated singing.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xinjiang quzi is a form of quyi jointly created and jointly performed by people of the Han, Kazak, Hui and other ethnic groups; it is mainly current in places where the Han, Hui and Kazak peoples live together, such as Urumqi, Hami, Turpan and Yili, and it has a history of nearly a hundred years to the present. It fuses the quzi of Shaanxi, the pingxian of Qinghai, the guzi of Lanzhou and the folk tunes of the northwest with the music and art of Xin's many ethnic groups, forming an artistic form with a style of its own. It is centred on seated singing; it can be performed on a professional stage, and it can also be sung in farmhouses and in the fields. In performance the sanxian, banhu and erhu are the principal instruments, while others such as the dizi, the shuaizi and the wazi are taken up or left out according to how many performers there are; the spoken parts are mostly in the local dialect. In its long practice of performing art, Xinjiang quzi has played an important part in enriching the cultural life of the people, maintaining ethnic unity and the stability of the frontier. The quzi troupes of Barkol are mostly amateur groups; at New Year, at temple fairs, at weddings and at markets they gather in a circle in farmhouses, in shops or in the fields to begin singing, the number of performers ranging from three or five to a dozen or more. The singers and the instrumentalists take turns, one person singing a passage while the rest accompany on sanxian, banhu and erhu, with the dizi, shuaizi, wazi and the like used or not according to how many hands there are. The spoken parts use the local dialect, the sung texts are plain and popular, and the repertoire is divided by role type into wenqu pieces and wuqu pieces, and by musical structure into yuediao and xiaodiao.
Yuediao and xiaodiao
The division by musical structure into the Shaanxi-derived yuediao and the folk-song-like xiaodiao.
Civil and martial pieces
The division by role type into song-weighted civil pieces and movement-weighted martial pieces.
The shuaizi and wazi
Secondary instruments such as the flute and clappers, included or omitted according to the number of performers.
Elegant and popular repertory
The repertory divides by content into an elegant and a popular class, each crossing the civil and martial role types.
Seated singing in the fields
Seated singing was equally at home on a professional stage and in farmhouses or fields.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The repertoire of Xinjiang quzi falls into two broad categories by content, the elegant and the popular; by performance role type it falls into wenqu pieces and wuqu pieces; and by musical structure into yuediao and xiaodiao. The cultural centre of Barkol Kazak Autonomous County has for a long time organized quzi singing activities, registering the songbooks, the tunes and the rosters of old performers scattered among the villages, and has relied on the township cultural stations to form troupes that perform during the slack farming season and at festivals, so that this quyi form, jointly created and jointly performed by several ethnic groups, keeps active in the various townships of the county.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Xinjiang Quzi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In addition, it also performs an important function in the transmission of the traditional culture of the ethnic groups and of ethical and moral values. At present this fine ethnic art has too few successors and its prospects are worrying; it urgently needs protection and transmission.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Guo Tianlu 02-0743
- Hou Yumin 02-0744
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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