Gece
01 · Historical Records
Dongshan song is a form of quyi storytelling and chanting that took shape after Chaozhou song from Guangdong reached Dongshan in Fujian and was localised in the process of development; in folk usage it is called “singing gece”. Traditional gece repertoire includes Wanhua Lou (Tower of Ten Thousand Flowers), Cui Mingfeng, Chen Shimei, Fengjiao and Li Dan, Sui Tang Yanyi (Romance of the Sui and Tang), Xue Gang Rebels Against the Tang and others; works newly created since the mid-20th century include Yujia Nu (Daughter of the Fishing Family) and Zhiwang Ge (Song of Weaving Nets). The activity of singing gece declined greatly toward the end of the 20th century and has now very nearly become extinct, so it is in urgent need of strong support and protection.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In the course of transmission it successively absorbed artistic elements and melodies from nanyin and other local quyi genres and music, and thus carries distinctive Dongshan local character. The performance form of Dongshan song is for a single person to chant, from the script, a long narrative gece written in rhymed prose. Its pieces are strongly narrative, the wording plain and easily understood, the sung lines rhymed and easy to intone, and the vocal style even in rhythm and cadence. Dongshan song circulated widely among women in former times and was almost regarded as a textbook of women's life. Through listening to singing gece, Dongshan women came to know history, understand society, enlarge their knowledge, learn how to conduct themselves, distinguish good from evil and learn the proprieties. People regarded being able to sing gece as a mark of respectability, and gece was given as dowry, producing the custom of the bride singing gece in the hall. At the same time, because of the destruction during the Cultural Revolution, original copies of gece are extremely scarce and the conditions for performing it are greatly restricted.
Singing the songbooks
The popular name of the art, in which one singer chants a long narrative songbook straight from the text.
Songbooks as dowry
Songbooks were given as dowry and sung by the bride in the hall, regarded almost as a woman's textbook of life.
The Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion
Traditional songbook titles, all long narrative romances in verse.
Sui-Tang tales
Historical romances in the repertory, whose original printed songbooks grew scarce after the mid-twentieth century.
The Fisher Girl and the Net-Weaving Song
Mid-twentieth-century pieces turning from old romances to the working lives of fishers and women.
Cai Wanxiang and her hundred songbooks
The inheritor Cai Wanxiang could sing from any of the hundred songbooks in her family collection.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Dongshan gece circulates on Dongshan Island in Fujian and along the neighbouring coast of Zhao'an, Yunxiao and Zhangpu, and it travelled with the migrations and trade of fishermen to Penghu, Taiwan and the Minnan Chinese settlements of Southeast Asia. In old times in Tongling, Xipu, Chencheng and other places of Dongshan, practically every household possessed a printed or manuscript copy of gece; women would gather to sing it in the courtyard, by the well, in the embroidery room or in the hall of a fishing household, one woman chanting from the script while the rest listened silently or joined in the singing; gece was given as dowry at weddings, and the bride sang it in the hall, a custom peculiar to the island. Gece is chanted in the Chaozhou dialect, and in transmission it has in turn absorbed artistic elements and melodies from nanyin and other local quyi genres and music.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Gece.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Dongshan song is transmitted orally from teacher to pupil, and as old singers have died one after another the singing of gece is on the verge of being lost. Cai Wanxiang (associated inheritor, as recorded in the official inheritor file): female, Han, born in 1940, a native of Dongshan, Fujian. An employee of the Dongshan food and sundries shop. Artistically influenced by her family from childhood, she loves the art of singing gece. Her vocal style is clear, fresh and vivid. She has a strong memory: of the hundred gece titles her family owns she can sing any one of them at will, and she can recite and sing the classic passages from memory, reproducing every story episode in the gece accurately and vividly through rhythm and cadence. Her representative works include Suichao (The Sui Dynasty), Bao Gong Chushi (Lord Bao’s Appearance), Wanhua Lou (Tower of Ten Thousand Flowers) and Di Qing. Representative inheritor of gece (Dongshan gece) in the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. Huang Chunhui (associated inheritor, as recorded in the official inheritor file): female, Han, born in 1963, a native of Dongshan, Fujian. A librarian of the Dongshan County Library. Artistically influenced by her family from childhood, she loves the art of singing gece. She gives artistic guidance at the grassroots throughout the year and organises gece recitals; she wrote the paper “The Rescue and Collation of Gece”, published a singing script of Dongshan Gece, and holds views of her own on the study of gece. Her voice is crisp and melodious, and as the development of the story demands she varies the rhythm of the tunes, heightening the expressive appeal of the performance. Her representative works include Zeng Jiazhuang (Presenting the Dowry), Guan Gu (Visiting the Aunt) and Bao Gong (Lord Bao). Representative inheritor of gece (Dongshan gece) in the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Cai Wanxiang 02-0749
- Huang Chunhui 02-0750
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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