Gece
01 · Historical Records
Gece is popularly called “xiao gece” (laughing-song book); because it originated in Chaozhou, Guangdong, it is also known as “Chaozhou gece”. It evolved out of tanci (ballad singing) and circulates around Chaozhou as well as in Zhao’an, Dongshan and Yunxiao in Fujian. Because tanci manuscripts were often full of errors and omissions, folk artists of the Ming and Qing dynasties collated and reorganised them, then had them engraved in print and bound into volumes which circulated widely among the people; from this the printed tanci came to be called “gece”.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Tang-dynasty folk artists in Chaozhou composed new “bianwen” on the basis of Buddhist scripture stories, accompanying themselves on a single plucked string instrument, singing and playing at the same time; this was called “tanci”. The verses of gece are mostly seven-syllable lines, four lines to a stanza and one rhyme to a stanza, with three-syllable, four-syllable, five-syllable and six-syllable lines as well as patterns such as 3-3-4, 3-3-5 and 3-3-7 interspersed from time to time. Four-syllable and five-syllable lines are used mainly for the letters inserted into a work, while the 3-3-4 and 3-3-5 patterns, which sound more indirect and lingering when sung, are mostly used for voicing sorrowful feeling. Chaozhou gece is sung before all else and is rather exacting about rhythm: the seven-syllable song lines are generally divided into two or three musical units, that is, one line consists of two or three words. Gece takes historical stories and folk legends as its principal subjects.
Seven-character and broken lines
The line forms: mostly seven-character quatrains in one rhyme, with shorter and broken lines for letters and laments.
The Chaozhou songbook imprints
Ming-Qing artisans re-edited faulty tanci manuscripts and printed them in volumes, giving the genre its name.
Liu Mingzhu and One Life's Retribution
Traditional titles of the genre, chiefly on historical and legendary themes.
The Second Plum Blossom
Widely circulated long narrative songbooks, neatly rhymed and easy on the tongue.
Modern songbooks
Modern songbooks such as A Happy Union and The Red Lantern, alongside adapted works like The White-Haired Girl.
Reading the songbooks
A parallel practice in which women unable to sing simply read the songbooks aloud.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
After a long course of development, gece gradually took shape as a form of folk quyi recited and sung in the Chaozhou dialect; its sounds and rhymes are even, its language popular and easy to follow, its plots complete and rich in artistic charm, and it is warmly welcomed by the broad masses of the people wherever it circulates. The transmission of Chaozhou gece divides into a singing route and a reading route: those who sing gece chant to the rhythm of the seven-syllable lines, prolonging the drawn-out vocal phrases, with the pitch rising and falling as the plot develops; women who are not skilled at singing instead read from the script, a practice colloquially called “reading gece”. In the Qing dynasty it was a fashion among the book workshops of Chaozhou city to print gece: printed tanci editions were re-engraved as dialect gece, divided into volumes and episodes according to the plot, each volume closing with the title of the book and the next episode, and some placing embroidered portraits of the characters at the head of the volume. The same printed editions could be bought in Jieyang, Chaoyang, Chenghai, Raoping and, in Fujian, in Zhao’an, Dongshan and Yunxiao, so gece formed a common circle of reading and recitation along the Chaoshan and southern Fujian coast.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Gece.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Traditional works include Liu Mingzhu, Yishi Bao (One Lifetime of Retribution), Erdu Mei (The Second Plum), Xue Rengui Zhengxi (Xue Rengui’s Conquest of the West) and others; modern works include Hua Hao Yue Yuan (Flowers in Bloom, the Moon Full), Yuan Ni Yinyuan (A Bond of Sinful Affection), Deng Hong Ji (The Red Lantern), Bai Mao Nu (The White-Haired Girl) and others. These works play an important part in promoting the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, punishing evil and extolling good, and advancing the building of a harmonious society, and they carry high value for historical and cultural research. At present gece is gradually being forgotten by people; the older-generation artists able to recite and sing Chaozhou gece by traditional technique keep dwindling, and those who create new works are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. This ancient folk art faces the danger of extinction at any moment and is in urgent need of rescue and protection.
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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