Shaoxing Cidiao

01 · Historical Records

Many materials of the Ming and Qing dynasties contain records of cihua narrative singing, tanci and nanci from the Shaoxing region, showing that the folk narrative singing art of Shaoxing had already reached maturity at that time and laying the foundation for the final shaping of Shaoxing Cidiao.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Shaoxing Cidiao is also called “huadiao” and “huaci”, and is current in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, and the surrounding areas. Shaoxing Cidiao is mostly sung at festive occasions, with the artists performing seated in role parts, singing and playing for themselves, vivid and lifelike, which gives it the artistic characteristics of being appreciated by both the refined and the popular, of being clear and cheerful, and of being festively lively. Shaoxing Cidiao singing is graded into three ranks, five ranks, seven ranks and nine ranks; its vocal styles include three forms, “suoyipu”, “bendiao” and “shizidiao”, in addition to a small number of popular ditties. The “suoyi diao” is the basic tune and can be used for both lyrical and narrative singing; some varied sentence forms and the drawn-out cadences of the “shizidiao”, when the vocal line is being carried, seem to break and yet go on, complementing the continuous accompaniment and giving the singing a charm of its own. Shaoxing Cidiao has more than twenty traditional pieces, among them Sanguo, Shuihu and Leifengta Nanci; the texts of these works are plain in language, the tunes beautiful, the melodies rich and the style distinctive, and they have high artistic value. The surviving repertoire, tunes, tune patterns, accompanying music and forms of performance all show that Shaoxing Cidiao is a branch of Jiangnan tanci, is the continuation in Shaoxing of the narrative singing art of Zhejiang in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it has high research value in such fields as language, folklore, social history and so on.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Shaoxing Cidiao, also called “huadiao” and “huaci”, is current mainly in the urban area of Shaoxing and in the surrounding water-town market towns such as Anchang, Keqiao, Dongguan and Gaobu; it is a quyi genre performed seated, and it is usually engaged to perform at the house on festive occasions such as a birthday, a wedding, the birth of a child or the raising of a roof beam. The artists sit together in front of the hall, singing and playing for themselves and performing in role parts, and according to the number of performers taking part and the scale of the performance the singing is graded into three ranks, five ranks, seven ranks and nine ranks. The vocal style takes the “suoyipu” as its basic tune, which can be used for both lyrical and narrative singing; “bendiao”, “shizidiao” and a small number of popular ditties are used as well, and among them the drawn-out cadences of the “shizidiao” seem to break and yet go on, complementing the continuous accompaniment. Because it has long depended on oral transmission, Shaoxing Cidiao left no complete musical scores, and after the old artists died one after another there are no longer many troupes able to perform a full seated show of three ranks or above. Its traditional repertoire numbers more than twenty pieces, among them Sanguo, Shuihu and Leifengta Nanci; their texts are plain in language and their tunes beautiful, and the surviving repertoire, tunes, tune patterns and forms of accompaniment all show that it is a branch of Jiangnan tanci and the continuation in Shaoxing of the narrative singing art of Zhejiang in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present, as the old artists die off, Shaoxing Cidiao has gradually faded from the cultural scene and is on the verge of disappearing, and it urgently needs rescue and protection.

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Shaoxing Cidiao (Shaoxing, Zhejiang) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗