Zhubange
01 · Historical Records
According to documentary records, zhuban ge originated in the Hakka quyi form known as “guwen” in Yudu, southern Jiangxi, took shape in the middle of the Qing dynasty, and has been transmitted for more than 200 years down to the present. It originated in and is transmitted chiefly in Xingning City, Meizhou, Guangdong Province, and later, following the migrations of the Hakka people, spread to the regions where Hakka people have settled at home and abroad, reaching a population of more than ten million. In the 1920s to 1940s, zhuban ge developed into an important form used by the people of Xingning to publicize the revolution and to raise fighting spirit.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Zhuban ge, also called “beggar's song” or “five-line clappers”, is a form of quyi in which bamboo clappers are the main accompanying instrument, performed in the Hakka dialect, alternating speech and song and leaning mainly on singing. It is one of the most representative genres of quyi in the Hakka areas of China. The performance form of zhuban ge is normally carried out by one person, two people or several people, alternating speech and song and leaning mainly on singing. The sung text is in the pattern of five lines of seven characters, with lines 1, 2, 4 and 5 rhyming; it makes much use of tail rhymes in which the end of one line answers the end of the next, and, beyond plain narration, it is skilled in such rhetorical devices as evocative lead-ins, simile, pun, xiehouyu and reduplication. Daobai (narrated speech), monologue, dialogue and mixed speech are often inserted into the sung text to add interest. The vocal style is of the banqiang (metrical-tempered) system, and those in common use include pingban, kuban, huanban, tuoban and diaoqiang. The bamboo clappers used for accompaniment are four specially made bamboo pieces, one of which has a saw-toothed edge; the ways of beating them include single-beat, broken-beat, single seven-star beat, double shake beat and many other clapper patterns. Besides serving as accompaniment, the bamboo clappers can also be used as performance props, standing in for the fans, mirrors, knives, spears and brushes used by characters in the story, so as to enrich the stage performance. Its content was in early days begging songs, and was later also used for selling medicine and for exhorting the world; it has innovated continually in response to the needs of the times, and has the character of keeping pace with the times. More than 500 script copies of revolutionary red zhuban ge are extant today. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xingning County created more than 40 medium- and short-length tunes, including “Jiang Jie”, “Anti-Japanese Ballads” and “Revolutionary Ballads”. Among them, “Spring Calls Forth the Cuckoo” and “The Commander Buys a Chicken” took part in national exchange performances. The repertoire excels at narrative and is used chiefly for full-length stories with intricate plots or for medium- and short-length extracted-dramatic pieces; there are chuanben (historical narratives), exhortatory texts, guojie liu (begging songs sung in the street), chaoma cuo pieces, fengliu san tan and quwei ge (amusement songs), and so on.
Four bamboo boards
Its accompaniment uses four specially made bamboo boards, one with a saw-toothed edge, the source of the genre's name.
Five seven-character lines
Its texts run five seven-character lines rhyming on the first, second, fourth and fifth, rich in metaphor, pun and reduplication.
Its metres and modes
A banqiang system with plain, weeping, joyful and drawn metres and the hanging mode.
Board patterns
Its playing patterns include single, broken, seven-star and double-shaking boards, which also serve as props for fans, mirrors, blades and brushes.
Modern classics
Among over forty modern scripts written in Xingning after 1949, two were chosen for national festival performance.
Revolutionary songbooks
From the 1920s to the 1940s it served revolutionary propaganda, leaving over five hundred surviving songbooks.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
It is a typical representative of Hakka culture and an important bond linking Hakka people at home and abroad; it is of positive significance for advancing the Belt and Road Initiative and for spreading fine traditional culture.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Zhuban ge is transmitted mainly by master and disciple through oral teaching and heart-to-heart imitation, and its documented line of transmission has by now continued for fifteen generations. Zhuban ge has a long history and records more than 200 years of the Hakka people's production and daily life, their customs and habits, and the important historical facts of their participation in revolution and construction; it is of important value for studying Hakka cultural and revolutionary history. It makes extensive use of Hakka colloquialisms and is of important research value for Hakka dialect literature. Its vocal styles are rich, its melodic modes highly varied and its techniques manifold, giving it high artistic value; its content is rich and easy to understand, and it has fairly strong recreational and aesthetic value.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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