Shuixiangshe Opera
01 · Historical Records
The origin of the waterside shexi (社戏, communal festival drama) lies in sacrifice. When villages met with flood or drought, prayed for a good harvest, or sought peace, they had to perform drama for the gods to hear; hence the altar platform came first and the opera troupe after. Since the drama was performed for the gods, the audience naturally gathered below the stage, and sacrifice and entertainment were thereby joined in one. Shaoxing is dense with waterways and its villages lie along the rivers, so stages were built beside the river landings, and boats on the water became natural viewing platforms; the stage stood between bank and water, and people took their places on shore and on the river alike — a single performance, without moving, had two or three audiences at once, and thus was the scale of the shexi set.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Waterside shexi is a folk activity centered on dramatic performance in the rural areas and towns of Zhejiang; it combines the worship of gods with the entertainment of the people and is generally popular in the Shaoxing area. The performance program of shexi is fairly fixed, proceeding basically in the order of "opening clamor — auspicious play — highlight play — main play — closing." The auspicious play and highlight play are generally performed in the daytime, while the main play, the full-length drama, begins at dusk. The main play usually takes historical dramas and family dramas as its core, and the short plays interspersed between them are also fairly fixed. The stages for shexi fall into several types — temple stages, ancestral hall stages, river stages (water stages), street stages, and grass stages — of which the river stage (water stage) is the most distinctive and is called the "waterside stage." This is a thrust stage of strong waterside character: the backstage is on the bank and the fore-stage in the water, creating conditions for the audience to watch the performance simultaneously from the water and from the shore. Shaoxing waterside shexi gathers and embodies the performance styles of different opera genres and fully displays the rich and colorful local customs. For over a thousand years, in addition to its task of moral instruction from the high stage, Shaoxing waterside shexi has also exercised an entertainment function, and has thereby gradually developed into the most solemn, most lively, and most widely participated festival celebration among the people of Jiangnan. Rooted among the people, waterside shexi is deeply loved by audiences, and traces of it can still be found in the cities and villages of the Shaoxing area today.
The opening flourish
A short opening piece rings the gong and draws the crowd in before the real play begins.
Daytime pieces before the main play
Short auspicious and comic pieces play by day, when market crowds fill the town and the audience is fullest.
The main play from dusk
The main play runs from dusk, mostly history and family pieces, ending as the last players linger.
The water stage reaching out over the river
The stage reaches over the water, so half the audience watches from boats that drift with the river.
Regular, temple, peace and vow plays
Plays are hired for regular feasts, temple fairs, peace and the discharge of vows, each with its own circuit.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Shexi in Shaoxing falls broadly into several types — annual-rule plays, temple-fair plays, peace plays, and vow-redemption plays — of which temple-fair plays predominate.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The situation of shexi today is that its two functions have come apart. The sacrificial side has thinned as belief fades, while the entertainment side is still present everywhere: in the slack farming season, at temple fairs, for birthday celebrations, and to repay vows, opera troupes are still invited to sing. The river stages remain, the troupes remain, the audiences remain — only the reason for raising the stage has changed: once it was for the gods, now it is for festivals and bustle. This shift both preserves a living thread and leaves a hollow that is hard to fill.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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