Chinese Traditional Opera

Performance art has a long tradition in China. Although performers of all kinds were belittled in ancient times, various schools of traditional operas flourished now and then along with the vicissitudes of dynasties. Many have transcended time and space and still draw large audiences even in the present-day China.

In general, there are dozens of of schools of traditional Chinese operas. The most noticeable ones are: Peking Opera, Kun Opera, Shaoxing Opera, Huangmei Opera, Yue Opera, Chuan Opera, Ping Opera, Hebei Bangzi, Henan Bangzi, Chao Opera.



Peking Opera

Known as China's national opera, Peking Opera, which originated in the late 18th century, is a synthesis of music, dance, art and acrobatics. It is the most influential and representative of all operas in China.

Based upon traditional Anhui Opera, it has also adopted repertoire, music and performing techniques from Kun Opera and Qingqiang Opera as well as traditional folk tunes in its development, eventually forming its own highly stylized music and performing techniques.

Peking Opera can be divided into "civil" pieces, which are characterized by singing, and "martial" ones, which feature acrobatics and stunts. Some operas are combination of both.

Its repertoire includes historical plays, comedies, tragedies and farces. many historical events are adapted into Peking Opera plays, which in the past were an important primer on history and ethical principles for poorly educated folk.

Two orchestras, playing string and percussion instruments, accompany the singing, which follows a fixed pattern but has a variety of melodies and rhythms. The "jinghu", a small two-strings bowed instrument, is the backbone of the orchestras.

The operatic dialogues and monologues are recited in Beijing dialect, and some of the words are pronounced in a special fashion, unique to the opera.

The actors and actresses, in addition to singing, use well-established movements, such as smoothing a beard, adjusting a hat, jerking a sleeve or raising a foot, to express certain emotions and meaning.

There are four roles in general: the male, the female, the "painted face", and the clown, which are further classified by age and profession. Sheng or male roles can be divided into three categories: the old, the young and the martial arts expert. Dan or female roles includes the young and the middle-aged, the innocent and dissolute, girls with martial arts skills and old women. Jing or painted face roles are always played by frank and open-minded men with brightly colored faces. Chou or clown roles are marked by a dab of white on the ridge of the nose. This character is sometimes positive, kind-hearted and humorous, but sometimes negative, crafty, malicious or silly. Each role has its fixed singing and acting styles.The costumes are based on those of the Ming Dynasty, no matter when the story is set. The props can include a cloth wall, tents, parasols, whips, paddles and weapons. The props are realistic, but not so elaborate that they detract from the performance. Exaggeration and symbolism are characteristics of the opera. Holding a whip is enough to indicate an actor is galloping on a horse. A few soldiers on the stage may represent a whole army. An actor circling the stage suggests a long journey.

Famous male actors include Tan Xinpei, Yang Xiaolou, Yu Shuyan, Ma Lianliang and Zhou Xinfang. The most famous actors who played female roles are Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqiu, Zhang Junqiu and Xun Huisheng.

Peking Opera represents an important part of Chinese culture and has become a refined form of art as a result of the hard work of hundreds of artists over the past two centuries.

Kun Opera

Kun Opera, also called "Kunshanqiang" or "Kunqu", originated in the Kunshan region of Jiangsu. It is one of China's classical operas, with a history of more than 500 years.

During the reign of Emperor Jiajing, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Wei Liangfu, a famous musician, combined the essences of Haiyan and Yiyang styles and created the well-known "Shuimoqing", contributing to the development of Kun Opera.

Kun Opera has a complete system of acting as well as its own distinctive tunes. Its wide-ranging repertoire has many delicate and elegant tunes. The orchestra consists of traditional instruments including the dizi, a horizontal bamboo flute which plays the lead part; xiao, a vertical bamboo flute; sheng, a mouth organ and pipa, a plucked string instrument with a fretted finger board. Many Chinese local operas are greatly influenced by its tunes and acting style.

Shaoxing Opera

Shaoxing Opera is a relatively new local Chinese opera popular in the southern regions of the Yangtze River. It originated in Shenxian County, Zhejiang Province, which belonged to the Yue State in ancient times, so it was popularly known as Yue Opera. Yue Opera has a history of about 80 years. It was derived from a kind of story-singing. At first, it was performed with a small drum and hardwood clappers for rhythm and later, choral and orchestral accompaniment was added. It drew some musical elements from Shao Opera and subsequently formed its own characteristics.

Yue Opera is noted for its lyricism, and singing is dominant in it. Its tunes are sweet and beautiful and the performance vivid and full of local color. Originally Yue Opera was only performed by males and then changed to all female performances. After 1949, male and females work together. Yuan Xuefen is the best known actress.

With the entry of television and movies into family entertainment in the lives of people in Zhejiang Province and neighboring cities and provinces, performances for Yue Opera are in decrease. Besides, Yue Opera is sung in local dialect and may not be understood by people from other parts of the country. And therefore it remains a local opera. But it is very popular in the countryside, especially during festivals such as Spring Festival. Open-air performances are commonplace with crowds gathering in a large square, sitting or standing, watching and listening to the actors and actress.

Every play of Yue Opera is divided into several acts, each of which depict an inseparable part of the whole story. The ending is usually a happy one.

Huangmei Opera

Huangmei Opera was originally called "Huangmei tune" or "tea-picking opera." It was a folk opera that was formed in the regions of Anhui, Hubei, and Jiangxi at the end of the 18th century. One of the brands shifted to Huaining County, which was the center of Anqing, and mixed with its local art, using its local language to sing and narrate.

Consequently, it formed its own characteristics, called "Huai Tune," the predecessor of Huangmei Opera. At the middle of the 19th century, influenced by "Qingyang" and "Hui" tunes, Huangmei Opera developed into reserved copy opera. As such, it was gradually known and accepted by others.

At the beginning, Huangmei Opera was mainly characterized by singing over dancing. It had no fixed mode, but rather simply mimicked natural life. Some operas had the actions of tumbling and rushing, which was transferred from Qingyang and Hui tunes.

The Huangmei Opera performers mainly came from farmers and workers. And the acting material was usually borrowed from the audiences. It this period, Huangmei Opera was just an art form for the workers to entertain themselves.

Huangmei Opera can be divided into coloratura and pingci. Coloratura stages small operas, and is full of the sense of folk music. Pingci is the main melody of reserved copy opera, which uses narration and lyrics to express its meanings.

Some excellent operas of Huangmei Opera include: The Heavenly Maid and the Mortal, Goddess' Marriage, and Emperor's Female Son-in-law.

Yue Opera

Yue Opera is one of the main operas in south china. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi and some places in Hong Kong, Marcao and Southeast Asia where the overseas Chinese are gathering. Cantonese is being used in the performers' singings and dialogues. The basic tune of Cantonese opera is Banghuang, retaining the Kun, Ge and Guang tunes as well as taking the advantages of Guangdong folk songs and the current tunes. Except using the folk music instruments, such as the erhu, gaohu, sanxian and yueqin as the accompany instruments, some middle and low pitched western instruments are also being creatively used, such as violin, saxophone.

As absorbing the absorbing the excellence of talking opera, opera and film in the performance, stage arts and lamp decorations, Cantonese opera is getting its own characteristics. There are ten main characters in this opera at first, while now it has been decreased to some unique ones, for example wenwusheng, xiaosheng, zhengyinhuadan, erbanghuadan, chousheng and wusheng.

Chuan Opera

Chuan Opera is one of China's oldest local operas, popular in Sichuan Province and some regions of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. During the early years of the Qing Dynasty(1644-1911) there were five independent local operas prevalent simultaneously in the Sichuan area. In the course of evolution, they were gradually merged into what we call Chuan Opera. Among them, Gaoqiang(high tune) is the richest, with a distinctive Sichuan local color. It is accompanied only by percussion and chorus without any wind or string instruments. Chuan Opera's wide repertoire has a strong literary quality, and is full of wit, humor and lively dialogue with a pronounced local flavor. It also has built its own system of stylized movements. Special characters use stunts such as immortals who have a third eye on their forehead that they can open suddenly to show their magic power; quick changes of facial characteristics without makeup; jumping through burning hoops, and hiding of swords.

Ping Opera

Ping Opera is very popular in Beijing, Tianjin, North and Northeast China. It has a history of more than 70 years. Developing out of LianhuaLuo, a kind of story- singing in the east of Hebei Province, it borrowed the tunes and acting style of Peking Opera, Hebei Bangzi Opera, shadow shows and drum melody, and developed its own style. Since moving from the rural areas into the cities, it has produced many new programmes influenced by modern drama and Peking Opera. Its specializes in reflecting urban dwellers' life with easily-understood text, speech-like tunes, clear articulation and the richness of everyday life. At first, female characters in Ping Opera were dominant and their tunes were beautiful and touching, while the male tunes were quite simple. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the male arias have been greatly developed and there are many new plays in which male characters play the lead roles. Xin Fengxia is one of the representative performers of the opera.

Hebei Bangzi

Hebei Bangzi is one of the major forms of local opera in Hebei Province. Formerly known as Jing Bangzi, Zhili Bangzi and Wei Bangzi, it adopted the official name of Hebei Bangzi in 1952. It is very popular in Beijing, Tianjin and some regions of Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Shandong provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Hebei Bangzi is derived from Qinqiang and Shanxi Bangzi operas, which were introduced to Hebei Province in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. Singing in Beijin dialect, its division of roles and its performance style are similar to Peking Opera. Xusheng, a man with whiskers, plays the leading male role and his tune is forceful and solemn. The Qingyi female role emphasizes loud, clear singing, and the Huadan female role stresses acting and dialogue. The tunes sung by Hualian a male role with painted face, is rustic and vigorous. Hebei Bangzi has a special acting role, the Jingsheng, which combines Sheng costumes, Jing tunes and the performance style of both Jing and Sheng. Musical patterns of Hebei Bangzi includes five types of rhythmic structures. The accompanying instruments are the banhu, two-stringed Chinese fiddle: dizi, horizontal bamboo flute: sheng, mouth organ, and percussion. The repertoire of Hebei Bangzi has more than 500 traditional and 200 contemporary plays.

Henan Bangzi

Yu Opera, also called "Henan Bangzi Opera" or "Henan High Tune," is a major local opera in Henan Province and enjoys nationwide popularity. There are four styles in Yu Opera. And it is noted for its demanding melodies, strong rhythms and intensive use of spoken language.

It is also famous for its straightforward performance and strong local flavor. There are more than 600 traditional plays in the repertoire of Yu Opera. Chang Xiangyu is the best known actress of this opera.

Chao Opera

Chao Opera, also called "Chaozhou Opera," is popular in the Chao'an and Shantou regions of Guangdong Province, in the southern area of Fujian Province and in Taiwan where people speak Chaozhou dialect. It is also performed in Chinese communities in other countries of Southeast Asia. Bases on the folk dances and ballad-singing of the Chaozhou region, it formed its own style under the influence of Nanxi(one of the oldest Chinese operas that originated in the Song Dynasty. Its tunes are graceful and pleasant, full of local color. The old form of choral accompaniment still remains its special features. The clowns and females are the most distinctive characters. The female performers are good at imitating the movements of animals, shadow figures and puppets, creating very pleasing and amusing effects. The fan-playing and acrobatic skills are especially unique.

Traditional Musical Instruments

Traditional Chinese musical instruments can be divided into four categories: stringed instruments, percussion instruments, plucked instruments, and wind instruments. The following are just a few of them:

Guzheng
The guzheng, also spelled gu zheng or gu-zheng (Chinese:古筝；pinyin :gǔzhēng) or zheng (箏) (gu-, 古 means "ancient") is a traditional Chinese musical instrument. It belongs to the zither family of string instruments. The guzheng is the parent instrument of the Japanese koto, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum, and the Vietnamese dan tranh. The parent instrument of the guzheng is the se.

The guzheng should not to be confused with the guqin (another ancient Chinese zither but without bridges).



Horse-Headed Fiddle
The Horse-headed fiddle is a bowed stringed-instrument with a scroll carved like a horse's head. It is popular in Mongolian music. With a history of over 1,300 years, it even influenced European string music when Marco Polo brought one back from his travels through Asia. Its wide tonal range and deep, hazy tone color express the joy or pathos of a melody to its fullest.
The Mongolian people bestowed upon their beloved horse-headed fiddle a fantastic legend: during horse-racing at the Nadam Fair -- their featured grand festival--a hero, Su He, and his white horse ran the fastest, which incurred the envy and wrath of the duke. The cruel duke shot the horse dead, and Su He grieved so much that he met his horse in a dream. In the dream, the horse told Su He to make a fiddle from wood and the hair of a horse's tail, and to carve the head of the fiddle in the shape of a horse's head. The lad followed the horse's advice and when he finished, the fiddle produced an extremely vivid sound. From then on, people loved this instrument and composed many songs for it.

Lute (Pipa)
Originally named after the loquat fruit, the earliest pipa known was found to have been made in the Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC). By the the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), the pipa had reached its summit. It was loved by everyone--from the royal court to the common folk--and it occupied the predominant place in the orchestra. Many well known writers and poets created poems and mentioned it in their works. Bai Juyi, the master poet, vividly depicted the performance like this: rapid and soft notes mingled were just like big and small pearls dropping onto the jade plates.


Afterwards, the pipa underwent improvement in playing techniques and structure. Players then changed from holding the pipa transversely to holding it vertically, and from using a pick to using the fingers to pluck the strngs directly. In modern times, the volume and resonance has also been improved. The traditional music work 'Spring Moonlight on the Flowers by the River', which has a history of over one hundred years, has brought harmony and a sense of beauty to untold numbers of people.

Erhu
The Erhu, also called 'Huqin', was introduced from the western region during the Tang Dynasty. During the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279), it was refined and improved and new variations appeared. It was also an important instrument for playing the melody of Beijing Opera.



Bamboo Flute
The earliest flute was made from bone over 7,000 years ago. In the times since then, most flutes were made of bamboo, which allowed even common people to play it. By covering the holes and blowing through the side hole while moving the fingers flexibly between the six holes, a sound will be produced that is leisurely and mellifluous like sound from far away. This always reminds people of a pastoral picture of a farmer riding on a bull while playing a flute.




Dizi
The dizi (Chinese:笛子; pinyin: dízi), is a Chinese transverse flute. It is also sometimes known as the di (笛) or hengdi (横笛), and has varieties including the qudi（曲笛） and bangdi (梆笛).

The dizi is a major Chinese musical instrument, and is widely used in many genres of Chinese folk music, as well as Chinese opera, and the modern Chinese orchestra. Traditionally, the dizi has also been popular among the Chinese common people, and it is simple to make and easy to carry.

Most dizi are made of bamboo, which explains why dizi are sometimes known by simple names such as "Chinese bamboo flute." However, "bamboo" is perhaps more of a Chinese instrument classification like "woodwind" in the West.

The dizi is not the only bamboo flute of China, although it is certainly distinctive. Other Chinese bamboo wind instruments include the vertical end-blown xiao, the guanzi (double reed), the koudi, and the bawu (free reed).

Wooden Fish
A wooden fish (Chinese: 木鱼, pinyin:mùyú), (Japanese: mokugyo), (Korean: moktak), sometimes known as a Chinese block, is a wooden percussion instrument similar to the Western wood block. The wooden fish is used by monks and laity in the Mahayana Buddhistsutras tradition. It is often used during rituals usually involving the recitation of sutras, mantras, or other Buddhist texts. The wooden fish is mainly used by Buddhist disciples in China, Japan, Korea, and other East Asian countries where the practice of Mahayana, such as the ceremonious reciting of sutras, is prevalent. In some Zen/Ch'an Buddhist traditions, the wooden fish serves as a signal to start and end a meditation session, and in Pure Land Buddhism, it is used to chant the name of Amitabha.

The Taoist clergy has also adapted the wooden fish into their rituals.

Traditional Chinese Music

Traditional Chinese music can be traced back 7,000 - 8,000 years based on the discovery of a bone flute made in the Neolithic Age. In the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, only royal families and dignitary officials enjoyed music, which was made on chimes and bells. During the Tang Dynasty, dancing and singing entered the mainstream, spreading from the royal court to the common people. With the introduction of foreign religions such as Buddhism and Islam, exotic and religious melodies were absorbed into Chinese music and were enjoyed by the Chinese people at fairs organized by religious temples.




In the Song Dynasty, original opera such as Zaju and Nanxi was performed in tearooms, theatres, and showplaces. Writers and artists liked it so much that Ci, a new type of literature resembling lyrics, thrived. During the Yuan Dynasty, qu, another type of literature based on music became popular. This was also a period when many traditional musical instruments were developed such as the pipa, the flute, and the zither.

During the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing Dynasties (1644 - 1911), the art of traditional opera developed rapidly and diversely in different regions. When these distinctive opera styles were performed at the capital (now called Beijing), artists combined the essence of the different styles and created Beijing Opera, one of three cornerstones of Chinese culture (the other two being Chinese medicine and traditional Chinese painting) which continue to be appreciated even in modern times.




Besides these types of music, Chinese peasants were clever enough to compose folk songs, which also developed independently with local flavor. Folk songs described working and daily life such as fishing, farming, and herding and were very popular among the common people.