Who can teach me about Yueju Opera?

It is one of the five major Chinese opera genres, and is also known as "the second largest opera genre in China" (Peking Opera, Yueju Opera, Huangmei Opera, Pingju Opera, and Yu Opera). It originated in Sheng County, Zhejiang Province in the late Qing Dynasty, where the ancient state of Yue was located, and was named after the development of local folk songs.

Traditional Chinese opera form. It is mainly popular in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Fujian and other places, and also has a high reputation and a wide mass base overseas.

Yueju Opera is long on lyricism, mainly sung, with a clear and graceful voice, beautiful and moving performances, and very much in the local color of Jiangnan. Yueju Opera was first performed by a male class, then changed to a female class or a mixed class, and now it is mostly performed by a female class.

Today, the state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage, which was approved by the State Council on May 20, 2006 to be included in the

History of Development

The predecessor of Yueju Opera was the popular form of rap in Shengxian County of Zhejiang Province, called "Luodu Singing Book" (which was mainly performed in the village of Matang, and it can be said to be the origin of the opera), and it is believed that the origin of the opera was in Matang Village. The origin of Yueju Opera should be in Matang, and thus Yueju Opera should have a history of nearly 150 years.) Men's Yueju Opera originated from Dongwang Village in Shengzhou, and women's Yueju Opera originated from Shi Jiaao in Shengzhou.

In 1929, the second female class was held in Sheng County, which was followed by the second female class in 1931. "The show was a success, but it was still a mix of male and female performers.

From January 1928 (i.e. 17th year of R.O.C.), women's classes flocked to Shanghai (Shanghai), and in the second half of 1941 (i.e. 30th year of R.O.C.), they increased to 36. Almost all the famous actresses of women's Yueju Opera were gathered in Shanghai. Newspaper commented that "Shanghai's women's Yueju Opera has been popular for a while, and recently it has become more and more popular". The men's class was eventually replaced by the women's class due to a lack of actors and actresses.

During this period, the most famous actors and actresses were "three flowers, one juan and one gui", namely Shi Yinhua, Zhao Ruihua, Wang Xinghua, Yao Shujuan, and Xiaodangui, and the younger ones were Tu Xinghua, Zhu Su'e, and Ma Zhanhua; and the young actresses, such as Yuan Xuefen, Yin Guifang, Fan Ruijuan, Fu Quanxiang, Xu Yulan, etc., were already in the forefront.

In September 1944, Yin Guifang and Zhu Shuizhao reformed at the Longmen Theater. After that, all the major Yueju troupes in Shanghai joined the "New Yueju", and the face of Yueju opera changed dramatically in just a few years.

In May 1949, Shanghai was liberated, and on April 12, 1950, Shanghai's first national troupe, the East China Experimental Troupe of Yueju Opera, was established; on March 24, 1955, the Shanghai Yueju Opera Theatre was officially founded. The theater gathered a large number of specialists in the field of Yueju Opera with high artistic qualities in the fields of writing, directing, acting, sound and beauty, etc., and played the role of a model national theater under the guidance of the cultural and artistic direction of the Communist Party of China (CPC) of serving the people and socialism, as well as the guideline of "let a hundred flowers blossom and push forward new ideas". In addition, a number of collectively owned troupes, such as "Fanghua", "Yunhua", "Cooperation", "Young and Strong", etc., were also very active, producing outstanding performers and artists. They are also very active, and have achieved a lot of results in the production of theater.

50 ~ 60 years is the golden period of Yueju Opera, created a number of influential artistic masterpieces, such as "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", "The Story of the West Wing", "Dream of the Red Chamber", "Sisterhood of the Xianglin", etc., at home and abroad have gained a great reputation, "Love Detective", "Li Wa biography", "chasing the fish", "Chunxiang biography", "Jasper Hairpin", "Peacock", "Southeast Flight", "He Wensiu", "Colorful House", "Playing the Golden Boughs", "The Seal of Blood", "Li Xiuying", etc., became the most important and most important of all.

With the development of socialist construction, Yueju opera began to move from Shanghai to the whole country. By the early 1960s, Yueju Opera had spread to more than 20 provinces and cities, and its influence was expanding.

During the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966, Yueju Opera was severely damaged. A group of famous actors, creators and management cadres were persecuted, and the opera was forced to stop performing.

Since the late 80s, with the richness of cultural categories and the diversification of audience tastes, Shanghai's Yueju Opera has been facing serious challenges. The aspirants in the field of Yueju Opera are actively exploring and deepening the reform, trying to make the cause of Shanghai Yueju Opera go back to glory.

Classical Plays

"Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", "Tiger Wang Snatches His Marriage", "Five Daughters Worship Their Longevity", "Dream of the Red Mansion", "Sisterhood of the Xianglin", "The Story of the Western Chamber", "The Peach Blossom Fan", "He Wenshou", "Yutang Chun", "Seal of the Bloody Hands", "Playing with the Golden Boughs", "The Jade Dragonflies", "Jade Hairpin", "The Story of the Western Garden", "The Legend of Chunxiang", "The Legend of the White Serpent", "Meng Li Jun", "Love of the Mountains", "Legend of Li Wa", and "The Legend of the Mountain and the River". Love", "Li Wa Biography", "King of the North", "Nine Catty Girl", "Prince of the Desert", "Wife of the Plate", "Wife of the Plate", "Wife of the Plate", "Meeting at the House of Sending Flowers", "The Book of Liou Yi", "Lu You and Tang Wan", "Rouge", "Chasing the Fish", "The Love Detective", "Complaints of the Palace of Han Dynasty", "The Moon of Spring River", "The Rain of the Tongjiang River", "Tears of the Flowering Candle", and "Southeast Flight of the Peacock", among many others.

The Art of Genre

Yin Guifang (Yin Pai) as Zhang Sheng in The Story of the Western Chamber of the Vietnamese Opera

In October 1942 (i.e., October 31st of the Republic of China), Yuan Xuefen, a renowned performer of Yueju Opera, carried out a comprehensive reform of the traditional Yueju Opera, which was called "New Yueju Opera". The New Yueju Opera changed the bright and jumping main accent "Sigongqiang" of the previous "Little Song Class" to the mournful and soothing singing tunes, namely "Shakutongqiang" and "String Down Qiang". The "String Down Cavity", which advanced the art of singing to a new stage. All the genres of Yueju Opera were developed and enriched on the basis of the "Shaku-tuned Cavity" and "Stringed Cavity". Later, these two tunes became the main accent of Yueju Opera, and on this basis, they gradually formed their own genres of singing.

Yuan School: founded by Yuan Xuefen[2]. In the history of the development of the art of singing in Yueju opera, Yuan Xuefen is an important representative figure. Yuan Xuefen founded the "Yuan School" on the development of Yueju Opera Danjiao singing, improvement and the formation of Li Pai has far-reaching influence. The style of Yuan's singing is simple and easy, euphemistic and delicate, deep and subtle, mellow and rich in flavor and emotion. The school's heirs are: Shin Shui Zhao, Fang Yafen, Tao Qi, Hua Yiqing, Zhu Dongyun, and so on.

Yin School: founded by Yin Guifang. Her performance is simple but not dull, intelligent but not frivolous, dashing but not floating, and her diction is clear and distinctive. Yin's style is characterized by its depth and timelessness, as well as its softness. The school's heirs: Yin Xiaofang, Mao Weitao, Zhao Zhigang, Wang Jun'an, Xiao Ya, Qi Chunlei, Wang Qing, Zhang Lin and so on.

Fan School: Founded by Fan Ruijuan. Fan Ruijuan has a wide range of opera paths, her voice is solid, bright and strong, with a wide range, and she sings in pursuit of a strong male beauty. She is one of the founders of the "Under the Strings" style. The Fan School is characterized by its simplicity, firmness of diction, varied melodies, masculinity, and masculine beauty. The school's heirs are: Shin Mingzhu, Wu Fenghua, Zhang Ruihong, Meng Kejuan, Fang Xuewen, Xu Ming, Chen Qi, Jiang Yao, Shao Wenjuan, Shi Jihua, Han Tingting, Chen Xueping, Ding Saijun, and Wang Rousang.

Xu School: Founded by Xu Yulan. She absorbed the rough and tragic features of Shao Opera, the robust and solid techniques of Beijing Opera, and the simple and simple elements of the early Xiao Sheng singing of Yue Opera, forming her own colorful and handsome, free and smooth, unrestrained and high-pitched, with fiery feelings, and with a tune that has great ups and downs and obvious tumbling features. School heirs: Qian Huili, Zhang Xiaojun, Zheng Guofeng, Chen Najun, Liu Jue, Jin Meifang, Wang Xiuyue, Shao Yan, Yang Tingna.

Bi School: founded by Bi Chunfang. Bi Chunfang specializes in comedy, her voice is clear and elastic, with a wide range, good at singing changes to portray the characters, she absorbed the essence of the singing of the Fan School and the Yin School, the performance skills of the Yuan School, and became a unique style by integrating and combining them. The school's heirs: Yang Tonghua, Yang Wenwei, Ding Xiaofrog and so on.

Fu School: founded by Fu Quanxiang. Its main feature is that the singing voice is playful and varied, falling and twisting, expressive, abundant performance, delicate and godly, and has the charm of touching people with the shape, moving with emotion. The Fu School is an important school of Yueju Opera flower girl singing. The school heirs: He Ying, Yan Jia, Chen Fei, Chen Ying, Chen Yi, Chen Lan, Hong Fenfei, Zhang Lajiao, Xue Ying, Hu Peidi, Zhang Jingyue, Qiu Danli, Dong Jianhong and so on.

Jin School: Founded by Jin Cai Feng. Jin Caifeng studied under Yuan Xuefen, and absorbed the essence of Shi Yinhua, Fan Ruijuan and Fu Quanxiang. She is good at playing a lady of the house, and her singing voice is graceful and reverberating, with clear diction, natural luck, and rich in flavor. The school's heirs: Xie Qunying, Huang Meiju, Fan Tingting and so on.

Lu School: founded by Lu Jinhua. She specializes in the roles of Confucian scholar, poor scholar, and scarf scholar. His singing is not ostentatious, not like carving, simple and clear, natural and smooth. The school's heirs: Huang Hui, Cao Yindi, Xia Saili, Liao Qiying, Xu Biaoxin, Xu Jie, Zhang Yufeng, Qiu Qiaofang and so on.

Zhu School: founded by Zhu Shuizhao. Its performance is delicate, charming, fresh and vulgar, singing sweet and soft, especially prominent is her wide range of theater, flower Dan, Qingyi, Xiao Dan, Xiao Sheng, Lao Sheng, and even the old Dan and other trades can cope with, coupled with the handsome costume, so the audience was described as "Yueju Xi Shi". Her repertoire includes "Liu Yi Passing on the Book", "Three Looks at the Royal Sisters", "Mo Worry Girl", and so on. The school's heirs: Xia Wenjun, Zhu Xiaozhao, Yin Ruifen, Sun Jing, Sun Tingya.

Qi School: founded by Qi Ya Xian [7]. Characterized by sincere and strong feelings, simple tunes, not many flowery, but tightly organized, rhythmic, concise and repeated changes in the sound pattern, forming a deep impression of the characteristics. The school's heirs are: Wang Hangjuan, Fu Xingwen, Jin Jing, Zhou Yaqin, Zhu Zhufen, Zhou Meijiao, and so on.

Wang School: founded by Wang Wenjuan[9]. She is known for her ability to perform the character's demeanor and convey her inner feelings. Wang Wenjuan learned from the best and pursued innovation, and gradually formed a style that is natural and smooth, simple and simple, and sincere. The school's heirs: Zhou Yunjuan, Li Min, Shu Jinxia, Shan Yangping, Chen Xiaohong, Wang Zhiping, Hong Ying, Qian Aiyu, and so on.

Lv School: founded by Lu Ruiying. It is the youngest of the Yueju Opera genres (the latest among all genres). Lv Ruiying's singing voice in the simple and delicate, euphemistic and deep Yuan School based on the addition of its colorful, graceful and fancy singing. Her singing voice has a strong sense of music, and she is known as the "lyrical soprano" in the field of Yueju Opera. Her representative repertoire includes: "Playing the Golden Branch", "The Tale of the Western Chamber", "The Gentleman in the Flower" and "Mu Guiying". The heirs of the school: Chen Huiling, Zhao Haiying, Wu Suying, Sun Zhijun, Huang Yiqun, Zhang Yongmei and so on.

Zhang School: founded by Zhang Yunxia. The Zhang School was founded by Zhang Yunxia. The main features of its singing are: delicate and gentle tunes, deep feelings; soft and sweet tone, full of flavor. The school's heirs: Xue Guizhen, He Saifei, Yuan Xiaoyun, Yang Xuemei and so on.

Zhang School: founded by Zhang Guifeng. It was founded by Zhang Guifeng. His performances are true to life and he is good at characterization; his singing voice is strong and sturdy, with clear staccato, and his voice is full of emotion. Representative repertoire: "The Second Hall" and "The Nine-Catty Girl". School heirs: Dong Kedi, Zheng Manli, Zhang Hailing, Wu Qun, Cai Yan, Wang Xiaoling, Le Caizhen, Wang Jinping, Zhang Guohua, Zhang Chenghao and so on.

Xu School: Founded by Xu Tianhong. It was founded by Xu Tianhong. The singing voice absorbs the style of Shao Opera, which is staccato and high-pitched. His voice is high, and he emphasizes on spitting. The use of vibrato, nasal and head cavity *** sound, known as "shaking cavity". Representative repertoire: "Dream of the Red Chamber", "Release the Son in the Second Hall", "The Night of the Bright Moon" and so on. School heir: Jin Ye and so on.

Wu School: founded by Wu Xiaolou. The performance is strong and heavy. His performance is strong, vigorous, and passionate, with a broad and bright voice, full-bodied bass and mid-range tones, and he is good at portraying all kinds of characters with very different personalities. Representative repertoire: "Love Detective" and so on. The heirs of the school: Jin Hong and so on.

The Shang School: founded by Shang Fangchen. The school was founded by Shang Fangchen. In his early years, Shang Fangchen cooperated with Xing Zhuqin, Zhu Su'e, Zhao Ruihua, Yao Shujuan and others. On the basis of the original Lao Sheng singing voice, he tried to reform it by borrowing the Shaoxing Daban's shakutong and integrating it into the Yueju Opera's four gongs, which made his singing voice high-pitched and powerful, clear and magnificent, forming a unique Lao Sheng singing voice. Representative repertoire: "Liu Yi Passing on the Book" and so on. The school's heirs: Hu Guomei and so on.

Zhou School: founded by Zhou Baoqui. Zhou School: founded by Zhou Baoqui. Zhou Baokui is known as the "King of Old Dan". His singing voice is simple and sincere, and he portrays characters with different identities. He has a wide repertoire. He is skillful in acting and vivid in characterization, and can design his singing voice according to the character's personality, so that the character's image can be vividly embodied in his singing voice. Representative repertoire: Grandmother-in-law in The Jasper Hairpin and Mother Jia in Dream of the Red Chamber. School heirs: Yu Huizhen, Wang Wahali and others.

The Art of Dressing Up

In the early days of Yueju Opera, most male actors did not wear makeup; when a man played a female role, he spread the braid at the back of his head, combed it into a bun, and applied rouge and lead powder on his face; some female actors of the grass-roots classes wore makeup, applying blush to their cheeks by dipping water on a piece of red paper and did not paint their eyebrows, or painted their eyebrows with potting grey, which is known as "dressing up with clear water". Later, when they performed costume plays, they followed the example of the Shao Opera and learned the method of applying make-up with watercolor, white powder, red rouge, and ink paste to depict the eyebrows and eyes. In October 1942 (31st year of the Republic of China), when the Xue Sheng Opera Troupe staged the play "The Grievous Souls of Ancient Temples", Han Yi gave Yuan Xuefen a trial run in oil-color makeup for the first time, and then the choreographer and director Yu Yin invited a movie star to be a makeup instructor for the troupe, and all the gouache makeup was abolished and replaced by oil-color makeup. In the following years, Yin Guifang, Zhu Shuizhao, Fu Quanxiang, Qian Miaohua, Wu Xiaolou and others changed to oil-color make-up when they performed new plays, and in 1946 (R.O.C. 35), make-up artist Chen Shaozhou successfully made up the stage appearance of Sister-in-law Xianglin in the Yueju opera Sisterhood of the Xianglin, who became a beggar woman from her youth to her old age. With the strong support of the make-up artists in Shanghai film and drama circles, Yueju Opera continued to study and practice, and basically formed the make-up characteristics with the style of the opera in the early 50's, which is to absorb the advantages of the traditional gouache make-up method of bright colors and the soft and natural make-up of films and dramas, forming the characteristics of bright and soft colors, fresh lines, clear features, which conformed to the life as well as artistic exaggeration, and gave the audience a soft and lyrical sense of beauty. The soft and lyrical beauty of the audience.

Hair and headdress

Different historical periods have different forms and characteristics. In the early days of the male class, male actors unraveled the braids on their heads and put their hair in a bun, inserting a flower, which was the earliest hair style and headdress. After that, they performed costume plays, modeled after Shao Opera. With small glass tubes strung into rows of whiskers, decorative buns, buns decorated with top flowers. 20 years to learn Peking Opera, wrapped the big head, but initially did not have the conditions for the preparation of a full set of "head", instead of wood or iron made of shaped water tablets, rarely used a full set of head to decorate the performance. Since the birth of the female class, because actresses have braids, it is used as a "head" of the "hair curtains" and top wigs, and with the costume of the "private color line" to match the study of Peking Opera using the "Copper bubble headdresses (e.g. Wang Baoshuan in Farewell to the Kiln), rhinestone headdresses (e.g. Yan Lanzhen in Panfusuofu), and colorful headdresses (e.g. Mrs. Li in The Jasper Hairpin) were used in Peking Opera. In the early 1940s, Yuan Xuefen changed to using her own hair to make a costume headdress for her performances of Hengniang (The Hengniang), choosing to use the headdress as needed. After that, the actors also reformed their headdresses while reforming their costumes, and started to create the unique costume hair and headdresses of Yueju Opera, which changed the complexity into simplicity, and changed the gorgeousness into purity, with beads and phoenixes on their heads, and not many decorative flowers, which was characterized by simplicity and clarity. 50's, in order to make up for the needs of the hair and to save time for the make-up, they started to make wigs. After the establishment of the Experimental Troupe of East China Yueju Opera, it firstly set up the professional staff of "make-up management", and successively equipped with styling designers, specializing in drawing hair and headdress design charts according to the director's requirements. With professional designers, the headdresses were specially designed, and then the samples were sent to the theater costume factory for customization, thus breaking the fixed pattern of traditional head and face ornaments, and skillfully applying the ancient life hairpins, hairpin, step rocker, women's headdresses, scarf headdresses, knobs, and flower inlays to the stage characters' images, and designing nine-tailed phoenixes, seven-tailed phoenixes, double-head phoenixes, and pairs of phoenixes for queens, princesses, and government officials and eunuchs' women; and partial phoenixes, single phoenixes, phoenixes, and phoenixes for the general family members of the bookish families. For the empress, the princess and the ladies of the officials, they designed nine-tailed phoenix, seven-tailed phoenix, double-headed phoenix and pair of phoenixes; for the general families of the scholarly families, they designed partial phoenix, single phoenix, phoenix hairpin and middle phoenix; for the women of the poor and needy families, they designed cloud-head, Ruyi, Bage, and small pearl phoenixes. Flowers worn on the head is also very delicate, can not be worn casually, pay attention to the character from the beginning, pay attention to the flowers and other decorations on the head of the sense of balance, sense of hierarchy. The color of the flowers is generally not particularly bright, and most of them are mainly inter-colored to keep the harmony with the color of the costumes. The creativity of Shanghai Yueju Opera is valued by the art world, and the make-up artists of Shanghai Yueju Opera, such as Chen Lihua and Sun Zhixian, have been invited to teach professional students and theater directors at the Shanghai Theater Academy.

Beards

In the early days of the Xiao Ge Ban, some of the actors used the beard of the clay statues of the gods in the temples, and some used black and white yarn to make a row of beards. After they started to rent the performance line, they adopted the beard of Shao Opera, and in 1917 (the 6th year of the Republic of China), when the male class entered Shanghai, they adopted the beard of Peking Opera, such as the "Black Man", "Pale Man", "White Man" of the Lao Sheng and the Dafen, and the "White Man" of the clowns. "In the early 1930s, the women's class still followed the Peking Opera's beard, and in the late 1930s, when the Yue Opera reformed, the beard began to be improved as well. First, the beard was shortened and lightened, and in the early 1940s, the old students did not use the traditional hanging beard and learned the "sticky beard" of drama. Later, because of the "sticky beard" make-up method is not convenient and more time, it was changed to use copper wire as a frame to make all kinds of beards. When a full beard is needed for a big face, the "gnarled beard" is no longer used, and the "set of beard" is used instead, and the clowns no longer use the "eight-beard" or "hanging beard", but the "hanging beard" instead. The clowns no longer use the "eight-beard" and "hanging hitch", but the "pinch-nose beard" and "warped beard", which are collectively known as the "improved beard". The traditional "full mouth" not see the lips, improve the beard with a thick copper wire bending molding, lips exposed visible, there are five locks of beard, three locks of beard, etc. In the 60's Shanghai Yueju opera costume drama, all with improved beard, beard raw materials to human hair and yak hair is mainly mixed with wool, and then hooked in the hair on the flesh-colored silk or mesh gauze.

Set props

Set

(1) realistic set. Realistic techniques to produce a mood, time and space changes are not large, but can produce a certain illusion in the audience, so that people have a sense of being there. Such as the Shanghai Yueju Theater performance of "The West Wing", "Dream of the Red Chamber", Jing'an Yueju Troupe performance of "Emperor Guangxu" and other plays of the set.

(2) The combination of virtual and real sets. This is a method used in a large number of Vietnamese opera sets. One is a small device (from the 40's "stylized device" development), the design of the scene to the local image of the main, omit the other, by the audience's imagination to understand the overall situation. This kind of scenery leaves a large performance space, such as the Shanghai Yueju Theater's performance of "Three Watching Imperial Sisters" and "Li Cuiying" performed by the Young and Strong Yueju Opera Troupe. Another is a combination of large and small devices of the set (i.e., realistic set and small devices combined), such as the Shanghai Yueju Theater performances of "Sisterhood of the Xianglin", "King of the North", "Jinshan War Drums" and other plays.

(3) Neutral and characteristic sets. It is based on the absorption of the drama set expression method, according to the unique stage art language of Yueju Opera. There is both unity and versatility in the use of different scenes to produce harmony and beauty, without losing the prescribed context of each scene and its own inherent characteristics. For example, the Shanghai Yueju Theater performed "Empress Hanwen" and other plays in the 1980s.

(4) decorative sets. It is on the basis of "old-fashioned", to enrich and create, commonly used in the time and space changes, the traditional performance techniques in the play. Such as the Shanghai Yueju Theater performance of "Panfusuo Fu", "playing the golden branch", "Jasper Hairpin" and other plays.

(5) Drawing on folk art style sets. It combines the specific environment and decorative into one, such as the folk paper-cutting, shadow art techniques absorbed and used, with a strong folk art flavor. For example, the Shanghai Yueju Theater performs "The Legend of the White Snake", "Eleven Lang", and the modern drama "Spinning General" and other plays.

Clothing categories and features

In the early days of Yueju Opera, most of the characters in the drama wear borrowed from the life of the clothes, robes, coats, dressed as officials and eunuchs are also used in the temple of the gods python robe. Later on, they rented costumes from the Shaoxing Taipan head masters, put them in gabion baskets, and carried them around the villages and towns, which was the earliest form of wardrobe for Yueju Opera. Rental head more to jacket, shirt, python, leaning, arrow clothes, head style, basically Shaoxing Opera, Beijing Opera traditional style.

In the 20th to 30th century, during the period of Shaoxing Opera, influenced by the Shanghai Peking Opera wardrobe system, the main actors and actresses began to separate their costumes. The main actors wore "private color line" (also known as private room line), the main actors are responsible for the purchase; general actors and dragon-set, courtesans and other mass actors, wearing "Hall in the line", this kind of line by the owner or the head of the class of fragrant clothes to rent. As the audience both to see the actors and to see the line, prompting some famous actors to compete to show off the private color line, some of the small Dan performance, in a night even change more than 10 sets of clothing. Some people call this time the costume of Yueju Opera is "messy" period.

The costume design of Yueju Opera began in 1943 (32nd year of the Republic of China). Professional choreographer Han Yi in the "rainy night dream", the play of the devil king and the four little ghosts of the costume design; in November of this year, Yuan Xuefen starred in the "Princess Xiang", due to the characters in the play there are brothers and ethnicity and identity of the characters, and strive for artistic unity, all the costumes designed by the Han Yi plate by the actors to buy their own theater bosses based on the role of the primary and secondary post a portion of the cost of purchasing. This is a major reform of the costume of Yueju opera.

In the late 40s, the costume reform of Yueju opera through continuous artistic practice, summarize the lessons learned from successes and failures, and gradually formed a unique style, and the growth of a number of professional designers, such as Xingxi, Su Shi Feng, Han Yi, Zhang Jian'an, and the birth of a new China after the growth of Chen Lihua and so on.

In terms of color, the costume of Yueju Opera breaks through the norms of "upper five colors" and "lower five colors" commonly used in the wardrobe box, and adds a large number of intermediate colors, which is light, soft, simple and fresh, and strengthens the feeling of grace and softness. In clothing materials, no longer use the traditional clothing reflective soft satin, but mainly with non-reflective crepe satin as fabrics, and also use velvet, georgette yarn, beads, such as gauze, water sleeves with non-glossy spinning. Clothing styles and accessories, from the Chinese traditional figure painting (especially the painting of ladies) and folk art, to create their own new style, and then according to the different needs of the characters, with cloud shoulders, necklaces, ribbons, silk tapestries, jade pendants, etc., so that the clothing changes are rich and with a sense of the historical era, but to the Ming Dynasty styles are mostly. 60's after the trial of the material of the new products, so that the design of the world is more expansive. Some of the use of antique satin decoration instead of embroidery, received a very good stage effect.

As a result of unremitting exploration and accumulation, the unique style of Yueju opera costumes of gentle, light and elegant, clear and beautiful, continue to consolidate and develop, and have a great impact on domestic and international performances, thus becoming another style of clothing style in China's opera costumes.

The costume clothes

The costume clothes are the characteristic clothes of Yueju Opera, which are often worn by young women and middle-aged women in the opera. The blouse has water sleeves or natural color sleeves, plus cloud shoulders or fluttering belts; the long skirt is matched with a short skirt, or a middle skirt, peplums, belts, and jade ornaments. Short, medium and long skirts have tucks and no tucks. According to different identities, the ancient clothes are divided into ladies' clothes, folk clothes and palace clothes. It is characterized by a long skirt and short clothes, chest and waist tightening, the shape of the body is clear.

Yueju Python

Yueju Python first in color, no longer according to the traditional five-color python, sub-class, sub-status strictly wearable clothing box system, but the next five-color, inter-color, but also with reference to the five-color color class hierarchy of customs, in the inter-color selection. For example, the color and pattern of the python in "Playing the Golden Bough" is more simple and casual, and many inter-colored python robes are used in "Meng Lijun". Another method is to refer to the historical canon law and official rank using color, such as "Changle Palace" in the old emperor wearing black, with "embroidery", "黻", "powder rice", "sun", "moon", "zongyi", "algae", "mountains "Sun", "Sun", "Moon", "Zong Yi", "Algae", "Mountain", "Star", "Worm", "Fire" and other symbolic patterns. In Yueju Opera, the traditional "python" is sometimes changed into a robe system, called python robe. There is a big difference between the traditional "python" and the traditional "python" in the production. The python is no longer a whole piece of lining, but before and after the linen lining, so that the front and back of the stiff, to show the full official style. Developed later, python before and after the lining of some simply do not use hemp lining, with cloth scraping instead of pulp.

The Vietnamese Opera lean

The male class of the Vietnamese Opera used the traditional big lean in the early days, and the female class also used the traditional big lean (hard lean). After the reform, martial arts students seldom use leaning flag, leaning belly, the younger strings of martial arts students even more do not need to rely on the flag. The "leaning body", "leaning feet", "leaning shoulders", no longer use the "net spike" or "row beard". "rows of whiskers", straddling the belt, and generally do not use double shoulders. By the belly is no longer the traditional plane of a large piece, changed to the waist of the "waist package" and then beam tiger head belt. The clothes are not embroidered, all with a piece of armor. In the spring of 33rd year of the Republic of China, Yuan Xuefen played "Mulan from the army" in the flower Mulan, wearing military uniforms, armor began to use copper, on the armor, under the armor are used, later, patterns have "fish scale armor", "T-shaped armor", "human character armor ", "tortoise back armor" and so on, there is gold embroidery, there is also used in gold satin, silver satin cut and paste, or gold and silver broad-bordered floral plate line sewing up. Heart protector is useful for Cromie copper bubble, or plate gold, plate silver.

The skirt of Yueju Opera

The skirt of Yueju Opera is mainly the tuck skirt of Hua Dan. The earliest skirts were the traditional large tuck skirts with "horse face" in front and behind, commonly known as "horse face skirt", and later the "horse face" was removed and replaced by a single horse face skirt, often used for the old Dan. The traditional "fish-scale pleated skirt" was often used as a petticoat. Later, the large tucks were replaced by five-point wide tuck skirts, and in the 1940s the Xue Sheng Theater Troupe, influenced by the paintings of ladies in the late Qing Dynasty, designed "pasted-on skirts". This kind of pasted-on skirt, covered with a large tuck skirt, was simple with the front of it, and the length of the pasted-on skirt was as long as the top of the foot. This kind of "pasted-on skirt" is used repeatedly in the plays "Liang Zhu Mourning History" and "Chang'e Runs to the Moon", etc. The short skirt is called "short skirt" in the jargon. Short skirt, the jargon called "package ass", there are tucks, there are not tucks, there are mesh carving, there are embroidery, appliqué, diagonal cut, flat cut, a variety of patterns.

The cloud shoulder of Yueju Opera

The earliest ones are the traditional big cloud shoulder, but later on there are more than a hundred kinds of cloud shoulders, such as: foliate cloud shoulder, bead cloud shoulder (white beads or gold or silver beads), cloud shoulder with collar, cloud shoulder without collar, Ruyi cloud shoulder, flower cloud shoulder, mesh cloud shoulder, etc.

The cloud shoulder of Yueju Opera is also the most important one, which is the most popular one in the world.

Ruffles and cape

The ruffles worn by the young men of Yueju Opera are not with open lapels, but with round, slanted, or open lapels, and the ones with open lapels are "cape". This "cape" is often in the play when there are two couples, the use of the same color, called "cape". Yueju opera cape in the neckline and change a variety of styles, such as oblique lapel cape, straight lapel cape, lapel cape, Ruyi collar cape and so on. Xiao Sheng pleats and cape, mostly with inter-colored, patterned on one side, there are four gentleman pattern (plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum), but also useful peony, magnolia and other patterns, the collar edge is also changing more and more narrow, about two inches, the direction of the development of the beautiful. All the clothes in the costume of Yueju Opera "clip nest" in the "side pocket" (clip nest cut into a round), so the costume of Yueju Opera, the shoulders are free, smooth and comfortable.

Yueju opera helmet

Yueju opera helmet in the early men's class when performing traditional drama, is borrowed from the life of the Xiucai hat or forehead jade melon hat, some are in the demolition of dilapidated temples from the head of the statue of the bodhisattva taken off the helmet. Later, the costumes and helmets of Shao Opera and Beijing Opera were rented. After the female class entered Shanghai, the main actors had "private color line", the costumes they wore, the helmets and hats they wore on their heads were bought from the South Hengtai Color Boots Shop or the Guangdong Road Costume Shop. The other actors who wore the "Hall of Fame" wore rented costumes and helmets. These helmets are basically inherited from the Peking Opera or Kun Opera hat box system, such as "Tears of Xiangxian", "Liangzhu" in the helmet worn by the youngest, are the Peking Opera Wen Sheng towel.

In the reform pay attention to the use of traditional colors and take into account the customs of life. Such as the emperor, the royal family commonly used bright yellow, apricot yellow, wedding celebrations commonly used red, funeral mourning commonly used white. Patterns of color to point of green mainly, and other colors, emphasizing the clean, simple. Helmets and hats on the silver plate gold requirements and clothing consistent. Pattern usage, the emperor, the royal family are used "rows of dragons", "dragon", "kui dragons"; Princess, Princess are used "phoenix bird peony "The characters of "Eight Treasures" and "Fortune, Luster and Longevity" are used for the elderly characters; the characters of martial arts line adopt the deformed patterns of animals; the characters of literature line adopt the deformed patterns of flowers and plants, and use the decorative retracements, cloud patterns and geometric patterns, but the forms have changed and the positions of the decorations are different. The traditional helmets are often decorated with different colors. The traditional helmets are often decorated with pom-poms of different colors, while the helmets of Yueju Opera are seldom decorated, which is an important symbol of Yueju Opera helmets distinguishing them from those of Beijing and Kunming. In the new historical dramas, Yueju Opera puts the "Jinxian Crown", "Fangshan Crown", "Tongtian Crown", "Bundle Hair Crown In the historical drama, the "Jinxian Crown", "Fangshan Crown", "Tongtian Crown", "Bundle Hair Crown", "Dharma Crown", "Qiaoshi Crown", "Velvet Crown", etc. are improved and utilized in the characters on the stage. The traditional phoenix crown is worn by queens, concubines and princesses, and is also worn by women during wedding ceremonies. Except for the traditional plays, Yueju Opera no longer wears the phoenix crown filled with pom-poms in other plays. Such as "playing the golden branch" in the princess, the queen, "Changle Palace" in the queen, "Meng Lijun" in the Meng Lijun, have changed the phoenix crown for the forehead shape, or mounted insertion, the head reveals the bun hair, the use of the phoenix is the main, the side phoenix insertion wear on both sides, or phoenix is the main, the side phoenix insertion wear on both sides, and then the "Ruyi", "single phoenix Then the headdresses such as "Ruyi", "single phoenix" and "step rock" are put on.

Yueju Opera Boots and Shoes

During the period of "CaoTaiBan", the male class of Yueju Opera, the actors already wore rented boots and shoes. After the female class into Shanghai, learning Beijing opera, Shaoxing opera wear high boots, especially the big face, old man, the official belt dress wear high boots mostly. The boots and shoes worn by the female students were not high, and they wore cloud shoes, shoes with flat soles, and shoes with an inch or so. In order to make up for the short stature of the little dan, the shoes were padded with two or three inches of height, and at the end of the 30's, "Gao Sheng Stage" staged the performance of "Auntie Cai", in which Shiau Dangui played the role of Auntie Cai, and in order to increase her stature, she had to use "stilt walkers". It was not until 1944 (i.e. 33rd year of the Republic of China) that the male actor of "New Liang Zhu Lamentation History" wore thin high boots of about one inch. After the liberation, the boy wore three sets of cloud high boots mostly, generally to two or three inches or so, individual actors have to add the inner high. 1955, after the film "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" film, boots and shoes reform, not only to wear high boots, in the head of the boots also changed into a cloud decorated pattern or embroidery, color sets into a strong and harmonious three-color, commonly known as three sets of cloud high boots.