Brief introduction of tea-picking drama in southern Guangxi

Tea-picking drama in southern Guangxi was introduced to Bobai from southern Jiangxi in the late Ming Dynasty (AD 1628), and it developed from singing bamboo and horses to singing and dancing to picking tea. According to the characteristics of interlining, it is also called "DuDu Tooth". Widely spread in 33 towns and their surrounding areas under the jurisdiction of Bobai County, Yulin City, southern Guangxi, as well as parts of neighboring Qinzhou City. After being introduced into Bobai, it formed its unique style in the Qing Dynasty, and gradually developed into a unique drama in the history of China opera in the Republic of China. Its singing content is mainly "picking tea in December", and the singing order is as follows: ① opening tea (also called congratulations tea or visiting tea); (2) Reclaiming land and ordering tea; 3 explore tea; 4 picking tea; 5 fried tea; 6 selling tea. Tea-picking in southern Guangxi belongs to the "three operas", namely Xiao Sheng, Xiao Dan and the clown, also known as the "triangle class". With percussion instruments such as gongs, drums, cymbals and wooden fish, and instrumental music such as suona, flute and erhu. Tao has ribbons, money whips, flower fans and handkerchiefs. The performances are mainly songs and dances, and the chanting is mostly rhyming. Tea picking qupai, one is tea cavity, that is, the original set of tea picking tunes; The second is to insert tea, which is based on Nanchang Xiaoqu and Four Seasons Lotus and absorbs folk songs from all over the country. The singing language is mainly Hakka, supplemented by ancient sayings, lively and enthusiastic, with strong local characteristics. "Tea picking tells the past" is a further development on the basis of tea insertion. Taking some folk stories with plots as a bridge, picking tea songs is mostly comedy and farce. From the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, the tea-picking drama in southern Guangxi has basically completed the transition from local drama to stage drama. The first day of agricultural tool reform, a tea-picking drama staged by the county rural literature and art counseling group (now the county tea-picking troupe), is a sign of this change. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, the County Tea-picking Opera Troupe successively staged such major repertoires as Butterfly Lovers, Two in-laws and Returning to Chashan, which declared the maturity of tea-picking opera. There are more than 30 tea-picking troupes in the county/KLOC-0, with more than 2,000 actors and more than 2,000 performances a year, covering the whole country. In September, 2003, the tea-picking drama "Clear Water Pond Side" won the second prize in the 10 national "Cao Yu Cup" competition held in Guangzhou. In the same year, Bobai was awarded the honorary title of "the hometown of tea picking art in Guangxi" by the Cultural Department of the autonomous region. It can be seen that the social value of tea-picking drama in southern Guangxi has been gradually recognized by people and experts, and it has become a unique and distinctive local drama, adding a new page to the history of Chinese drama. However, the brain drain and lack of successors have seriously hindered the inheritance and development of tea-picking drama in southern Guangxi.