Overview of the development of white opera in western Guangdong

Qing Qianlong years, Lianjiang City, Guangdong Province, the ancient trading port of the town of Anpu prevailed around the folk songs, six miles away from Anpu Qu Long villagers singers Huang Shiyuan folk songs often rap for their own amusement, but also for the townspeople to sing. At the time of the Wuchuan puppet theater into the performance of the Anpu area, Huang Shiyuan imitation Wuchuan puppet form, formed a small class society, a lead singer, a manipulation of puppets. One person sings, one person manipulates the puppet, and one person strikes the bamboo tube, engaging in semi-agricultural and semi-artistic performance activities. Because the performance only with a bamboo tube with the rhythm of the singing, the masses called "bamboo drama", also known as "wooden fish class".

During the Jiaqing period, the artists of Qulong Village were influenced by the opera from all over the world and added musical accompaniment to their performances. Initially, they took the head of a local wild plant, Leucaena leucocephala, and a cedar board, and made a "Leucaena leucocephala" to accompany the performance, which was modeled after an erhu. The sound is rough and thick, and is quite distinctive. Afterwards, Yueqin, flute, pinna and other musical instruments were gradually added to the accompaniment, and the bamboo tube was changed to percussion instruments such as wooden fish, small drums, cymbals and high side gongs, and from then on, the "Bamboo Theater" was renamed the White Theater. Later, due to historical and social limitations, the development of white opera art was slow and stagnant. During the Jiaqing period, Huang Mingzhong, a descendant of Huang Shiyuan, was inspired by foreign opera instruments while performing, and sang along with the instruments, so that the local puppet theater began to have musical instruments to accompany. Later on, the horizontal xiao and the moon string (Yueqin) were added, collectively known as the "three pieces of head". At the same time, they also introduced the opera gongs and drums, and changed the bamboo strikes to big and small wooden fish, and the "Bamboo Stripes Opera" was renamed "White Opera Boy" from then on. The puppet class of "White Opera Boy" increased to five or six persons per class, among which one person was the main singer who also manipulated puppets, one person specialized in manipulating puppets as a dancer, and three to four persons manipulated musical instruments. The repertoire included "Zhang Yiming", "Zhou's Marriage" and "Dong Yong's Selling". During the Daoguang period, the development of white opera has entered a period of prosperity. The singing style was constantly innovated, the music tunes were constantly enriched, the puppet production introduced the Cantonese opera face painting, the techniques were detailed and realistic, and the White Opera had become a unique local opera. The performance of white opera is very popular in western Guangdong. There are eight white opera classes in Qu Long Village, each with five to six artists. Four villages artists have to learn from the teacher in the village of white dragon, after learning and organizing the troupe around the performance, often under the banner of "Qu Long Ban". In Lianjiang, Suixi area, there are about forty white opera troupes performing in the townships. Lianjiang, Suixi white opera troupe developed to more than 40, and expanded to seven to eight people per class. In the late Daoguang period, the white opera artist Huang Chengfeng absorbed the changes in the Cantonese opera style, so that the simple folk song tunes as the main tune of the white opera singing developed into a dolorous, comprehensive use of the plate style of singing.

After the liberation, the art of white opera gained a new life. Entered a new stage of development. The repertoire of white opera performances through the collection and organization, push the new, adapted and created, more and more rich. There have been hundreds of them. Not only retained the traditional excellent program, and created many modern plays. 1961 the county set up a professional white opera puppet troupe, the reform and development of white opera has played a great role in promoting the county's puppet theater since there are now more than 90. A troupe of artists as many as a dozen people, as few as seven or eight people. Also broke the rules of the colorful artists, there are many female artists to join the ranks of the white opera performances. After the seventies, there was also an attempt to perform white theater by people, by the state and provincial and municipal theater circles and praised.

l961 set up a state-run Lianjiang County professional white opera puppet troupe, the first time to absorb female performers to participate in the performance, taking the form of multi-person singing - to promote the reform of the art of white opera singing, and greatly promote the popularization and development of since the opera.

In 1974, some cultural artists tried to play the role of people singing white opera, the first white opera program "Red Plum Welcomes Spring", "Hongxia Marriage" was well received. Since then, amateur troupes performing white opera have been established, and white opera in western Guangdong has been developed. In the 1980s, the modern white opera productions "Love Song of Running Water" and "Sweet River" won the first prize in the Guangdong Provincial Works Selection and the Guangdong Provincial Award for Outstanding Literary and Artistic Works for the 40th Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC, while the white opera production "Dumb Boy Intercepting a Car" won the second prize in the Zhanjiang Hongshi Art Festival in 2005. As a result, the influence of white opera in western Guangdong is expanding. The white opera of western Guangdong is y rooted in the land of western Guangdong and is increasingly loved by the people. There are more than sixty white opera troupes, western Guangdong white opera has been collected into the "Chinese Opera Journal" and "Chinese Opera Music Integration". 1996, Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture named Lianjiang City, Yingzai Township as the township of western Guangdong white opera art.

"Western Cantonese White Opera was formed in Lianjiang, Guangdong at the end of the Qing Dynasty". This was recorded by the Tianjin (Guangdong) Association. The Tianjin (Guangdong) Guild Hall, now known as the Chinese Theater Museum, was built in 1907, the 33rd year of the Qing Dynasty. It is now a national key cultural relics protection unit and the first theater museum in China. There is a detailed record of the Guangdong Museum of Fine Arts (Chen Jia Ancestral Hall) on the white opera in western Guangdong.

After a long period of development, especially after the liberation of the reform. The art of white opera has matured. Drawing on the art of Cantonese opera role line is divided into "three face" (big flower face, two flower face, black face), "four clean" (small, martial arts, old, ugly), "five Dan" (flower Dan, distribution.), "five Dan" (color Dan, Mei Xiang Dan, Mei Xiang Dan, the first, the second, the second, the second, the third, the third, the third, the fourth, the third, the fourth, the fourth, the fourth, the fourth, the fourth and the fourth, the fifth, color Dan, Mei Xiang Dan, Shaodan). The art of singing, retained with the original folk characteristics of the "slow plate" as the main, supplemented by the "fast plate", "anti-money slow plate" and so on. Lyric structure. Basically, it retains the format of seven-word sentences for civilian use, and short sentences can also be added according to the needs of the content of the plot. The music is bright and lively, consisting of four parts: the long canto, the variant canto, the small song and the gongs and drums. The stage for the white opera performance is still mainly a temporary stage, which can be set up at any time at the entrance of the village. Stage installations also retained from the simple features, hanging activities canvas.