How did the tea-picking drama develop?

Tea-picking drama was originally named "Tea-picking Song". Tea-picking songs only sing minor songs, and each sentence has only four lyrics, such as:

Spring tea picking is long, and Baishan tea is full of roadside;

The elder sister went home and reported to the second sister that the first tea was not as fragrant as the evening tea.

This little song is lively and euphemistic.

After the development of tea-picking songs, tea-picking songs were composed of tea-picking ditties and named "Tea-picking Songs in December".

/kloc-in October/February, tea-picking songs combined with folk dances entered the ranks of Lantern Festival lanterns and became "tea-picking lanterns". The main vocals of "Tea Picking Lamp" are "Tea Huang Tiao", "Tea Picking Song", "Watching Tea Tone" and "Reporting Tea Name".

It consists of girls dressed as tea pickers, with 8 people in each team or 12 people. Two young elders are the team leaders, holding flower baskets, singing and dancing, and singing "Tea Picking Songs in December". This kind of "tea-picking lamp" is simple in form and purely a collective performance of song and dance.

Later, in order to receive tea customers from Guangdong merchants, tea farmers often improvised tea-picking programs in the form of tea-picking lanterns. That is to say, among the eight or 12 tea pickers in Tea Pickers, two are big sisters and second sisters, and the remaining group leader is a clown, which happens to be a "triangle class" with two denier and one ugliness.

The two sisters performed tea picking on the mountain, holding tea baskets, singing and dancing, and each sang "Tea Picking Song in December" for half a year. Dressed up as a clown with a paper fan and interspersed with jokes.

This is the original program "Sisters Picking Tea". Later, details such as opening a tea mountain, frying tea, sending my brother to sell tea, and serving tea were added. The clown disguised himself as a dry brother to sell tea and changed his name to send my brother to sell tea.

The performance of this kind of tea-picking lamp is the embryonic form of tea-picking drama. Tea Basket Lamp is constantly adding new contents, and there are also some skits that perform other labor and life, such as planting wheat, digging bamboo shoots, mending shoes, picking snails, selling flower thread and grinding bean curd. They sang in chorus without orchestral accompaniment because they were singing tea-picking tunes.

Tea-picking opera is a local opera developed from folk songs, dances and lanterns. The repertoire reflects the life of working people, and the music singing is full of folk songs, so it is deeply loved by the people.