Pingju

Pingju, one of the traditional operas of the Han nationality, is popular in northern China. It is one of the most popular operas of the majority of the people and ranks among the five major operas in China. There was a view that it was the second largest drama in China. In the late Qing Dynasty, it was formed on the basis of "counterpart lotus falling" in Luanxian County, Hebei Province. It first became popular in rural areas of Hebei Province, and then entered Tangshan, known as "Tangshan falling".

Around the 1920s, a group of actresses appeared in Northeast China. Since the 1930s, Pingju has become more and more mature under the influence of Peking Opera, Hebei Bangzi and other operas, with the emergence of Li Jinshun, Liu Cuixia, Bai Yushuang, Xi Cailian, AI Lianjun and other schools. After 1950, plays such as little son-in-law, Liu Qiaoer, Hua Weimei, Yang Sanjie suing and Qin Xianglian had a great influence in the whole country, and famous actors such as Xin Fengxia, Xiao Bai Yushuang and Wei Rongyuan appeared. Pingju is still popular in North and Northeast China.

Pingju can be divided into East Road and West Road, and the east road is the main one.

On May 20, 2006, Pingju was approved by the State Council and listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

In December 2018, the general office of the Ministry of Education announced that Tangshan Normal University is the inheritance base of Chinese excellent traditional culture of Pingju.

On October 2, 2019, Pingju participated in the 2019 Chinese opera culture week.

The origin of the name

Pingju is commonly known as "Tiao Tiao Xi" or "Luozi Xi", and also has the titles of "pingqiang Bangzi Xi", "Tangshan Luozi", "Fengtian Luozi", "Pingxi" and "Pingxi", but it is finally famous throughout the country in the name of "Pingju". There are different opinions on the origin of the name of Pingju. One is that the name was given by Li Jinshun, an early famous actress. Another is that the name was given by Li Dazhao. When Pingju, as a minor drama, first entered the city stage, it was called "Pingju" as well as the National Opera Peking Opera, which aroused the envy of the leaders of Peking Opera Troupe, so they provoked the martial arts actors to make trouble. Later, Li Dazhao, who worked in the press at that time, came forward to mediate. He came up with an idea to add a word "Yan" beside the word "Ping" in Pingju. He said that Peking Opera is a national opera, which is called Pingju on behalf of Peiping; Pingju is a folk opera, which reflects the social reality quickly, has simple singing form, and is easy to understand. Adding the word "Ping" with a "speech" will become "Ping". This is the idea of commenting on society, storytelling and singing.

There are also views that when Dang Zhaocai and others evolved lianhualuo into "Tangshan Luozi", they absorbed the whole set of musical instruments of Hebei Bangzi. They named this new opera "Jingdong No.1 pingqiang Bangzi opera", or "Pingju" for short, and sang it with their own voice. The representative actors at that time were Yue Mingzhu, Jin Kaifang, etc. After the revolution of 1911, Beijing was renamed Beiping, and Peking opera was also called Pingju. "Pingju", led by Cheng Zhaocai, has now developed into Tianjin and other places, and has been renamed as "Pingju" by Peking Opera. So it was named Pingju, implying the meaning of "commenting on the past and discussing the present".

Another point of view is that when Tiao Tiao opera was performed in Shanghai in 1935, it was changed to "Pingju" because of the new ideas of "punishing the evil and promoting the good" and "commenting on the past and discussing the present". In 1936, when Bai Yushuang made the film "red crabapple" in Shanghai, the press published the name of "Pingju" in Ta Kung Pao for the first time. Since then, the name of Pingju has been widely spread throughout the country.