Gaojia Opera

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Gaojia Opera

Applicant: Quanzhou City, Fujian Province

Item No.: 192

Project No.: Ⅳ - 48

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Traditional Drama

Region: Fujian Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Quanzhou City, Fujian Province

Protection unit: Quanzhou Gaojia opera inheritance Center (Quanzhou Gaojia Opera Troupe, Quanzhou Dacheng opera inheritance center, Quanzhou Dacheng opera Learning Institute)

Brief introduction to Gaojia Opera

Applicant: Quanzhou City, Fujian Province

Gaojia opera, also known as Yijia opera, Jiujiao opera, Daban opera and Tuban opera, is one of the local operas in Southern Fujian. It is popular in Southern Fujian dialect areas and Taiwan, as well as overseas Chinese and Chinese settlements in Southeast Asia. Gaojia opera was born in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. In the early stage, it was only performed in improvisation accompanied by folk music. Later, it developed into a professional troupe, mainly performing Song Jiang stories, known as Song Jiang opera. In the middle of Qing Dynasty, Songjiang opera absorbed the performance forms of other art categories and developed into a well-educated and martial Hexing opera; in the late Qing Dynasty, it absorbed the artistic factors of Hui opera, Kunqiang opera, Yiyang opera and Beijing opera, forming a unique local opera type Gaojia opera in Southern Fujian.

The repertoire of Gaojia opera can be divided into three categories: atmospheric opera, Xiufang opera and choudan opera, most of which are martial opera, choudan opera and Gongan opera. It has more than 600 kinds of traditional operas, including "Da Nao Hua Fu", "trapped Hedong", "zhehuang Pao", "Lin Wensheng's report to the emperor", "Guan Fu Song", "Xing Yuan Si Chai", "Meng Jiangnu", "fanpo Nong", "Tang er Bie" and liantai opera "Three Kingdoms" and "Yue Zhuan". The music of Gaojia opera belongs to Nanyin system, mostly from Nanyin and puppet opera, but the rhythm and melody have changed. The actors sing with their own voice, which is vigorous and high, and there is no lack of euphemism and delicate rhyme. There are two kinds of musical instruments used in Gaojia Opera: Wenyue and Wuyue. Wenyue is mainly composed of Suona, supplemented by pinxiao, Dongxiao, Erxian, Sanxian and pipa. Wuyue includes Baigu, Xiaogu, Xiaoluo, xiaocymbal, Xiangzhan and Xiaojiao, showing strong local characteristics.

Originally, Gaojia opera had only three roles: Sheng, Dan and Chou. Later, Jing, tie, Wai, Mo, Bei (Jing) and Za were added. Among these lines, ugliness is the most prominent. Ugliness can be divided into male ugliness and female ugliness. There are two kinds of ugliness in literature: the ugliness in long clothes and the ugliness in short clothes, and the ugliness in martial arts: the ugliness in master and the ugliness in binding body. There are dozens of female uglies, such as Lady ugliness, matchmaker ugliness, wife ugliness and maidservant ugliness. The performing arts of ugliness are rich and colorful. Artists extract materials from life and create and design performance types such as childe ugliness, ragged shirt ugliness and puppet ugliness. They use the typical behavior of different characters or the imitation of puppet show and animal action as the means to express the characters' character. They are light, humorous, funny, exaggerated but not false, with a strong flavor of life. The martial arts of Gaojia opera absorbed the skills of string puppets and folk lion dance, and formed the movements of "cold pan", "big touch field" and "Phoenix wagging tail", which are unique.

Gaojia opera, which is unique in Chinese traditional opera, is a typical representative of Minnan local culture and has great influence at home and abroad.