Tea Picking Opera (Gannan Tea Picking Opera)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Tea Picking Opera (Gannan Tea Picking Opera)

Applicant: Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province

Item No.: 209

Project No.: Ⅳ - 65

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Traditional Drama

Region: Jiangxi Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province

Protection unit: Gannan Art Creation Research Institute

Brief introduction of Tea Picking Opera (Gannan Tea Picking Opera)

Applicant: Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province

Gannan tea picking opera originated in Jiulongshan, Anyuan County, Jiangxi Province, with a history of more than 300 years. Based on Jiulong tea lantern, it absorbed the folk art of Southern Jiangxi and gradually formed. It was mainly popular in southern Jiangxi, northern Guangdong and Western Fujian, and once spread to southern Guangxi and southern Guangxi.

Gannan Tea Picking Opera, commonly known as "DengZi opera" and "chalan opera", is one of the most representative tea picking operas in Jiangxi Province, and is praised by Tian Han as "a wonderful flower in the garden of Chinese opera". It is developed from folk songs and dances. Its content is close to life, and its language is humorous. There are more than 280 traditional tunes. According to its source, style, string, mode and usage, it can be divided into four categories: "tea tune", "lamp tune", "road tune" and "miscellaneous tune". During the performance, the actors skillfully use the unique short steps, fan flowers, single long sleeves and some performance actions imitating the animal image in the accompaniment music, singing and dancing, showing a strong local flavor and distinctive Hakka characteristics.

The traditional operas of Gannan Tea Picking Opera mainly focus on "three small" (Xiaosheng, Xiaodan, clown) operas, such as "Nanshan ploughing", "beating pig grass", "Jiulongshan picking tea", "Meizi", "tongnian", "Diao", "Shangguang", "selling flower thread", "daquanfu", "sijiefanqing", "mending shoes", "mending VAT" and so on. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, a number of excellent plays have sprung up. Among them, "the master of tea children's opera" was made by Shanghai Film Studio and shown nationwide. The newly edited Modern Tea Picking Opera "how can't talk together" and "sisters of wind and rain" have also been put on the screen.

Gannan area is a Hakka inhabited area. The Hakka ancestors lived by picking tea after they settled in the area. As a well-known and popular local opera, picking tea opera has become an artistic link to unite Hakka people and unite Hakka villagers. It is also an important material for the study of Hakka language, art and folk culture. At present, most of the tea picking troupes in southern Jiangxi are short of editors, creators, performers and researchers. Some of the tea picking troupes in southern Jiangxi rely on old artists to sing. There are fewer and fewer artists who can sing tea picking troupes, so we need to take measures to protect them.