Dong Opera

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

Applicant: Liping County, Guizhou Province

Item No.: 227

Project No.: Ⅳ - 83

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Traditional Drama

Region: Guizhou Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Liping County, Guizhou Province

Protection unit: Liping County Cultural Center

Introduction to Dong Opera:

Applicant: Liping County, Guizhou Province

Dong opera originated in the period from Jiaqing to Daoguang in Qing Dynasty. It has a history of more than 150 years. Wu Wencai compiled the first Dong opera meiliangyu on the basis of the long narrative song of Dong people and the Han people's storytelling book erdumei. After that, Dong opera continued to absorb the nutrition of other operas, such as GUI opera, Caidiao opera, Qiyang opera, Guizhou Huadeng opera and so on, gradually improved and perfected, and finally evolved into an independent drama with performance, singing, rich melody and unique style.

Dong opera is mainly popular in Liping, Congjiang and Rongjiang in Guizhou Province, Tongdao in Hunan Province, and Dong villages in Sanjiang and Longsheng counties in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Its main tunes include flat plate (also known as ordinary plate, Hu Qin plate) and AI tune (also known as Wai tune), in addition to Xianqiang and opera Dage, etc. its accompaniment instruments include erhu, niubangqin, Dong pipa, Yueqin, Dihu, Yangqin, bamboo flute, Lusheng, etc., which are accompanied by drums, gongs, cymbals and cymbals at the beginning and the end of the stage. The performance of Dong opera is relatively simple, and the costumes and props are common or slightly beautified daily necessities of the nation. During the performance, two people usually sing to each other in Dong language. After singing the last sentence, the performer will go through the music door to exchange positions with "∞", and then continue to sing the next sentence, so repeatedly until the end of a period of singing. There is no strict division of trade in Dong opera, but the clown's performance has a unique formula. No matter which direction he appears, he can only jump in, which is called "jumping ugly feet". Mei Liangyu, Mao hongyuying, Liu Zhiyuan, Jiang NV Wan Liang and Zhu Lang niangmei are the traditional plays of Dong opera, among which Zhu Lang niangmei has been made into a film.

Although the development of Dong opera is slow, it has distinctive national and local characteristics and has a deep mass foundation. In Dong areas, most villages have amateur Dong troupes organized by the masses themselves. However, with the change of society and the development of modern media, Dong opera no longer occupies an absolute dominant position in people's entertainment life. There are no characters in the Dong nationality. In the past, the opera masters recorded the whole or even several operas in their minds by memory, and then taught them to the actors. Others recorded the traditional Dong operas by Chinese characters. The fragility of this way affects the smooth inheritance of Dong opera, so it is necessary to try to solve it.