Dong Opera

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

Applicant: Tongdao Dong Autonomous County, Hunan Province

Item No.: 227

Project No.: Ⅳ - 83

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: Traditional Drama

Region: Hunan Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Tongdao Dong Autonomous County, Hunan Province

Protection unit: Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center of Tongdao Dong Autonomous County

Introduction to Dong Opera:

Applicant: Tongdao Dong Autonomous County, Hunan Province

Dong opera is a kind of local opera which is deeply loved by Dong people. It was produced from Jiaqing to Daoguang of Qing Dynasty. It is mainly popular in Liping, Congjiang and Rongjiang of Guizhou, Tongdao of Hunan, Sanjiang and Longsheng of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

At the beginning of Tongdao Dong opera, its singing is monotonous, its form is simple, its action is simple and its plot is single. In the process of communication with other operas, it learned from the strong points of other operas, restrained its own shortcomings, and made great efforts to enrich the artistic means of speaking, singing, playing, fighting and dancing, thus improving the performance level. At the same time, we pay attention to enhance the dramatic conflict and put forward a number of works with tortuous plots. "Pingqiang", which is popular in the southern Dong dialect area, is the earliest singing style of Tongdao Dong opera. It has only one upper and lower sentence, and many tunes such as "Dan tune", "Sheng tune", "Chou tune", "cry tune" (sad tune) are derived from it. With the continuous innovation of Tongdao Dong opera, there has been a great breakthrough in its singing music. The singing tune has been widely used, and the new tune has also emerged. There are many Dong operas in Tongdao, with more than 300 traditional and modern operas, among which Liu Jia, zhulang niangmei and Wuliang Qing are representative works.

Since the reform and opening up, Tongdao Dong opera has been strongly impacted in many aspects, and gradually declined under the influence of the economic tide and modern media. In addition, most of the young people in Dong Township went out to work one after another, and many of the opera masters passed away one after another. At present, Tongdao Dong opera has fallen into a low ebb. It is difficult to survive and there is no one to inherit. It is in a critical situation and needs urgent rescue and protection.