Children's play

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Children's play

Applicant: Tongzhou City, Jiangsu Province

Project No.: 706

Project No.: Ⅳ - 105

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: Traditional Drama

Region: Jiangsu Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Tongzhou City, Jiangsu Province

Protection unit: Nantong Tongzhou District Cultural Center (Nantong Tongzhou District Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center)

Introduction to children's play:

Applicant: Tongzhou City, Jiangsu Province

Children's play is a form of performance in Jiangsu folk blessing activities. It is popular in Nantong City, central and Western Tongzhou city and some surrounding areas. Its performance form has a history of more than one thousand years.

Since the northern and Southern Dynasties, Nantong gradually became a land, and it was built in the Later Zhou Xiande years, which was called "Hu Dou Zhou" at that time. In the early stage of the formation of the land, it was surrounded by water on all sides and the traffic was blocked, so it became a gathering place for people. These exiles are complex in composition, both in the north and the south. They were sent or migrated to Nantong, bringing the custom of wizard singing and praying for disaster relief. They are called "shangtongzi" or "shangshengzi" locally.

The boy claims to be free to roam in the three realms of God, ghost and human, so as to eliminate disasters and diseases for the people and pray for good fortune. The skills of Shangtong can be summarized as "Biao" and "Sheng". Biao means Shangbiao invites the God of heaven, and Sheng means the God of heaven comes down to attach to the boy. The simplest form of folk family singing is "Hualan gate", which only needs one boy, and the process is relatively simple; the most complex one is "nine tables and thirteen saints", which is large-scale, and the whole process takes three days and three nights, with dozens of children participating. In addition to family singing, there is also a public performance of children's club in Nantong, also known as "disaster elimination and victory club". It is a collective disaster elimination and blessing activity. Generally speaking, it is large-scale. Wentongzi sit and sing while wutongzi show their martial arts skills to attract the audience.

Shangtongzi sings in Nantong dialect, accompanied by percussion instruments. His voice is strange, high pitched and pathetic, which has a strong impact. The content of his singing is mostly related to subduing demons, catching ghosts and supernatural spirits. In this special form of expression, primitive religion and Drama (including dance and acrobatics) interact with each other. The repertoire includes journey to the west, King Tang's visit to the earth, Liu Quanjin's melon, judge Baogong, etc. The academic research value of Nantong children's play is quite high. At present, a number of relevant monographs have been published at home and abroad. In 2004, Nantong children's drama visited and performed in South Korea, contributing to international folk cultural exchanges.