Qiyang Opera

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

Applicant: Qiyang County, Hunan Province

Item No.: 729

Project No.: Ⅳ - 128

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: Traditional Drama

Region: Hunan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Qiyang County, Hunan Province

Protection unit: Qiju troupe of Qiyang County

Introduction to Qi Opera:

Applicant: Qiyang County, Hunan Province

Qiju, also known as "Qiyang opera" and "Chunan opera", is named after its birthplace in Qiyang County, Hunan Province. In the middle of Ming Dynasty, Yiyang tune was introduced into Qiyang, which combined with local folk songs and minor tunes to form the rudiment of Qiju. In the process of development, Qiju has formed two schools, Yonghe and Baohe, both of which are performed in Qiyang Mandarin. The singing of Qi opera includes Gao, Kun and tan. The singing tone is loud and clear, supplemented by high pitched war drum, hat shaped dry drum, hard bow Qi Hu and other musical instruments. In this situation, Xusheng used sandhi to show his old age, Xiaosheng used Ziyin to show his elegant, danjiao used narrow tone to show his beautiful, Hualian used Bayin or drinking tone to show his bold.

Qi opera's facial makeup usually takes red, black and white as the base color, and the face is toned to show the distinctive characters through bright colors, vertical lines, exquisite patterns and vivid freehand brushwork. The performance of tanqiang opera in Qi opera is rough and simple, with large action range, generous and solemn singing, rich in the flavor of mountains; gaokun opera is delicate, with gentle and graceful singing. The dance program of horse racing in Qi opera is often called "Rou Lu", which is the most characteristic in the performance. Each profession changes the style of "Rou Lu" according to the needs of character and drama plot, making it present a variety of forms. Qi Opera repertoire and Qupai are very rich. There are more than 900 traditional repertoire, and more than 1000 Qupai have been published.