Suzhou Pingtan (Suzhou Pinghua, Suzhou Tanci)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Suzhou Pingtan (Suzhou Pinghua, Suzhou Tanci)

Applicant: Shanghai bookstores Association

Item No.: 237

Project No.: V - 1

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: quyi

Region: Shanghai

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Shanghai bookstores Association

Protection unit: Shanghai bookshop Workers Association

Introduction to Suzhou Pingtan (Suzhou Pinghua, Suzhou Tanci)

Applicant: Shanghai bookstores Association

Suzhou Pingtan is a combination of Suzhou Pinghua and Suzhou Tanci. Pinghua, commonly known as "Dashu" and Tanci, commonly known as "Xiaoshu", flourished in Suzhou during the reign of Qianlong and Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty. In the middle of the 19th century, Suzhou Pingtan was introduced into Shanghai. With the rapid growth of Shanghai's economy and population, the storytelling market continues to expand, and the performance level continues to improve. A large number of famous actors and schools that made a sensation at that time and influenced later generations have emerged. Around 1920s, Pingtan activity center has been transferred from Suzhou to Shanghai.

Suzhou Pingtan is still performed in Suzhou dialect in Shanghai. The music is beautiful, and the singing can be both narrative and lyrical, with a strong flavor of Jiangnan. Its performance often uses such artistic means as speaking, singing, playing, stunting and acting. The prose part of the book and CI is expressed by "saying", which is called "Biao" and "Bai", that is, to narrate and describe the characters' words and deeds and the environment of their activities in the story with the tone of the storyteller; the verse mainly composed of seven character sentences is expressed by "singing", accompanied by playing Sanxian or pipa. In Pingtan performance, one person's performance is called "single stage", with three strings playing and singing by himself; two people's performance is called "double stage", which is divided into upper stage and lower stage, with three strings and pipa playing and singing by themselves, accompanied by each other. In order to increase the interest, drama elements are inserted into the story during the performance, which is called "gimmick". Actors imitate the expressions of the characters in the story, which is called "Yan", also known as "doing" and "learning". In the long-term performance process, Tanci artists not only developed the "Book tune" of Tanci singing, but also absorbed the "folk song tune", "random crow", "Feijia tune" and other brand songs, which enriched the singing music. Pinghua performance mainly focuses on "speaking, stunting and acting". There are more than 50 long traditional bibliographies, including historical romance such as the Three Kingdoms, Sui and Tang Dynasties, chivalry such as Shigong case, seven chivalrous men and five justice, and myth and strange works such as Fengshen list and Jigong biography. Tanci is mainly composed of legendary works, which contains the rich cultural psychology of the Chinese nation, reflects the traditional moral concepts and life ideals of the people, and reflects the humanistic characteristics and values of Jiangnan region.

Suzhou Pingtan bibliography not only has high artistic value, but also has important reference value in linguistics, history, folklore, ethics and sociology. At present, the inheritance of Suzhou Pingtan in Shanghai has encountered some difficulties, and there is no successor, so it needs to strengthen the protection.