What are the characteristics of Qiong Opera?

Qiongju opera is sung in Hainan dialect, commonly known as "local opera" in Qing Dynasty, "Zhai" in Qiongshan and Haikou, and "Hainan opera" in the 20th century. Because it was formed in Qiongshan, where Qiongzhou was located in ancient times, overseas Chinese in Qiongzhou called it "Qiongzhou Opera" and "Qiongyin".

The name of "Qiongju" began with the puppet show of 1932, but there is no conclusive evidence. According to the legends of old people and Qiongju artists in Qiongshan and Haikou, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Fujian Zhengzi Opera and Bai Zixi both performed in Hainan Island.

"Haikou Geography" and "Haikou Fujian Guild Hall Inscription" are:

The vast number of ships in Fujian call at Baisha and Tianjin, and there are often Chaozhou operas.

Record. The so-called "Chaozhou opera" is orthographic opera and Chaozhou opera.

Some tunes of Qiong Opera are the same as or similar to Chao Opera. Accordingly, local operas were based on the tunes of Zhengzi Opera and Chaozhou Opera, sung with local accents, and absorbed local folk songs and songs and dances, and developed before the middle of Qing Dynasty.

There is a puppet show in Hainan, which should be the earliest in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. The nomads from the south and the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty increased the number of Qionglai immigrants who fled the war. Among mainland immigrants, wandering puppet actors is not allowed to set foot in.

Simple props and easy-to-master performing arts make it easy for puppet shows to land in Hainan Island. Puppet puppetry originated in Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty and then flowed into Lin 'an. On the verge of extinction in the Southern Song Dynasty, he drifted to southern Fujian with Jianghu artists, and finally passed through Qiongzhou Strait in eastern Guangdong to Hainan Island.

It is difficult to know the form of puppet show popular in Hainan Island at that time. However, it can be seen from Wenchang and Qiongshan that the puppet show at that time was nothing more than rewarding God and entertaining people.

But the puppet show at that time was definitely different from the later Hainan puppet show. The former is a part of Zaju in Song and Yuan Dynasties, and the latter is already a part of Qiongju culture, and its language singing, business, gongs and drums are no different from Qiongju.

From 1740 to 1793, Nanhai, Panyu, Foshan, Jiangmen and Xinhui halls were built in Haikou. There are fixed stone platforms in front of these halls, and every year, they raise funds to hire hometown troupes to perform in Haikou.

Some troupes also set up classes to teach apprentices, and some artists settled in Hainan Island. For example, during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, the ancestors of the famous Qiongju playwright Huang Kuangsheng settled in Hainan during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. These foreign troupes have promoted the development of local operas and made them a gradually mature performing art.

The period from Xianfeng to Guangxu in Qing Dynasty was a period of great prosperity and great change of Qiong Opera. At that time, Cantonese opera artists flowed into Hainan Island and became close friends with Qiongju artists. Some of them run classes to teach traditional Chinese opera, and some switch classes to act, which greatly promoted the prosperity of Qiong opera.

At this time, Huang Er, Bangzi and other tunes of Cantonese Opera, as well as eighteen new and old "Jianghu" books, were absorbed by Qiongju Opera, and on the basis of these tunes, Hainan Opera and other banqiang operas were created, so that Qiongju Opera gradually changed from Qupai style to banqiang style, and the original gongs, drums, ditties and bangqiang operas were also abandoned.

After the May 4th Movement, under the influence of civilized drama, writers of Qiong Opera, such as Wu Fafeng and the famous Zhang Dan Jin Lu, organized the Qiongya Tuxi Reform Society, and created and performed such progressive and novel plays as Saving the Nation from Death, Newlywedly Married and Guangdong-Hong Kong General Strike. More than a dozen other class clubs have also created and performed a number of plays with patriotic ideas, such as Song Zhengqi and Song Zhengqi. During this period, Qiongju was reformed in music and stage art.