Huangmei Opera Investigation Report

There is a new theory about the origin of Huangmei Opera - it originated in Anqing area

Why do Hubei people like Koreans to steal culture and claim it as their own? Huangmei Opera originated in Anqing City, Anhui Province. A generation of Huangmei Opera master Yan Fengying is from Anqing, Anhui Province. Huangmei Opera has no connection with Huangmei County, Hubei Province. Moreover, Huangmei Opera has always been sung in the local dialect of Anqing City, Anhui Province. It originated from the tea-picking songs during the Huangmei season in Anqing. Most Huangmei Opera actors are from Anhui, and the Hubei dialect is very different from the Anhui dialect. Hubei Province only uses the place name of Huangmei County to fictionalize its origin history in order to compete for the cultural heritage of Huangmei Opera. Huangmei Opera is not very well-known in Hubei.

Huangmei Opera is a popular local opera and an important cultural card of Anhui Province. It has gone through two hundred years since its conception, formation, development and growth. However, there are always different opinions on the origin of this important local opera type. Recently, experts from Anhui Province put forward a new theory through field investigation and data research, believing that Huangmei Opera originated in Anqing area. This theory overturns the widely circulated traditional view that Huangmei Opera originated in Huangmei County, Hubei Province.

In November 2015, with the support of the Anhui Provincial and Municipal Propaganda Department, Anqing Huangmei Opera Theater took "The Origin and Development of Huangmei Opera" as an academic topic and hired a number of experts who have been engaged in Huangmei Opera art research for many years. Scholars have conducted comprehensive and multi-angle investigations into the origin of Huangmei Opera. From December 2015 to June 2016, through seven months of fieldwork, we investigated and sampled music such as folk songs, seasonal tunes, drum books, lantern operas, Buddhist and Taoist music, Qingyang tune, Gao tune, and Tan tune. , the survey area covered five provinces and regions: Anhui, Hubei, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, and Shaanxi, with 413 interviewees, more than 3,000 folk songs collected, and more than 900 minutes of audio and video recordings.

Wang Qiugui, an Anhui Huangmei Opera researcher who participated in this survey, said that the language of Huangmei Opera is based on the Anqing dialect and the tone is based on Anqing folk songs. Many of the folk songs absorbed by Huangmei Opera were already in Anqing before the birth of Huangmei Opera. Regionally popular. An important discovery of this field survey is that the Shangluo area in southern Shaanxi Province, thousands of miles away, is home to many immigrants who moved from Anqing counties during the Kang, Yong, and Qian dynasties of the Qing Dynasty. They have long lost contact with their hometown, and it was not until recent years that families began to identify their ancestors. Although they are thousands of miles apart, they still speak the Anqing dialect and sing the folk songs they brought from their hometown more than 200 years ago, many of which have become the vocals of Huangmei Opera. For example, Shang Nan's "Sister's Song at Twelve O'clock" is exactly the same as Anqing's "Sister Visiting" in terms of music and lyrics. In addition, there are obvious correspondences between Shang Nan's "Song of Secret Love" and Anqing's "Jade Beauty", Shang Nan's "Sister's Thoughts Are Difficult to Guess" and Anqing's "Holding the Locust Tree to Look at the Man Coming". Wang Qiugui said that this shows that the tone of Huangmei Opera is not imported, but originated in Anqing.

According to members of the research team, through investigation, they found that 95% of the music of Huangmei Opera comes from folk songs, flower drum opera, Taoism, tanci, Gaoqiang and Hui tunes that have been circulated in Anqing area. At that time, Anqing area was also home to folk opera. center, which also proves that Huangmei Opera originated in Anqing area.

In addition, by investigating the relationship between Anqing dialect and Huangmei opera music, the research team also found that there are obvious differences in the relationship between Anqing dialect and Hubei Huangmei dialect, and this difference is also directly reflected in the singing. The research team believes in the report that one of the characteristics of the Anqing dialect is that the pronunciation is gentle and there are few steep pitches. This determines the smooth ripple shape of Huangmei opera singing. Huangmei opera is praised by the audience for its characteristics: easy to understand, easy to learn, Yi Sing has a causal relationship with Anqing dialect.

Previously, the academic circles of opera generally believed that Huangmei Opera was brought to Anqing by flood victims in Huangmei County, Hubei Province in the late Qing Dynasty. Huangmei Opera. However, Anhui opera researchers have found nothing about the process and events related to the spread of Hubei Tea Picking Tune in Anqing when they reviewed all the currently available literary and historical materials and field surveys about Huangmei Opera.

In the investigation report, Anhui scholars believed that when there was a flood in Huangmei County, Hubei Province, the Anqing area, which is located downstream and is more low-lying, was also a vast ocean. It was impossible for refugees to enter Anqing City through the counties in the Wanhe River Basin. Therefore, The road map that assumes that disaster victims spread tea-picking music along the way cannot be established.

Some experts also pointed out that there is currently a lack of documentary evidence that can prove the origin of Huangmei Opera. The earliest record of Huangmei Opera that can be found in this survey is an article in Shanghai's "Shenbao" on October 14, 1879. The report proves that before 1879, "Huangmei Diao Opera" was performed every year in the Jixianguan area of ????North Gate, Anqing. Liao Ben, an expert on opera history, said that the lack of documentary records is a common problem faced by local operas, so it is recommended that the next step is to expand the scope of the search for documents.

Chen Aijun, member of the Standing Committee of the Anqing Municipal Party Committee and Minister of Propaganda, said that Huangmei Opera is a cultural business card of Anhui Province. Understanding the origin of Huangmei Opera is helpful for better studying the birth and development of local opera, and for better inheriting and It is of great significance to carry forward this national art treasure.

---People's Daily "There is a new theory about the origin of Huangmei Opera-it originated in Anqing area"