How did color tune develop?

Cai Diao, also known as Diaozi, Tea Picking and Haohai Opera, belongs to the lantern opera system. It originated from the "Double Diao" derived from rural singing, dancing and rap in Guilin area. It is widely spread in urban and rural areas of Guangxi. One of the main types of drama. It is widely circulated and has different names. Guilin is called Cai Diao, Liuzhou, Hechi areas and some counties in Wuzhou are called Diaozi Opera, Pingle and Lipu areas are called Tea Picking Opera and Color Lanterns, and Ningming, Baise and other places on the Zuo and Youjiang rivers are called Da Tea Picking Opera, Haohai Opera, etc. After 1955, they were collectively called Cai Diao.

The form of Cai Diao is lively and easy to understand, and the content of the play is very close to people's lives, with strong national style and local characteristics. It is known as "a happy drama full of earthy fragrance".

Collect colorful tunes from folk art

In the early years, songs and dances such as tea-picking songs and colorful lanterns were popular in various parts of Guangxi, but they did not form into dramas. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, a large number of Hunan immigrants moved to the northern counties of Guizhou, introducing the tune, Hunan Flower Drum Opera, to Guangxi.

During the period when Diaozi opera spread throughout Guangxi, it absorbed folk songs and minor tunes from Guangxi and Guibei and became gradually enriched. Finally, in the late Qing Dynasty, Cai Diao Opera, which originated from Huagu Opera but was different from Huagu Opera, was formed.

The original color tune was in the form of "double egg", which means a single person performs both male and female roles at the same time. Later, with the introduction of Tiaozi Opera into Guangxi, Cai Tiao developed into "Double Tune", performed by men and women on the same stage.

The earliest repertoire performed by Cai Diao were mostly based on myths and legends, chapter novels or market anecdotes, and most of the artists used Guilin dialect when performing. Due to the adoption of local dialects, not only can all ethnic groups in the region understand it, but it also inspires people's love for Cai Diao and cultivates Cai Diao actors of their own ethnic groups.

During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, as Cai Tiao gradually became known to people, it became a popular entertainment activity for local people. Performers of Cai Diao began to teach in various counties in northern Guangxi and Xinning Prefecture in southern Guangxi. They made a living by teaching and performing Cai Diao opera. These artists gradually became professional performers of Cai Diao.

Colorful opera is a popular local opera in northern Guangxi. Most of it reflects the life, love and labor reality of working people. It has strong vitality and is an art form loved by the people in northern Guangxi and southern Hunan.

Cai Tiao first evolved from folk songs, dances and raps. It consists of a man and a woman dancing and singing happily, with the man dancing with a flower fan and the woman waving a square scarf to express the joy of loving each other. The content of the singing is mostly praise. Nature or singing about love, the tunes used are folk songs, folk songs and minor tunes.

At that time, the rural towns around Guilin were bathed in simple folk customs. At that time, there were few entertainment activities in the villages and towns, and what people liked to watch most was the colorful tunes.

There is a Cai Diao artist in the area of ??Sujia and Hejia in Zhemu Town. He is a famous Cai Diao master in nearby towns such as Yanshan, Zhemu, Mamianwei and Liutang. His specialties are "Mother and Daughter", "Three Kings Fighting Birds" and "Three Visits to Relatives". Every time his troupe performs "Mother Sends Daughter", the audience will burst into tears, moved by the deep love between mother and daughter, and sighing at the daughter's helplessness.

After the performance of "Mother Gives Daughter", the old artist's troupe staged a harlequin. When performing the clown, the old artist wore rags, torn trousers, a black harlequin hat on his head, and his hands He wears a cattail leaf fan, his trouser legs are high and one low, and his face is painted with a messy beard. The image is very funny. At the same time, the old artist also muttered:

Weird, weird, really weird, there are so many weird things nowadays, fish jump from the trees on the leeches, men give birth to cubs and girls play...

Listening to the old artist's witty lyrics, people laughed.

Then, the old artist yawned loudly, acted like he was drunk, and fell cross-legged on the stage.

The audience applauded, whistled and laughed. The clown played by the old artist won unanimous recognition from everyone and became the talk of the villagers after dinner.

During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, the tune spread from north to south, forming a main distribution area centered on Guilin, Liuzhou and Yishan, and continued to spread to the south. Influenced by Hunan Flower Drum Opera during the Daoguang and Guangxu years of the Qing Dynasty, Tiaozi Opera gradually developed from the "Er Xiao" opera of clowns and Xiaodan to the "Three Xiao Operas" of Xiaosheng, clown and Xiaodan with character stories, which is the so-called "Thirty-sixth Opera". "Come out of the rivers and lakes".

In the rural areas of northern Guangxi, "Seven Tights, Eight Pines, and Nine Happinesses" appeared, that is, "mountain climbing classes" composed of 7, 8 or 9 people. This kind of roller coaster troupe requires artists to be multi-talented so that the troupe can travel between villages in northern Guangxi.

Later, through the long-term performances of mountain troupe artists in village tours and festivals and temple fairs, the artists gradually created new styles based on local operas such as "Tiaozi", "Tea Picking" and "Haohai Opera". And has accumulated 36 "three short plays" such as "Double Reading", "Double Shop", "Blind Man's Fortune Telling", "Wang San Bird Fighting", "Three Looking at the Marriage", "Begging for School Money", "Going to Nanjing", etc. It is locally called "Jianghu Diao".

At this time, tune music has initially formed three unique categories: tune, ban and tune. There is a saying of "nine tunes and eighteen tunes". At the same time, artists in makeup, performance, trade, etc. There have also been reforms.

In 1906 during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, the most prestigious Caotou Weiwei Diao Troupe broke the old habit of "women not singing tunes" and produced the first batch of female female actors in Cai Diao opera.

Since most Chinese opera tunes have matured during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, Cai Diao tune is a type of opera developed in the early stages by learning from other operas.