Huangmei Opera and Folk Art

Huangmei Opera is the main local opera in Anhui Province. Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Taiwan Province and Hongkong all have professional or amateur Huangmei Opera performance groups, which are widely welcomed. Huangmei Opera, formerly known as Huangmeidiao, is a folk opera that was formed in the neighboring areas of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces in the late18th century. One of them gradually moved eastward to Anqing, Anhui Province, with Tongcheng as the center, combined with local folk art, sang and spoke in the local language, forming its own characteristics, and was called "Tongcheng Song" or "Huangmei Song". This is the predecessor of Huangmei Opera today.

In terms of repertoire, Huangmei Opera is known as "36 major dramas and 72% small dramas". The play mainly shows the people's dissatisfaction with class oppression, the disparity between the rich and the poor and their yearning for a free and beautiful life. For example, The Story of Buckwheat, Guan, Tian Xianpei, etc. Traditional Chinese operas mostly show the life segments of rural laborers, such as ordering barley, spinning cotton yarn and selling buckets.

After liberation, a number of traditional plays such as Fairy Descent, Ma Xu, Luo Afraid, Zhao, Mother's Tears, Three Searches for the State House have been adapted successively, and a number of dramas such as Cowherd and Weaver Girl, Historical Drama, Modern Drama and Spring Blossom have been created. Among them, Fairy Descent, Female Xu and Cowherd and Weaver Girl have been put on the screen one after another, which has had a great influence at home and abroad. Yan Fengying, Wang Shaofang, Wu Qiong and Malan are famous actors in Huangmei Opera.

Huangmei Opera has become a famous drama deeply loved by the national audience. Huangmei Opera has a history of more than 200 years. In the early days, it was called Huangmei tune, which was a kind of folk art of "singing and enjoying oneself".

Controversy about the origin

In the book The Origin of Huangmei Opera, Mr. Lu listed several legends about the origin of Huangmei Opera.

One of the legends: Tongcheng Song, Anhui Province, spread to Huangmei (Hubei-cited by people) in the Ming Dynasty. Huangmei Opera is sung by Yan Fengying from Luo Jialing, Tongcheng County. His dialect is pure Tongcheng dialect. This shows that Tongcheng is the most convincing source of Huangmei Opera.

Legend 2: "Huangmei Opera was developed on the basis of Huaining Opera. ..... Whenever spring is planted and autumn is harvested, farmers are used to singing' Huaidiao Folk Songs' to celebrate the harvest of their labor. This beautiful and lyrical folk song minor is collectively called' Huaining Tune'. " But there's not much evidence to prove it.

Legend 3: "... Huangmei Opera originated in Anqing, Anhui. In the past, every Huangmei season was often flooded, and farmers in the four townships would hold worship meetings at this time to pray for a bumper harvest. There were various song and dance performances at the meeting, and a form of opera based on this song and dance performance was named' Huangmei Tune' because it was related to Huangmei season. "This statement is not very convincing.

Legend 4: "Huangmei Opera originated from the folk song tune of Huangmei County, Hubei Province, that is, Huangmei tea-picking tune." This is unlikely.

Modern scholars have also explored the origin of Huangmei Opera. For example, Mr. Wu Furun, a traditional opera theorist, recently wrote an article in the magazine Huangmei Opera Art, arguing that Tongcheng (Anqing) is famous all over the country, but there are different opinions on the origin of Huangmei Opera. Some people think that it originated in Huangmei County, Hubei Province, and it may be a misinformation caused by the word "Huangmei". Huangmei Opera is indeed closely related to the word "Huangmei", but "Huangmei" is not what people call Huangmei County, but "Huangmei Mountain". According to legend, this mountain is named after Huangmei flowers in the cold winter. Later, "Huangmei" gradually became scarce, and now "Huangmei" can be found occasionally.

There are also some folklore in Jiangxi. Huangmei Opera originated in Jiangxi, but this view is basically not recognized by the public.

Some people think that it is meaningless to argue about the ownership of Huangmei opera now, which has no promoting effect on the development of Huangmei opera. He suggested that experts and scholars should pay more attention to the development law of Huangmei Opera itself, and further consolidate and improve the position of Huangmei Opera as a local opera in today's drama field.

The first protected areas of Huangmei Opera, a national intangible cultural heritage in China, are Anqing City, Anhui Province and Huangmei, Hubei Province.