When I was a child, VCD was just emerging, and people of the age of my grandparents always wondered which house to watch a play! At that time, I was young and had no concept of this "play". Later, when I was a little older, I learned that this "drama" was called "Huai Opera" or "Huai Opera", which was a kind of local opera popular in the Jianghuai area. Pay attention to the author and continue to read.
Huai opera "Wang Hua Buy Father" VCD products
When I was a child, I heard about it, and I also listened to some Huai operas with my grandparents, and some of the plays can still be counted as many family treasures, such as "Pearl Tower", "Tooth Marks", "Wang Hua Buys Father", "Exploring the Cold Kiln" and so on. At that time, I felt very strange, the people in huai opera sang lyrics and read white and talked to us in the same tone of dialect, so that I, who was not old, could follow the two sentences.
Yancheng Huai Opera Museum
The adults told me that our local area is the "hometown of Huai opera", so singing lyrics and chanting is our local dialect. However, since Huai opera originated in Yancheng, why is it not called salt opera or lake opera? But is it called Huai opera? At that time, I was young and greedy, and if I didn't seek much understanding, I wouldn't be able to do it.
Jianhu "Huai Opera Town"
A little older, I went to study abroad and went to Huai'an City next door. Huai'an is also a famous historical and cultural city, the Qing Dynasty has Huai'an Province, the Yellow River Old Road and the Grand Canal pass through it, and the water transport is developed, and the name of "South Ship And North Horse" comes from this. Diet is also one of the originators of "Huaiyang cuisine".
Iconic sculpture of "South Ship North Horse"
I also found that locals also like to sing Huai opera and listen to Huai opera, which is almost the same as the Huai opera in our hometown. I asked a local classmate, you also like to listen to Huai opera here! He replied to me that Huai opera is an opera that originated in Huai'an, so it was named "Huai Opera", which is their hometown drama, so they like to listen! I listened to his words at that time, and then thought about the previous questions, it did seem to be the same thing, but a new question appeared in the fine taste, since it originated in Huai'an, why is the Lyrics and Recitation of Huai'an Opera not quite like Huai'an dialect? Although Huai'an dialect and Yancheng dialect both belong to Jianghuai dialect, communication with each other is basically smooth, but the details are still different!
Jianhu Jiulongkou "Huai Opera Town" Jianhu specialty lotus powder round seeds
I love history and can't let such doubts exist. So I consulted the materials, visited the elderly people, and finally clarified the past and present lives of Huai Opera.
In the early years, Huai opera was called "Jianghuai opera" or "Jiangbei opera", which was divided into east-west road and north-south factions: The east road was active in the Lixiahe area of Yanfu, centered on Jianhu Lake, so its tune was "lower river tune", the tune was rigid and soft and not soft and not hard; The west road was popular in Huai'an and Baoying areas, and its tune was "Huai tune", commonly known as "Huai Bunzi", and the music tune was rough and high-pitched, and the tone of the Huaihai dialect was thick. Later, a group of artists went down to Jiangnan and set up a Huai opera class in Shanghai, which formed a southern school relative to the northern school of the East and West Erlu. The East-West Road and The North-South Faction were originally called "Three-in-One" drama classes. In the mid-1940s, the "Sanhezi" opera class living in Shanghai was renamed the "Jianghuai Opera Class", and the "Sanhezi" drama class in the anti-Japanese base area in northern Jiangsu was renamed the "Xinhuai Opera Class", and made contributions to the propaganda of anti-Japanese resistance. At this time, Huai opera did not have a unified name of drama.
Huai Opera branch (West Road) inheritor Rong Guanghui propaganda poster
After the founding of New China, under the initiative and support of the government, a group of screenwriters, directors, composers and stage designers engaged in new literary and artistic work have successively joined the Huai Opera group.
In November 1949, the Shanghai Jianghuai Opera Association changed its name to the Shanghai Huai opera improvement association.
In November 1950, the famous Huai opera actor Ma Lintong used the word "Huai opera" for the first time.
Mr. Ma Lintong, a famous Huai opera artist
In May 1951, Shanghai Lianyi and Lintong Opera Troupe merged to form the private public aid "Huaiguang Huai Opera Troupe" (the predecessor of the Shanghai People's Huai Opera Troupe), and as a result, various different titles such as "Jiangbei Opera" and "Jianghuai Opera" were gradually unified to "Huai Opera".
In October 1952, the Shanghai People's Huai Opera Troupe attended the first national opera observation and performance conference, and the name of "Huai Opera" was officially recorded in the national document archives.
The first Xiqu Observation and Performance Conference
In 1953, at the suggestion of Premier Zhou Enlai, the state officially named this drama Huai opera.
So, which city is the purest hometown of Huai opera?
The hometown of Huai opera - Jianhu
That is Yancheng Jianhu County. During the Qing Dynasty, Jianhu was under the jurisdiction of Huai'an Province, so it was called "Huai Opera" and originated from Jianhu. Jianhu is located in the middle of the birthplace of Huai opera art, and most of the historical servants and incense opera artists were born here. Performing "Door Sighs", "Incense Plays", "Triples" and the artists who entered Shanghai in the early days were all "Huai Opera People" who built Lake. The confessions and lyrics they sing when they perform in other places are authentic, authentic and authentic Jianhu dialects. More than a century has passed, the Huai opera repertoire has been enriched, the performance skills have improved, and the costumes, props, music, and choreography have become better and better. The only constant, however, is its opera language. Foreign audiences are also happy to accept it, because they understand the Jianhu dialect as the language of Huai opera just like the Jianhu people. This is also one of the important reasons why Huai opera is performed in the north and south of the great river and on both sides of the strait, causing a sensation.
Jianhu Lake is located at the confluence of Yan, Fu, Huai, Yang and Tai
The Jianghuai dialect belongs to the northern language family, while Jianhu originates from the Jianghuai dialect area. Although the Yan, Fu, Huai, and Bao regions belong to the same dialect area, due to the difference in water and soil, they are known as the difference between "southern barbarians and northern provinces" and "water cavity drought tone". Only the Jianhu area living at the junction of Yanhuai and Huaizhou has a pure pronunciation, four distinct sounds, sharp and clear characters, and is influenced by wu language, no tongue curling sound, with relative stability, and is said to be known as "Zhongzhou rhyme". In particular, the language within a certain range centered on the county town has neither the hardness of the "dry tone" nor the softness of the "water cavity", the pronunciation is peaceful, the intensity is moderate, and the vocabulary of the people in this area is rich and vivid, inclusive, the tone is changeable and soft, stretched and clear, and has a strong appeal and attraction to the audience, which makes it naturally become the basic language of Huai opera recitation.
The Huai opera language has gradually formed 20 rhymes in long-term practice
In 1961, the Huaiju Examination Committee defined the Huaiju language as the tone of the Dialect of Jianhu County, while appropriately absorbing individual character sounds of universal significance in the surrounding areas to enrich it.
Huaiju Jianhu dialect is defined
After 1961, foreign Huai opera actors came to Jianhu to learn authentic and authentic Jianhu dialect. Shanghai People's Huai Opera Troupe Xiao Wenyan, He Mingtian and other artists of the older generation personally led the students of the Shanghai People's Huai Opera Troupe Huai Opera Academy to experience life "back to their mother's home", received customers at the "station counter" of major shops in Jianhu, made friends with farmers in the countryside, and re-learned the Jianhu dialect.
Huai opera masters Xiao Wenyan and He Mingtian performed Huai opera "Qin Xianglian"
When recruiting students, Huai opera troupes and art schools in various places will first consider the recruitment of Jianhu, so that the Huai opera language will always maintain the characteristics of the "matrilineal" language.
Ma Bomin, then director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture, commented on the language of Huai opera
In June 2008, the Shanghai Huai Opera Troupe and Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, jointly declared Huai Opera as "Intangible Cultural Heritage", which has been included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the approval of the State Council. In May 2011, Huai'an City and Taizhou City in Jiangsu Province jointly declared huai opera "intangible cultural heritage", which was approved by the State Council and expanded into the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. In addition, the Huai Opera Troupe of Jiangsu Province is headquartered in Yancheng.
Jianhu "Huai Opera Town" was formerly known as the thousand-year-old Shazhuang Ancient Village
The Yancheng Jianhu dialect has fulfilled its due responsibilities for the popularization and development of Huai opera art, which can be described as a great contribution! Nowadays, almost all the Huai opera actors who have won the Plum Blossom Award are yancheng people, and the Huai opera troupe of Jiangsu Province is in Yancheng, and there is a Huai opera history museum in Yancheng, and the Jianhu Huai opera troupe is famous all over the world. This year, The Construction of Jiulongkou Huaiju Town in Jianhu County was also successfully built, which played a huge role in promoting tourism, promoting Huaiju culture, and enhancing the charm of Huaiju culture. This is also what Huaiju's hometown should do.
Jianhu Jiulongkou Town "Huai Opera Town"
Today's history of the development of Huai opera, the birthplace of Huai opera, and the language standards of Huai opera are here, like to forward and pay attention to it. Those who have different opinions can leave a message in the comment area, and we will exchange and discuss together to carry forward our Huai opera art. This article has turned on the tipping function, you must first pay attention to the author.
Built a lake Huai opera town