The Sound of Hunan

　　The province’s rich tradition of song and dance lives on today

　　Central China’s Hunan Province has a long history of outstanding opera culture. Today， Hunan’s opera traditions have become part of its intangible cultural heritage， and local operas continue to develop and evolve.

　　A rich repertoire

　　There are 19 major kinds of local operas in Hunan. These operas not only reflect the wide variety of cultural traditions in the province， but also have connections to Buddhism， Taoism， Confucianism and local religions.

　　Hunan’s long-form operas， such as Hunan Opera， Hunan Kunqu Opera and Qiju Opera， have been influenced by many of China’s other schools of opera. However， they have been restructured and rebuilt based on local culture.

　　Hunan Opera is popular in east Hunan and the neighboring Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces. It originated during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Originally， the plays would be love stories or based on morality tales. However， in the 1910s and during World War II， many new plays were created to call for democratic revolution and to rise up against Japanese aggression. In recent decades， the local government has tried to revive this tradition by organizing veteran performers in collecting and preserving the art form’s traditional works. In May 2006， Hunan Opera was included in China’s first batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage. Now Hunan Opera has around 700 full-length plays， and a further 500 incomplete ones.

　　Hunan Kunqu Opera is a particularly interesting branch of Kunqu Opera. After Kunqu Opera was brought to Hunan from the late 16th century to the early 17th century， performers in the province combined local culture and dialect to form a unique addition to Chinese opera.

　　Qiju Opera is another form of opera that Hunan people are proud of. This art form， which originated in southwest Hunan’s Qiyang， has a history 400 years longer than that of Peking Opera. Since its inception， Qiju Opera has spread to Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region， Jiangxi Province， Fujian Province， Guizhou Province and even northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region， and influenced local operas and plays in these areas.

　　Huagu Opera is a short-form opera that originated in popular folk tunes in Hunan in the 18th century， though it gradually gained popularity in other provinces such as Hubei， Jiangxi， Anhui， Henan and Shaanxi. Zou Shiyi， a former researcher with the Hunan Institute of Art， suggested that farmers originally created the opera as a form of recreation for the working day. He explained that， Huagu Opera， whose name translates directly as “flower drum opera，” usually features flowers from different seasons， the farm work of these seasons， and tales based around common folk. Its lyrics are generally happy and humorous. The brisk dance moves of Huagu Opera generally mimic actions which are part and parcel of rural life in Hunan， such as picking tea， pushing a hand mill and rowing boats.

　　In addition to these better known schools of opera， there are many minor forms of opera and stage performances in Hunan like puppetry and shadow plays. Hunan Shadow Play was also honored in the first batch of China’s state-level intangible cultural heritage back in 2006.

　　Heritage preservation

　　Zou has been studying local opera for decades. According to his figures， there are only nine professional Qiju Opera troupes today， 30 percent the number in 1983， and only five of them are able to put on regular performances. The staging of Huagu Opera performances has also waned， with only 11 active troupes left today. Smaller operas may not have a single professional troupe dedicated to them. Moreover， those troupes suffer from a lack of performers and lackluster audience turnouts.

　　To Zou， there must be different protection measures for operas according to their current states. He suggested that the government should encourage the development of operas that have audiences but can’t generate a profit. Zou also stressed that operas that espouse traditional cultural values and are economically viable must give priority to training the next generation of performers. To him， creating new， modern plays instead of insisting on traditional versions is of paramount importance. It was suggested by him that taking influence from foreign operas and other Chinese operas would be helpful to Hunan’s local operas.

　　Zou is optimistic about local operas’ future. In his view， traditional operas do not lack an audience. Moreover， the government has paid more and more attention to traditional operas. It has set up intangible cultural heritage protection centers throughout Hunan， which has in turn helped provide capital and performers for traditional operas. “Opera will neither wither， nor die，” Zou said.

　　To protect local operas， Hunan Province has also adopted many measures to create a good environment for their development， including sponsoring regular performances of local operas. For example， there is a project called “public theater，” which provides opportunities to non-professional performers and fans of different local operas to perform in public. The Hunan Government also encourages traditional opera troupes to give touring performances in rural areas across the province.

　　Hunan’s local operas have benefited from such policies. Hunan Opera， for instance， went through a hard time owing to an influx of modern culture a decade ago， according to Zhang Kelang， head of the Provincial Theater of Hunan Opera. Back then， it lacked both audiences and performers. Zhang’s theater had only 37 performers. “A full-size Hunan Opera play requires at least 100 participants. We couldn’t give a complete performance of a traditional play at that time，” Zhang recalled.

　　Zhang said the theater has received a huge amount of financial support in recent years， and it has invested 9 million yuan ($1.5 million) into new plays and repairing its infrastructure. The theater has also trained 37 young performers in the past 10 years. “Now， they are the hope and the future of Hunan Opera，” said Zhang.

　　By Ding Ying