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Huangmei Opera and Folk Art

Huangmei Opera is the main local opera in Anhui Province. There are also professional or amateur performance groups of Huangmei Opera in Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Taiwan and other provinces as well as Hong Kong, and they are widely welcomed. Huangmei Opera, formerly known as "Huangmei Diao", is a folk opera formed in the adjoining areas of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces in the late 18th century. One of them gradually moved eastward to the Anqing area centered on Tongcheng City, Anhui Province. It combined with local folk art, sang and spoke in the local language, and formed its own characteristics, known as "Tongcheng Song" or "Huangmei Song". This is the predecessor of today's Huangmei Opera.

In terms of repertoire, Huangmei Opera is known as "Thirty-six major plays and seventy-two discounts on small plays." The drama mainly expresses the people's dissatisfaction with class oppression and the disparity between rich and poor and their yearning for a free and better life. Such as "The Story of Buckwheat", "Calling the Grain Official", "The Fairy Match", etc. Most of the short plays show fragments of the lives of rural workers, such as "Pointing Barley", "Spinning Cotton Yarn", and "Selling Dou Baskets".

After liberation, he successively compiled and adapted a number of large and small works such as "The Fairy's Match", "The Consort", "The Legend of Luo Pa", "Zhao Guiying", "Mother's Tears", and "Sansou Guozhan's Mansion". Traditional dramas include the mythological drama "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl", the historical drama "Beheading without Punishment", and the modern dramas "Spring Warmth and Flowers Blooming", "Spring Morning in a Small Shop" and "The First Blooming Buds". Among them, "The Match", "The Consort" and "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" were successively put on the screen and had a great impact at home and abroad. Yan Fengying, Wang Shaofang, Wu Qiong and Ma Lan are famous actors in Huangmei Opera.

Huangmei Opera has become a famous opera that is loved by audiences across the country. Huangmei Opera has a history of more than 200 years. In its early days, it was called Huangmei Diao, which is a folk art of "self-singing and self-enjoyment".

Controversy over the origin

Historical records of the origin of Huangmei Opera Mr. Lu Hongfei listed several legends about the origin of Huangmei Opera in his book "The Origin of Huangmei Opera".

One of the legends: "Tongcheng Song" from Tongcheng, Anhui Province was spread to the Huangmei (Hubei - quote) area during the Ming Dynasty. Huangmei Opera was sung by Yan Fengying from Luojialing, Tongcheng County. The dialect of Luojialing is pure Tongcheng accent. It can be seen that Tongcheng is the most convincing source of Huangmei Opera.

Legend No. 2: "Huangmei Opera was developed on the basis of 'Huaining Tune'. ... Whenever spring planting and autumn harvest, farmers used to sing 'Huaidiao Folk Songs' to praise their labor." A good harvest. This kind of beautiful and lyrical folk tune is collectively called "Huaining tune". However, there is not much evidence to prove it.

Legend No. 3: "...Huangmei Opera originated in Anqing, Anhui Province. In the past, during the yellow plum season, there were often floods. In order to pray for a good harvest, farmers from all over the country held a god-welcoming competition at this time. Various singing and dancing performances appeared, and a form of opera based on this singing and dancing form was named "Huangmei Diao" because it was related to the Huangmei season. "This argument is not very convincing.

Legend No. 4: "Huangmei Opera originated from the folk tune of Huangmei County, Hubei Province, namely Huangmei Tea Picking Tune." This possibility is also unlikely.

Modern scholars have also explored the origins of Huangmei Opera. For example, the opera theorist Mr. Wu Furun recently wrote an article in the magazine "Huangmei Opera Art", believing that Tongcheng (Anqing) "Huangmei Opera" is famous throughout the country, and there are different opinions on the origin of Huangmei Opera. People think it originated in Huangmei County, Hubei Province, which 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". Legend has it that this mountain got its name from the yellow plum blossoms that bloomed all over the mountain in the twelfth lunar month of winter a long time ago. Later, the "yellow plum blossoms" gradually became rare, and now traces of "yellow plum blossoms" can occasionally be found.

There are also some Jiangxi folk legends that Huangmei Opera originated in Jiangxi, but this statement is basically not recognized by the public.

Some people think that it is meaningless to argue where Huangmei Opera belongs now, and it will not promote the development of Huangmei Opera. He suggested that experts and scholars should pay more attention to the development laws of Huangmei Opera itself and further consolidate and improve the status of Huangmei Opera as a local opera in the field of contemporary opera.

China's first batch of national intangible cultural heritage - Huangmei Opera protection areas are Anqing City in Anhui Province and Huangmei in Hubei Province