Quanfeng Lantern

 
The Quanfeng Lantern

The Quanfeng Lantern, originally from Quanfeng, Xiushui county of Jiangxi province, is an art performance that combines lanterns, opera and dancing.

The main feature is the lantern team performance, which has a strong folk-custom flavor. During the Spring Festival period, the lanterns are decorated in the village, and performers sing from the first day to the fifteenth day from morning to night. In addition, lantern teams also perform during folk holidays, birthdays, and weddings.

The Quanfeng Lantern has eight lamps, and the performers have eight skills. The talking and singing are all done using the local Quanfeng dialect. Quanfeng has over 20 lantern teams with performers from 16 to 70 years old. The lantern is popular in Quanfeng.

The lantern teams live in remote regions and the dense forests. The performance is so simple that it can be performed anytime and anywhere, bringing happiness and luck to the people in the mountainous region.

Yihuang Opera

 

Yihuang Opera

The Yihuang Opera is a multi-tune opera. It absorbed the aria of Qinqiang, also dubbed Luantan, which is characterized by its simple, bold, exquisite and penetrating, yet exaggerated style. It originated during the late Ming and Early Qing dynasties (1368-1911). The opera is now mainly popular in Jiangxi and Fujian provinces.

There are over 500 kinds of traditional repertoires, most of which have been lost. A few examples are: A Volume of Honest and Upright Officials, Jiangdong Bridge, The Male and Female Whips and A Picture of Qingyang. The aria is very primitive and unsophisticated.

There are up to 12 roles. The performance is simple yet beautiful. For example, to show the movement of riding a horse, the performer ties a prop in the shape of a horse to his body, imitates its movement and dances to the beat of clops which is played by gongs and drums. Only in Yihuang Opera can one see such a primitive method of performance.

The Yihuang Opera, whose formation, development and decline have become the epitome of the history of Chinese opera, is an ideal specimen for the study of the laws of evolution. However, the Yihuang Opera is in danger of dying out, so protective measures shall be taken as soon as possible to keep this piece of cultural heritage alive.

Jiangxi Tea-picking Opera

 
Gannan Tea-picking Opera

The Gannan Tea-picking Opera originated on Jiulong Mountain, Anyuan county, Jiangxi province over three hundred years ago. It was popular in southern Jiangxi province, northern Guangdong province and western Fujian province.

Developed from local folk dances and songs, the Gannan Tea-picking Opera representative of all tea-picking operas in Jiangxi province. The opera is humorous and portrays people's daily lives.

The Hakka live in southern Jiangxi province and make a living by picking tea leaves. The Tea-picking Opera uses strong rural flavor and elements of Hakka culture in its performances. This has made it popular among the Hakka. After the establishment of the PRC, some of the plays from the Tea-picking Opera were adapted into television shows or movies.

The Gannan Tea-picking Opera is very important for the study of language, art, folk culture and customs. Nowadays, there are less and less people interested in learning how to perform the Gannan Tea-picking Opera, so it is in great need of protection.

Jiangxi Acrobatics Troupe

 
Jiangxi Acrobatics Troupe performs with elements of blue & white porcelain

The Jiangxi Acrobatics Troupe was founded in 1961. For more than 40 years after its establishment, the troupe has developed a unique performing style and distinct local flavor through its rich performing experience and persistent hard work. The troupe performances include acrobatics, magic and comedy shows. The Jiangxi Acrobatics Troupe is composed of several teams with a strong cast of many versatile members.

At the Third National Acrobatics Competition, all three shows by the troupe won medals. Among them, "Going Through Whirling Hoops" won the Golden Lion and Innovation prizes awarded by the Ministry of Culture and the only "Cup of Innovation" specially awarded by the China Acrobatics Association. This program is among the most popular acrobatics performances in China.

"Balancing Bowls on the Swaying Ladder" has won first place among winners of the Silver Lion Prize. It was also awarded the Golden K Prize by the Kiwanis Club of Monaco at the Fourth International Acrobatics Among Teenage Acrobats in 1991. "Plank Jumping" was also honored with the Bronze Lion Prize. At the International Acrobatics Competition Among Teenagers held in Italy in 1991, "Balancing Tricks on the Nose" was also recognized by the Italian Ministry of Culture.

The troupe staged more than 60 kinds of programs in its domestic and foreign performances. The troupe has paid performing visits to more than 40 countries like the United States, Canada, France, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Holland, Austria, India, Japan, Tanzania, Thailand, Korea, Dominica and Porto Rico, with a total million audience members. Such frequent exchanges not only help introduce Chinese culture to foreign countries, but also promote the understanding and friendship between people in China and all over the world.

Address: No 3, Huoshen Temple, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, PRC

Tel: +86-791-6774080
Fax: +86-791-6774232

Yiyang Tune

The Yiyang tune -- one of the four great tunes from the Southern Opera (the other three are Yuyao, Kunshan and Haiyan tunes) -- played a significant role in the development of Chinese opera.

The Yiyang tune was formed at the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Yiyang county, Jiangxi province. As early as the Yongle reign (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty, the Yiyang tune was not only prevalent in Jiangxi province, but also in Anhui, Fujian, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

In fact, the tune first emerged by combining operas around the Yiyang region with its local dialects. Reputed as the overlord of Chinese opera, together with the Kunshan tune, the Yiyang tune exerted great influence on the 44 types of Chinese opera, including Peking Opera, Sichuan Opera, Hunan Opera, Qinqiang Opera, etc. The Yiyang tune is therefore regarded as the absolute forefather of Chinese high-pitched operas.

As a highly refined opera, the Kunshan tune was favored by scholars, bureaucrats and literati, but only captured the attention of the Wuzhong region in the Ming Dynasty; the Yiyang tune, on the other hand, which was almost completely neglected by scholars, became a folk art adored by ordinary people.

Torturing Jin Zhen (photo from cjwy.net)

II. Main features

During a Yiyang tune performance, an actor performs a solo on stage, with others joining in offstage to accompanying percussion instruments. Yiyang tune artists have created "gun diao" -- a type of spoken word, where each sentence of the same length is added after the long or short aria. Gun diao can be subcategorized into "gun bai", where a paragraph is recited between two arias, and "gun chang ", where a paragraph is sung between two arias.

The Yiyang tune, which does not have musical scores, is performed according to the local folk tune patterns. Free from the restriction of musical scores and embracing local dialects, Yiyang has a competitive edge over the refined Kunshan tune.

Since the Yiyang tune features one singer with others joining in, it can be performed in squares and on grasslands, and caters to the tastes of ordinary people. Therefore, the tune could be enjoyed by people in different places and because of this, spread quickly across the nation.

III. Influence on other tunes

After the mid-Ming Dynasty, the Yiyang tune was introduced to Beijing, Nanjing city, Jiangsu province, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Combined with local dialects and folk songs, it quickly gave birth to many new local operas, such as the Jiangxi province Leping tune, the Anhui province Huizhou tune, the Qingyang tune (also called "Chizhou tune"), and the Beijing Jing tune.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Qingyang tune improved the gun diao performance style created by the Yiyang tune, where spoken words of equal length are added after the long or short aria, thus boosting the development of the high-pitched opera system. The high-pitched operas then spread to Hubei, Sichuan, Henan, Shanxi andShandong provinces, and were collectively called "qing xi" ("pure opera").

At present, high-pitched operas mainly include Sichuan Opera, Hunan Opera, Chenhe Opera and Ganju Opera, which have inherited such characteristics of the Yiyang tune as beating time with a drum, featuring one singer with others joining in, and adding spoken words between two arias. Some operas also use wind and stringed instruments.

Coming across the Son in the Pavilion (photo from cjwy.net)

IV. Current situation

Compared to the Kunshan tune, which has been placed under systematic protection, the survival of the Yiyang tune is currently being threatened. Due to the passage of time and changes in people's aesthetic tastes, the Yiyang tune has gradually declined.

First of all, fewer and fewer people are paying attention to the Yiyang tune, and its remaining artists, who have graduated in the 1950s, are all around 60 years of age. Currently, only five to six old artists can still master the opera.

Due to funding shortages, the collection and arrangement of related materials have been put on the back shelf. And no troupes or venues currently exist to stage public performances. Some experts warn that this ancient art form is on the verge of extinction; they say it will die out in 20 years unless new blood is trained.

Construction of Jingdezhen traditional porcelain workshop and kiln

 
A traditional porcelain workshop and kiln

I. Origin

Jingdezhen (Jingde Town) is located in northeastern Jiangxi province. As the world-famed ceramic capital, Jingdezhen has a long history of making ceramics and a rich cultural heritage.
According to historical records, Jingdezhen, formerly Xinping, began to produce pottery during the Han Dynasty. It is evident that pottery was first made in Jingdezhen during the Han Dynasty. In the first year in the Jingde Reign of the Song Dynasty (AD 1004), the royal court decreed the city make porcelain wares for imperial use with the wording "Made during the Jingde Reign", printed on the bottom of every piece. Hence the city got its name "Jingdezhen".
II. Porcelain workshop
The porcelain workshop in Jingdezhen, a special place for shaping operations, is a courtyard architecture composed of three individual buildings: the main hall, the granary (a storehouse of raw materials) and the clay house, of which the main hall is mainly used for shaping operations and usually faces south. The granary is looking to the north. The two buildings are parallel with each other.
The clay house is located at the western end of the main hall and extends southwards till it is joined to the granary. The clay house is mainly for the aging and refining of clay.

In the middle of the structure is a rectangular yard, surrounded by walls.
Under the roof of the main hall are wooden racks. The two groups of wooden racks are joined with wooden rods. The rack structure is a ready-make rack for drying molds.
A drying-rack basin (also called a drying-rack pond) is dug out in a place between the inner yard and slope. The drying-rack basin is composed of mold-drying racks and the water basin.
The mold-drying racks set up above the basin are mainly for adjusting the biscuit-drying temperature by changing vapors.

There is only a corridor between the drying-rack basin and the mold racks in the main hall and it is quite easy for potters to turn around quickly when they shift the long board. It is also convenient to move the mold quickly when it rains, saving time and effort. Such a rational design is perfect.

III. Kiln

The famous Jingdezhen kiln was set up and improved by drawing from the best of the Dragon Kiln, the Stairs Kiln and the Gourd Kiln and the Mantou Kiln in the North.
It has no type of shape bricks, complicated fume extractors, or any auxiliary equipment in its structure. The gaseous atmosphere and temperature in the kiln is appropriately controlled only by judging the time and amount of wood to throw on the fire. . It has overcome the shortcomings of the Dragon Kiln and the Stairs Kiln both of which have difficulties in heating up the tail sections, and the high temperature difference of the Gourd Kiln. Therefore, the Jingdezhen Kiln has held an important position in the history of porcelain kilns in China.

Nowadays, few of the porcelain workshops in Jingdezhen are set up completely adhering to these design criteria. The majority of traditional kilns and workshops have been dismantled in the process of industrialization and urbanization, while old builders have passed away. Statistics show that only 23 traditional workshops exist in Jingdezhen. The traditional techniques and architecture are in imminent need of rescue.

Yongxin Shield Dancing

 
Yongxin Shield dancing

Shield dancing is a form of folk dance prevalent in Yongxin county, Jiangxi province. According to Yongxin county and Nantang village records, a shield was used to practice wushu during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), indicating that shield dancing is over two hundred years old.

Only men perform it. Normally there are nine warriors, whom all wear white headbands, black clothes, and jute shoes. One of them holds a steel fork with a ring; the others hold the shield with one hand while the other one holds short knives. The music is accompanied by the sounds of weapons clashing and the shouts of the dancers. The plot of the play is comparatively simple and mainly revolves around the theme of two army groups' fighting. But the forms are various.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the government started to effectively develop and protect artistic folk heritages. As a 'living fossil' of folk culture, the shield dance is popular throughout Yongxin county. It's favored by all local residents, and enriches people's cultural lives. It is a great example of the local customs of Jiangxi province and displays a spirit of teamwork. In terms of artistic value, it's a combination of wushu and dance.



The Shield dancing