Shanghai opera

For Shanghai's western-style opera company, see Shanghai Opera House.
Huju "Luo Han Qian" in 1952

Huju (simplified Chinese: 沪剧; traditional Chinese: 滬劇; pinyin: Hùjù), or Shanghai opera is a variety of Chinese opera from Shanghai. It is typically sung in the Shanghainese.

It is particularly popular in Baihe, the oldest town in the Qingpu District of Shanghai.[1] There are eight to ten huju troupes in the town, and many local residents hire the troupes to perform for weddings and funerals.[2]

Huju is accompanied by an ensemble of traditional Chinese instruments, including dizi (transverse bamboo flute), erhu (two-stringed fiddle), pipa (pear-shaped lute), yangqin (hammered dulcimer), and percussion. The instrumentation and style are closely related to the instrumental genre of Jiangnan sizhu.

The famous Chinese composition "Purple Bamboo Melody" (紫竹调; 紫竹調) is adapted and used for huju.

History

Shanghai opera rooted in the folksongs of Huangpu River area. According to the historical records in 1796, it has been more than 200 years from the original huaguxi to contemporary Shanghai opera.[3]

In the Qianlong emperor of Qing dynasty, Huaguxi was very popular in Shanghai. Influenced by huaguxi and other forms of drama, in Guangxu emperor of Qing dynasty, these folksongs developed into Tanhuang (滩簧). In order to distinguish it from Sutan and Nibo Tanhuang, Shanghainese people called it "bentan" (本滩) or "shentan" (申滩). Performance of shentan began in Shanghai around 1900s.

Before and after the revolution of 1911, shentan were performed in many entertainment places in Shanghai. In 1914, Wenbin shao (邵文滨), Lanting Shi (施兰亭), and Shaolan Ding (丁少兰) organized "zhenxinji" to improve bentan. It was then renamed as "shenqu" (申曲).[4]

In 1941, Shanghai Huju She was founded in Shanghai. It was an opera troupe consisted of many opera performers.[5] They renamed shenqu into Huju. Huju had its increasing formalization during this period.[6]

In the 1950s and 1960s, Huju was a champion in performing modern plays. It adopted divisions of acts and recognized the role of the playwright and director at a much earlier time. Red Lantern and Shajiabang—the most influential Jingju plays among the eight model plays created during the Cultural Revolution—were actually both adapted from Huju plays.

Artistic characteristic

Huju is performed in the Shanghainese, which is not mutually intelligible with mandarin. In other words, a person who comes from other places would not understand the lyrics of a Huju piece. A person from another place can however ask for a translator which are often available at the operas.

It is destined to reflect some aspects of real life because it comes from folk songs. The performance of the early Huju only needed two performers. One played musical instrument and the other told contemporary stories. Huju also adopted many elements of movies and dramas in lighting, expression and stage designs. Through Huju, people can get a better knowledge of the life and history of Shanghai People.

Current situation

Like many of the other regional opera styles, Huju is in imminent danger of disappearing. Wu dialect, which is represented by Shanghainese is not very popular with the public. Performances of Huju are decreasing.[7] Also, few young actors take up this art form, since there are much better influence to be taken on TV, movies and so on. Meanwhile, lack of good Huju scripts is also a big problem for the survival of Huju.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Opera lover protects art form in Qingpu". Eastday/Shanghai Daily. 17 January 2005.
  2. ↑ "2005-01-17 Opera lover protects art form in Qingpu". Qingpu Shanghai Web Portal. Shanghai Qingpu Government. 6 June 2005.
  3. ↑ Stock, Jonathan (2003). Huju: Traditional Opera in modern Shanghai. Oxford ; New York : Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press. ISBN 0197262732.
  4. ↑ "沪剧". 百度百科.
  5. ↑ "1941年上海沪剧社成立 申曲被正式定名为沪剧". 新华网.
  6. ↑ "Learning "Huju" in Shanghai, 1900-1950: Apprenticeship and the Acquisition of Expertise in a Chinese Local Opera Tradition". Asian Music. 33 (2 (Spring - Summer, 2002), pp. 1-42).
  7. ↑ "Shanghai opera". About Education.
  8. ↑ "沪剧". 互动百科.

External links

See also

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