Northern Cantonese Tea-Plucking Opera

57.Northern Cantonese Tea-Plucking Opera

Nominating Unit: City of Shaoguan

Originated from the Tea-plucking Songs and ditties popular in Fujian and Jiangxi Provinces in the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, and enriched by singing and dancing performance during Lantern Festival and “Flower-drum” Festival in Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces, Tea-Plucking Opera has other nicknames like “singing for flower lamp show”, “singing for the flower drum performance” and “singing for tea harvest”, etc. At the onset, there are three roles on stage, including one chou and two dans; therefore the Opera is also called “triangular play”. It is introduced by Hakka and later becomes a local custom. It used to have three genres: South Shaoguan Tea, South Shaoguan Lamp and Lianyang Tune, and reaches its heyday towards the end of the Qing Dynasty. Now it is mainly distributed in City of Shaoguan and its neighboring Hakka districts under Shaoguan’s jurisdiction. Other places include Lianzhou and Yangshan.

The Tea-plucking Opera’s roles derive from two dans and chou singing and dancing at the Lantern Festival, and later develop into four characters: sheng, dan, jing and chou. Among them, chou is the leading actor, a key element that makes the opera full of comedy flavor and fun. Apart from absorbing elements from Lantern Dancing like shapes, stage steps, and set patterns, the Opera enriches itself from daily life observation, mimicking animals’ gestures, folk martial art and other dramas. Now it has its distinctive way of performing like the dwarf step, fan-shaped flower, playing with colored handkerchief, and single-sleeve, etc. It has four tunes, namely tea-plucking tune – the main tune (Lamp tune included), bright tune (Flower-drum tune of Hunan Province), and miscellaneous tune (ditties and songs of the mountain). Different placement of the tune divides the Opera into the South Genre and North Genre; the bright tune is employed when representing gifts, tea and stepping onto stage; the road tune employed when walking and antiphonal singing; the miscellaneous tune employed with song interlude. In terms of aria, Tea-Plucking Opera belongs to the connex of different tunes. After ban (beat or tempo) is added, sanban (rubato beat), zhongban (medium beat), and kuaiban (leading beat) come into being.(https://www.daowen.com)

North Guangdong Province Tea-Plucking Opera has a collection of many local traditional plays with different themes. Some eulogizes freedom of marriage like Grind Soybean to Make Bean Curd and Perfect Match; some criticize the evil and praise the good like Selling Grocery, Technique of Beating Dogs, still some lash out criticism on the ugly side of society like Ah San Visits His Sister, Steal Clothes on a Cold Night and Break the Urn, etc.

Tea-Plucking Opera has spread its influence in East Guangdong Province, South Jiangxi, South Hunan and Southeast Hunan, and has become a key part of Hakka culture, a reflection of Hakka locals’customs, religious beliefs and rituals. Therefore, it provides precious clues for studying Hakka culture, history and folk customs. However, impacts brought by other cultures, restrains imposed by local customs, and prejudices against “little drama”, have brought the Opera to the brink of extinction. Only quick protective measures can stop this coming tragedy.