Huangxiao Flower Drum is a flower drum opera popular in Huangban and Xiaogan, Hubei from the middle of the Qing Dynasty to 1926. Its original name was "Xiluzi Flower Drum". Because it was mostly performed during the lantern festival after the Spring Festival, it was also called "Lantern Opera". It was originally developed from folk art forms such as rowing lotus boats, walking on stilts, and playing drums. It was renamed "Chu Opera" in 1926. In the more than 100 years since its origin, "Huangxiao Flower Drum" has become a regular local opera in Huangxiao area. This small opera in the form of rap in Huangxiao local language, which is popular among the masses, has gone through its tortuous and difficult road. Origin "Huangxiao Flower Drum" originated around the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. There were tea farmers in Ziyun Mountain and 1 Mountain in Huangmei County. The singing form of two people dressed as a clown and performed on stilts spread to Xiaogan and Huangpo counties. Around 1882, folk artists in Huangban and Xiaogan were influenced by Huangmei Tea Picking Opera and imitated its singing and dancing when playing lanterns in rural areas during the Spring Festival. They walked on stilts and sang ditties. Later, they walked on the ground without stilts and sang. Later, the performers dressed up as characters of different identities to sing, and changed from solo singing to male and female duets and five to seven people singing. Then, gongs and drums were used to form the "Da Luo Qiang" of the story. Classification of singing styles At this time, the prototype of "Huangxiao Flower Drum" had been formed, which was a typical "Huangpo Qiang, Xiaogan Tune". At this time, "Huangxiao Flower Drum" was just a "three small" local opera with "Xiaosheng, Xiaodan, and Clown" as the protagonists. A group of three or five actors also played percussion instruments, and percussion instruments also played chorus (without string accompaniment). Later, the "hanging color" became popular, that is, wearing costumes and makeup, but the costumes were simple, mostly borrowed from the bride's new clothes and skirts, and the makeup was just applying palace powder and rouge. The phenomenon of "wrapping green gauze" began to appear on the heads of female roles, which was the origin of the "wrapped head" of female roles in Chu opera. The performance location of Huangxiao Flower Drum was originally only in rural areas. The actors were all amateurs, and the audience was mostly farmers and handicraftsmen. Around 1830, "farming during busy farming season and performing during slack farming season" became the performance form of semi-professional singing groups in Huangxiao counties, known as "Coujiaoban." The activity pattern was "tight in spring, loose in summer, and 0 in autumn, and it comes again in the twelfth month of winter." Around 1840, "Coujiaoban" gradually developed into a professional troupe. There is also a family-style troupe that only performs lantern opera among people with the same surname in the same bay. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Wangjia Chongwan in Meidian, Huangban, started playing lanterns for three consecutive days on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year, and started singing opera in the evening. In the 25th year of Emperor Daoguang's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1845), Wang Jiafu, a private school teacher in Wangjiachongwan, invited a master from Xiaogan to teach Huagu Opera and formed the first homeland opera troupe in Huangpo. Later, the troupe was passed down for seven generations (Jia, Guang, Wen, Yun, Zhao, You, Dao) without interruption, and lasted for more than 140 years. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, in addition to the village forming its own troupe and using public funds to hire a master to teach the opera, there were also enthusiastic people who raised money to hire a master to teach the opera. However, this method has very strict rules. The first and second types must sign a contract with the people in the bay or the headman. After learning the opera, they must first perform for the bay on a voluntary basis every Spring Festival. If they do not return to the village on time to sing lantern opera, the clan leader must first remove the tiles on the actor's house and must accept the punishment according to the rules (this rule is still used in places around Huangxiao). The third type of people sign a contract with the troupe owner and do not receive "package silver" (salary) for three years, but only provide food. This type of troupe is basically a professional or semi-professional "four-season troupe". After the troupe was assembled, they usually just played "village troupe", and sang "lantern opera" during festivals and festivals, and also sang opera to thank the gods and make wishes. Singing opera to thank the gods and make wishes is more particular than singing lantern opera, and it usually starts after the Spring Festival. It is about the 15th day of the first lunar month to celebrate the Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the second lunar month to celebrate the birthday of the Goddess of Childbirth, the 19th day of the second lunar month to celebrate the birthday of Guanyin, the 3rd day of the third lunar month to celebrate the birthday of the Goddess of Wealth, the 28th day of the third lunar month to celebrate the birthday of Dongyue, and the 15th day of the fourth lunar month to celebrate the birthday of the Goddess of Fire. When the busy farming season comes, the artists who play the four-season troupe will disband and go home to farm, and then re-form the troupe during the slack season. The artists of the professional troupe turned to singing "1 opera", that is, the local 1 guys who make a living by 1 set up a casino and attract audiences (gamblers) by singing opera to spend the off-season. The earliest Huang Xiaohua drum opera professional troupe was relatively simple, with less than a basket of all its costumes, and the only musical instruments were drums, boards, gongs, and plucks. There are only a few tunes, such as Yaqiang, Beiqiang, Siping, Niusi and Xiaodiao, and the singing programs retain the characteristics of folk songs, dances and rap. There are not many performances. Even when there are plot dramas, they are just some life excerpts. Therefore, there is a saying that "when Huagu Opera starts, it is either "Yu Laosi" or "Zhang Dehe". Artistic characteristics Huangxiao Huagu Opera has a deep artistic charm. Because Huangxiao Huagu has the inherent characteristics of folk operas such as lively and lively, rich in life, its singing repertoire is mostly based on rural life and folk traditional stories around the actors and audiences, coupled with the simple language, colloquial singing, easy-to-understand words and sentences, and the actors' performances are real and natural, which makes people feel that they will never get tired of watching (listening) a hundred times, so it has a large audience. In the past, in the Huangxiao area, whether it was a cowherd in the countryside or a craftsman in the town, they could hum a few sections of the Yaqiang of Huagu Opera in a methodical manner. Therefore, the singing range of Huangxiao Huagu has gradually expanded from the grass-stage temple society in the countryside to the tea gardens, guild halls and theaters in the town. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were seven temples, three guild halls and the famous "Liuye Tea Garden" distributed in the nine streets and eighteen lanes of Xiaogan City. The opera houses in these places all have the footprints of Huangxiao Flower Drum Opera artists. Among the folk proverbs that have been circulated in Xiaogan for more than 100 years, there are a large number of folk proverbs praising Flower Drum Opera artists and their works, such as "Drink yellow chicken soup for soup, and watch Yan Hanjiang for opera" (Yan Hanjiang is a famous Huangxiao Flower Drum Opera artist, the same below); "Eat cabbage heart for vegetables, and watch Chen Goujin for opera"; "Eat chicken thighs for chicken, and watch Chen Hazi for opera"; "Eat Hunan rice for rice, and watch Liu Shuangxi for opera"; "Don't be afraid that your throat will bleed if you can't sing Guo Hefeng's "Dong Yong Farewell"". The infinite charm of Huangxiao Flower Drum Opera has even influenced some old tea gardens in old Hankou, and they began to invite Flower Drum Opera artists from Huangpi and Xiaogan to perform in Hankou. In the 30th year of Emperor Daoguang's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1850), the Huang Xiao Huagu Opera Troupe began to perform in the Tudang Lake (now the area around Changdi Street, Tongyi Street and above the Yangtze River Hotel), a water and land wharf outside the urban area of Hankou. At that time, "Hankou Bamboo Branch Poems" written by Ye Diaoyuan of Yuyao, Zhejiang, described the popularity of Huang Xiao Huagu's performance in Hankou: "Vulgar people prefer to love customs, and they like to listen to frivolous and oily tunes the most. Tudang invites people to sing Huagu Opera, and the performance always starts at two or three o'clock in the morning." Some famous artists were also invited to perform in tea gardens in cities such as Yichang and Shashi outside Wuhan. Representative figures According to relevant historical materials, Huangpi and Xiaogan Huagu Opera artists Gan Shisheng, Ai Guangyu, Jiang Fuxing, Li Pinsan, Zhang Yinlin, Zhu Fuquan, Jiang Pingqiu, Xiong Sanyuan, Leng Yuesan, Kuang Bolin, Hu Xitang, Zhang Yuqing and others performed in theaters in large and medium-sized cities such as the amusement park in the French Concession in Shanghai, the Qingzheng Tea Garden in Hankou, the Zuile Stage in Shashi, Tongle in Yichang, Tongchun in Xi'an, and Yiyuan in Chongqing from 1899 to 1945. Main repertoires After entering the city, the Huagu Opera in Huangpi and Xiaogan counties gradually increased its repertoire to meet the needs of citizens. In the 26th year of Guangxu (1900), a small stage was set up in Wangjiang Tea Garden in Shakou Town, and more than a dozen artists were hired to perform. The repertoires performed were all traditional small plays, such as "Cai Mingfeng Leaving the Inn", "Cuihua Girl Picking Up the Pass", "Ten Miles of Pavilion", "Yu Laosi Greeting the New Year", etc. In the early years of the Republic of China, the Huangpo Opera Troupe began to perform the original plays such as "Zhu Cutting Liver" and "Chicken Blood" in the tea gardens and theaters in Hankou, which marked the beginning of the performance history of Huangxiao Huagu Opera. In 1927, Huangxiao Huagu Opera was named Chu Opera.