1. Introduction Huaihong Opera is the only local opera in the former county-level city of Suqian. Formerly known as Qingyin, it is commonly known as Land Boat Tune and is also known as "Hundred Songs". It is named "Huaihong" because its main tune is Huai'an [Manjianghong]. Sing [Manjianghong], [Yuanyangju], [Chuanxinzi], [Shuluo], [Fengyangge], [Wei Diao]. In the form of land boat singing and dancing, it sings short stories or lyrics praising merits and congratulating auspicious celebrations. Therefore, Huaihong Opera is widely spread in urban and rural areas of Suqian and surrounding areas such as Suining, Xinyi, Shuyang, Siyang, Sihong, Huaiyin, Lianshui, Guannan, etc., and is deeply loved by the people. In the 1960s, Suqian Huaihong Opera, Danyang Dan Opera, and Haimenshan Opera were praised as the "three flowers" of Jiangsu opera, and were received by Jiang Weiqing, Hui Yuyu, Ouyang Huilin, and other leaders of the then Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Provincial Government. Nowadays, with the rapid development of the market economy, there are fewer and fewer artists who can understand and sing this opera, and it is on the verge of extinction. The survival status of Huaihong Opera has attracted great attention from the cultural authorities of our city government. In 2007, Huaihong Opera was included in the first batch of municipal intangible cultural heritage protection list of our city. 2. Performance form There are two initial singing forms of Huaihong Opera: first, sitting singing, using tunes to express the content of folk stories; second, singing short stories or lyrics praising merits and congratulating auspicious celebrations in the form of land boat singing and dancing at festivals and temple fairs. In the traditional performance form, the singing is mostly performed by female artists who beat the ban drum by themselves, and the accompaniment is mostly blind. The instruments include erhu, pipa, dulcimer, yueqin, etc. Later, it developed into: the main string of the Huaihong Opera band uses gaohu, and other accompaniment instruments include erhu, zhonghu, dulcimer, pipa, and sanxian. The bass is mostly cello, and the wind instruments often use bamboo flute, suona, and sheng. The performance of the main string gaohu adopts the set (addition) method. Other instruments are accompanied by supporting tunes (accompanied by tunes), and sometimes the reverse bowing method is used for accompaniment. When the band accompaniments, the method of singing complex with simple and simple with complex is generally used, so that the accompaniment and the singing music naturally form the effect of folk "branch polyphony". The percussion of Huaihong Opera generally adopts the gongs and drums of Peking Opera. However, it should be pointed out that in percussion, small discs are used for accompaniment, which has a unique style. The pitch of the small disc is selected to be consistent with or similar to the pitch of the main tune in the play. The rhythm of knocking the disc is relatively rich and the changes are also diverse. 3. Characteristics of singing tunes The singing tune of Huaihong Opera belongs to the structural form of the tune. It is basically based on [Manjianghong] as the main tune, using the stringing technique, and a small part is the board cavity. Organically connect several different folk tunes to form a "vocal suite" to sing a relatively complete story. An important tune combination form in Qingqu, "Wubanmei Suite", must start with [Manjianghong] and end with [Dieban] and [Luoban]. This way of grouping has become the basic rule of Huaihong Opera. 4. Main tunes The main tunes of Huaihong Opera include: [Man Jiang Hong], [Feng Yang Ge], [Yuan Yang Ju], [Chuan Xin Zi], [Shang He Diao], [Xiao He Diao], [Jian Jian Hua], [Xiao Lang Diao], [Shu Luo], [Luo Jiang Yuan], [Yin Niu Lu], [Kan Dong Diao], [Ba Jiao Gu], [Wei Diao], [Yang Liu Qing], [Xian Hua Diao], [Ba Duan Jin], [Dao Qing], [Lian Hua Luo], [Ten Cups of Wine], [Dressing Table], [Bu Gang], [Taiping Nian], [Shu Luo Ban], [Duo Zi Gan Ban Luo Qiang], etc. 5. Plays and Scripts The popular folk legends and scripts include "Flooding Jinshan Mountain", "Chen Miaochang Chasing the Boat", "Pan Jinlian Picking Wheat", "Monks and Nuns Going Down the Mountain", "Knocking on Hundreds of Children", "Blind Fortune Teller", "Small Peddler", "Fishermen, Woodcutters, Farmers and Readers", "Free People", etc. These scripts have moving plots, vivid characters, a strong sense of life, and shine with the simple brilliance of folk art. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, modern dramas performed include "Drills Under the Moon", "Sending Pond Mud", "Lotus Picking Boat", "Fighting for Fertilizer", "Blood and Tears Revenge", "Inserting Road Signs", "Walking Together on Yangguan Road", "Removing Roadblocks", "Changing Medicines", "Giving Gifts", and "Selling Pots Together"; transplanted modern dramas include "Family Cases", "Ten Miles of Fragrance" and reorganized and adapted traditional dramas such as "Taiping Tu" and "Double Going Down the Mountain". 6. Genealogy of inheritance Huaihong Opera has been passed down to six generations since the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty. The representative inheritors of each period are: Cheng Er (name unknown) during the Jiaqing period; Wu Jingzhai during the Tongzhi and Guangxu periods; Liang Bangjie (editor and performer) and Luo Yunzhang (editor and performer) during the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China; from the early years of the Republic of China to before 1949: Song Lvqing (editor and performer), Chen Jiatang (editor and performer), Qian Xiang (orchestra); from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the early 1970s: Li Zhankui (editor and performer), Fu Jinpei (editor and performer), Wang Maoxue (orchestra), Liu Hanjie (editor and performer), Cai Shimin (screenwriter), Yu Qingtang (drummer), Chen Youyang (actor); from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s: Yang Bangyan (composer), Liang Shengan (composer) - (script), Yang Jing (screenwriter), Zheng Qien (screenwriter), Yang Youzhi (director), Yang Shisheng (orchestra), Li Wenzhang (orchestra), Liu Xiankui (editor and performer), Luo Xuwen (editor and performer), and Yu Hongnan (main hu). 7. Introduction to the inheritor Yang Bangyan, male, 55 years old, from Suqian, Jiangsu Province, currently serves as the deputy director of the Suqian City Song and Dance Troupe. In 1971, he was admitted to the Suqian County Art Troupe as a band performer. In 1973, he was admitted to the Department of Music of Nanjing Normal University, majoring in composition and pipa performance. After graduation in 1976, he returned to the Suqian Art Troupe to work as a composer and band conductor. Since 1980, he has been deeply excavating and sorting out folk music. Together with Huaihong artists such as Gong Fengling, Ge Yunfei, and Yang Shisheng, he sang Huaihong Opera. Together with Li Zhaoyi and Liang Shengan from the County Cultural Center, he sorted out 38 Huaihong Opera tunes and more than ten Huaihong singing segments. In 1983, together with Yang Youzhi, director of the County Cultural Center, he transplanted the Hubei Province Flower Drum Opera "Family Case" into Huaihong Opera. He was responsible for the music, singing design, and rehearsal of Huaihong Opera. After the play was performed, it caused a strong response among the Suqian audience who loved Huaihong Opera. In 1984, it was listed as the main program of the first Huaiyin City Festival and was praised by the Secretary of the Huaiyin Municipal Party Committee and the Secretary. After 1997, he was transferred to work in the Municipal Cultural Center. He successively compiled and created Huaihong Operas such as "Talking about Suyu and Singing about Suqian" and "Delicious Suqian" and performed at the Municipal Party Committee Work Conference and the Municipal Cultural Festival. In September 2008, he was named by the Suqian Municipal People's Government as the representative inheritor of Huaihong Opera, the first batch of traditional cultural projects in Suqian. 8. Historical evolution [Historical evolution] During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Suqian suffered from the floods of the Yellow River, and the people were living in poverty. Many folk artists made a living by rapping. They mostly moved with the flow of the river and the lake and landed along the river and the lake to perform at will. The artists at that time were very mobile and absorbed the popular folk tunes from all over the country, and the tunes tended to be rich. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the floods were effectively controlled, and many artists were relatively stable, so Huaihong Opera developed rapidly. In the late Qing Dynasty, it was formed in Suqian and spread to Suqian, Huai'an, Shuyang, Siyang, Sihong, Huaiyin, Lianshui, Guannan and other places. In the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, Huaihong Opera had new developments in singing, forming two major schools, the East and the West. The East School was represented by Liang Bangjie from Sucheng, with soft singing, euphemistic and lingering, and endless aftertaste; the West School was represented by Luo Yunzhang from Shuangzhuang Township, Suqian County, with strong singing, loud but not noisy, and thick and simple. In terms of performance, it has gradually developed into a primary form of opera. During the intervals of the dry boat performance, once the life came on stage, he sang and danced, and performed interesting small programs such as "Watching Lanterns", "Fortune Telling", and "Knocking on Hundreds of Children". In 1928, the amateur entertainment club run by the People's Education Center of Suqian County, composed of Liang Bangjie, Zang Yutang, Cheng Buying, Yang Ruizhi, Lu Yutang, Qian Yongxiang, Chai Changqing, Su Yiling, Gong Fengling and others, performed "Water Flooding Jinshan", "Fortune Telling", "Pan Jinlian Picking Wheat", "Chen Miaochang Chasing the Boat" and other plays on the stage, which were very popular among the masses. This was the first time that Huaihong Opera was on the stage of opera. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, wars broke out and the entertainment club was disbanded. This budding flower also withered. After the founding of New China, Huaihong Opera gained a new life. In order to save the national cultural and artistic heritage, the Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Culture sent personnel to Suqian Huitong Cultural Center twice in 1954 and 1959 to excavate and sort out. According to the instructions of the Provincial Bureau of Culture to excavate and sort out the dry boat tune, the County Bureau of Culture and Education organized Hou Zhujiu and others from the Cultural Center to excavate and sort out nearly 100 Huaihong tunes such as [Bajiaogu] and [Fengyang Song] in the Liang and Luo schools, and dozens of songbooks, which were compiled and printed. At the end of 1954, the Qunying Amateur Huaihong Opera Troupe was established in Beiguan Town, Sucheng, with Xia Chengxiang as the head and Cheng Buying as the director. The main actors included Chai Changqing, Su Yiling, Gong Fengling, Deng Shiying, Qian Yongxiang, Xia Yongxia, Yang Jindou, etc. In the early days of the troupe, due to the lack of national economy, the troupe funds were raised by the actors themselves, and they performed in vacant houses or courtyards. The program was mainly a cappella, which was very popular among Huaihong Opera enthusiasts. Every night, the audience was crowded, sometimes nearly a thousand people. In 1958, Zhang Zhongqiao, Secretary General of the Provincial Music Association, came to Sucheng to investigate the music of Huaihong Opera. Together with the comrades of the Cultural Center, he interviewed Mr. Yang Ruizhi, an old Huaihong artist in Buzi Town, and notated the music for more than a month. Yang Ruizhi's "Fengyang Song" "Long Live Mao Zedong" was recorded by Su Li (Zhang's pen name) and included in the "Jiangsu Folk Music Collection". In the autumn of the same year, Sucheng Town, based on the Qunying Huaihong Opera Troupe, absorbed Huaihong Opera enthusiasts such as Zhuo Yaokun, Ma Siyu, Huang Yuanliang, Guo Yurong, and Zhou Shixian, and expanded to form the Bawang Commune Amateur Huaihong Opera Troupe, with Liu Hanjie as the head and more than 20 performers and staff. Under the leadership of the commune party committee, the "Double Hundred" literary and artistic policy was implemented, with small-scale and diverse, self-written and self-performed as the main focus, and modern dramas such as "Moonlight Exercise", "Sending Pond Mud", "Picking Lotus Boats", "Fighting for Fertilizer", "Walking on Yangguan Road Together" and traditional dramas such as "Chasing Boats" and "Double Going Down the Mountain" were created and performed. The performance absorbed the art form of Peking Opera, and the singing and recitation were all in Suqian dialect, which was easy to understand, vivid, rich in local color, and refreshing. At the same time, Shuangzhuang, Gengche Commune and Guoyuanchang also successively established Huaihong Opera amateur troupes. In January 1960, the amateur Huaihong Opera Troupe of Bawang Commune participated in the provincial opera performance viewing conference and performed the modern drama "Sending the Pond Mud", which was well received. The Provincial Bureau of Culture allocated a special fund of 40,000 yuan to support the establishment of a professional Huaihong Opera Troupe in Suqian. In March of that year, after research and approval by the county people's government, the amateur Huaihong Opera Troupe of Bawang Commune was turned into an experimental professional Huaihong Opera Troupe, and the first "Taipingtu" was staged by the leadership of Bawang Commune. In the autumn of the same year, it merged with the county Peking Opera Troupe after it was abolished to form the Suqian County Lv Opera Troupe. From then on, Huaihong Opera became an amateur performance. In 1978, the county cultural and educational bureau organized the cultural center and the troupe's music workers Li Zhaoyi, Liang Sheng'an, Yang Bangyan, etc., to spend a year to explore and sort out the music of Huaihong Opera again (the provincial cultural bureau had sent personnel to Suzhou twice to explore and sort out the Huaihong Opera tunes, but unfortunately, the tunes and songs they sorted out were burned during the "Cultural Revolution"), and studied its singing and accompaniment characteristics, and put them into practice in the plays such as "Inserting Road Signs", "Giving Gifts", and "Two Fools Sending Cloth", so that the original tunes have new developments and achieved good results. In 1983, the county Peking Opera Troupe also used the tunes of Huaihong Opera to transplant them into the flower drum opera "Family Cases", making a bold attempt. From the 1960s to the late 1980s, more than 20 songs of Huaihong Opera participated in provincial and municipal performances and exhibitions and won awards. Through the efforts of several generations, Huaihong Opera has all the conditions for local operas. At the same time, the tunes (dry boat tunes) in Huaihong Opera are widely popular in Suqian, Shuyang, Sihong, Huai'an, Lianshui, Guannan and other counties, and are deeply loved by the people. In particular, the older generation of overseas Chinese from Suqian who live abroad love the Huaihong Opera arias very much. Provincial and municipal newspapers and radio stations have reported on them many times. The Jiangsu Provincial Opera Annals listed Huaihong Opera as one of the seven major operas popular in the original Huaiyin area. Since the 1990s, the government has attached great importance to the excavation and cultivation of Huaihong Opera, and has successively excavated various Huaihong Opera performance forms such as traditional small operas (excerpts), sitting singing, and rap. In January 2005, during the enlarged meeting of the Municipal Party Committee, the "Soul of the Mountain and the Charm of Water" large-scale art performance organized by Suyu District, the Huaihong Opera tune was used to sing "Talking about Suyu, Singing Suqian" and won praise from the audience. It is of great significance to promote this local opera.