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Huangmei Opera

From tea-picking songs to The Fairy Couple

Introduction

An Anhui opera from Huangmei tea-picking songs, sung in the Anqing dialect

Huangmei opera, once called Huangmei tune or tea-picking drama, comes from the tea-picking songs of the Huangmei area in Hubei. In the Qing these songs spread to Huaining and nearby parts of Anhui, merged with local folk arts and were sung and spoken in the Anqing dialect as the 'Huai tune'; absorbing the music and plays of the Qingyang and Hui tunes, the form grew from two- and three-role skits to full-length plays. Its music falls into flower tunes, colour tunes and main tunes, and after 1949 the gaohu fiddle became the lead instrument. The 1955 film The Fairy Couple (Tianxian pei), starring Yan Fengying and Wang Shaofang, made it known nationwide; it is performed mainly in Anqing, Anhui and Huangmei, Hubei.

Timeline

Mid-to-late Qing to present
1820 · OriginJiaqing–Daoguang reigns: Huangmei tea-picking songs take shape as two- and three-role skits in southwest Anhui1880 · EvolutionLate Qing: the Huai tune forms around Huaining and Anqing, absorbing Qingyang and Hui tunes for full-length plays1955 · ImpactThe film The Fairy Couple brings Huangmei opera fame at home and abroad
  1. 1820OriginJiaqing–Daoguang reigns: Huangmei tea-picking songs take shape as two- and three-role skits in southwest Anhui
  2. 1880EvolutionLate Qing: the Huai tune forms around Huaining and Anqing, absorbing Qingyang and Hui tunes for full-length plays
  3. 1955ImpactThe film The Fairy Couple brings Huangmei opera fame at home and abroad

Heritage Listings

  1. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Chinafirst batch · traditional drama · Ⅳ-60