Gezai Opera (Taiwanese Opera)

Introduction

A Minnan-language opera that grew from Yilan folk song and is performed on both sides of the Taiwan Strait

Gezai opera is a Minnan-dialect opera built on the narrative singing known as gezai. It is generally traced to the 'local gezai' of Yilan, Taiwan, around the turn of the 20th century, when informal singing in temple yards and under trees grew into open-air and then indoor theatre, absorbing elements of Liyuan, Beiguan, Gaojia, Chaozhou and Peking opera. It reached Xiamen early in the 20th century and spread through southern Fujian and Chinese communities in Southeast Asia; around Zhangzhou it is also called Xiangju. It uses more than a hundred tunes sung in natural voice by every role type, with the lamenting kudan roles especially distinctive, accompanied mainly by the coconut-shell fiddle (kezaixian) and daguangxian. It is performed today in Taiwan, southern Fujian and Southeast Asia, and has radio, film and television forms.

Timeline

1. 1900OriginYilan 'local gezai' grows from informal ground-level singing into a small song-and-dance drama
2. 1920EvolutionCommercial indoor-theatre performance takes off; the form reaches Xiamen and spreads across southern Fujian
3. 1960EvolutionRadio and television gezai opera emerge

Heritage Listings

1. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Chinafirst batch · traditional drama · Ⅳ-64 · Xiamen and Zhangzhou · Fujian
2. 2009Taiwan, Cultural Heritage Preservation Act: Important Traditional Performing Art 'Gezaixi', with Liao Chiung-chih recognised as preserver