Anhui is an eastern landlocked province of the People's Republic of China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, bordering Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a short section in the north.
Chinese Opera is a form of theatre in China that combines singing, acting, and elaborate costumes. Topics are based on Chinese history, mythology, and literature. Over its historical evolution, it has incorporated various art forms such as music, song and dance, martial arts, acrobatics, costume and make-up art, and literature. It has highly formalized roles, performed by professional actors each trained for specific roles. Exaggerated features and colors make the roles easily identifiable.
Peking opera, or Beijing opera, is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century. The form was extremely popular in the Qing court and has come to be regarded as one of the cultural treasures of China. Major performance troupes are based in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. The art form is also preserved in Taiwan, where it is also known as Guójù. It has also spread to other regions such as the United States and Japan.
Hubei is a province of China, known for the Huangmei and Chu opera styles and a wide array of folk songs; Huangmei opera is especially renowned, and has spread to Shanghai, Beijing and Anhui, among other places. In 1986, the Hubei Folk Arts Association published several versions of Darkness, believed to be an ancient Han creation myth, collected mostly in song form by Hu Chongjun.
Anqing is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Anhui province, People's Republic of China. Its population was 4,165,284 as of the 2020 census, with 804,493 living in the built-up area made up of three urban districts. Anqing is famous as the birthplace of Chen Duxiu, one of the founding fathers of the Chinese Communist Party, who served as the first General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1921 to 1928. Huangmei opera, a renowned Chinese opera style, originated in the city of Anqing. This captivating art form gained immense popularity since the 1950s, largely attributed to the exceptional talents of local actors and actresses from Anqing. Huangmei opera is a significant cultural treasure that defines the rich heritage of the city of Anqing.
Pan Yuliang, born as Chen Xiuqing, also known as Zhang Yuliang (張玉良), is remembered as the first woman in China to paint in the Western style. She studied in Shanghai and Paris, and taught at the École des Beaux Arts. In 1985, much of her work was transported to China, and collected by the National Art Museum in Beijing and the Anhui Museum in Hefei. Despite being remembered for introducing Western paintings to China, she also provided a new lens to how women were seen through her paintings, not just as objects but as subjects. She won several awards for her work and exhibited internationally in Europe, the United States, and Japan. Significant paintings, sculptures, and prints by her are still conserved in France in the collection of the Cernuschi museum. Her life as an artist has been portrayed in novels, films, and operas in China and the United States. Her art evolved within the flux of conflicting dichotomies of East and West, tradition and modernity, male chauvinism and emerging feminism. Pan is also remembered as an artist who engaged with labels, such as "contemporary/modern," "Chinese," and "woman" artist, while also questioning them.
Huangmei Opera or Huangmei tone is a form of Chinese opera originating from Anhui province as a form of rural folk song and dance. It's also called Anhui Opera. It has been in existence for the last 200 years and possibly longer. Huangmei opera is one of the most famous and mainstream opera in China, and is a class of the typical Anhui opera. The original Huangmei opera was sung by women in Anhui mountain areas when they were picking tea, and the opera was called the Picking Tea Song. In the late Qing dynasty, the songs were popular in Anhui Huaining County adjacent regions, combined with the local folk art, Anqing dialect with singing and chants, and gradually developed into a newborn's operas. The music is performed with a pitch that hits high and stays high for the duration of the song. It is unique in the sense that it does not sound like the typical rhythmic Chinese opera. In the 1960s Hong Kong counted the style as much as an opera as it was a music genre. Today it is more of a traditional performance art with efforts of revival in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and mostly sung in Mandarin. In 2006, Huangmei Opera was selected for the first batch of China's national intangible cultural heritage.
Huanggang is a prefecture-level city in easternmost Hubei Province, China. It is situated to the north of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and is bounded in the north by the Dabie Mountains and is named after Mount Huanggang. It borders Henan in the north, Anhui in the east and Jiangxi in the south.
Huangmei County falls under the administration of Huanggang City in eastern Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and borders Anhui to the east and Jiangxi to the south across the Yangtze. It also administers Shanjia Islet (单家洲) in the Yangzte.
A Tea-picking opera is a form of musical entertainment.
Yu opera, or Yuju opera, sometimes known as Henan bangzi, is one of China's famous national opera forms, alongside Peking opera, Yue opera, Huangmei opera and Pingju. Henan province is the origin of Yu opera. Henan's one-character abbreviation is "豫" (yù), and thus the opera style was officially named "豫剧" (Yùjù) after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The area where Yu opera is most commonly performed is in the region surrounding the Yellow River and Huai River. According to statistical figures, Yu opera was the leading opera genre in terms of the number of performers and troupes. While Yu opera is often called "Henan opera" in English, within Henan it is considered to be just one of the province's three most important forms of opera, the other two being Quju (曲剧) and Yuediao (越调).
Hui opera, or Huiju, is a regional genre of Chinese opera originally from southern Anhui. It is popular in the area around Huangshan City and Chizhou, as well as Wuyuan County, Jiangxi, and was formerly also popular in neighboring Zhejiang. It has existed for over 300 years.
Ma Lan is a Chinese performing artist of Huangmei opera who usually plays dan (female) roles. Before her abrupt departure from the stage in 2000, Ma Lan was considered the most popular Huangmei opera performer in the country. She has won the Plum Blossom Award, the China TV Golden Eagle Award, and the Flying Apsaras Award, and performed on the CCTV New Year's Gala in 1984, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1997, and 2005. She is often compared to the 1950s/1960s superstar Yan Fengying, whom she movingly portrayed in a hit 1988 TV series.
Huishan clay figurine is a traditional Chinese folk art in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, with a history of more than 400 years. The production of Wuxi Huishan clay figurines began at the end of the Ming dynasty and developed in the Qing dynasty with specialized Huishan clay craftsmanship workshops. On May 20, 2006, Huishan clay figurine was added to the first batch of National intangible cultural heritage lists with the approval of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
Anhui opera may refer to several distinct Chinese opera genres from Anhui province:
Han Zaifen is a Chinese performer of Huangmei opera who is widely regarded as a Huangmei opera superstar. She is the only Huangmei opera artist to have won the prestigious Plum Blossom Award twice. She performed on CCTV Spring Festival Gala a total of 7 times. She also starred in some non-musical TV series.
Xing Xiuniang is depicted in some fictions as a Chinese farmer who transitioned into an opera actress. She is believed to have come from Huangmei County in Hubei Province and to have lived during either the Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty or Republic of China. A recent narrative suggests she also lived and performed in Jiangxi Province during the early Daoguang period (1820–1850). While some stories extol her beauty and talent, there are no written records to confirm her life's details. Furthermore, there's no evidence to validate her existence as a historical figure. The character is thought to be inspired by a real woman, Li Zicheng's wife, from the late Ming Dynasty. Stories about Xing Xiuniang have spanned nearly 300 years. The controversies in these narratives often stem from rural writers in Huangmei County, who, lacking historical expertise, adjust her age repeatedly to lend credibility to their stories. The local government of Huangmei is suspected of using this ambiguity to claim credit for Huangmei opera, which is generally believed to have originated and developed in Anqing, Anhui.
Xifu, also known as Chinese opera costume in English, are the stage clothes and attire worn in Chinese opera, such as Kunqu, Cantonese opera, Beijing opera, Huangmei opera. Some of these costumes bear some resemblance to the Hanfu system but also show some differences in terms of clothing ornaments and decorations, as well as colour system, and in design and construction. In 2006, the techniques used to produce Beijing opera costumes were included in the national intangible cultural heritage list.
