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Huzhou opera

chinadaily.com.cn| Updated: June 29, 2020 L M S

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Huzhou opera [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

Huzhou opera, formerly known as Huzhou Tanhuang, is popular in Huzhou, Jiaxing, Yuhang and Lin'an in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Yixing and Wujiang in Jiangsu province and Guangde county in Anhui province. It has a history of more than 100 years, and was included on the second provincial representative list of intangible cultural heritages.

Huzhou opera is composed by local Tanhuang (a category of traditional Chinese folk art formed in the middle of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces), Huzhou Qinshu and folk ditties. Huzhou opera was still popular for its local folk ditties in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and gradually developed into "two little opera" and "three little opera", which stage stories with two or three performers dressed up as characters. Most of the people staging "little opera" were Qinshu performers. In the 1930s, Huzhou Tanhuang began to appear in cities, and under the influence of Hangzhou opera, Shanghai opera and Wuxi opera, it expanded into large operas (a large-scale drama with complex plots and complete roles) in addition to continuing to offer traditional little opera.

The performance of Huzhou opera is mainly based on literary drama, with a plain and soft quality and a rich atmosphere of daily life.