Large
SmallHuadeng Opera
Year: 2006
Sort: Traditional Opera
Area:Guizhou ProvinceandYunnan Province
Serial No.: IV-78
Declarer: Sinan County, Guizhou Province; Yuxi County, Yunnan Province
Huadeng means festivallanterns. Huadeng Opera is a performance art form popular among the Han people, particularly in southwestern China's Guizhou and Yunnan provinces. Performers sing and dance with fans and handkerchiefs in their hands on a stage. Due to different dialects and folk songs, Huadeng Opera has branched into several categories.
Guizhou Huadeng Opera has developed from local folk songs and dances since the end of theQing Dynasty(1644-1911). Sinan County is one of the regions where Huadeng Opera is very popular. The original performance was very simple and the theme focused on rural life and folk stories. The arias and roles in Huadeng Opera were gradually increased and the performance was improved.
Yunnan Huadeng Opera also developed from folk songs and dances and was popular in Yunnan Province during the late Qing Dynasty. Several branches of Huadeng Opera were developed in Yunnan due to different dialects and folk songs in different regions in the province.
In terms of regions, Yunnan Huadeng Opera can be classified intoKunmingHuadeng Opera, Yuxi Huadeng Opera and Yao'an Huadeng Opera.
The performance of Huadeng Opera attaches great importance to singing and dancing. Yunnan Huadeng Opera peaked from the 1950s to the 1960s, during which a group of famous performances and many well-known operas came into being.
In recent years, in many places the Huadeng Opera is dying out, due to a lack of funds, difficulty in arranging performances of new plays and a lack of young practitioners. Thus it is in great need of protection.
