Qingquan Village, Tonggu Town, Youyang County, Chongqing, becomes livened up because of a mask and a play. There is a bunch of Yang Opera performers with an average age of over 65 that work on the farmland, at the construction site, or in the factory but contribute greatly to passing down the intangible cultural heritage.
Chen Yongxia (left), head of the Yang Opera troupe (Photo provided to iChongqing)
On June 10, 2021, the State Council announced the fifth representative list of State-level intangible cultural heritage items, and Yang Opera from Youyang county was included in the extended representative list of State-level intangible cultural heritage items. Led by the 69-year-old troupe head Chen Yongxia, inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Youyang Mask Yang Opera, the old performers, experienced and witnessed the "resurrection" of Yang Opera, which marked a new start for the inheritance of the opera.
Survival with fewer performers
Yang Opera is a kind of authentic Tujia Opera, also known as Mask Yang Opera or Mask Opera. Combining sacrificial rituals and dramatic art, this folk drama is characterized by gentle shows focusing on acting rather than martial arts. Most are tragedies focusing on families and people's daily lives.
The Yang Opera performer is wearing a mask before on the stage. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
Local performers farm in the busy season and sing the opera in the slack season. Chen Yongxia is one of them. Chen opens his three "Treasure Chests" in the warehouse to reveal the most delicate and vivid wooden masks when it rains. People don't know when Yang Opera has lost its popularity, and only the middle-aged and elderly have some interest in it.
As fewer performance opportunities exist, the troupe cannot ensure a stable income. Some members chose to give up and lock their masks in the box. As a result, more young performers have decided to leave the troupe.
Yang Opera gear is stored in a locked room (Photo provided to iChongqing)
In the past 40 years, the Yang Opera troupes have been dwindling, and many performers have left the profession. Chen Yongxia and his troupe members have chosen to stick to it.
Persistence in Cultural inheritance
Percussion instruments accompany Yang Opera. The youngest member in the troupe is only 18 years old, but most are middle-aged people in their 40s. There are even 80-year-olds.
In Tonggu Town, the 69-year-old Chen Yongxia is not the youngest performer, but he is regarded as a "young" troupe head. Greatly influenced by his predecessors, he became the new head of the troupe in Qingquan Village in his 20s.
A half-head Monkey King mask that has been passed down for several generations (Photo provided to iChongqing)
He undertakes the heaviest burden of passing the opera down. Versatile and talented, though, Chen Yongxia feels quite helpless concerning the survival of the opera.
In 2006, he attended a symposium on the inheritance and protection of Yang Opera of Youyang. Some put forward the question: Yang Opera was taught by word of mouth via teachers and family members in the past, but now is this pattern still working with the influence of society and family that still exists?
Yang Opera is accompanied by percussion instruments (Photo provided to iChongqing)
Chen Yongxia believes that what he can do is to teach whoever wants to learn the skills passed down from his ancestors without reservation and as completely and accurately as he can, and the influence of society and family is the best teacher.
Chen's two sons, who used to sit in the audience to watch his performances, have started to learn Yang Opera from him and gradually become proper performers in the process of passing down the opera culture. And his two grandsons have also joined them as the youngest disciples in the troupe.
Cultivation with winning the award
The members of Chen Yongxia's troupe have an average age of over 65. With hoes, they are farmers working in the fields. Wearing masks, they become representative inheritors of Yang Opera.
They can earn 50 or 60 yuan at least and 120 yuan at most for a show, and there are only a dozen shows in a year. The performers quite enjoy the show even if they cannot do it for a living.
Leng Dingxiang and his two sons are all engaged in Yang Opera (Photo provided to iChongqing)
Putting aside the gains and losses, for the time being, Chen Yongxia and his troupe are widely active at festivals and celebrations to attract more fans. They regard every performance as a way of cultivation. Thanks to the many performances, Yang Opera has started to attract more attention from the public.
Leng Dingxiang, a member of the troupe, made the female role he played popular in 2015 when he left Chongqing for the first time for Beijing to perform the Yang Opera piece "Pingpan Zhaoqin." He won the excellent performance award at the "4th Ethnic Minority Drama and Opera Performances " in China, but he became worried.
When he performed in Beijing, his costumes were gorgeous, and the makeup was exquisite. The gap between the stages out there and back home was so great that he wondered when some 30 members of the troupe could get such a great opportunity.
The resurrection of intangible cultural heritage
Performers are working hard to sustain the culture of Yang Opera on the stage, and another group of people is also making contributions to its protection behind the scenes.
"We have collected the information on all the troupes of Yang Opera. We have sorted out and archived them according to the requirements for intangible cultural heritage protection and established a database. On that basis, we have held forums and invited experts and scholars to study it," said Chen Yongsheng, curator of Youyang County Cultural Center.
A selected scene of Lady General Mu Takes Command (Photo provided to iChongqing)
In 2007, Youyang Mask Yang Opera was included in Chongqing's first municipal protection list, and Yang Opera performers got the title of representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage.
In 2021, Yang Opera applied for a place among "national treasures" on the fifth representative list of State-level intangible cultural heritage items. With joint efforts of multiple parties, "Tujia Mask Yang Opera of Youyang" has been included as a type of traditional drama on the extended representative list of State-level intangible cultural heritage items, so the performers see a new start and hope of passing the culture down.
Leng Dingxiang plays the female role of Mu Guiying (Photo provided to iChongqing)
Recently, Chen Yongxia has found another thing to do as he expects to see Yang Opera, like other kinds of intangible cultural heritage, performed in more venues other than theaters. He hopes that the intangible cultural heritage will be seen on campus and even in the textbook, which he thinks will not take long.
The preparation behind the scenes of the Yang Opera (Photo provided to iChongqing)
The troupe has seen a sign of rising. The gear has been updated with financial aid and support from the county and town governments. The costumes are new, and the masks are coated with a protective layer, which has helped increase the performers' confidence.
Ms. Ran, who grew up watching the opera, commented on Chen Yongxia's troupe objectively and plainly.
"As they are old, they cannot move around flexibly or act as coherently as when they were young, but their perseverance is touching. It is the belief that should pass down the Yang Opera."