Before and after the Xinhai Revolution, the color tone unprecedented development, color tone artists in various regions of Guangxi, greatly developed the color tone market. During this time in Guilin area, there are "four great scholars": Leng Guifu, Zhu Wuhachi, Luo Shaoting, Qin Laoshi; in Yishan area, there are "four famous dancers": Wu Elderly, Pan Laotuo, Liang Rushan, "shaved head man"; Ningming area, there are "four famous dancers": Wu Elderly, Pan Laotuo, Liang Rushan, "shaved head man "; Ningming area has "ghost face king" Zhou Chaozang; Rong'an, Sanjiang has regional "tune king" Li Dashu, Chen Songshan and so on.
During this period, the colorful tunes were gradually transferred from the fields in the countryside to the theaters in the towns and cities, and the "Overhill Class" composed of seven or eight people had developed into a semi-professional tunes class of twenty or thirty people by this time.
With the emergence of these professional theater groups, the original 36 "jianghu tunes" of the colorful tunes appeared to be very poor, and it was difficult to meet the audience's requirements. In this case, the artists have been another strange way, based on novels and folk tales, "two women fighting for their husbands", "a scratch grinding tofu", "beat up the ladybird", "evil daughter-in-law into a cow" and other "big tune" plays.
At the same time, artists to make a living, but also created a number of "counterplay", such as A class act "mother sent female", B class will be compiled and acted "female sent mother"; B class act "three look at the pro", A class will be compiled and acted "four female matchmaking" and so on.
The emergence of the professional troupe of Caixiang made the art of Caixiang more distinctive, and there were strict standards in every aspect. Especially in the "three small plays" in the most prominent, such as color tune of the footwork, fan flower, turn, appearance and Danjiao unique finger method, etc., there are dozens of kinds of each. The footwork of the clown in the color tone alone is divided into three categories: short pile, medium pile, and high pile, among which the short pile is the most widely used.
Among the performance props of the color tune, the fan, handkerchief and ribbon are regarded as the three treasures of the color tune performance. One of the fan is the main one, with the dance fan flower to express the mood of the ball fan, high and low fan, butterfly fan, swing fan, rocking fan, wave fan, etc., in addition to the fan can also be used as a broom, torches, scrolls, daggers, hammers, etc., so there is the "all-purpose props," the name.
The basic features of the performing arts such as eyes, hands, body and footwork of the colorful tunes are mostly embodied in the two lines of small dan and clowns, followed by rocking dan.
The steps, turns, appearances, fan flowers, hand flowers of the clowns and Dan are very rich in Guangxi's local theater characteristics, especially in the footwork is the most prominent. Such as "lame footsteps", "twisting silk step", "kicking step", "test step", "horizontal move step" and so on.
Danjiao's "heel step", "broken step", "cloud step" and so on. The fan is the main one of the "three treasures" of the colorful tunes. Because the color tune is y rooted in the countryside between the people, and the local folk songs and ditties closely integrated, forming a content of harmonic, lively form of performance style.
The repertoire of Caijiao is mostly based on the themes of labor, love, and family life, and there are a large number of oral and handwritten copies of the repertoire circulating in the folklore. The performances are in the dialects of Liuzhou and Guilin, and are mainly in the form of songs and dances performed by young sheng, young dan, and clowns.
Colorful tune drama mainly has three major lines: Sheng, Dan, and Chou. Sheng line is subdivided into 3 categories: Sheng, Lao Sheng and Doll Sheng. Xiao Sheng mostly decorated with witty and courageous, lively and lovely aspiring young people, performances, singing, doing, reading and dancing, to play a song and dance of the small drama, many of these roles were originally clown line should work, such as the "Wang San fight birds" of Wang San and other roles that is.
The old man is mostly a frontal character with high age, white beard and hair, and heavy singing. For example, Xu Fengshan of "Five Sons", Zhang Guangcai of "Five Ladies Cutting Hair", and the Land God of "Land Helpers".
Dolls play the role of underage children, such as Wang Ma in Wang Ma's Sister, and Dog Bao and schoolchildren in Dog Bao's School. During the performance, they are often played by trainees or by flower girls and young boys.
Color tune drama, Dan line of the repertoire is very rich, there is "no Dan is not a play" said. The Dan line of the color tune is divided into four categories: Hua Dan, Zheng Dan, Lao Dan and Shao Dan.
Flower Dan often performs songs and dances, and his performances are agile and graceful, lively and enthusiastic, playful and lovely, with equal emphasis on singing, doing and dancing. For example, the Mao Auntie of "Wang San Bird Fighting", the Dragon Lady of "Dragon Lady and Han Peng", and the Liu Sanjie of "Liu Sanjie".
The Zhengdan is steady in speech and behavior, dignified in demeanor, and is good at singing and acting. For example, Pang in "The Story of Changing Sons", Sanmei in "Down to Nanjing", and the mother in the modern drama "Three Little Red Flowers", etc. Sometimes she also plays the cheerful, hard-working character. Sometimes she also plays cheerful and spirited characters, and her performance is close to that of a rocking dan, such as Sun Erniang in "Double-duty Shop" and Zhang Ersao in "Plastic Bodhisattva".
The characters played by the old dan include a white-haired grandmother with a staff and an old woman in general, with diverse personalities and different identities, all of which are mainly sung and acted. For example, the mother of "Mother Sends Daughter", the housewife of "The Changing of the Son", and the mother-in-law of "Daughter-in-Law", etc. The old dan's characters are white-haired and holding a staff.
Shaking Dan, also known as Clown Dan, mostly plays the characters of the shrewish shopkeeper, the matchmaker and the witch, etc., and the performance emphasizes on reciting and doing. For example, the matchmaker in Liu Sanjie, the second sister-in-law in Liangting Firefighting, and the daughter-in-law in Wicked Daughter-in-Law Turning into a Cow.
The clown line of the colorful tune is divided into three categories: positive clowns, bad clowns, and folding clowns. The characters played by the clowns are mostly peasants and laborers of various professions, both young and old, with different personalities, all of them are decent characters in comedies, with witty and funny performances, quick and generous movements, and equal emphasis on singing, doing, reading and dancing. For example, Hu Lacquer in "The Painter Marrying His Daughter", San in "San Playing the Master", and Yicao in "Yicao Grasping and Grinding Tofu".
The bad clowns mostly play those who are not doing their jobs, and they take twisting short piles as their main footwork, with flexible facial muscles, moody, comical speech and behavior, and they are good at reading and doing. Such as "Wang Er Annunciation" of Wang Er, "Wang three blowing smoke" Wang Wang, "doubles store" of Hu Lady two and so on.
Folding clowns, also known as long-shirt clowns, play characters with more status, perform high, medium and short piles as the basic footwork, read, do long, and more fan flower skills. For example, Master Liu in "Watching Kisses Across the River", Ma Jinlong in "Washing Embroidered Shoes", and the magistrate in "Worshipping the Bodhisattva in the Middle of the Night". Caixiang opera clown line performance is rich in characteristics, more repertoire.
The musical accompaniment of Caijiao is divided into left and right fields, with strings in the left field and percussion in the right field. The strings have the tuning hu, also called the big tube, similar to the erhu, yangqin, pipa, three-stringed, suona, flute and other instruments, with the tuning hu as the main player. The gongs and drums for percussion are simpler, with three nodding heads, a dragon, a cymbal and four cymbals in common use.
The same tune of the colorful tune can be changed according to the different lines, characters and performance of life on the board and the cavity, so there is a "tune more **** with the board cavity subdivision". According to the role of the cavity of the role of the cavity has a small boy cavity, Danjiao cavity, clown cavity, rocking Dan cavity, the old man cavity, baby cavity; according to the identity of the character, the occupation and the division of the cavity of the Xianggong cavity, the chemical child cavity, Mei Xiang cavity, the matchmaker's cavity, the monk cavity, the robbers cavity, the fairy cavity, etc.; according to the labor and daily life, there are picking the cavity, rowing a boat cavity, digging the ground cavity, combing the cavity, drinking cavity and so on.
Colorful tune singing belongs to the joint song, divided into plate, cavity, tune 3 categories. Among them, there are appeal boards, crying boards, scolding boards, worry boards, etc.; tunes have more than ancient tunes, horse-riding tunes, etc.; cavities are differentiated by character lines, such as the cadence of a young man, the cadence of a Danjiao, the cadence of a clown, etc.; according to the identity of the character, the occupation of the cadence of a male, the cadence of the chemical, etc.; and the performance of the action of the body is the cadence of a picking, the cadence of a drinking. In addition, some folk tunes popular in the Jiangnan area, such as the tune of flowers, October flowers, etc., have been absorbed into the colorful tune singing.
There are more than 300 songs in the color tune. The musical accompaniment is divided into left and right fields, and the left field is for string and wind music, including tuning hu, yangqin, pipa, sanxian and suona, flute, etc.; the right field is for percussion.
In the 1950s, the colorful tune drama "Dragon Lady and Hanpeng" went from the countryside of Guangxi to Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, where it was performed for the leaders of the central government. From then on, the colorful tune was officially named Caixiang Opera.
In the early 60's, the folk "Liu Sanjie" entered Zhongnanhai, which became popular all over the country and was well known at home and abroad.
In the mid-1960s, "Three Little Red Flowers" went to Beijing again, and the actors and actresses were received by the central leadership, and it was filmed by the Beijing Film Studio and screened as a stage art film.
In the late 70's, the modern play "Happy Events" won the Excellent Script Award for Guangxi, making the colorful drama a major breakthrough in the expression of contemporary rural themes.
In the 80's, "Five Sons" made Guangxi colorful tune red-hot, and dozens of kinds of plays and hundreds of troupes all over the country competed with each other to transplant and stage the play.
In the 90's, "Which Ho Ee Ho Hi" continuously participated in the Chinese Drama Festival and Modern Opera Observation and Performance, and won 23 national prizes and 13 provincial prizes, such as Wenhua Prize and China Cao Yu Drama and Literature Prize, which had a wide impact.
At the end of September 2003, in the hometown of Liu Sanjie, "Guangxi Yizhou City," the city's South Square, Zhongshan Square, People's Auditorium, Government Auditorium and other venues to report on the performance of the color tune art site, the crowd, applauding like a tidal wave. Guangxi color tone art by the "color tone fan" from all over the warm welcome.