Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera was once widely popular in Xiangfan area, and its influence spread to Fangxian, Yunyang, Yuan'an, Xingshan in Hubei Province, and as far as southern Shaanxi and southern Henan. It was originally called "Di Huagu" and "Huaguzi". Because this type of opera was discriminated against and banned, the artists could only hide in the mountains and countryside to perform, so it was also called "Duoduo Opera". Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera was not originally the only name for Flower Drum Opera in Xiangfan. Before 1980, although the repertoire was basically the same, the singing style was similar, and the name of the tune was the same, Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera had different names due to different administrative divisions. In Yicheng, it was called "Yicheng Flower Drum", in Xiangyang, it was called "Xiangyang Flower Drum", in Zaoyang, it was called "Zaoyang Flower Drum", and so on. In 1980, the former Xiangyang Regional Cultural Bureau, based on the census of local operas, unified the name of Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera in order to integrate the local drama resources in Xiangyang area and expand the external influence of Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera. Historical Origin Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera was formed between 1820 and 1850 (during the reign of Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty), and influenced and spread to Yunyang, Yuan'an in Hubei, as well as southern Shaanxi and southern Henan. According to the master-disciple relationship, at least in the reign of Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty, people in Yicheng performed Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera. In 1906, amateur Flower Drum Opera troupes appeared in Yicheng, performing small plays such as "Selling White Cloth", "Mending Jars", and "Spring Outing". The performance form was extremely simple at the time. The troupe used sorghum winnowing baskets to make a circle on the ground, and the actors could "go on stage" to perform. This form was commonly known as "ground stalls" or "grass stages". In 1924, the first new thing happened in Yicheng where women went on stage to sing Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera. This incident was caused by the Flower Drum Opera Troupe composed of six people from Wanggang Village, including Liu Jiahan, Xie Silun, Hao Chengsu, Liu Guitang and Wei Mo. Among them, Liu Guitang and Wei Mo sang on the same stage, which was the first time that women sang Flower Drum Opera, which was refreshing and quite rare, and had a great impact at the time. At that time, in Yicheng, well-known Flower Drum Opera artists included Lei Ma from Weigang, Luo Heshang from Zengzhou, Zhao Jinsheng from Lijie, Liu Dongsheng from Guanzhuang, Wei Mo and Liu Jiahan from Wanggang, etc. By the 1940s, there were more than 50 Flower Drum Opera Troupes in Yicheng, and more than 160 plays were performed, including more than 20 full-length plays. These troupes not only performed in local cities and towns, but also moved to Xiangyang, Nanzhang, Zaoyang, Baokang and other places, and sometimes sang together with Flower Drum Opera artists from other counties. For example, Liu Dongsheng once sang together with Yang Xiaolian from Baokang, Kang Sanlai from Xiangyang, and Shi Mo from Nanzhang. All these have greatly promoted the mutual learning, mutual influence and integration of Huagu Opera in various places. Xiangyang Huagu Opera has become more and more perfect and mature, and finally became a popular opera for the people. At that time, there was a saying in Yicheng: "Yiqing (Qing Opera), Erhuang (Mountain Erhuang Opera), Sanyue Diao (Hubei Yue Diao Opera), and Duoduo Opera are really lively." After the founding of the People's Republic of China, with the introduction of Henan Quju and Yu Opera, Xiangyang Huagu Opera gradually declined. Except for the former Xiangyang County and Zaoyang County, which had state-run professional Huagu Opera troupes for a period of time, the Huagu Opera troupes in other counties were replaced by Quju and Yu Opera troupes. By the mid-1970s, with the renaming of the Xiangyang County and Zaoyang County Huagu Opera Troupes, Xiangyang Huagu Opera had almost disappeared in the Xiangfan area and was on the verge of extinction. At that time, there were 11 professional troupes in Xiangfan area, and there was no Xiangyang Huagu Opera professional troupe. As the main popular area of Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera at that time, although the professional Flower Drum Opera Troupe in Yicheng was renamed at that time, Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera still has a strong vitality among the people of Yicheng. It has a deep mass base, and the "sparks" appear from time to time. Amateur Flower Drum Opera Troupes are still "scattered" in Yicheng County, and there are many people who inherit the folk torch. At the same time, the professional troupes in Yicheng have not forgotten the responsibility of inheriting Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera. They not only often perform Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera on the stage of Yicheng, but also perform Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera in Xiangfan City and the provincial capital. In 1953, Yicheng Flower Drum Opera artists Liu Jiahan, Lei Ma, Xie Silun and Peng Kaicheng represented Yicheng in the "Xiangyang Folk Art Festival". The performance of the play "Liang Shanbo Visits Friends" was commended by the Xiangyang Regional Cultural Bureau. In 1954, Liu Jiahan and Xie Silun performed "Flying Kites" at the "Xiangyang Regional Spring Festival Gala". In 1955, Yicheng County Cultural Center, in view of the weakness of the previous Huagu Opera, which was only accompanied by percussion instruments, first took the Zhushi Amateur Huagu Opera Troupe as a pilot for reform, using national orchestral accompaniment, mainly gaohu, erhu, dihu, sheng, flute, ruan, pipa, yangqin and other string instruments, which received a good musical effect and was popularized throughout the county and was very popular among the masses. In 1956, Liu Dongsheng, an old artist of Yicheng Huagu Opera, was selected as a representative of the literary and artistic circles to attend the Second Hubei Provincial Literary and Art Congress. This move greatly encouraged Huagu Opera artists and amateurs, and gave birth to the popularization of Huagu Opera in Yicheng. At that time, there were 40 amateur Huagu Opera troupes in the county, with more than 800 actors. When it was time to pull weeds, the singing of Huagu Opera could be heard everywhere. In 1959, the flower-drum opera "Six, Seven, Eight" starring amateur flower-drum opera actor Jia Wenxiu participated in the Hubei Provincial Local Opera Performance, which made Xiangyang Flower-drum Opera enter the art temple of the provincial capital from the countryside for the first time. In 1964, more than a dozen amateur flower-drum opera actors from Yicheng represented the original Xiangyang area to participate in the provincial training. During the training, they transplanted two small plays, "Mending the Pot" and "Borrowing a Cow", and performed many shows in the provincial capital Wuhan. In 1974, the Yicheng Quju Troupe created the flower-drum opera "Sending Fertilizer", which was a success and was selected by the original Xiangyang area to participate in the provincial performance. The Wuhan Conservatory of Music also recorded its music as teaching materials. In 1975, the Yicheng Quju Troupe created the flower-drum opera "Selling Eggs". The play represented the Xiangyang area in the provincial performance. The central aria of the play was broadcast on Hubei People's Radio Station. In 1983, the Yicheng Quju Troupe created and performed the Xiangyang Flower-drum Opera "Yipinxiang". The play participated in the Hubei Provincial Performance and won the first prize. It then participated in the National Performance and won the third prize. It was also broadcast on Hubei Provincial Television. In 1986, the Yicheng Quju Troupe transplanted the Quju "Pan Fu Suo Fu" with Xiangyang Huagu Opera and participated in the Xiangfan Youth Actors Competition and won the second prize. In 1988, the Yicheng Quju Troupe created and performed the large-scale modern Xiangyang Huagu Opera "White Crane Flying Place". The play was filmed into a TV stage art film and broadcast on Hubei Television many times. In this way, with the efforts of the whole city of Yicheng, Yicheng has gradually become a key area for the protection and inheritance of Xiangyang Huagu Opera, and has made great contributions to the dissemination, protection and inheritance of Xiangyang Huagu Opera. After entering the 21st century, the Yicheng Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have focused on creating a local culture with the characteristics of Chu culture, and have allocated hundreds of thousands of yuan for the creation and rehearsal of Xiangyang Huagu Opera. In August 2002, the Propaganda Department, Cultural Bureau and Art Museum of Yicheng City compiled and published Yicheng National Folk Music, which collected the music and singing of Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera. It is the epitome of Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera music and laid a solid foundation for the protection and inheritance of this opera. In October 2004, with the consent of Xiangfan Municipal People's Government, Yicheng Art Troupe was renamed "Xiangfan Flower Drum Opera Troupe", and the Flower Drum Opera Troupe was revived. In the process of revitalizing Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera, Yicheng hired Li Daqing, the former director of Xiangfan Art Research Institute and a national first-class composer. Li Daqing made a series of bold and fruitful explorations and innovations in Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera music, giving new vitality to this endangered opera. In 2000, Yicheng Art Troupe rehearsed the flower drum performance "Chu Di Fengqing" (i.e. "Eighteen Farewells") compiled and created by Li Daqing. The play participated in the 2001 Xiangfan Art Performance and won the first prize. In 2002, Yicheng Art Troupe staged a large-scale newly edited historical flower drum opera "Legend of Song Yu" and participated in the third "Sanhui Electric" Cup creative repertoire rehearsal in Xiangfan City, winning the Outstanding Repertoire Award, the first prize for director, the first prize for screenwriter, and the first prize for composition. The play participated in the seventh Hubei Province Drama Newcomers and New Works Exhibition in 2003 and won the "Hubei Province Chime Stage Art Performance Award" and the director award, screenwriter award, and composition award respectively. In 2004, the renamed Xiangfan Flower Drum Opera Troupe rehearsed the large-scale newly edited historical flower drum opera "Song Yu's Elegy" based on "Legend of Song Yu", which was adapted by Song Xiting of the Provincial Art Research Institute and Wang Rui of the Xiangfan Art Research Institute and composed by Li Daqing. The play was shortlisted for the Hubei Province Stage Art Masterpiece Project that year. Xiangfan Flower Drum Opera Troupe also boldly innovated and created works that reflected social reality and showed the style of the times. In 2005, in order to cooperate with the advanced education of Communist Party members, Xiangfan Flower Drum Opera Troupe transplanted and rehearsed the large-scale modern flower drum opera "Ren Changxia". After the play was performed in Yicheng and Xiangfan, the show was sold out and won high praise from the audience. Now, Yicheng is riding on the strong east wind of the Party and the State to protect intangible cultural heritage, and with Xiangfan Flower Drum Opera Troupe as the base, it is fully engaged in the work of rescuing, protecting and inheriting Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera. Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera, an ancient art, has shown great vitality in Yicheng. Artistic characteristics The predecessor of Xiangyang Flower Drum Opera is the folk songs and some other rap art forms circulated in Xiangfan area. Due to the influence of Qing Opera, Han Opera and Hubei Yue Opera at that time, it gradually formed the characteristics of gong-beating tune and northern Hubei dialect and art. Xiangyang Huagu Opera originally had only "two small plays" (i.e., male roles and female roles) and "three small plays" (i.e., male roles, female roles and clown roles). Later, influenced by Hubei Yue Opera, Han Opera, Bangzi Opera and other operas, it was gradually improved and developed into "four beams" (male roles, male roles, clown roles, old male roles and big painted faces) and "four pillars" (female roles, female roles, old female roles, colorful female roles and green female roles). In terms of performance, it is known for its singing skills, especially for the singing skills of male roles and female roles. The singing styles of various roles are basically the same, but they have different requirements. Among them, female roles should be cute, female roles should be stable, male roles should be flat, painted faces should be rough, and clown roles should be funny. The singing styles are not complicated, but they should be flexibly applied according to the thoughts and feelings of different roles and characters. The pronunciation should be sharp and clear, and the singing style should be round, soft and bright, requiring a combination of hardness and softness. Xiangyang Huagu music has distinct characteristics. Its vocals are both high-pitched and rough, passionate and enthusiastic, and also gentle and delicate, bright and lively. Its tunes include "Taoqiang", "Hanqiang", "Siping" and "Caiqiang". The traditional singing form is one person singing and many people joining in, accompanied by gongs and drums, with a distinct rhythm, a strong atmosphere, and rich local color and life flavor.