Classification of Mianyang shadow play

Mianyang shadow play, commonly known as "shadow play", is a unique shadow play with fishing drum cavity, which consists of Mianyang fishing drum (the front end of Hubei fishing drum), dialect inversion and shadow play. Fishing drum cavity comes from the begging songs of old artists, with diverse modes and strong local flavor. In the art of shadow play in China, Mianyang Shadow Play is unique. It is deeply loved by the people with its exquisite and vivid image, beautiful lyrical singing, interesting lines and elegant accompaniment. Mianyang's folk song "Look at cowhide (referring to shadow play), boil your eyelids (dozing off), go home in the middle of the night and bump your skin, and your wife gets an eyebrow (criticism) and squeezes your spleen (suffer indignities)", which shows the charm of shadow play.

Shadow play popular in Jianghan Plain was first introduced from the north, and its shadow play was slightly longer than that in the north. Shadow play can be divided into two types: one is the shadow play sung by Zhengchang, Maozui, Sanfutan, Zuohe and Qianjiang; The popular shadow play of fishing drum (called barrel cavity) in Xiantao area.

There are many schools of Mianyang shadow play, and their singing styles are also different. In the early days, they walked between villages, market towns, teahouses and restaurants. Due to different popular regions, Mianyang shadow play is divided into three types: upper, middle and lower. Artists used to call singing shadow play the upper shadow play and fishing drum shadow play the lower shadow play (in the order of the upper and lower reaches of Hanshui River). Shadow play in Miancheng, Guohe, Zhanggou, yanglinwei, Pengchang and other places is located between upper and lower shadow plays, which is called Middle Shadow Play.

Drawing lessons from the local folk tunes of Han nationality, such as mowing grass songs, slapping songs, singing chicken songs, etc., along the way, we integrated the vocals of Han and Chu dramas to interpret Mianyang's shadow play all over the river, with melodious tunes along the way, which is the source of Mianyang's fishing drum cavity.