Cantonese opera was not originally performed in Cantonese? !

Cantonese opera, known as the "Red Bean of the South", was recognized by UNESCO in 2009 and included in the World Intangible Cultural Heritage List. This kind of "big drama" is very popular in Cantonese dialect areas such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macao, and even overseas. Needless to say, you must have heard of it!

But you and I may not have "estimated" that the original Cantonese opera did not use Cantonese, but was sung in "Guilin Mandarin". Later, it was switched to Cantonese because of the revolutionary propaganda that overthrew the Qing court in the late Qing Dynasty. need? What's going on? Come and listen to "Gu Zai"!

Starting from the formation of Cantonese Opera, we can know from the book "History of Cantonese Opera" and the Cantonese Opera Application Report that Cantonese Opera has a history of more than 300 years and originated in the mid-17th century. Its origin and formation are quite complicated. It is formed, developed and strengthened by the continuous integration of various foreign opera voices and Guangdong's local opera and folk rap art.

Theater Mandarin, that is, "Guilin Mandarin" that is neither salty nor bland, is also called stage Mandarin.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty (1736-1795), hundreds of theater troupes from other provinces came to Guangdong to perform. These theater troupes were collectively called "Waijiang Troupes". Because at that time, most of the officials and gentry in Guangzhou came from other provinces, and there were also merchants from foreign companies. They invited opera troupes from their hometowns to sing operas.

At that time, the theater troupes organized by local people were called "local elites" and "local troupes". They were not welcomed by the officials, gentry and businessmen in Guangzhou, and they mostly performed in towns and villages outside the city.

During this period, the "local class" continued to learn from foreign operas. On the basis of absorbing a variety of voices, it gradually became Cantonese Opera, which combines Bang and Huang as the main voices.

The repertoire, singing music, performance routines and stage language of early Cantonese opera were roughly the same as those of Hui opera, Han opera, Hunan opera, Qi opera, Gui opera and other operas at that time.

Later, the "local class" gradually gained an advantage in the competition with the "waijiang class", and its performance center gradually moved to Guangzhou. However, since Bangzi and Pihuang are originally written in the Huguang dialect, while Kun opera is written in the Wuzhong dialect. Both dialects are Mandarin. Guangdong artists must use Mandarin to learn Banghuang and Kunqu. This determines that in the early stage of Cantonese opera, Mandarin must be used. .

The basic feature of Cantonese singing music is Banqiang, namely Bangzi and Erhuang, commonly known as "Banghuang". Then why are there not two types of official dialects, Huguang dialect and Wuzhong dialect?

It turns out that it was too difficult for Cantonese people to learn the two Mandarin dialects of Huguang and Wuzhong in a pure way at that time. As a result, the opera was performed in a nondescript manner and made frequent fools of itself.

What should we do?

According to Xu Ke’s "Qing Bailei Chao", it can be seen that at that time, Cantonese people were very afraid of speaking Mandarin and would definitely not take the initiative to learn it. Those who wanted to be officials only asked for guidance. Most of the teachers were from Guilin. The teacher knew that Cantonese people did not speak Mandarin well, so he boasted that Guilin Mandarin was very authentic, had been praised by the emperor, and was the best in the country, so he issued an edict to have all civil and military officials learn Guilin Mandarin.

The authenticity of this matter needs to be verified, but it may be because Guilin is close to Guangdong! In the end, Cantonese people learned to speak Guilin Mandarin (Zhongzhou accent) from Guilin people.

Cantonese opera artists also used the Guilin Mandarin they learned to sing, but they did not learn it authentically, so they became "Stage Mandarin" (also known as Stage Mandarin), which combines the Mandarin (Chinese) with the Bai (Chinese). . This also gave rise to a catchphrase: "The Mandarin of the theater: neither salty nor bland." This means that Cantonese opera is sung and recited in theater Mandarin. It is neither Mandarin nor the vernacular of Guangzhou, so it is difficult to define which dialect it is.

However, Cantonese people can easily learn this kind of "theater Mandarin" that is neither salty nor bland. They also think that it has a natural theatrical flavor and is their favorite work. Artists relied on it to learn banghuang and sang it for more than 200 years.

What happened next? Why did Cantonese opera switch to Cantonese?

This starts from the "Patriot Class" in the late Qing Dynasty! The so-called "Zhishi Ban" is actually a reformed new drama group organized by the revolutionaries of the Qing Dynasty at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century for the purpose of promoting the revolution.

They used the form of Cantonese opera and incorporated elements of drama to perform improved Cantonese opera and promote revolutionary ideas. Calling them "Zhishi Troupes" means that they are different from the old-style opera troupes in the general sense.

The earliest drama club to establish the "Patriot Troupe" was called "Cai Nan Ge", which was founded in 1904 by Chen Shaobai, Cheng Ziyi, Li Jitang and others. They originally wanted to run Cainan Ge as a drama school, recruiting teenage boys to train and teach them drama knowledge and culture.

After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, imperialism set off a frenzy to carve up China, arousing strong dissatisfaction among the people across the country against the Qing government and the imperialist powers. At that time, Chen discussed with revolutionary comrade Cheng Ziyi and felt that although newspapers and periodicals had a propaganda role, the general public was less literate and did not read many newspapers. In order to improve the publicity effect, it was decided to set up a drama class and write and perform patriotic dramas.

When the Zhishi Troupe was founded, it originally performed plays. At that time, some troupes were already performing in Guangzhou dialect, but the audience was far smaller than that of Cantonese opera that spoke stage Mandarin (stage Mandarin). Because Cantonese opera's rich and colorful singing styles and singing music are more popular among the public, drama could not compete with it at that time.

The Aspirations Troupe felt the need to change their ways, so in order to expand the publicity effect, they decided to use the form of Cantonese opera to sing the improved new opera. The first troupe to try out Cantonese opera singing was Youtian Film Club organized by Huang Luyi, Huang Xuanzhou and others.

When it used Cantonese opera to perform "Aunt Zhou Puts Her Foot Down", "The Blind Man Asks for Rice" and "No Fate with Smoke", he simply changed all the Mandarin on the Cantonese opera stage to Guangzhou dialect, sung it with his real voice, and absorbed Nanyin, wooden fish, dragon boat and other rap arts.

This bold change has achieved unexpected results. In addition, they have learned the costumes and scenery of dramas, so they are refreshing and very popular among the public.

The leaders and artists of the Cantonese Opera Artists Group at that time saw that the new plays of the Zhishi Troupe were very popular because their content adapted to the social trends of the time and the Cantonese opera was performed in Guangzhou dialect. Therefore, in the economic interests and social situation Driven by the dual drive of the two centuries, they gave up singing in Mandarin in the theater for more than 200 years, gradually switched to Cantonese opera in Guangzhou dialect, and also performed the plays of the Zhishi Troupe.

In this way, the Cantonese opera we heard today was all sung in Cantonese!