ISSN 1927-0232 [Print] Higher Education of Social Science ISSN 1927-0240 [Online] Vol. 6, No. 2, 2014, pp. 29-32 www.cscanada.net DOI:10.3968/j.hess.1927024020140602.4444 www.cscanada.org On the Development of Huangmei Opera ZHANG Hui[a],* [a]Associate professor. Music School, Ji’nan University, Ji’nan, China. for pigs”, “Making tofu”, “Goddess Marriage”, whose Research area: Traditional opera. * main images of the performances are often civilians and Corresponding author. the ideas expressed are real telling coming from bottom. Received 6 December 2013; accepted 11 March 2014 For this reason, the form of expression in Huangmei opera is not so rigid, but pursuing a kind of flexibility and Abstract simplicity. Huangmei opera is fevered by the majority of people relying on the strong local flavor and plain Huangmei opera is an important traditional Chinese language, which makes it have the same reputation as local opera, known as one of China’s five major operas. Beijing opera, Shaoxing Henan opera and Pingju opera, However, its development situation is worrying: named as China’s five major operas , and was collected in performances and audience reduce, performance and the first batch of intangible cultural heritage list in 2006. management talent loss seriously, and screenplay This is the greatest accolade for Huangmei opera which is innovation lags. Huangmei opera against the background relatively young. of contemporary cultural industry needs to focus on cultural orientation, performance quality improvement, personnel training and the use of modern media, etc. to 1. CURRENT STATUS OF HUANGMEI achieve self-help through art and transition markets. Key words: Huangmei opera; Current status; 1.1 Audience of Huangmei Reduces: In a Flat Countermeasures Trend The third group of protecting intangible cultural heritage ZHANG Hui (2014). On the Development of Huangmei includes community or community groups, groups, Opera. Higher Education of Social Science, 6 (2), 29-32. individuals or non-governmental organizations. But Available from: URL: http://www.cscanada.net/index. now the number of its audience which is a basis for the php/hess/article/view/j.hess.1927024020140602.4444 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/j.hess.1927024020140602.4444 development is declining. Opera market’s decline is a common phenomenon across the country. According to the survey, there are more than 80% enthusiasts of Huangmei are elders, and it is a fact that the young audience is INTRODUCTION indisputable (Zhu & Wang, 2014). Now because of the constant update of communication and media providing Huangmei opera is a main opera of Anhui province and the public with more options of entertainment and cultural originated in Huangmei County located in the junction consumption, thus further suppress the space of opera’s of Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangxi, then drew the nutrition of survival. The masses’ attention to Huangmei opera’s Qingyang tone and Anhui opera in Anqing district, and survival is not high, and the shrinking consumer market then integrated local folk art and flourished in Anhui became the first problem as Huangmei opera trying to be Province. It has more than 200 years’ history. Huangmei developed. opera roots in private sector, is the success of practice of working people in Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi and the 1.2 Serious Loss and Lack of Professional surrounding areas. It maintains the pure folk aesthetic Performers and Management Personnel characteristics. Most of them are drew on folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage requires talent for inheritance everyday life , such as the famous opera “Mow greenfeeds because of lacking substantive material carrier, Huangmei 29 Copyright © Canadian Research & Development Center of Sciences and Cultures On the Development of Huangmei Opera opera’s development is restricted by the shortage of market-oriented operation. Since they are not professional talent. Huangmei opera professional performing talents troupes with loose organization, lack of stability, lack disconnect and many trades have no successor. Currently, of professional training, the level is uneven, making big take Anqing City Theatre for example, the average age of problem of extending market, which leads to a reduction the actors is over 35, and there are very few actors whose in performances to some extent. age is under 30. Director and other staff are around the age of 50, and the lack of personnel is more obvious in 1.4 Lagging of Screenplay Innovation the band, and even disconnected (Shao, 2013). The lack Huangmei opera’s glorious status can not live without the of professional performing talent is also reflected in the unremitting efforts of several generations of Huangmei “celebrity”, a sustainable development of the play must opera workers and excellent innovation of screenplays. have a leader, such as Mei Lanfang , Xun Huisheng , With the social development and progress, people’s Shang Xiaoyun , Cheng Yanqiu, the “Four famed female- spiritual and cultural needs are increasingly diverse, the role performers” in Beijing opera. Thus the whole drama traditional Huangmei opera’s outstanding works such rejuvenates and innovates. Meanwhile the students of as “Goddess Marriage “ and “Chuangyuan Girl “ have Huangmei opera are difficult to be employed, and the cast impregnable position in the public’s mind, but playing and crew are paid low. The salary of the secondary actors old drama day by day is clearly lagging behind social in some professional troupes in Anqing is only 800 yuan development. Huangmei opera’s development is a process before the reform of in 2007, and they can get some extra of innovation, in the past many folk troupes improvised pay when there are performances. when they performed. But now with the creative work Huangmei opera must be integrated into the market, specialized, the script innovation is confined to live. and the transformation of traditional cultural development Creative repertoire is gradually difficult to keep pace requires professional management talents to operate, but with times, and stay on the interpretation of the historical now the theater managers are often part-time jobs of actors, themes, less reflecting the characteristics of the times. who are lack of professional management experience and prior ideas of management and marketing, resulting in Even if there are some new works, it seems that they walk the relatively loose internal organizational structure and into a misunderstanding and live away of masses’ life, can not make the right response when face to the market which pursuit mainstream and elegance in content, and shocks. This situation shows the importance of requiring non-drama and luxury in expression form. The creation comprehensive management talent of Huangmei opera. of the script tried to pull Huangmei opera away from the rank of the “vulgar” culture, pushing it into the so-called 1.3 Reducing Professional Troupes, Poor noble culture. Survival Status of Folk Troupes, and Reducing Performances 1.5 Lack of Funding Leads to Shortage of Huangmei opera troupes apparently can not be spared in Material Equipment and Non-Material Information the big wave of troupes reform. But the problem is that In recent decades, Huangmei opera obtained few the designers and implementers of reform often lack a funding. Investment in infrastructure construction and comprehensive understanding of the arts community, and equipment is basic salary for staff and mainly rely on cannot estimate all the possible consequences caused the performance to maintain balance. Building a theater by the reform. The reform of uniformity is obviously group of the hundreds of million for a Huangmei opera problematic. Regardless of Huangmei opera as a troupe is a fantasy. In the interior, quota management traditional cultural form holding the cultural responsibility and staff salaries are not guaranteed. Updates on the for public welfare, the reformers’ mind is good for reform usual equipment and personnel recruitment for the itself, focusing on the government and the market to troupe are not so easy, Huangmei opera performance promote theater to marketability. But the reality is, there groups have failed to completely get rid of limiting are many retired personnel who made contribution and be government funding after 30 years of reform and taken care more care of in the theater before the reform, so when the funding ends, it makes troupe which has no opening up, which is the bottom line of the living of money accumulated worse. Furthermore, this model is not Huangmei opera groups. It is the funding shortage leads conducive to staff’s creation to a certain extent. Currently, to the overall decline of Huangmei opera’s professional the national professional Huangmei opera troupes reduced research and creation. There is a saying in Huangmei from more than 50 to more than 20, but only half of them opera “36 drama, 72 opera”. According to survey of operate normally, and the remaining 10 troupes only deal CCTV, Huangmei opera ranks best in the audience with a few sporadic performances. Overall, the trend has rating. However, our theoretical research still stuck not been effectively curbed. (Chen, 2013). in the mature stage, while the script writing and staff In contrast, survival of civil troupes is more difficult, training lags behind which leads to a lack of material they do not have a fixed government fund with entirely equipment and non-material information. Copyright © Canadian Research & Development Center of Sciences and Cultures 30 ZHANG Hui (2014). Higher Education of Social Science, 6(2), 29-32 2. STRATEGIES The modern mass media provides audience with unprecedented convenience with the technical advantages 2.1 Merge in Civilian Life, Make Good Cultural of dissemination. “In many operas, Huangmei opera Orientation, and Improve the Quality of contacts with various media most frequently, and has the Performances highest frequency of receiving a transplant”(Shao, 2013). The famous dramatist Wang Zengqi once talked about Marriage between mass communication media and opera crisis: “There is a rule in the history of literature, opera has a long history.