Xihe Dagu

Location: Zhang Village of Hebei Province

Artists: Xing Tiankun（74）

Xihe dagu forms the biggest family in the Dagu clan. It has a very long history with a huge audience in Northeast, Northwest, and North China including Hebei province and Tianjin and Beijing municipalities, and in East China's Shandong province.

Xihe dagu used to be sung and spoken in Hebei dialect. At the early stage, stories were mostly medium length or long, such as the Generals of the Yang Family and Generals of the Hu Family. When Xihe dagu became popular in Beijing, it underwent reformation by the noted artist Zhao Yufeng, who changed the Hebei regional pronunciation and made it more akin to the Beijing dialect.

Around 1940, other artists emerged, such as Ma Liandeng and Ma Zengfen, a father-and-daughter team who sang short stories without narrative. By this time, the style of singing had been enriched and the clapping was far more diverse.

This particular dagu originated from the Xianzishu and Muban dagu in the central area of Central China's Hubei Province in the mid Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It officially got the name of Xihe Dagu while being performed in Tianjin during the 1920s.

Xihe dagu has lots of traditional items of either long or short length. The contents are mainly war stories of the past dynasties, historical romances, folk stories, popular novels, fairy tales, fables, and jokes, and so on. Among them, quite a few items reflect the thoughts, feelings, and hopes of the working people, feature labyrinthian (maza-like) plots and vivid language, and inherit the good tradition of folk literature in China.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, a lot of outstanding traditional items of Xihe dagu were rearranged in terms of contents, and quite a few new items reflecting the Chinese people's resistance against oppression and eulogizing the realistic life came into being.

74 year-old Xing Tiankun was a successor of Xihe dagu. He studied it when he was a teenager. Besides at the area of Hejian, Xing Tiankun and his teacher performed in the Hejian area as well as in the three provinces in Northeast China.

Like most professional entertainers, Xing Tiankun storytelling profession was cut short during the Cultural Revolution. He was forbidden to perform.

Xing Tiankun said he was a former senior entertainer who now is alone and forsaken; therefore, the county should help him and gave him a living allowance. Moreover, another wish of his is to instruct some students in Xihe dagu, because he do not want to take it with him to the grave.

Jingyun Dagu and Meihua Dagu

Location: Houmachang Hutong of Beijing

Artist: Guan Cuilan (90)

Jingyun Dagu

Jingyun dagu lays stress on singing and concentrates on depicting short episodes. It came into being and was popular in Beijing and Tianjin at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the period of the Republic of China (1911-1949).

Liu Baoquan, who told stories in the Beijing dialect, replacing regional Hebei pronunciations, created this particular dagu. He absorbed the vocal music of the Peking Opera and Beijing folk tunes, which he incorporated into his Jingyun dagu, using the sihu (a four-stringed instrument) and pipa (lute) as accompaniments in addition to three-stringed lutes and wooden clappers.

Jingyun Dagu is popular to this day in the Chinese capital. It is divided into three schools, headed by Liu Baoquan, Bai Yunpeng, and Zhang Xiaoxuan, respectively. Liu attained the highest artistic achievement by earning the title King of Dagu. He made the greatest contributions to dagu and won esteem as the leading artist in his field. In the wake of the emergence of the three schools, another appeared, known as the junior Bai School and headed by the brothers Bai Fengyan and Bai Fengming.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Jingyun dagu made greater strides in development. The singers were regarded as people's artists or actors. While they continued to sing and tell traditional stories, themes reflecting contemporary life emerged, such as Glorious Journey, Red Flag Over Mount Everest, Patriotism and Roaring Waves, Han Ying Meets Her Mother, and Bai Niu Tells a Story. A number of young artist were trained, with Zhao Xueyi (Bai School), Yang Fengiie (Liu School), Liu Chun'ai (Luo School) and Zhong Yujie (Liu School) ranking as successful young artists.

Meihua Dagu

Also called Meihua Tune, Meihua dagu is a category of dagu that originated from Qingkou dagu and which flourished in Beijing and Tianjin towards the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China.

Meihua dagu underwent reform and adaptation in the 1920s by Jin Wanchang, a Beiing dagu artist who made the Meihua dagu sweet and lovely in melody.

Lu Chengke, the famous Tianjin stringed instrument player, learned a number of popular tunes and enriched as well as improved the dagu melody and musical effect in accompaniments. He trained a number of girls to sing Meihua dagu, including Hua Sibao, Hua Wubao, and Hua Xiaobao (Shi Wenxiu).

The reformation by Lu led to the development of a woman's voice in singing high pitch. This resulted in the soft and sweet style of the school of Meihua dagu with high pitch tunes for female voices. It became known as the Lu or Hua School and differs from the Jin Wanchang School, which is known for its delicate, minute, refined, elegant, bold, vigorous, and beautiful rendition.

The songs of Meihua dagu are presented as short pieces, and use Beijing dialect in singing. The more famous works include Thoughts of Husband Surging over the Mind of Wang Er Jie and Daiyu Buries Flowers.

After the 1960s, Meihua dagu again went through a period of formation in vocal music. The routine opening words in the slow movement were dropped. This changed the style of using few words which would drag on and on in singing. Fine music filled the air instead. The melody of Meihua dagu became more elegant and pleasing to the ear.

Two Springs Reflect the Moon performed by the young artist, Ji Wei, leaves a deep impression on the audience. Ji Wei, born in 1956, sings with a beautiful, mellow, and sweet voice and acts naturally with a poised manner. She is credited with having made many innovations to the Meihua dagu. She studied Jingyun dagu at first. Later she changed her course and studied Meihua dagu under Shi Wenxiu and Hua Wubao.

Different from those countryside dagu (like Leting dagu and Xihe dagu), Meihua dagu spread in a different way. Countryside dagu moves towards the city from the countryside, but the simple and graceful Meihua dagu originated from a self-entertainment group created by Manchu banner men.

Meihua dagu's words are elegant, and its melody is graceful, meaning it is extremely suitable for actresses to perform. In the 1930s, there was a group of actresses who sung Meihua dagu. The 90 year-old Guan Cuilan was one of them.

Guan Cuilan's ancestors were aristocrats in the Qing Dynasty. But her family declined when she was a child and at last they were forced to the gutter.

In 1927 Guan Cuilan began to study with her neighbor, Xu Zhengrong whose family member all are street-performers. After only several months of studying, Guan Cuilan began to perform in the street with Hua Bao, a senior male student.

Two months later, someone began to invite them to sing at a teashop. On a typical night, Guan Cuilan could earn more than one Yuan, but her partner, Hua Bao, could only get 2 or 3 Jiao. At that time, although Guan Cuilan was only 14 years old, she supported both her and Hua Bao's families.

In 1932, 17-year-old Guan Cuilan married Hua Bao. Gradually, Guan's performance gained more and more people's appreciation.

However, with the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance (WWII), Guan Cuilan and her family became refugees.

In 1945, at the age of 30, Guan Cuilan ended her career and stayed at home to take care her children.

After 1949, as a housewife, Guan Cuilan spent most of her time on embroidering to supplement the family income. Even today, her neighbors do not know she was once a famous actress in her time.