Year: 2006

Sort: Traditional Operas

Area:Hebei Province

Serial No.: IV-40

Declarer:Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

The Shijiazhuang Sixian Opera is a special ancient opera inHubei Province, and a rare kind of regional opera in China. It is popular in parts of Hebei Province and easternShanxi Province.

There are more than 500 traditional repertoires, such as The Generals of Yang's Family，and Driving away the Son-in-law. The Sixian Opera evolved from popular folk songs in the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) and its aria is very unique. The performance is enthusiastic, bold, exaggerated and unconstrained with a strong local flavor.

The opera has over 500 scores and 100 kinds of accompanying tunes. The types of roles include sheng (male role), dan (female role), chou (clown or comic role), and jing(painted face male role).

However, due to the acceleration of modernization, lack of funds and loss of practitioners, the opera is in danger of dying out, so protective measures need to be taken as soon as possible to keep this piece of cultural heritage alive.