This form ofDaguoriginated in Henan and has a history of over 100 years. It became popular in Henan, Shandong and Anhui provinces as well as in the cities of Tianjin and Beijing. Its main musical instrument is theZhuizixian,now known as the Zhuihu, which looks somewhat like a three-stringed instrument. It is sung in the Henan dialect, hence it got the name HenanZhuizi.
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| Zhang Kai, a young artist, performing Henan Zhuizi |
Henan
Zhuiziusually needs only one performer, who holds two pieces of sandalwood or jujube wood planks in his left hand and plays it while singing. Sometimes, there are two performers who sing one by one with one playing wood planks and the other playing
Danba(cymbals) or
Shugu(a kind of drum). And, a few performers play these instruments themselves while singing. Most of the lyrics are seven-character lines. In the early period, the majority of performing items were short and part of them were long. All performing items relating modern subject matters are short.
During the formation, Hezhan Zhuizi featured novelty and vivacity and lured many artists ofSanxianshu(storytelling and singing while playing the three-stringed instrument) and ShandongDagu(storytelling and singing in Shandong dialect while beating a drum) to join the reform and thus added many performing items to HenanZhuiziand improved performing skills.
HenanZhuizikept its plain countryside style and close connection with life from its formation to prevalence among ordinary people. It learned from other traditional genres and good performing items and formed many unique performing items, which totaled over 200 types either long, medium-length or short. After the founding of new China, obvious achievements were seen in arrangement of traditional outstanding items, writing of new works that reflect real life, reform of music and performing skills, etc.
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