Survey And Analysis Of The Current Status Of Dapingdiao Opera In Heze

As we all know, the traditional Chinese opera is a comprehensive art presentation shown on the stage, which integrates many folk artistic forms of music, dance, literature, martial art and so on. The theorist of traditional Chinese opera, Wang Guowei (of Qing dynasty), once said "Chinese opera, equals to singing, dancing and story performance" in his work "Source Tracing of Traditional Chinese Opera". It is not only an important part of Chinese traditional culture, but also a concentrated expression of local cultures, which is manifold and has bred various local operas. During China’s long history, the traditional opera gradually became an important support of the culture life and the most popular entertainment for ancient people in their life style of "getting up with the sunrise and resting with the sunset".The traditional opera has been developing continuously and blossomed especially in Ming and Qing Dynasties, until when there appears many popular operas, such as the Kungqu Opera of the South (Nan Kun), the Yiqiang Opera of the North (Bei Yi), the Liuzhi Opera of the East (Dong Liu) and the Bangzi Opera of the West (Xi Bang). Whereby, Dong Liu does not only mean the Liuzi Opera popular in Shandong, but also a general reference to Shandong local operas. Among them, Dapingdiao is an opera prevails in the southeast Shandong and has a history above 500 years. The performance of Dapingdiao is featured with rough, bold, vigorous and forceful and the theme is abundant, influencing the local life profoundly. Due to various reasons, it lacks a comprehensive study on Dapingdiao for now and the existing materials are only about its origin, musical features and performance characteristics, but little about its "carrier", the Dapingdiao troupe.The author hereby put emphasis on the study of its troupes in Mudan district in Heze and in Chengwu county by on-the-spot investigation and initial study of the troupes, existing status and giving reflections on its survival as an opera. Based on a large number of literatures & studies, as well as the on spot research, the thesis has presented initial results on the historical evolution, existing status and problems of the troupes.