A Study On Gong Play From Tongxu County In Henan Province

Gong Play, an intangible cultural heritage of Henan Province, was banned byQing Dynasty for a long time in the history. It is an oldest play in the Central Plainsregion, which is known as a "living fossil" in Chinese opera. This kind of ancient andrare Qupai Style is on the verge of extinction gradually because of the changes oftimes and the environment. And this kind of death means the personality andcharacteristics of regional ethnical culture is dying and the cultural diversity isdestroyed. Due to the above reasons, the rescue and excavation of Gong Play areextremely urgent. There is no time to delay in protecting it.Because of historical reasons, Gong Play is seldom concerned by academic fieldand it has been ignored for a long time. A few researchers lump Gong Play and RollPlay together, and give them a new Chinese name “Luojuan Play”, although they aretwo different plays in voice, script, performance, accompaniment, etc. Even cultureadministrative departments didn’t correct the mistake, which makes the wrong namebecame a popular appellation. It is far away from the actual name, classification andliteratures of play in China.Most of existing domestic Gong Play research literatures, dramas, andcollections of tunes are finishing materials and records sung by the Zhuzhuang andHezhuang Gong Play Troupes from Tongxu County in the early1980s.The author has visited Henan Academy of Arts (the former Henan OperaResearch Institute) for several times to find experts’ verification in the process ofstudying Tongxu Gong Play. Enter its art center and visit the library of HenanUniversity in Kaifeng to collect materials and literatures. Also, carry on an on-siteinvestigation in the hometown Tongxu for more than three months. And haveinterviews with old artists, watch old artists’ performances, and learn from the oldartists so that we can get the first-hand materials about Gong Play. The author makes adetail research and statement about the origin, history, historical heritage, currentsituation, artistic characteristics, singing voices and the canto of Gong Play based onthe material-reading and the field investigation. Analyses and study the cultural formand music form of Tongxu Gong Play, which attracts more valuable things for thefurther research of Gong Play.The thesis consists of four parts besides the introduction and conclusion.The first part is a brief introduction about Gong Play. It discusses the followingpoints: the legend of Gong Play; the historical confirm of Gong Play; the historicalspread about Gong Play; the influence and promotion to the other plays and theirsimilarities in the central plains region, and the rise and decline of Gong Play.The second part states the historical heritage and the current situation of GongPlay. In this part, the author briefly summarizes the history of Tongxu County; theoperas in Tongxu; discusses the origin and heritage of Tongxu Gong Play; the contribution and influence that Tongxu made for Gong Play; the current situation ofGong Play; makes a list of the old Gong players and a statistical table of the part oldplayers in Tongxu.The third part is art characteristics of Gong Play. This part focus on the drama，the system of cavity, the structure and features of singing cavity, performance effect,accompaniments about Gong Play. And also states the Luogu scripture, the dramaitems, facial masks and main tune names of Gong Play. Analyses the “Hualiushui”Cavity in the Journey to the West, that is, an analysis of aria about What a sillywoman sung by Heitou and Huadan (a female role in Chinese opera).The fourth part is the analysis of singing voices and canto. It mainly focuses onthe atmosphere, making sound, speaking and soliloquy of Gong Play. The authorpoints out a new view that “speaking cavity” is related with “Ou cavity”, also,explains the features of “real voice” and “falsetto dumped cavity” so that researcherscan get experience from them.