Fuzhou tea-picking opera (Fuzhou cai cha xi, 抚州采茶戏) from Fuzhou, Jiangxi, China

A performance of Fuzhou tea-picking opera (Fuzhou cai cha xi, 抚州采茶戏), a rustic form of local opera (difang xiqu, 地方戏曲) from the Linchuan District (临川区) of Fuzhou (抚州市), northeastern Jiangxi province (江西省), southeast China. The opera being performed here, entitled “Mao Hong Ji“ 《毛洪记》, is among the most famous in the tea-picking opera repertoire. This is part 1 of the opera: 第一场：逼骂退婚. The spoken portions are performed in the Fuzhou dialect of Gan Chinese (抚州赣语). The troupe performing in this video is the Linchuan Fuzhou Tea-Picking Opera Troupe (临川抚州采茶戏剧团), and the leading actors are Wang Gaofa (汪高发) and Pan Fengxian (潘风仙). Tea-picking opera originated as Gannan cai cha xi (赣南采茶戏) in Ganzhou (赣州市), a city in southern Jiangxi province bordering Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, and Hunan to the west, during the Qing Dynasty, its melodies deriving from the folk tradition of the “tea-picking lantern“ dance (cai cha deng, 采茶灯). Other locally specific varieties of tea-picking opera exist in other parts of Jiangxi province as well as other nearby provinces of southern China. Fuzhou tea-picking opera, whose birthplace is the following four counties: Yihuang (宜黄), Linchuan (临川), Chongren (崇仁), and Le’an (乐安), was originally called sanjiao ban (三脚班) due to the fact that it originally had only three role types, although it was later influenced by Beijing opera and the number of role types increased. In 2011 Fuzhou tea-picking opera was included, as part of item no. 209, in the Expansion Project (国家级非物质文化遗产扩展项目名录) for the first installment of 518 traditions inscribed in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of China (第一批国家级非物质文化遗产名录) by China’s Ministry of Culture (中华人民共和国文化部, known since March 2018 as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 中华人民共和国文化和旅游部). The sub-agencies responsible for maintaining these lists, both under the aegis of the aforementioned ministry, are the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage (文化部非物质文化遗产司) and the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center (中国非物质文化遗产保护中心, CICHPC). 抚州采茶戏 张罗宁云戏曲 毛洪记 第一场 逼骂退婚 More information: