Kunqu

It evolved from a music style local to Kunshan, part of the Wu cultural area, and later came to dominate Chinese theater from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

In December 2018, the General Office of the Ministry of Education announced that Peking University is the base for inheriting excellent traditional Chinese culture in Kunqu.

The Kunshan tune is often believed to have been developed during the Ming Dynasty by Wei Liangfu [zh] (魏良輔), who was from the port of Taicang.

[6] Wei modified Kunshan tune with songs of Haiyan (海鹽) near Hangzhou and Yiyang (弋陽) of Jiangxi; he also combined nanxi rhythms, which often used flute, with the northern zaju style, where plucked string instruments were preferred.

The story of Washing Silken Gauze was based on Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue, and the use of elegant "water mill" tunes in the opera earned it wide praise from scholars.

termed Huabu (花部, "flowery drama"), and as a result, Kunqu troupes experienced a commercial decline in the 19th century.

[10] It was later subsidized by the Communist state, but like most traditional forms of Chinese opera, Kunqu was banned during the Cultural Revolution.

Kunqu began to revive by the mid-1990s, and it was then declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2001, and received generous support by the government, and experienced a great increase in popularity by 2004.

In 2006, Zhou Bing acted as a producer and art director for Kunqu (Kun Opera) of sexcentenary.

[13][14][15] In December 2018, the General Office of the Ministry of Education announced Peking University as the base of Kunqu Opera excellent traditional Chinese Culture Inheritance.

[clarification needed] The main difference between Nankun and Beikun is not the geographical location of the troupe, but whether the music is southern or northern.

The biggest feature of Kunqu opera performance is strong lyricism, delicate movements, and the combination of singing and dancing is ingenious and harmonious.

This market language in the Wuzhong area, has a strong sense of life, and often uses Allegro-style rhyme white, which is very distinctive.

During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, The role industry of Kun opera basically maintained the system of "twelve characters in rivers and lakes."

During the reign of Qianlong, Kunqu Opera was the most popular, the performing arts were further improved, and new breakthroughs were made in the role industry system for characterizing characters.

Reflected in the play, military generals have their own uniforms, and civil officials also have a variety of clothes according to the class hierarchy of feudal society.

Due to the extensive performance activities of Kunban, in the last years of Wanli, Kunqu opera was introduced to Beijing and Hunan through Yangzhou, ranking first among all voices and becoming the standard singing tone of legendary scripts: "Four Square Songs Must Zong Wumen."

[20] The Kunshan singing began to spread its area, initially limited to the Suzhou area, and during the Wanli period, it expanded to the south of the Yangtze River and north of the Qiantang River with Suzhou as the center, and also flowed into Beijing at the end of the Wanli period.

In the Confucian drama founded by Cao Xuefu [zh] at the end of Ming Dynasty, the main vocal cavity, "Douqiang," contains the components of Kunshan dialect.

Because of the long-term floating performances in rural grasslands and temple fairs, farmers as the main audience, the language is more popular, the pursuit of plot twists and turns, singing tone is not rigidly four-tone style, mainly performing martial arts, work drama.