Historical Evolution of Tone Drama

In the early years, tea-picking songs and lanterns were popular all over Guangxi, but they did not form a drama. In the process of spreading, it absorbed the folk songs and minor tunes in northern Guangxi and gradually enriched them. During the light years of the Qing Dynasty, Quyi artists began to teach in counties in northern Guangxi and Xinning Prefecture (now Fusui County) in southern Guangxi, making a living by teaching and performing Quyi, and gradually became professional artists. During the Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty, the tune spread from north to south, forming a main distribution area centered on Guilin, Liuzhou and Yishan, and continued to spread to the south. During the reign of Daoguang and Guangxu in Qing Dynasty, a large number of Hunan immigrants moved to counties in northern Guizhou, and this tune (another name for ancient paintings and operas in southern Hunan) was introduced to Guangxi. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, on the basis of ancient paintings and operas, a kind of opera voice was formed, which was different from ancient paintings and operas. Influenced by Hunan ancient paintings and operas, Quju gradually developed from the "two plays" of the clown and Xiao Dan to the "three plays" of Xiao Sheng, the clown and Xiao Dan, with characters' stories. There is a "seven tight, eight loose and nine music" in the rural areas of northern Guangxi, that is, a "mountain-crossing class" composed of seven, eight or nine people, which requires artists to specialize in a variety of skills to facilitate them to wander between villages. Through long-term performances in rural areas, festivals and temple fairs, they have accumulated 38 "three plays" (the so-called "Thirty-six out of the Jianghu tune"), such as double visits, double shops, fortune telling for the blind, Wang San killing birds, three visits to parents, begging for money and going to Nanjing. Modal music in this period initially formed three categories with their own characteristics, namely, tune, board and tune, which has been called "nine tones and eighteen tones", and at the same time, it has also been reformed in makeup, performance and business. In the thirty-second year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1906), the most famous grass head broke the old habit of "women don't sing tunes" for Xu Diaoban, and the first batch of female roles appeared in color-coded dramas. Before and after the Revolution of 1911, famous artists came forth in large numbers, such as the "four top scholars": Leng Guifu, Zhu, Luo and Qin Laosi; "Four famous Dan": Wu Laonian, Pan Fafu, Liang Rushan and Liu Fangsi; "The grimace king" Zhou Chaogang; "Yin Wang" Li Dashu, Chen Songshan, etc. Tone art has matured in this period.

After the Revolution of 1911, the multicolored tune entered the town stage from the rural building, and the "mountain-crossing class" developed into a semi-professional tune-up class for twenty or thirty people including Le Tong Hall, Cuile Hall and Group Amusement Park. At this time, the original 36 "Jianghu Tunes" could not meet the audience's requirements, so artists compiled and performed "major" dramas such as "Two Women Fighting for Husband", "Catch grinding bean curd", "Broken Spoon" and "Bad Daughter-in-law Becoming a Cow" based on novels and folk stories. At the same time, in order to make a living, artists have also created many "anti-Taiwan dramas", such as Class A's performance of "Mom Sending Girls", Class B's performance of "Girls Sending Girls", Class B's performance of "Three Visits to Family" and Class A's editing of "Four Girls Dating". The results of this competition against Taiwan not only enriched the repertoire of timbre, but also promoted the development of timbre music and performing arts. Color plays are mostly small plays reflecting rural life, family ethics and fairy tales. There are about 500 traditional plays, of which 344 are recorded as scripts.

After 1927, the artists were devastated and the color tone was on the verge of decline. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Caidiao was reborn, and professional troupes such as osmanthus troupe and Liuzhou peasant troupe were established one after another. Amateur troupes also spread all over urban and rural areas. 1955 In the spring, Guangxi Literature and Art Cadre School held a training course on color tone, and trained a number of outstanding young actors, such as Fu Jinhua, Tang Ji, Wang Yuzhen, Luo Liang and Yang Aimin. 1956, Guangxi Caidiao Drama Club was established. 1959, Liuzhou Color Tone Drama Troupe compiled and performed the color tone drama Liu Sanjie, which was warmly welcomed by audiences inside and outside the region and contributed to the improvement of color tone art. 1965, Guangxi Color Tone Drama Troupe compiled and performed the modern drama Three Little Red Flowers, which was made into a color film by Beijing Film Studio.