Errenzhuan

Errenzhuan pairs a clown and a maiden who jump between roles, driven by suona and clappers through many tunes

Related

QupaiSuonaBanqiang Form

Time and place

Errenzhuan belongs to Jilin, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and eastern Inner Mongolia. Around the Jiaqing reign the northeast yangge merged with lianhualuo brought from inside the pass, producing this walking-song pair of clown and maiden, once called bengbeng or shuangwanyi and named errenzhuan in 1953.

What happened

It began on heated brick beds, threshing floors and at temple fairs, one clown and one maiden with handkerchiefs and fans. Performers speak of dividing the load and chasing roles, so characters change on the spot, jumping in and out without costume change or exit. In twentieth-century towns it acquired stage lighting and a band but kept the five skills of speech, song, acting, dance and acrobatic flourish. The repertory divides into full plays such as Grand West Chamber, Blue Bridge and Twin Lock Mountain, and xiaomao, short opening tunes.

Musical features

Singing divides into main and secondary tunes. The main group includes huhu qiang, laba paizi, dajiujia, wuhehe, hongliuzi, sanjie ban and baoban, each with its own metre and mood; the secondary group is the xiaomao and xiaoqu, short-lined and springy. The phrase nine chambers and eighteen tunes names this stock. Suona leads, with banhu, erhu and drum and clappers, while the performers strike the big clapper and hand jade pieces. Speech is northeastern, consonants hard, tails flung out, and fast passages are half spoken.

What to listen for

Start with Jilin Xiao kanxi, a xiaomao, for the teasing two-phrase close and its filler syllables. Then Xiao bainianer at the same cheerful pace, noting the suona-like high opening. Qiao qinglang is a narrative tune where northeastern stress lands on the beat. All three are folk songs, not stage recordings of errenzhuan.

Common misunderstandings

People reduce errenzhuan to two people twirling handkerchiefs, or confuse it with errentai. Errenzhuan is a northeastern sung-and-spoken play with speech, song, acting and dance; errentai belongs to Shaanxi, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia with a different set of tunes. It is also not mere song and dance.

Sources

• 《中国音乐词典》编辑部编，中国音乐词典（人民音乐出版社）— 曲牌与表演条目核对，未引用
• 《中国曲艺音乐集成》编辑委员会编，中国曲艺音乐集成（中国 ISBN 中心）— 唱腔与伴奏核对，未引用

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.