CCTV News: Hunan Huagu Opera is a small play with a very local color, with a strong sense of life in language and beautiful and moving tunes. It originated from the singing and dancing in the fields, and was circulated in the early form of the "once ugly" ground flower drum. It can not only interpret the delicate aspects of life, but also present magnificent classic stories. After more than 200 years of inheritance and innovation, this local art has been successfully selected into the national intangible cultural heritage list from a rural play. Today's "Cultural China Tour", let's take a look at Hunan Flower Drum Opera.

The gongs and drums in the theater in Zhoujiadian Town, Changde, Hunan Province sounded, attracting drama fans from all over the surrounding villages. The two-hour performance also made everyone feel addicted.

Du Meishuang is the fifth batch of representative inheritors of the national intangible cultural heritage. She started to come into contact with Huagu Opera at the age of 13. She performed well at highlighting the inner contradictions and helplessness of the characters, leaving a deep impression on the audience. Now, in her sixties, she is still active on the stage, participating in more than a hundred performances of "Sending Plays to the Countryside, Culture Benefiting the People" every year, and is also committed to the inheritance and popularization of Huagu Opera.

The Hunan flower drum singing originated from folk songs, and later gradually developed into a "two small plays" that were performed once ugly. It draws on the performance model of local operas, absorbs various artistic factors, and eventually develops into an independent local opera opera. The musical tunes of Huagu Opera basically belong to the tune card combination, and are supplemented by some plate-like changes. The performance methods are rich and diverse, lively, with distinct local characteristics and folk singing and dancing styles. Traditional plays mainly reflect folk life content such as productive labor, love between men and women, and family conflicts. In 2008, Hunan Huagu Opera was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list. Now, Huagu Opera has not only become an important symbol of Hunan culture, but has also gone abroad.

Liu Alin, director of the Huagu Opera Protection Center in Dingcheng District, Changde, Hunan, said that the protection of Huagu Opera must start with the baby, and they go to primary and secondary schools and universities to spread opera culture. On the live broadcast platform, fans from nearly eight or nine countries listen to flower drum operas. They even said in the live broadcast room that they came to China to learn opera and make-up. These foreign enthusiasts felt the charm of Chinese traditional culture.

In recent years, the cultural and tourism integration model of "opera + tourism" in various places has also developed greatly, not only developing opera, but also driving the local economy. Liu Alin said: "On the basis of upholding the truth, we must innovate, and the singing style must also be innovative. For example, some local tunes should also be integrated into it to make it diversified, so that more people can accept it and like it."