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Notes
1 This actor and actress will be introduced below, in the first section on actors.
2 For a detailed account of the activities involved during 2007, see Chen Yongchao 陳泳超 et al., “Yangxie, Lishan sanyuesan ‘jie gugu’ huodong diaocha baogao” 羊獬、歷山三月三 “接姑姑” 活動調查報告 (A report of a survey of the activities that are part of “inviting the aunties” in Yangxie and Lishan on the third of the third lunar month), Minjian wenhua luntan 民間文化論壇 (Forum on folk culture) 2007.3: 59–69.
3 See You Ziying, “Competing Traditions: Village Temple Rivalries, Social Actors, and Contested Narratives in Contemporary China,” doctoral thesis, The Ohio State University, 2015.
4 For example, Zhang Yanqin 張艷琴, “Shanxi xiqu shichang yanjiu” 山西戲曲市場研究 (Research on the market for indigenous Chinese theater in Shanxi), doctoral thesis, Shanxi shifan daxue, 2014, in the chapter on performance venues, pp. 53–64, spends more than twice the space on urban venues as rural ones. David G. Johnson, Spectacle and Sacrifice: The Ritual Foundations of Village Life in North China (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2009), is a clear exception, but he is more interested in pre-contemporary ritual regimes and only interested in present practices for what they might tell us about the past. Sarah Huntington Jessup, “Staging Traditional Chinese Opera in the Reform Era: Conflicting Local Identities in Modernization,” doctoral thesis, University of Michigan, 2001, is based on fieldwork done on two Linfen troupes, one of which was a Puju troupe. She traveled with these two troupes in 1997–1999 and pays attention to temple fair performances. Unfortunately, she never revised the dissertation or formally published her research.
5 According to Liu Wenfeng 劉文峰, Shan-Shaan shangren yu bangzi xi kaolun 山陝商人與梆子戲考論 (Research on the relationship between bangzi plays and Shanxi and Shaanxi merchants; Beijing wenhua yishu, 2011), p. 94, Puzhou bangzi was called Nanlu xi 南路戲 (Southern route plays) in other parts of Shanxi than its native area, and Shan-Shaan bangzi 山陝梆子 or Shanxi bangzi 山西梆子 in places such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai.
6 See, for instance, Mo Yiping 墨遺萍, Puju shihun 蒲劇史魂 (The historical soul of Puju; Taiyuan: Shanxi sheng wenhua ju xiju gongzuo yanjiu shi, 1981), pp. 38–44.
7 For a brief summary of how these merchants carried Puju to such places as Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shanghai, and Wuhan, see Li Dou 李斗, “Jinnan diqu Puju yishu de minsu wenhua chengyin 晉南地區蒲劇藝術的民俗文化成因 (The cultural contributing factors to the art of Puju in Southwestern Shanxi), master's thesis, Dongbei shifan daxue, 2014, pp. 39–46. For a more in-depth study of the relationship of Shanxi merchants and bangzi opera in general, see Liu Wenfeng, Shan-Shaan shangren yu bangzi xi kaolun.
8 For a list of nineteen Puju modern plays that premiered from 1979 to 2007, see Li Fang 李芳, “Shuli xinshiqi yilai shangyan de xinbian Puju xiandai xi” 梳理新時期以來上演的新編蒲劇現代戲 (Sorting out the newly written modern plays for Puju of the New Period), Shanxi meitan guanli ganbu xueyuan xuebao 山西煤炭管理干部學院學報 (Journal of the College for the Management of Coal and Charcoal) 2013.1: 106–107.
9 Liu Wenfeng, Shan-Shaan shangren yu bangzi xi kaolun, pp. 293–306, constitutes a reprint of an article on early (late Qing–early Republican era) printed copies of bangzi plays that he originally published in Puju yishu 蒲劇藝術 (The art of Puju; a journal devoted to Puju that began publication in 1980). He discusses a cache of over fifty woodblock and lithographic editions and notes that they had been neglected and that what scholars were most familiar with were copies of traditional bangzi plays in either manuscript or printed versions produced after 1949 based on the oral dictation of actors (see especially p. 295).
10 Li Dou, “Jinnan diqu Puju yishu de minsu wenhua chengyin,” in a section entitled “Jinnan renwu ‘beiguanxing’ xingge yu Puju yinyue zhong de ‘kuyin’ xuanze” 晉南人物 “悲觀性” 性格與蒲劇音樂中的 “苦音” 選擇 (The choice of “crying sound” in Puju music and the tragic outlook character of the people of Southwestern Shanxi), pp. 34–39, argues that there is a match between the inhabitants of the area and the music of Puju.
11 Shen Weichen 申維辰 et al., eds., Puzhou bangzi zhi 蒲州梆子志 (A record of Puzhou bangzi; Taiyuan: Shanxi jiaoyu, 2007), p. 500.
12 For the relevant text of the stele, see Shen Weichen et al., eds., Puzhou bangzi zhi, p. 8.
13 See, for instance, the account in Sun Huanlun 孫奐侖 et al. eds., Hongdong xianzhi 洪洞縣志 (Gazetteer for Hongdong County; Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1917), juan 7, pp. 6–7.
14 Sun Huanlun et al., eds., Hongdong xianzhi, juan 8, p. 18.
15 See Jing Zhankui 景占魁, Yan Xishan zhuan 閻錫山傳 (Biography of Yan Xishan; Beijing: Zhongguo shehui, 2008), pp. 78–87.
16 Yan Zhenghong 閆正紅, ed., Huangying yishi 皇英軼事 (Anecdotes of Ehuang and Nüying; privately published, 2012), p. 140.
17 These figures come from http://baike.baidu.com/view/10522050.htm and http://baike.baidu.com/view/10521817.htm, accessed 9/13/15.
18 For a time line of the state-supported Xiangfen troupe, see “Xiangfen Puju tuan” 襄汾蒲劇團, http://www.0359puju.com/jtjg/xianji/20140308/521.html. That troupe disbanded in 1998. The troupe that came in 2013 was a non-state troupe first established in 2012. It has only a very light web presence. On the past of Puju in Xiangfen, see Liang Lijun 梁麗君, “Minguo zhi Wenge Xiangfen Puju banshe fazhan gaikuang” 民國至文革襄汾蒲劇班社發展概况 (The development of Puju troupes in Xiangfen from the Republican period to the Cultural Revolution), Huanghe zhi sheng 黃河之聲 (The voice of the Yellow River) 2011.3: 88–89.
19 Meihu xi 眉戶戲 is a local theater tradition that first developed in Shaanxi. In Shanxi it was influenced by Puju and has at times rivaled it in terms of popularity. See Cui Fengming 崔鳳鳴 and Jiao Xingsu 焦醒俗, “Jinnan Meihu” 晉南眉戶 (Meihu of southwest Shanxi), in Zhongguo xiqu juzhong da cidian 中國戲曲劇種大辭典 (Dictionary of theater types of Chinese indigenous theater; Shanghai: Shanghai cishu, 1995), p. 224. The other Linfen troupe focused on in Jessup, “Staging Traditional Chinese Opera in the Reform Era: Conflicting Local Identities in Modernization,” was a meihu xi troupe. She introduces that form of theater on p. 44.
20 Plot summaries for many of these plays are available in Zhongguo bangzi xi jumu da cidian 中國梆子戲劇目大辭典 (Big dictionary of the repertoire of bangzi plays of China; Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin, 1991). However, the index and table of contents are rather poorly arranged and not all titles appear in the index (Da jinzhi and Minggong duan, for instance, are not to be found in the index, although there are entries for these plays in the dictionary under alternate names).
21 The posters for the 21st to 24th days of the fourth lunar month also indicate that there will be performances by different local organizations that begin at 9 a.m. the following day.
22 All dates are in the fourth lunar month (these are the only dates given on the posters).
23 Route 309 Line is a national highway in China, starting from Rongcheng in Shandong Province, and ending in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. This national highway is 2,208 km long, and passes through Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu provinces. Wang Fukui's village is close to this national highway.
24 Zhezi xi from Judgment by a Perceptive Judge.
25 The play has many alternate titles. The one it is listed under in Zhongguo bangzi xi jumu da cidian, p. 241, is Hu man chuang 笏滿床 (Tablets of office fill the dais). In the banquet at the beginning of the play for Guo Ziyi, the many tablets of office of the family are supposed to be piled up on a dais to show how the family has flourished. That title and images of the family and the dais in woodblock prints circulated very widely.
26 “Golden bough” is one way to refer to a member of the imperial family.
27 According to Zhongguo bangzi xi jumu da cidian, p. 497, alternate names for the play include Yijia san jinshi 一家三進士 (Three top degree holders in the same family) and Bazhen tang 八珍湯 (Soup with eight precious things; Sun is bought by her daughter-in-law to make this soup).
28 Zhongguo bangzi xi jumu da cidian, p. 350, lists six different early written versions of this play.
29 Zhongguo bangzi xi jumu da cidian, p. 848, notes that the play was written in 1980 and published in the journal Shaanxi xiju 陝西戲劇 (Shaanxi theater) in 1981.
30 See, for instance, Lloyd E. Eastman, Family, Fields, and Ancestor: Continuity and Change in China's Social and Economic History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 26–27.
31 See Li Xiaohong 李小紅, “Xiandai xi Shancun muqin yishu lun—Jin yi ciwen zhuhe Shancun muqin lianxu yanchu 1400 chang” 戲曲現代戲山村母親藝術論—謹以此文祝賀山村母親連續演出 1400 場 (On the artistry of the modern play A Mother from a Mountain Village—Respectfully offering up this article in celebration of the 1,400th consecutive performance of A Mother from a Mountain Village), Xiju zhi jia 戲劇之家 (Home of theater) 2014.18: 53–54.
32 For an introduction to this form of percussion performance, see Liang Weiqing 梁維卿 et al., “Feiwuzhi wenhua yichan xiangmu Jinnan weifeng luogu de tiyu wenhua jiazhi” 非物質文化遺產項目晉南威風鑼鼓的體育文化價值 (The physical education and cultural value of the listed intangible cultural heritage item weifeng percussion), Tiyu wenhua daokan 體育文化導刊 (Journal of physical education culture) 2008.3: 41–43.
33 Locally the process of putting the bands of red silk on the devotees is called pihong 披紅.
34 The curtain, along with some other “modern” stage equipment, was brought by the troupe.
35 The governor, despite the fact that the performance was stopped, did not mount the stage to make his speech.
36 Verbatim quotations of what the two actors said are given at the beginning of this report.
37 For more on these techniques associated with Puju, see Jessup, “Staging Traditional Chinese Opera in the Reform Era: Conflicting Local Identities in Modernization,” pp. 122 (where she contrasts the emphasis on such skills in Puju with an absence of this in meihu xi) and 168–70.
38 The great spoken drama playwright, Cao Yu 曹禺 (1910–1996), wrote a glowing review of the performances given by Guo and two other Puju performers of Guo's generation in 1983 in Beijing: “Huiyi Puzhou bangzi” 回憶蒲州梆子 (Remembering Puzhou bangzi), Xiju bao 戲劇報 (Theater journal) 1984.12: 33–34 (originally written for publication in Puju yishu). For a more detailed description of what Guo does with the wings of his minister's cap as Xu Ce, see Zuo Jia 佐嘉, “Diyi jie Meihua jiang huodezhe—Guo Zemin—Yiwei zhenxi shijian de Puju yanyuan” 第一屆梅花獎獲得者—郭澤民—一位珍惜時間的蒲劇演員 (Winner of the first round of Plum Flower Theatrical Awards—Guo Zemin—A Puju actor who knows how to cherish time), Xiqu yishu 戲曲藝術 (Chinese indigenous theater arts) 1984.3: 12–11 (it was not uncommon for articles to be printed this way in Chinese journals of the time).
39 On Puju as intangible cultural heritage, see Wang Xi 王茜, “Feiwuzhi wenhua yichan baohu shiye xia de Puju yanjiu” 非物質文化遺產保護視野下的蒲劇研究 (A study of Puju from the perspective of the preservation of it as an intangible cultural heritage), master's thesis, Henan daxue, 2014. On the listing of “the living tradition of worshipping the ancient sage-kings Yao and Shun in several villages in Hongtong County [including Yangxie],” and how the money promised to come from that listing has not reached down to those one would expect, see Ziying You, “Shifting Actors and Power Relations: Contentious Local Responses to the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Contemporary China,” Journal of Folklore Research 52.2–3 (2015): 253–68.