Advances in Social Science and Culture ISSN 2640-9682 (Print) ISSN 2640-9674 (Online) Vol. 5, No. 4, 2023 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc 142 Original Paper Research on the Countermeasures of the Art Communication of Rare Operas under the Background of Rural Cultural Revitalization—Take the Wa Qing Opera in Tengchong, Yunnan Province as an Example Li Shangqi1* 1 International College, Krirk University, Bangkok, Thailand * Li Shangqi, International College, Krirk University, Bangkok, Thailand Received: August 29, 2023 Accepted: November 03, 2023 Online Published: November 20, 2023 doi:10.22158/assc.v5n4p142 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/assc.v5n4p142 Abstract As a kind of traditional drama with local characteristics, the Wa nationality Qing opera itself has high artistic value, historical value and scientific research value. This paper mainly analyzes the spread of the contemporary process and characteristics of the wa opera, understand the present situation of the wa opera art spread, find out the difficulties and problems in the communication and inheritance of the wa opera art, try to explore spread potential of the wa in the background of rural cultural, explore new path and new strategies of rare operas dissemination under the new background. Keywords art communication, inherits, tengchong Wa Qing opera 1. Introduction Tengchong in Yunnan Province is known as the “the first city on the border”. It is a provincial historical and cultural city in Yunnan, and it is also a famous hometown of overseas Chinese. Ganzhe Village is located in the platform at the south foot of Ma’Anshan volcano, northeast of Hehua Township, Tengchong City. It is a village of the Wa people in Hehua Dai Wa Township, and is also one of the important post stations in the Tengchong section of the Southwest Silk Road leading to Myanmar. The village has a total population of 530 households, of which 503 are Wa. Ganzhe village, a small border village, has attracted much attention for its unique Wa Qing opera. After several generations of inheritance and innovation since the late Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasties, www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 5, No. 4, 2023 143 Published by SCHOLINK INC. it still maintains its ancient and original characteristics. In 1984, after a long period of silence, the Wa Qing opera finally came back to people’s life, and emerged in the artistic performance of farmers in Yunnan Province, winning the reputation of “precious ethnic opera”. Experts from the Chinese Academy of Chinese Opera also visited Ganzhe village to make detailed video recordings of the Wa Qing operas, which officially included them into the list of Chinese ethnic minority operas. The beginning of the Wa Qing opera is closely related to the people of Hubei in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. At that time, they created a new form of opera which is Qing opera according to the ancient Qing opera. With the communication of social economy and culture, Qing opera was gradually introduced into Tengchong, and spread in the Ganzhe village and other places. The Wa Qing opera has gradually integrated into the local cultural atmosphere, and gradually developed and evolved into a unique ethnic opera. The past hundred years of historical accumulation makes the Wa Qing opera unique and charming, and its primitive performance form and unique artistic style have attracted the attention of many audiences. Just like a pearl on the plateau, the Wa Qing opera blooms with a bright light, showing the unique charm and profound heritage of the Wa culture. Under the background of China’s battle against poverty, rural revitalization has become the inevitable trend of sustainable development in rural areas. At the same time, the domestic academia and industry are increasingly aware of the profound significance and value of culture. In the field of rural revitalization, it is a feasible path to strengthen cultural construction, give full play to the role of culture in rural revitalization, and promote the all-round revitalization of rural areas with rural culture revitalization. As an opera form with distinctive local characteristics, its artistic value is very precious, but also represents the national spirit and national feelings, which is worthy of our inheritance and development. 2. Basic Overview of the Art Communication of the Wa Qing Opera in Tengchong There are many different nationalities in the vast land of our country. With the passage of time and regional changes, these ethnic groups have gradually developed opera and drama forms with their own regional characteristics and ethnic customs. There are very few kinds of Wa opera. With a history of more than 600 years, the Wa Qing opera, known as the “living fossil of drama”, is a folk cultural and artistic treasure that remains in the remote areas of Yunnan province and has not been known and understood by many people. It is the only local opera in Tengchong which has been officially listed as Chinese minority operas. The Wa Qing opera has beautiful words, touching stories, distinct characters, and vivid plots. The expression technique is good at lyric, narrative, melodious and cadence, and has very strong artistic expression and appeal, and is known as “precious national drama”. In terms of inheritance mode, the Wa Qing opera mainly focuses on mass inheritance and family inheritance. The dissemination of Wa Qing opera is mostly carried out in the folk practice of oral transmission, which is a primitive way of dissemination and has always occupied an important position. In the process of inheritance, both teachers and apprentices are required to convey the true feelings, and create a vivid www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 5, No. 4, 2023 144 Published by SCHOLINK INC. opera image through the direct body, eyes, mouth and ears, and through the actual singing and the coordination of body movements. In this respect, other means of communication cannot be compared. Oral transmission requires direct face-to-face inheritance, and the music information transmitted is distinct and specific. With the development of modern media technology, oral transmission cannot adapt to the changes of the times, so it is urgent to build all-round and diversified communication channels to effectively protect folk culture and art. 3. The Value of Tengchong Wa Qing Opera as an Artistic Medium to Participate in the Construction of Rural Culture After the introduction of the rural revitalization strategy, “countryside” has become a popular word for Chinese society, from which many concepts of “village +” have been derived. The construction of art township is an important form of “village + art”, so the construction of art township has gained more and more social attention. Its main purpose is to participate in rural construction with art as a medium, so that the inheritance and communication of art become a means to enhance the value of rural society. As an artistic medium, the Wa Qing opera can activate the traditional rural culture and enhance the endogenous power. In fact, the lagging development of public cultural services is an important reason for the backwardness of rural culture, and also one of the reasons for the lack of cultural life and aesthetic taste of contemporary villagers. As a rare folk art, the Wa Qing opera can bring a new cultural experience. At the same time, the wa qing opera inheritance and artists can also be art inheritance as one of the township building content, realize the function of art education and inheritance, subtle influence on the spiritual pursuit of local villagers through the art public space of the exhibition and performances. As an artistic medium, Wa Qing opera can help to promote the development of local rural cultural tourism industry. Cultural and tourism industry is an important industry for rural revitalization. With the increasing homogenization of traditional village tourism, the intervention of art has injected new vitality into rural tourism. In order to promote the integration of culture and tourism, large-scale art activities can be held in combination with local characteristics, and modern artistic atmosphere and rich rural customs can be displayed through various art forms such as music, dance and drama performances, becoming a model for local characteristic art to help rural revitalization and the integration of culture and tourism. As an artistic medium, the Wa Qing opera may help to promote the upgrading of local industries. With the development of art township construction, the value of art for rural economic development has been gradually explored. The artistic communication of Wa Qing Opera may also be able to drive other local characteristic industries, combining the local rural cultural characteristics to design multi-functional modern rural workshops such as agricultural products processing, tourist visiting experience, villagers’ activities, “drama museum” and other functions. It will provide more diversified cultural space for tourists to experience and communicate with villagers, and enhance the cultural connotation of local www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 5, No. 4, 2023 145 Published by SCHOLINK INC. industries. 4. Dilemma of Wa Qing Opera Art Communication in Tengchong under the Background of Rural Cultural Revitalization Tengchong Wa Qing Opera has a long history, but it is also faced with various inheritance and transmission problems. As a kind of intangible cultural heritage folk art, Wa Qing Opera has a narrow audience, and not many people can really contact Qing opera. Over the years, the dissemination and development of Qing opera in Tengchong encountered a bottleneck.With the rapid development of the country and related policy support, Qing opera was included in the first batch of China national intangible cultural heritage list in 2008, however, in the process of inheritance and communication, there are still some problems, such as narrow audience, few new dramas and single transmission path. 4.1 The Audience Range of Wa Qing Opera Is Still Relatively Narrow Tengchong Wa Qing Opera originated in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty and has a long cultural history, but so far, not many people really understand the cultural connotation behind Qing Opera, so its audience scope is still relatively narrow. The inheritance and communication of Wa Qing opera is basically based on the traditional face-to-face dissemination and performance, and the intensity of external dissemination and promotion is seriously insufficient. In recent years, the publicity and performance activities of Wa Qing Opera have also been disseminated and publicized through the Internet, but no systematic and professional communication channels have been formed, and the audience is not really open, still confined in the small circle, the public is difficult to access to information about Wa Qing Opera. In addition, the rural economic conditions are poor, and more villagers turn to urban development, and most of the villagers in rural areas are the elderly and children. The loss of young people leads to the loss of the creation of local cultural activities, thus ignoring the inheritance and development of opera art, and the audience range of Qing opera is getting smaller and smaller. 4.2 Lack of Professional Talents Leads to the Shortage of New Works of Qing Opera The number of Wa Qing operas in Tengchong is small and most of them are traditional pieces. It is known that the traditional Qing operas of the Wa nationality have been handed down since ancient times. Nowadays, the aesthetic of contemporary society has changed greatly with the traditional aesthetic. Both the ideological content and the artistic form have a certain sense of distance, and there are few new plays of Wa Qing opera that are in line with the modern aesthetic and can attract the public. Secondly, the Wa Qing opera performance is only organized in special rituals and specific festivals. In the construction of opera culture, the promotion policy of traditional opera is still adopted. The lack of new plays makes the audience gradually lose their interest in watching. In addition, the current predicament of inheritance and transmission also leads to the lack of professional talents of Wa Qing opera, the restriction of the growth conditions of inheritors and students and the lack of culture and education have seriously affected the inheritance and development of Wa Qing Opera in the local area. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 5, No. 4, 2023 146 Published by SCHOLINK INC. In order to improve the lack of innovation and new plays in the content of the opera, the most important thing is to have more new works in line with the modern aesthetic needs. Therefore,, it is necessary to improve the growth conditions of Qing opera inheritors and strengthen the training of professional talents. 4.3 The Wa Qing Opera Publicity Resources Are Insufficient and the Communication Channels Are Single As an intangible cultural heritage, in the process of inheritance and publicity of Wa Qing opera, the publicity resources are insufficient in human, financial and material resources, which directly affects the strength and effect of its dissemination. The transmission mode of Qing opera is mainly carried out in the form of individuals, which is mainly manifested as the interpersonal communication by words, deeds and mouth, with a single transmission path and a lack of innovation. At present, the art of Wa Qing opera has not been paid enough attention by new media people, which makes the dissemination of Qing opera stay in the path of natural communication, and it is not strong enough in mass communication and network communication, so it is difficult to adapt to the requirements of the new era. Making good use of new media and creating an all-round, diversified and three-dimensional communication way is the key to solve the current limitations of wa Qing opera communication. 5. Countermeasures for the Art Communication of Wa Qing Opera in Tengchong under the Background of Rural Cultural Revitalization 5.1 Strengthen the Construction of Rural Opera Culture Platform and Cultivate the Audience Groups At present, the inheritance and transmission of the Wa Qing opera are difficult, and the capital, talent, market and other aspects are facing a continuous contraction. With the process of urbanization, the Wa people flowing into the city have gradually forgotten the Qing opera. The government is the driving force to promote the inheritance and development of Wa opera art and culture, the rural government should clear the opera art of rural culture construction, through repertoire performance and audience group training, the performance of Wa Qing opera will be incorporated into the public cultural service system, and the emphasis is on promoting the public welfare dissemination and promotion of Qing opera. At the same time, the creation and performance of Qing opera should keep pace with The Times and resonate with the cultural needs of the rural people. Traditional repertoire needs to be preserved and inherited, but the new era needs to innovate the content and performance form of opera repertoire, especially for the young audience, combined with the needs of rural people, the creation of popular, positive energy of the Qing opera works. 5.2 Strengthen the Training of Professional Personnel It is necessary to cultivate a group of representative figures and backbone forces of the Qing opera. The rural government should take the training of Qing opera talents as a system, actively improve the performance environment and conditions of opera talents, increase the publicity of Qing opera, and introduce a large number of talents. Formulate effective incentive measures to guide performance www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 5, No. 4, 2023 147 Published by SCHOLINK INC. groups to actively investigate the cultural needs of rural people, so as to carry out more effective opera performances; formulate incentive measures for cultivating rural opera talents, and encourage “native village” villagers to provide fresher and more realistic performance materials and even scripts for opera groups. 5.3 Integrate Resources and Build Diversified New Media Communication Channels We will give full play to the advantages of the Internet and build a network communication platform. In addition to traditional communication channels such as radio and television, more diversified new media communication methods, such as digital magazines, digital broadcasting, Internet, short videos, etc., can form a frequent and multi-level communication stimulus to the audience. Relevant opera workers and communication personnel should actively coordinate the advantages of all parties, build a diversified opera communication media platform, and use the platform to live broadcast and publicize the Wa Qing opera, so that more people can know and understand the Wa Qing opera, and improve its status and influence in people’s minds. Support digital construction. The introduction of advanced technology, the attempt of digital processing in the process of protection and inheritance, and the preservation and utilization of traditional dramas of Wa Qing opera, ancient books, cultural historical materials and historical video materials, not only serves the protection of performing arts audio and video resources, but also can derive complete digital products and intellectual property rights. Extensive online and offline qing opera popularization activities, invite famous artists for offline interviews and online live broadcast, and organize online interactive activities that meet the preferences of young people, so as to expand the audience participation and social influence. 6. Conclusion As a precious artistic resource, Yunnan Tengchong Wa Qing Opera is the cornerstone of the development of Chinese opera culture and the link of cultural inheritance. In the context of rural cultural revitalization, the inheritance and transmission of wa Qing opera have both opportunities and challenges. By analyzing the transmission status, dilemma and development countermeasures of Tengchong Wa Qing Opera, a rare opera, it aims to provide useful experience and strategies for how to protect, inherit and develop national art under the background of rural cultural revitalization. In the new background of having great communication advantages and policy support, we should take full advantage of it, promote the modernization and transformation of fine traditional culture, expand the audience of the Wa Qing opera art, cultivate professional talents, expand diversified communication channels, using rural intangible cultural heritage culture and art as a media to create continuous efforts in local areas, and wake up rural folk art to revitalize rural culture. Reference Duan, J. K. (2007). The “Qing Opera” of the Wa nationality in Tengchong County, Yunnan Province. Hubei Theory Edition Today, 65-66. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/assc Advances in Social Science and Culture Vol. 5, No. 4, 2023 148 Published by SCHOLINK INC. Huang, Y. L., & Ren, Z. (2023). The internal logic and realization path of intangible cultural heritage enabling rural cultural revitalization. Journal of Yunnan Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 115-124. Kong, H. (2023). The mechanism and path of intangible cultural heritage inheritance contributing to the revitalization of rural culture. Smart Agriculture Guide, 46-49. Liu, Y. D. (2022). Research on Guqin Art Communication in the context of new media—Based on field survey in Chengdu area (master’s thesis, Sichuan Conservatory of Music). Section, Y. Z. (2009). The Wa Qing Opera in Tengchong, Yunnan province. Chinese Art Theory from, 203-205. Wang, W. W. (2014). Inheritance and Communication of Wa Qing Opera under the Vision of film and television (Master’s thesis, Yunnan University of Arts). Wei, M. X., & Wei, H. Q. (2015). Take the Qing opera of the Wa nationality in Tengchong, Yunnan province as an example. Journal of Yunnan University of the Arts, (03), 55-60. Zhang, S. (2023). The essence and promotion ideas of the revitalization of rural culture. Culture, 104-109. Zhao, J. (2018). The artistic value and protection of Tengchong Wa Qing Opera. Art Mirror, 176-177.