“Without performing lantern operas, it doesn’t feel like the Chinese New Year.” This saying is widely circulated in Mayang County, expressing the Miao community’s great fondness for the festive lanterns that light up the Chinese New Year.On the third and fourth day of the first lunar month in 2025, Jinjiang Square in Mayang County will feature a succession of traditional operas, including lantern opera, Nuo opera, and Yang opera. During the opera performance, the Miao community immersed themselves in the strong festive atmosphere.
February 1 (the fourth day of the first lunar month) is the second day of public cultural activity in the Mayang Square with “Cultural Celebration of Chinese New Year” . Among the 18 performances on that day, the people’s favorite was the lantern opera. Yu Yilin and Xiao Yousheng performed the lantern opera “Watching Flowers in Four Seasons” by Ouyang Jirui from the Beijing Dance Academy. Based on the witty and humorous nature of previous Mayang lantern operas, it adds rich tunes and dance vocabulary, giving Mayang lantern operas unique charm and expression. Instructor Liu Min said, “Mayang Lantern Opera is an ancient opera. Through the latest compilation and creation, this lantern opera has become more elegant and allows the people of Miao community to understand it better.”
Yu Yilin and Xiao Yousheng are two undergraduates at the School of Music and Dance of Huaihua University. Yu Yilin said, “Although it was very cold, the two of us were very happy. The audience was so enthusiastic and our performance was particularly involved.”
In the performance, the climax was the Nuo opera “Fairy Brings a Child ” performed by the Mayang Traditional Drama Troupe. Accompanied by the sound of sonorous gongs and cymbals, this festive Nuo opera officially kicked off, with the singing being soft, warm, or cheerful. “Fairy Brings a Child ” appears in the form of rap in Mayang dialect, with only gongs and drums as accompaniment.
“Since 2013, we have been performing here, regardless of whether it is sunny, rainy or snowy. We must carry forward the traditional culture of intangible cultural heritage lanterns, Nuo opera, and Yang opera in Xiangxi,” said Teng Jiuyong, head of the Mayang Traditional Drama Troupe.
It rained non-stop on that day and the temperature was around 5 degrees. Despite the cold, hundreds of people was still seated around the stage. Amid the sounds of opera, everyone feels the flavor of opera that has been passed down in Mayang Miao Community Square for 47 years.
The “Cultural Celebration of Chinese New Year” square cultural activity in Mayang has been continuously held at the county square in Mayang since 1978 without interruption. In 2015, it received the “ Sanxiang (Three Regions of Hunan) Group Art Award” from the Hunan Provincial Department of Culture during the “Fifth Hunan Art Festival”, establishing itself as one of the prominent grassroots cultural brands in Hunan Province.
（Translated by Yang Sigui）