Sustaining the Musicological Transmission of Henan Huagu Opera Through Education

Abstract

This study analyzes the current status of socio-cultural barriers and applicable methods of education for Henan Huagu Opera, a nationally recognized form of intangible cultural heritage in Henan, China. The goal of this research is to create applicable methods for the educational preservation and continued promotion of this unique form of opera by focusing on an exhaustive systematic structural analysis of the living heritage ecosystem. This study is based on multisite ethnographic fieldwork and structured observations. The study’s empirical groundwork is based on data from 14 purposefully chosen participants divided into three professional strata: general, scholar, and casual participants. The methods and tools for implementing and validating this study included semi-structured interviews designed for this study, checklists for observing movement during the study, audio-visual recording devices, and primary resources such as local gazetteers and manuscripts with musical notations. The results of this study’s qualitative content analysis revealed a highly flexible tripartite repertoire; however, there are barriers to transmission, including a talent gap, major losses of youth, and an aging master instructor. To achieve long-lasting sustainability, this study aims to establish guidelines for the institutionalization of the Tri-Classroom Learning Model alongside the concepts of digital Open Educational Resources and innovative character branding. The results of this study have practical and theoretical implications, as they provide an ethnomusicological research model for the codification of oral traditions that can be replicated. Moreover, they offer educational leaders and folk performance groups an implementable strategy to convert vulnerable Indigenous musical folklore into a consistent and accredited resource for public aesthetic education. Future research should deploy quantitative evaluation methods across diverse provincial regions to measure the long-term impact of digitized resources on youth’s cultural identity.