Abstract：“Singing news” is a kind of local opera popular in Zhejiang Province. It originated from “Talking Chao Bao” in the Southern Song Dynasty. After its rise in Zhejiang area since the late Qing Dynasty, it spread to Shanghai and other places and was deeply loved by the local people. It is a common feature of “news singing” in different areas of Zhejiang that wandering singers use local dialects to sing the “news” stories on the streets or open spaces. From the perspective of communication, “singing news” is not only a folk opera, but also a kind of “news” communication activity. It follows the traditional Chinese semanteme of “news” since the Southern Song Dynasty. It is therefore the “living fossil” of ancient Chinese “news” communication activities. According to the different social functions of communication and the social factors of promoting the change of “singing news”, the development process of “singing news” can be divided into three stages: from the end of the Qing Dynasty to 1949, 1949-1980s and since 1990s. In different historical stages, the identity of singers, the content of “news” and the space of performance show different characteristics. From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the founding of new China, “singing news” was a kind of information communication and entertainment activity oriented to the people at the bottom, which was dominated by market forces. The performers were all wandering folk singers, and the performances were mostly on the streets of cities and open spaces in rural areas. The content of “news” was mainly the social “news” that the performers heard or experienced. After the founding of new China, it was influenced by the reform policy of local opera. “Singing news” has been transformed into grassroots propaganda and education media, which undertakes the propaganda function. The old wandering singers have been incorporated and transformed into propagandists through the process of “getting rid of the stale and take in the fresh”. The content of “news” also revolves around the national and local central propaganda tasks, and the singing were mainly performed by organized grassroots units. At the end of 1980s, with the popularity of TV media in urban and rural areas, oral communication activities were no longer stressed by the national and local propaganda tasks, and “singing news” performance declined rapidly. In order to survive, performers in different areas began to explore the “re-marketization” ways of “singing news” performance. With the help of the intangible cultural heritage protection, “sing news” in Zhoushan and Ningbo went back to the street for performance as a featured local culture and tourism; while “Xiao Re Hun” as the “Singing News” in Hangzhou creatively combines it with TV media to set up a very popular dialect news programs, “Ah Liu Tou Talking News”. This dialect TV news program soon became popular. Dialect talking news is very different from singing news. “Ah Liu Tou Talking News” is different from the “Xiao Re Hun” opera in form. Nowadays, with the rise of new media and the change of people’s information receiving habits, “singing news”, which is a low-efficiency and slow-paced oral communication activity, can no longer afford the news communication function, but has become a pure and simple form of local art. From the perspective of communication sociology, it is of great significance to sort out the social history of “singing news”, which can reveal the relationship between local opera, news communication and social changes. It is of great significance to reveal the role of cultural genes and local traditions in the change of human communication activities by sorting out the “Talking Chao Bao”, “singing news” and “Ah Liu Tou Talking News”.
李东晓. 传续百年：浙江“唱新闻”曲艺变迁的传播社会史考察[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2021, 51(4): 163-174.
Li Dongxiao. Continuation for a Hundred Years: A Communication Social History Study of “Singing News” Opera in Zhejiang Province. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2021, 51(4): 163-174.
2021, Vol. 51 
