Answer to Question 1
The singer is in the role of qingyi, a serious heroine, renowned for her singing and acting ability. In this particular excerpt the heroine is introducing herself and her difficulties since her husband's death.
In the opening of the excerpt Li Shiji sings in a declamatory speech style, exaggerating the usual speech tones of Chinese. Starting at 1:04 the singer begins the lines of the erhuang manban, accompanied by instrumental ensemble. The lead accompaniment instrument, a small two-stringed fiddle (jinghu), approximately tracks the singer's melody and continues to play when the singer rests (stops singing) between her lines.
In the past, tunes like erhuang were reused from one drama to another . . . to save time and expense. Multiple versions of these tunes were developed to express the needs of the scene in question.
Answer to Question 2
Narrative forms in China range from story-telling with little or no musical setting to fully staged opera with large amounts of singing and acrobatics, and there are now several hundred distinct traditions across the whole of China.
WOM will introduce jingju (Beijing opera).
Jingju (Beijing opera)
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