Henan Opera

The school's cook is a very nice and interesting man, and member of a local amateur opera group.

The members are all local farmers and they play traditional chinese instruments and sing a form of Chinese opera called Yu or Henan opera.

"Yu opera, or Yuju opera, formerly known as Henan bangzi is one of China's famous national opera forms, alongside Peking opera, Shaoxing opera, Huangmei opera and Pingju. Henan province is the origin of Yu opera. Henan's one-character abbreviation is "豫" (yù)...  The area where Yu opera is most commonly performed is in the region surrounding the Yellow River and Huai River. According to statistical figures, Yu opera was the leading opera genre in terms of the number of performers and troupes.  Outside Henan, provinces such as Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Beijing, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, all have professional Yu opera troupes. There have also been visits to Taiwan." (link)

Im a fan of traditional Chinese music so I was thrilled to see it being played for enjoyment.

Even Pichu, June's dog, seemed to enjoy it.

The singers took turns in singing.  This is the cook.

I will post some video if I can ever figure-out how to export video from the new version of I-Movie

"There are four major types of Yu opera. Xiangfu tune opera is heard around Kaifeng; Yudong tune in the Shangqiu area. Yuxi tune is heard around Luoyang, and the Shahe tune around Luohe. Yudong and Yuxi are the main forms, with Yudong expressing comedy and Yuxi expressing tragedy."

 I don't know what they were singing but it sounded like sad love-songs.