Poetry writing has a long history in Changde. During the Warring States period, QuYuan enjoyed high esteem in poetry circles in the Tang Dynasty. Since the Opium War, poet Huang Daoyang, Yi Junzuo, WeiYang and ChangYao have enjoyed high prestige in China's contemporary poetry circles. And public poetry writing is wide-spread all over the area. So Chinese poetry association presented Changde with the first board in China inscribed with the "City of Chinese Poetry".
The folk art and dramatic art here are rich and colorful, among which silk-string and Chinese play are the most well-known. As for the silk-string, its music structure is intact and melody is excellent. There are more than 300 traditional songs. According to its music structure, it can be divided into band-body, board-body and mixture. The elegant librettos of silk-string are often performed in Changde dialect. The first purpose of performance is to convey feelings and ideas. It puts emphasis on colloquialism and musical telling. At the same time, the pretty lyric and musical melody is attached with more importance, making its intonation either soft, or tactful, or brisk, or humorous. Accompanied by such musical instruments as fiddle, dulcimer, lute and Sanxuan, silk-string uses such tactics ingeniously as holding-tune, wrapped tune, Dian tune and add-flowers. Then polished by neighbor sound, passing sound and first-pronounced sound, it is extremely expressive, pleasing to the ear and rich with local characteristics. It can be performed in solo, pairs, chorus or with dances or play. In the spring of 2004, Changde Chorus went to Malaysia for performance, and there silk-string made a sensation among the Chinese Malaysians.
Chinese Play in Changde develops from high-pitched tune full of strong local features to trembling tunes as the main operatic tunes in the QianLong and JiaQin years in the Qing Dynasty. It adopts the unified stage language combing the "Zhongzhou intonation" and the local dialect. One pair of cymbal is the most distinctive percussion instrument. Operatic tunes cover high-pitched tunes, melodies for Kun opera, story-telling to the accompaniment of stringed instruments and folk ditty. The performance of the martial arts and fiery circus are excellent in the Chinese play. Changde Chinese Troupe is one of the three Chinese play troupes at present all over the country. In December of 2003, Chinese play Purple Perilla Biography, written and acted by this troupe, was given 17 separate prizes in 15 items. It got Gold Medal of Comprehensive Performance, the Especial Director award, Outstanding Playwright Award, Outstanding Star Award, Outstanding Setting Design award and Outstanding Music Design Award.
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