Guess Who Are They!

For those into Xiangju opera, make a guess who are they!

In the Mood for "Yuan Xiao"

It is the 15th day of the Lunar New Year tomorrow, and that marks the end of the Lunar New Year celebration for this year.

The 15th day of the Lunar New Year, known as "Yuan Xiao" in Chinese, can be said to be the ancient Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day, because this is the time of the year whereby young unmarried women can get out of their homes to attend lantern fairs, to be seen by young unmarried men, and thereby increasing the chance of finding their perfect soulmate.

In Chinese opera, there is quite a number of well known romantic stories set during "Yuan Xiao", and one of which is the short excerpt "Watching the Lanterns" from the Liyuan opera show "The Legend of Chen San and Wu Niang". In conjunction with this festive occasion, I decided to sing this excerpt for all to hear. But I am not going to sing just one role, but all roles in this excerpt. Hence, you will hear me sing Chen San (the male lead), Wu Niang (the female lead), Yi Chun (the maid of the female lead) and Sister Li (the clownish matchmaker), and also double-up as the backup singers.

Of course, this is all done for the sake of entertainment, and please pardon me if my singing is not up to standard, but I have already tried my best!

Yueju Crossover - Again!

Well browsing the web randomly and came across this picture which made my eyes almost dropped out of their sockets.

Yes, it's a Yueju crossover act again. Nothing new already, I supposed, but then again, having Zhao Zhigang as Lin Daiyu and Qian Huili as Zi Juan just seems very weird!

Red Mansion Blow Wind Blow

Lately I saw this clip on Tudou.com featuring old-time Yueju partners Qian Huili and Wang Zhiping singing arias from "Dreams of the Red Mansion". However, they did not reprise their respective roles as Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu. For example, Wang Zhiping sang the role of Jia Baoyu and Jia Zheng, while Qian Huili sang the role of Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai. How do you think they would fare? Watch on to find out!

Orchestral Nan Yin

Previously I have blogged about fusion of liyuan opera and western orchestra. Well, now nan yin had done the same thing.

Recently, Xiamen Jin Lian Sheng Gaojia Opera Troupe's Wu Jingjing and Li Li had teamed up with Xiamen's philharmonic orchestra and choir to put up an orchestral version of nan yin drama "Chen San and Wuniang". Well, strictly speaking it is not really nan yin drama, but gaojia opera being staged as a musical concert. So you see the orchestra playing in the background and the main characters playing in the foreground, each having almost equal amount of limelight on stage. Unfortunately I couldn't get hold of the video footage of the actual show, but here's a news clip of this event:

And here're the pictures of the actors in action. The costumes are nice!

That Drama, Chinese Opera Theme

Okay this is a very old drama serial titled "Saneh Nang Ngiew", roughly translated as "The Charm of the Chinese Opera Actress" (according to my understanding of the Thai characters to the title; I could be wrong!), but it only caught my attention just recently.

I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but I know the main plot revolves around a touring Teochew opera troupe in Thailand. A glimpse of it for you guys:

Hainanese Opera "Traveling Down South"

"Traveling Down South" is a very new modern Hainanese opera production by Haikou City Qiongju Opera Troupe. Having just been showcased in Beijing not long ago, it is going to take part in nationwide drama festival at Xiamen next month.



Unfortunately, I am unable to fly over to Xiamen to watch, but I hope this show will come to Singapore, for after all, this is a production about Hainanese ancestors traveling down south to Singapore to look for work. Hopefully the Hainanese clan association will bring it in soon. The pictures I've found on the net for this production looks promising enough for me to spend my money on the ticket.

Xiamen and Taiwan's Collaborative Gezi Opera "Love of the Butterflies"

This is a major news in the Hokkien (Gezi) opera scene, but apparently nobody has covered this before in English, and so I shall have the honour of doing it.

Taiwan's Tang Mei Yun Taiwanese Opera Troupe and Xiamen Municipality Gezi Opera Troupe has signed a contract last year to produce a collaborative performance titled "Love of the Butterflies", which would be staged as the finale for 2009 Cross-straits folk art festival held in Xiamen at the end of this month.



This excerpt here is performed by Xiamen's Zhuang Hairong and Taiwan's Lin Fangyi for CCTV's mid-autumn festival gala not long ago. For those who understand Mandarin or Hokkien, do not be mistaken that this production is a readaptation of "The Butterfly Lovers", although the lyrics did mention the names of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. From what I've researched upon, this production is about the half-century long love story of a pair of Gezi opera practitioners who were separated by the Taiwan straits. Whether or not this production has got any political undertones to it, I'm not sure, but nevertheless I feel this is a major breakthrough for the development of Hokkien opera. No doubt troupes from China had frequently performed in Taiwan and vice versa in recent years, but as far as I can remember, there has never been a case of total collaboration between troupes from both sides of the straits, other than once a few years back whereby Tang Meiyun performed a duet with Huang Juanjuan (also from Xiamen) for a TV concert.

Hopefully there'll be more of such collaborations following this, and who knows, many other new possibilities can spark out of such collaborations, pushing Hokkien opera to greater heights.

Anhui Luju opera: The Teacher's Salary

Recently I saw this Luju short opera titled "The Teacher's Salary" as below:

This show has been adapted into Xiangju decades back by the late Shao Jianghai, but it is no longer performed for a very long time already as many traditional shows had been gradually forgotten since it's reform in the 60s. If not because of Xiamen Municipality Opera Troupe's "Shao Jianghai", in which a small section of this piece was featured, maybe nobody would even remember there's such a show in Xiangju repertiore.

Chinese Opera Myths and Facts: Wang Kui the Unfortunate Scholar

In Zhaoyuan city of Yantai, Shandong province, there is a street called "Street of the Scholar". Not many natives know how this street was named, but historical record showed that this street was named after a top scholar of the region in the Song dynasty named Wang Junming, better known as Wang Kui now.

For those who have not watched "Wang Kui Abandons Guiying", the story is about a talented young men Wang Kui who was too obsessed with courtesan Jiao Guiying that he used up all his money initially meant to finance him for the imperial examination. In order to let Wang Kui sit for the imperial examination, Jiao Guiying gave him a sum of money she had secretly saved. Wang Kui felt indebted to Jiao Guiying initially, and vowed at the Temple of the Sea God that he would return to marry her if he made it through the imperial examination. However, the moment he became the top scholar, his character changed drastically and started to despise Jiao Guiying for her low status. He then wrote a divorce letter and had it sent back to Jiao Guiying. Jiao Guiying was devastated, and went to the Temple of the Sea God, begging the Sea God to punish the heartless man. The Sea God told Jiao Guiying that he was unable to do anything to Wang Kui because he was the top scholar and was blessed. Shocked that the Gods were not helping her, she decided to end her life and take revenge on Wang Kui personally as a ghost. After becoming a ghost, Jiao Guiying turned up at Wang Kui's mansion. Wang Kui thought that Jiao Guiying was still a human and tried to chase her away. Jiao Guiying showed her true self and had Wang Kui's spirit chained away.


Based on the above-mentioned plot (it should be noted that the Yueju version is slightly different in some of the scenes, but the general plot and the ending are the same), why on earth is a notorious baddie like him being honoured in such a way? The truth is, Wang Kui was wrongly slandered. The real Wang Kui is named Wang Junming, who lived in the era of Renzong Emperor. He was a capable official with a upright character. However, one day, he suffered from some strange illness (I believed should be stress and depression), which caused him to scream at pillars for no reason. He was under medication, but passed away within the next few years. His sudden rise to fame and subsequent death became topic for speculation, and the most "believable" reason for his death later became what we now know as Jiao Guiying coming back to seek revenge on Wang Kui (The word "Kui" is often used to refer the top scholar). What was unknown to them at that point of time was that Wang Junming had died due to wrong usage of medication and not of supernatural causes.

30 years after Wang Junming's death, renowned physician Chu Yushi, friend of Wang Junming, got frustrated with the slander made against his friend and wrote in one of his medical journals about the side effects of a particular drug, warning people that if they consume it, they might end up just like Wang Junming dying a "mysterious" death and being slandered for a crime that wasn't even commited in the first place.

Chinese Opera Myths and Facts: When One Person Became Two - Xue Ren'gui and Xue Ping'gui

Since young I was quite confused with Xue Ren'gui and Xue Ping'gui due to their almost identical sounding names. Both are even generals from the same era, adding on to my confusion.

Xue Ren'gui is usually portrayed as the father of Xue Ding'shan in "Thrice Begging of Fan Lihua", and is a historically famous general in the Tang dynasty. Xue Ping'gui on the other hand is a well-known character in "Lady Wang Baochuan", a Tang dynasty general who was forced to serve the army, got caught by the Princess of Western Liang Kingdom and made the Princess Consort while his wife Lady Wang was waiting for his return by a broken hut.


There is no Xue Ping'gui in history, so how did this figure came about in Chinese opera? The fact is, Xue Ping'gui is derived from Xue Ren'gui himself. As a young man, Xue Ren'gui was a very poor man, and on the advice of his wife Lady Liu, he decided to join the army. Lady Liu had not expected that this move would meant that Xue would be away for many years, and before Xue was to return to his hometown in glamour, Lady Liu had already died of starvation by their broken hut.


This story was adapted into Yuan opera "Xue Ren'gui Returns in Glamour", and was subsequently revised into various folk opera shows. There are two rather possible sayings as to how the original opera became "Lady Wang Baochuan" as we know now. The first was that once upon a time, a wealthy family once invited an opera troupe to perform, and one of the shows was a revised version of "Xue Ren'gui Returns in Glamour". After the show ended, the matriarch of the family went up to the troupe leader to ask about how the story of Xue Ren'gui and Lady Liu ended, and was disappointed that Lady Liu had such a tragic ending. She was so grieved that soon after she fell ill. In order to make her well again, the family started seeking playwrights to amend the ending to a more joyous one. An unnamed playwright did just that, and in order not to twist the historical facts around, he decided to change the names of the lead characters, but still giving out hints on who the original reference was by retaining two out of three characters in the male leading role's name. Surprisingly, the martriarch's illness was cured completely after watching the new revised opera.


Another version of the saying was that after Xue Ren'gui's return in glory, the native folks in his hometown of Shanxi were very proud that a famous general was born in their district and hence wrote operas about him to sing in his glory. People in Shaanxi were dissatisfied with that, because Xue Ren'gui moved to Shaanxi after his rose to fame but it was the people from Shanxi that received all the attention. Therefore, people in Shaanxi wrote a new play based on Xue Ren'gui's story as a retaliation, but in order not to rewrite history, they decided to change the name of the leading character slightly.

Chinese Opera Myths and Facts: The Mutated Perception of Li San'niang

The character of Li San'niang is particularly well-known in Hokkien and Teochew opera. She is portrayed as a bitter, strong-willed woman who suffered a lot for eighteen years without her husband and son by her side.

"Li San'niang", also known as "The Tale of the Rabbit" or "Reunion by the Well", started off with Li San'niang, the daughter of Squire Li, who married her poor cousin Liu Zhiyuan, and was tortured by her sister-in-law Madam Diao (in Zhangzhou City Xiangju Opera Troupe's version, the latter role was change to Li's step-mother) after Squire Li's death. Frustrated with Madam Diao's behaviour, Liu Zhiyuan decided to enlist himself in the army, hoping to return in glory so as to provide San'niang with a better life. However, not long after Liu Zhiyuan's departure, San'niang was thrown into the milling hut by Diao, and it was in there that San'niang gave birth to a son. The heartless Diao refused to give San'niang a pair of scissors, causing the latter to bite off the umbilical cord of her newborn son with her teeth, hence her son was named Liu Yaoqi (literally meaning biting off the umbilical cord). That wasn't the end of San'niang's ordeal: before she was well enough again, Diao decided to marry her off so that San'niang will get none of Squire Li's inheritance. San'niang refused to remarry and ran away from home. Being too weak to go to the military camp Zhiyuan was in, she entrusted her son to her brother to be carried to Zhiyuan. However, the brother died soon after reaching the camp, and Zhiyuan could not find out from his brother-in-law where San'niang was putting up at. Eighteen years had passed, and Zhiyuan had married his god-sister Yue Xiuying because he saw that Yaoqi needed a motherly figure in place of San'niang. One day, Yaoqi was out hunting when he saw a rabbit and gave chase. The rabbit disappeared by a well and Yaoqi saw San'niang instead. Seeing how bad state San'niang was in, the curious Yaoqi asked San'niang about her family background, and was shocked when San'niang mentioned Liu Zhiyuan as her husband. With doubts in his mind, Yaoqi went home and asked his father and the truth about his identity came to light. Li San'niang was finally reunited with her family, and at the same time, Madam Diao, who had misused her inherited fortune, became a poor beggar roaming around in the streets. The virtuous San'niang forgave Diao despite of her shortcomings, much to the shame of the latter.


That is what the typical impression of Li San'niang is, but some fans of Teochew opera may have another totally different opinion of her: a vicious woman who tried to murder her family members. This is how she is portrayed instead in Teochew opera "Liu Yaoqi Succeeds the Throne". In this supposedly sequel to the above-mentioned story, Liu Zhiyuan became the Emperor but was soon murdered by Li San'niang who had wanted the throne all to herself. As if the murder of her husband was not enough, she even planned to kill her only son Yaoqi. Fortunately, Yaoqi escaped and was saved by his subject Guo Wei. Subsequently, after building up a strong military force, Yaoqi returned to the palace, had Li San'niang beheaded and had his foster mother Yue Xiuying promoted to the rank of Empress Dowager.


Looking at these two shows, it is totally absurd that a role can be portrayed in such opposing characteristics. No doubt a person can change in terms of character over time, but such drastic change is very unrealistic, and furthermore the sequel made little, if not no attempt to justify why the change in Li San'niang character. So, how is the actual Li San'niang like?


Looking at historical records, Li San'niang is neither the pathetic tortured soul in "Li San'niang", nor the ruthless power-hungry witch of "Liu Yaoqi Succeeds the Throne". However, her real background is highlighted subtly in both shows.


Li San'niang was born in a farming family during the Five Dynasties period, whereas Liu Zhiyuan, who was older than the former by 20 years, was a horse slave. Liu proposed his intention to marry Li to her father but was rejected, so he resorted to abducting her with the help of his friends. Not long after, Li gave birth to a son, and Liu, after serving the army for a period of time, became a Duke. As the wife of the Duke, she was praised for being a virtuous and thoughtful assistant to Liu when on one occasion, Liu had wanted to impose heavy tax due to the shortages of funds for the military but Li opposed, and instead forked out all the jewelries she had to be used for military usage. This move greatly impressed everyone and not long after Liu subsequently founded the later Han dynasty, and Li was made the Empress. The later Han dynasty did not last for long as Liu died the following year, and their only son, Liu Chengyou (not Liu Yaoqi), was not a capable Emperor, thus causing Guo Wei, the relative of Li, to rebel against the court and soon established the Northern Zhou dynasty. As Li had once opposed Chengyou from killing Guo Wei, she was spared from death and was instead still made the Empress Dowager. San'niang lived on as the Empress Dowager for a few more years before passing away at the age of 42.


"Li San'niang" was adapted from a Southern Play classic from Ming dynasty named "Liu Zhiyuan and the Legend of the Rabbit". The legend of Li San'niang was twisted as such most likely to enhance the virtue of Li San'niang, so as to "educate" how a woman of virtue should behave like. Probably too, that this show was inspired by a Yuan dynasty opera "Xue Ren'gui Returns in Glamour" as well. In this show, Lady Liu, the wife of Tang general Xue Ren'gui, endured the hardship of living alone in a broken hut for years while waiting for her husband to return from war. Another informal source which I remembered quite clearly, was a tale of a middle-aged woman who was so poor that she couldn't afford funeral fees to bury her late husband and hence had to sell off her new-born son to a rich Squire. The greedy Squire wanted her to work in his household too as a servant too, but she was not to acknowledge the baby as her son. Out of desperation, this lady agreed. Eighteen years later, this son met his birth mother by a well after giving chase to a rabbit. Curious about her identity, this young man asked her about her identity, and not knowing that this young man was in fact her son, she went on to speak about how she lost her only son. This young man was shocked that the account of the lady's lost son matched his own background, and after much investigation, he realised that this lady was actual his mother and quickly went back to acknowledge her. Judging from this folktale, it could jolly well be that this folktale had somehow fused together with the actual story of Li San'niang at some point in time.


"Liu Yaoqi Succeeds the Throne", on the other hand, is a more contemporary piece of work which I believe exist only in Teochew opera. I have no idea what the intention of the playwright is in writing this opera, but I believe it is a total deviation from history and is a defamation of the real Empress Li. It is a direct consequence of an artistic individual who abused his artistic integrity to write anything he/ she wish without a conscience,

Chinese Opera Myths and Facts: The Defamed Empress Liu

In my previous post, I'd talked about the fictitious case of Chen Shimei that had been wrongly credited to Justice Bao. That is just one of the many urban legends that the great Justice Bao was related to. Another famous case was “The Case of the Cat".

"The Case of the Cat", also known as "Justice Bao Hitting the Dragon Robe", spoke of how concubine Liu substituted concubine Li's newborn son with a de-skinned cat, hence defaming the later of giving birth to a demon and thus causing her to be banished to the Cold Court (similar to being under house arrest in modern terms). Palace maid Kou Zhu was ordered by Concubine Liu to throw the crown prince into the river, but she hesitated, and subsequently passed the baby to Eunuch Chen Lin, who then had the baby sent to Nanqing Palace whereby the prince was secretly adopted as the son of Prince Xian. Ten years later, still without a heir, Prince Xian decided to let Emperor Zhenzong adopt his son as an apparent heir, using this as an opportunity to restore the rights to the throne back to the crown prince. Concubine Liu, who was by now the Empress, grew wary of the past when she discovered how much this adopted crown prince resembled Lady Li. She interrogated Kou Zhu without success, and hence ordered Chen Lin to subject her to physical punishment. Kou Zhu stood by her oath not to reveal anything and committed suicide. Thinking that Kou Zhu was indeed innocent, Empress Liu decided then to let the matter rest. Empress Liu then tried to burn down the Cold Court to completely eliminate her rival, but Lady Li escaped. Another ten years passed and Justice Bao, who was on his way back to the palace after sending ration to Chenzhou, passed by the district Lady Li had been hiding. Lady Li seeked an audience with Justice Bao and had her grievances explained. With the help of Chen Lin, Justice Bao managed to get hold of evidences of the evil plot of Empress Liu and her subordinate Guo Huai, and subjected them to their due punishments, hence restoring justice to the wronged Lady Li.

This story, like Chen Shimei's, is widely popular in Chinese opera and had appeared in many genres. However, there is one very discrepancy that nobody seemed to have realised: Justice Bao and Emperor Renzong (the child of Lady Li who had later become the foster son of Lady Liu and became the Emperor after the death of his "foster father") were born just years apart, but in almost all Chinese opera renditions, the Emperor looked very young (beardless), whereas Justice Bao is portrayed as a middle-aged, full-bearded man. How is that possible?



Side-tracking a bit, Emperor Zhenzong, Renzong's father, did have a concubine with the surname of Liu that made it as an Empress in the end, but there was not record of any concubine by the surname of Li. Emperor Renzong's birth mother, however, was really a lady with the surname of Li, just that she was not a concubine, but a palace maid. According to the imperial law, the palace maid was not fit to become an Empress despite having given birth to Emperor Zhenzong's one and only son due to her status. Accordingly, this son was to be given to Lady Liu to be raised up as her son because she was the next best lady to the post of the Empress.


Emperor Renzong did not know about his birth mother until the death of Empress Liu. By then, he had heard from several senior ministers that Li had not died of natural causes, but after visiting her tomb, Emperor Renzong was surprised that Li's corpse had not decomposed, and had in fact been given a grand burial like those of Empresses. It was then Renzong realised that the accusations he had heard were all false and that Empress Liu had did her bit in giving Li a posthumous Empress rank.


This is how the real story of Renzong realisation of his birth mother. As to how it had mutated into the legend as we all see on the opera stage now, I believe it had to be attributed to how ancient Chinese mentality of women in power. Empress Liu had became the Regent after Emperor Zhenzong passed away as Emperor Renzong was too young to handle court affairs. Being the woman in power, she had the authority to do whatever she wanted or deem fit. This naturally would make many of the male officials unhappy, and she had been constantly been compared to Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang dynasty. Malicious words of Empress Liu could have been spread during this time secretly among the officials, and some of which somehow went beyond the palace, mutated and became a totally different story. This urban legend was mentioned in the Chinese classical novel "The Three Swordsmen and the Five Mice", suggesting the highly probable link, and it was from this novel that this twisted "historical fact" subsequently became "The Case of the Cat" that we know of now.

Chinese Opera Myths and Facts: The Grievances of Chen Shimei

You didn't see wrongly; the title is indeed "The Grievances of Chen Shimei", instead of "The Grievances of Qin Xianglian".

For those who doesn't know, Chen Shimei is the lead character and big-time villain in "Justice Bao Slays Chen Shimei", "Legend of Qin Xianglian" and "Chen Shimei Abandons His Wife" (all of these are in fact the same story with just different names). This story is very popular in Chinese opera and is the traditional repertoire across many genres. In a gist, the story is about Chen Shimei, a poor scholar who went to sit for the imperial examinations and became a top scholar, and after which he married the Emperor's sister despite already having a wife back home, by hiding his marital status. When his wife Qin Xianglian came to the capital with her children to look for Chen, the latter was afraid that his secret would be exposed and hence hindering his career, therefore he decided to have his wife killed. When Qin Xianglian realised that her husband had become a cold-blooded and heartless man, she decided to report the case to Justice Bao, and with his impartial stance, he had Chen Shimei tried and beheaded.


Now, if Chen Shimei is still alive today, he'd probably sing Su Yanrong's famous "哭声冤" ("'Innocent' I cried" in rough English translation) from the show "The Grievances of Dou'E". In fact, the real Chen Shimei is a far cry from the Chen Shimei portrayed since this story was first set to stage.


To set the record straight, there is no Chen Shimei in Song dynasty, the period in which Justice Bao lived in. So where did Chen Shimei came from? He's actually a man in the Qing dynasty.

The Chen Shimei in the Qing dynasty is a court official in the reign of Emperor Shunzhi. According to official records, this Chen Shimei was a native of Huguang, the same as the Chen Shimei in the opera shows. However, this real Chen Shimei is not a heartless man as portrayed. The actual Chen Shimei was in fact a very kind-hearted court official who would lend a helping hand to anybody in need. However, his kindness invited trouble as many people, regardless of how close they were to him, started to approach him for financial assistance. It grew so out-of-hand that Chen had to start turning people away. One of these people turned away was someone who had helped Chen Shimei previously while sitting for the imperial examination. This man, instead of empathising his difficult position, started to bear grudges with Chen. However, being a mere commoner, he couldn't do anything much, hence he decided to go by the despicable mean: spreading rumour about him in the form of drama, He began writing an opera titled "Qin Xianglian Hugs the Pipa", and in it he accused Chen with whatever crimes he could think of, and it turned out this opera became very popular, and that was what was to become "The Legend of Qin Xianglian" and the similar that we know today.


One very strange thing about this opera was that Chen Shimei was a Qing dynasty character whereas Justice Bao was from Song dynasty, which was a few centuries apart. How on earth did Justice Bao managed to slay Chen then? There's a very funny story behind it as well.


When "Qin Xianglian Hugs the Pipa" was first staged, it was a very short opera; the show ended with Han Qi killing himself at the temple, leaving Qin Xianglian kneeling beside him with a bloody sword. Because the show was too short, opera troupes performing this piece had to insert an excerpt from another show at the start of the performance. On this particular day, one troupe performed "Justice Bao Sends Ration to Chenzhou" before "Qin Xianglian Hugs the Pipa". While the actual show performed on, members of the audience became so emotional that they started cursing Chen Shimei aloud and wanted him to be killed. By the end of the show, the angry audience refused to leave, and the troupe leader was in a fix. Suddenly, he realised that the actor playing the role of Justice Bao in the previous excerpt was still in his costume, and decided to just push him back onto stage, despite both knowing that Justice Bao and Chen Shimei are obviously not from the same era. It turned out that the audience didn't mind either and the show was a great success. Due to these turn of events, the righteous Chen Shimei was heavily slandered and became the notorious baddie we know about today.

Hence the moral of the story: the pen is mightier than the sword; slanderous words can become "truth" if not treated carefully!

"Symphonic" Xiangju

Sorry for sidetracking again, as I need time to arrange my information for Chinese opera repertoire myths. In this post, I'm going to showcase a small excerpt of "Symphonic" Xiangju. This time round, it is performed by Zhangzhou City's Yang Yuexia and Zheng Yaling.

This comes as a surprise since this excerpt was presented in an opening ceremony for some cross-straits conference and is being telecasted live over CCTV, China's national TV channel. If I'm not wrong, this is the first time ever that Zhangzhou City Xiangju Opera Troupe ever appeared on national TV in recent years. Previously, it is usually Xiamen Municipality Gezi Opera Troupe that had the honour.

Anyway, back to the clip. I like the way Yang Yuexia sang here because it sounded rather soft and gentle, unlike in live performances whereby the speakers are cranked up to such high volume that everybody sounded very sharp and shrill. However, I hate the musical arrangement of the music. The "symphonic" sound simply sound too much like a fanfare to me, and doesn't quite suit the excerpt. What was on the musical arranger's mind when he/ she did that?!

An interesting note: there is a Yueju fan in China who used to be rather put off by Gezi opera, but when she saw Zheng Yaling in this excerpt, she was totally mersmerised by her!

Zhangzhou City Xiangju Opera Troupe is Here Again!

Zhangzhou City Xiangju Opera Troupe is here again, at Lor Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple. Starting today, they'll be performing for 21 days, and their opening performance tonight is their famous "Butterfly Lovers". This show, adapted from traditional Taiwanese opera repertoire, Shanghai Yueju script and revised script by Xiangju master Shao Jianghai, has not been performed for ages, but back in the late 70s/ early 80s, this show was such a hit that the troupe once broke a record of over 300 continuous performances in a single venue.

Unfortunately, as my production for "Three Fat Virgins Unassembled" ends only tomorrow, I had to miss this show, and another show I like titled "Protecting the Treasured Baby". Hopefully these shows will be staged again during their re-runs towards the end of their performance tour!

Grand Lyrical Peking Opera "Battle of the Red Cliff"

"Battle of the Red Cliff" is a newly-produced Peking opera (in grand lyrical style) last year, in conjunction with the opening of the National Centre of the Performing Arts. I'm not sure if this mega-production was a reaction to the widely popular movie "Red Cliff", but I have to say this opera is as grand as the movie, although the artistic direction is not quite the same.

Looking at the pictures of the grand set that this production has, it can be said that this production strayed from the conventional style of Peking opera production which uses the minimalistic and highly abstract style of scenic design, and that is great, because we have come to an age whereby we're constantly stimulated by images, and it is no longer workable trying to portray a dramatic battle scene with just 1 table and 2 chairs, coupled with brightly coloured and intricately embroidered curtains as a backdrop. However, I felt that since the prouduction team had invested so much on the set, they should do likewise about the costuming as well. A brief glance at the performance pictures it's not hard to tell that the characters are still wearing the traditional Peking opera costumes which stood out like a sore thumb. For example, all wen court officials were wearing headgears with long narrow wings behind, a style which was popularised only from Song dynasty onwards, and that's about a thousand years' difference!








Having said that, I believe it is still a production worth watching, although I have no idea if this show can actually hit our shores; the cost of bringing this show in will be quite a lot, and even if it could come to Singapore, the scale of production will be greatly reduced as we might not have the facilities to stage it, not even in Esplanade.

Reports on "Dream of the Lotus Pond" 2

This is another news article on "Dream of the Lotus Pond", but features more of the concept. As I have not seen the actual show, my translation might not be accurate, but here goes anyway:

传统的《荷塘梦》不传统的呈现

《荷塘梦》在演出过程和舞台美术的处理手法上，以及人物塑造方法和服装道具的安排上都很特别。故事是传统的，但呈现上不是很传统，它不是写实故事，而是寓言式的东西，寓言和通常的戏剧不一样，不是告诉你真实生活，而是告诉你一个道理。全剧配合象征、隐喻、怪诞、意识流等表现手法和技巧，借用青蛙、荷塘冷月、幻影等意象构筑出既显又隐、神秘莫测的戏剧情节，而这一切实际上都是剧中主人公魏斯仁等被伦理道德观念沉重压抑而幽微曲折的心灵世界，以及他们对秦景仙落塘而死难以解脱的负罪心理的外部呈现与折射。在整部戏中，荷塘是鬼魅发生的地点，又是爱情的承载点，也是人的归宿。荷塘就是一个社会，《荷塘梦》引入鬼神、恐惧和非理性，给观众一种具有鬼魅色彩又具有非常强烈的道德批判精神的环境。吴晓江说，人和人之间的信任和不信任是很重要的东西，一出戏对人有启发，可以帮助我们认识生活问题，《荷塘梦》主题是在复杂和纷乱的社会当中，在任何人的交流中，如何理解不同人群的准确思想观点，如何了解人和人之间的关系，怎么在生活当中沟通和真正理解。

Traditional "Dream of the Lotus Pond" but Presented in a Non-traditional Way

“Dream of the Lotus Pond” has had a unique style of scenic, costume and character design. The show had a traditional storyline, but the way of staging was unconventional. This is not a narrative story, but a fable tale; it doesn’t tell you what happens, but tells you a moral. The whole show incorporated symbolical and metaphorical elements and surrealistic and stream of consciousness techniques, using frogs, cold moon by the lotus pond and notion of illusions and hallucinations to create the sense of mystery. This, in turn, is a representation of the distorted inner world of the leading characters like Wei Siren and the rest, who were oppressed by the burden of moral values, as well as a reflection of their unredeemable guilt by causing the death of Qin Jingxian. In the opera, the pond is where ghostly events happened, which was also a place where love blossomed and where people ended up in. The pond represents the society. The injection of supernatural entities, fear and illogical reasoning gives the audience not only the sense of supernaturalism, but also create an environment for them to make strong moral judgments. Wu Xiaojiang said that the trust and mistrust among people is a very important issue, and drama, being a good tool to inspire people and help identify problems in life, can help convey this important message through the opera’s central theme of interpersonal relationship in a complex society.

Reports on "Dream of the Lotus Pond"

I am quite glad that someone took interest in my report on "Dream of the Lotus Pond" by Xiamen Municipality Opera Troupe. I'm not sure if I'd have the chance to watch it, but I believe it would be a very different experience. To be honest, how often can one find a Chinese opera performance being stage outside a conventional proscenium setting (successfully)?

I applaud the troupe for taking this bold step to revolutionalise the opera genre. Come to think of it, in the western world of theatre, there had been so many different theatre movements and theatre genres through the centuries, and each movement or genre is a reaction to an existing movement or social changes. However, this notion of theatrical movements doesn't seem to apply for Chinese opera as yet, although I think the Taiwanese counterpart has been quite active trying to break new grounds. In fact, the fate of Chinese opera is quite bad as people find it harder to connect to this traditional art form as generations pass. I believe it is high time all Chinese practitioners sit up and do something about how to go about making Chinese opera more relevant to the contemporary society (and I don't mean blind substitution of the original language with another). If not, it won't take long before Chinese opera will exist only in history books. Perhaps we can emulate what Xiamen Municipality Opera Troupe had done, but of course we still have to keep some of our existing repertoires, not to say totally stripping it of all its essence.

Anyway, here is a report on the performance in the original Chinese version, and an English translated version done by me for the sake of readers who don't understand Chinese. I apologise in advance if my translation do not quite sound right (give me a break, I'm not a journalist or professional translator!)

《荷塘梦》小剧场里独特上演
观众席与舞台融为一体，可以全方位“看到舞台上发生的生活”

8位演员撑起一台大戏，没有频繁更换的舞台布景和炫目的灯光。舞台和观众席在同一个空间当中，整个舞台就像一个荷塘，绿色的大荷叶，清水浮萍。而观众与舞台的距离近得就像掉进了荷塘里，演员就在面前表演，动作、神态、表情尽收眼底。当苏燕蓉饰演的秦景仙鬼魂戴着面具，挥动长长的衣袖从观众席前走过时，坐在第一排的一位小女孩吓得躲进了父亲的怀里。

昨晚，厦门市歌仔戏剧团排演的大戏《荷塘梦》在厦门文化艺术中心200座实验剧场进行了首次对外彩排。本月19日下午3点，《荷塘梦》将作为“海峡两岸民间艺术节暨歌仔戏展演”的重头戏，在同一地点上演。昨晚现场观众都亲身领略到了实验小剧场的魅力。舞台向前后两侧的观众席延伸，演员下场后就坐在观众席上，他们的一举一动观众看得清清楚楚。乐队也在观众席当中，连演员谢幕都要分别朝着前后两个方向。观众不是正面看到镜框舞台，而是可以感觉到自己正偷偷看到舞台上发生的生活。“很通俗，很接近群众，很亲民”，许多观众这样评价。

导演吴晓江告诉记者，将歌仔戏放在小剧场，是希望歌仔戏除了讲故事之外，还能寻找到更多具有现代意识的呈现方法。一般人认为，人多的或者投资大、场面大的就是大戏，人少的就是小戏，其实不是这样的。这是一个空间的概念，演出环境是假定环境，实际上所有空间都可以充分利用。在西方，小剧场就是实验戏剧的代名词，很多成功的戏都是在小剧场产生的。

Unique Performance of "Dream of the Lotus Pond" in a Black Box
A Performance Where the Audience and the Stage Blends into One

8 actors in a production, without completed scenery or dazzling light. The stage and the audience co-exist in the same space, with the whole stage like a lotus pond with big lotus leaves, clear water and floating plants. The relationship between the stage and the audience has been drawn so close, as if the audience had fell into the lotus pond, and that the actors were just performing in front of them, all actions and gestures vividly executed in full view. When Su Yanrong, acting the role of the spirit of Qin Jingxian, appeared on stage with a mask through the audience, a little girl on the first row actually got a fright and hid into the arms of her father.

Xiamen Municipality Opera Troupe’s “Dream of the Lotus Pond” had it’s first open dress rehearsal in the 200-seater experimental theatre last night. On the 19th of this month at 3pm, this production shall be performed at the same venue, as part of the “Cross Straits Folk Arts Festival cum Gezi Opera Showcase”. Audience who turned up last night experienced for themselves the charm of the experimental black box theatre. The stage extended into the audience from two ends, and actors once offstage will be seated among the audience. Every action carried out by the actors could be seen in full view of the audience. The music ensemble was in the audience as well, and actors had to carry out their curtain call in both directors. The audience were not looking through the regular proscenium opening, but watching as though the drama was unfolding right in front of their eyes. “Very intimate, very direct”; this was what many members of the audience felt.

Director Wu Xiaojiang said that through the process of bringing Gezi opera into a black box, this production aimed to explore more contemporary approach to the staging, apart from mere storytelling. Most people tend to have the assumption that a “daxi” (major opera) meant high production cost or big visual spectacle, whereas “xiaoxi” (minor opera) meant productions with a small cast. This is in fact not true, as the theatre is a spatial concept, and the acting environment is just an illusionary world and in practice, any space can be utilized for performance. In the West, the black box represents experimental theatre and many successful productions were created out of black boxes.

Fang Yuan's version of "The Birthday Banquet"

For those who are into Xiangju would probably know that there's such a troupe called "Fang Yuan" from Zhangzhou. Among the non-government sponsored troupes, they're one the better ones. However, as their target audience is the general folk instead of the theatre-goers, their shows tend to be rather lengthy. There's a clip of the troupe's "The Birthday Banquet", which was originally adapted from the Yueju version by Xiamen Municipality Opera Troupe in the early 80s. As expected, "Fang Yuan" added quite a bit of lines and songs to the original script as well.

For those who find the actress acting the role of Madam Yang familiar, she was the one who acted as Guo Ai in "The Arrogant Princess". I think xiaosheng-turn-laodan actresses tend to have the kind of grand presence that usual laodan lack off. What do you think?