Interesting Du Ma Diao Song

I'm not sure if I've blogged about this before or not, but very long ago, there was this Taiwanese singer by the name of Lin Jun that sang a very interesting song based on the melody of "Du Ma Diao" (one of the major melodies of Taiwanese opera). Recently I happened to chanced upon a MV (self-made one of course) of this song on Youtube, and hence I'm sharing with all the Taiwanese opera fans out there. Enjoy!

Riding On The White Horse... Again...

Not long ago I've posted about this singer Xiao Hongren who incorporated "Riding On The White Horse" (身骑白马) in a pop song.

Quite some time back, Amai had posted about Guo Chunmei who had done a Electronica version of "Riding On The White Horse" as well.

A few months back, a female singer by the name of Xu Jiaying had done a similar act as well (though she'd already sang it in a singing competition last year), which coincidentally was produced by the same person who did the Guo Chunmei version. Take a look at the MV here:


It's rather surprising how a simple 4-liner song in the tune of "Qi Zi Diao" can become so immensely popular among the Gezi opera scene, so much so that it is almost a representation of the whole genre itself. If Gezi opera is a nation, then this song will definitely be it's national anthem!

Gezi Opera "Love of the Butterflies" Wins the Hearts Of Xiamen Audience

The very high profile production of "Love of the Butterflies" co-presented by Xiamen Minicipality Gezi Opera Troupe and Taiwan's Tang Meiyun Opera Company was finally staged on 29 October and winning the hearts of many Xiamen audience members.



Written by famous Gezi opera playwright Zeng Xuewen, this opera tells the story of a pair of Gezi opera actors in the 40s. Yu Qinlin is a male Gezi opera actor from Taiwan while Yun Zhongqing is a female Gezi opera actress from Xiamen. (I'm not sure if Yun Zhongqing is a real figure, but for those who had watched "Shao Jianghai" before, Shao had a opera teacher who was also called Yun Zhongqing, but she was from Taiwan) They were in love and were about to get married, but Yu had to return to Taiwan to raise money for the marriage ceremony. It was during his absence that the relationship between Mainland China and Taiwan got strained and the ill-fated lover became the victims of the political situation. In 1987, when family members from both sides of the straits finally get the chance to meet again, Yu, who had waited patiently for his lover, was shocked to know that Yun had married to someone who had loved her, but whom she did not love after a long 30-year wait.

This production might have a chance to be showcased in Taiwan next year. I hope this show will have a chance to staged here too, but somehow I just have a feeling that it will never be materialised. So for now, I just wish that a DVD of this show will be available soon..

Lady Precious Stream Waiting For Her Husband For Eighteen Years

It has been ages since I last bought a Mandarin pop album, and recently, I actually bought the debut album of Xiao Hongren. Interesting for me, I've never heard of him before, and never have I ever heard of his songs in anywhere. Some more, I bought it off the net.


Okay, you might be asking now, what does it got to do with Chinese opera (with such a heading for this post some more), and why did I even post this in my blog instead of my other one? Well, the reason why I bought this album is because of one song which caught my attention, and the title is "王宝钏苦守寒窑十八年", which translated into English is as per my title for this post. No, it is not a Hokkien opera song, but this song is somewhat inspired by Gezi opera, and in particular the plot for "Lady Precious Stream". Take a look at this MV for this song:

[KTV] 蕭閎仁 - 王寶釧苦守寒窯十八年
Uploaded by asiacitybeat.

Only a short segment of the song is sung in Gezi opera, but then I think it's a beautiful fusion of the opera with Mandarin pop, and I think he sings the Hokkien part very nicely. What do you think?

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.

"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!

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?

Experimental Gezi Opera

Xiamen Municipality Gezi Opera Troupe just went experimental in their latest production "Dream of the Lotus Pond". This is also a long-awaited new production ever since they started on their mega-project "Shao Jianghai".

"Dream of the Lotus Pond" is one of a kind in Gezi opera genre, or at very least in mainland China, as this production was not staged in a typical proscenium setting, but in a traverse stage. Staged in Xiamen Cultural Centre's Xianfeng Theatre, the actors had to enter and leave stage through the audience seating area. Surprisingly, the audience seemed to be able to accept this relatively unconventional way of Chinese opera presentation rather well, and members of the audience gave positive feedbacks like "very intimate" and "very direct". In fact, it seems that this form of presentation is very suitable for this production, since this show is not about narrating a story, but more of telling a moral. Unfortunately I'm unable to tell more about the plot as I can't seemed to find a synopsis or summary of the plot off the net. Luckily though, I found quite a number of rather well-taken photographs of the show in action. So sit back, and enjoy!

Lor. Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple's 2009 Spring Temple Fair Performance

Keeping by their annual tradition, Lor. Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple is organising a series of opera performances as part of their Spring Temple Fair this year for all Hokkien opera lovers out their. Over the period from 23 January to 8 February next year, Fei Feng Yi Stage Opera from Taipei will be presenting a total of 17 different shows each night.

To know more about this opera troupe, please visit their blog at Yahoo! Taiwan.

"The Teacher, The Thief": an Old Recording 2

Fellow opera troupe mate XJ was very interested in my previous post on an old recording of "The Teacher, The Thief" by Zhangzhou City Opera Troupe (I believe that the troupe used to be called Zhangzhou Xiangju Experimental Troupe" back then), and hence I decided to put up a second clip here. What I like about Xiangju around that era was their "rawness" and full of local flavour. However, the main drawback was that the opera genre back then are not so well-developed, and hence there're many instances whereby I just can't connect with the show as some parts of the plot or dialogue just seem weird.

"The Teacher, The Thief": an Old Recording

"The Teacher, The Thief" (《三家福》) is one of the most well-loved Hokkien opera show of the Xiangju genre, and is also one of the highlights of Zhangzhou City Xiangju Opera Troupe. I've seen performances put up by other troupes, but so far none is able to match theirs in terms of feel.

Our version of "The Teacher, The Thief": the finale

Our opera troupe regularly perform this show too, and it is exactly the same, in terms of script and tunes, to the version performed by Zhangzhou City Xiangju Opera Troupe in 1983 at Kreta Ayer Theatre. Some people may not know, but this version was actually the result of major revisions to the script to make it more concise; the original version, which was adapted from a Buddhist tale, was actually much longer and had more subplots. However, nothing of the original version exist now, except in the memories of some of the older Xiangju artistes, as well as some hard-to-get audio recordings. I was lucky to be able to get hold of it, and though it may not be complete, it nevertheless provide an insight as to how Xiangju sounded like before the 60s.

Zhangzhou City Xiangju Opera Troupe's "The Teacher, The Thief": the finale, recorded many decades ago

Ming Hwa Yuan Taiwanese Opera Company Coming to Singapore

Leading Taiwanese opera troupe Ming Hwa Yuan Taiwanese Opera Company (明华园戏剧总团) is coming to Singapore soon to perform.

As part of the Moonfest for this year (mid-autumn festival celebration), the company will be staging their well-loved show, "The Immortal of Penglai" (蓬莱大仙), starring Sun Cuifeng as the leading character.


"The Immortal of Penglai" tells the story of a handsome, but arrogant half-deity Li Xuan, who offended the Goddess of Yue, and in revenge, the latter destroyed his mortal body while his soul was away. In order not to become a roaming ghost, Li Xuan had no choice but to attach his soul onto the body of a dead beggar, and became the more popularly-known "Iron-clutch Li" of the Eight Immortals.

This Hokkien opera will be staged at the Esplanade Theatre on 6 and 7 September, 8pm, and tickets are already on sale at SISTIC. Fans of Hokkien opera, please set these dates aside for this event!

Xiangju Opera Version's "The Three Scholars of the Zhang Family"

Fans of Hokkien Gezi opera will not be unfamiliar with "The Three Scholars of the Zhang Family" (一门三进士), as it's considered a gem of the genre, and has been an all-time favourite among local Gezi opera lovers.

This show, however, is seldom performed in Xiangju version. Today, I was lucky to find one on Tudou.com. There're 2 surprising points to note: it's performed by a Xiangju opera troupe from Quanzhou (Quanzhou is not a strong base for Xiangju, to start with), and secondly, the songs sung are exactly as they were in the Yang Lihua version decades back. Of course, however, their songs have more Xiangju feel, for afterall this is Xiangju and not Gezi opera. Although this troupe came from Quanzhou, they do not spot the typical Quanzhou accent as like in Gaojia opera, Liyuan opera or Dacheng opera. The reason for this was because Xiangju opera spread there during the period of time when Xiangju master Shao Jianghai was recuperating in that region. Shao Jianghai started teaching Xiangju opera there, and since he had stayed in Zhangzhou long enough, naturally he spotted a Zhangzhou accent, and his students picked up this characteristic as well.

Zhangzhou's Chun Lan Xiangju Opera Troupe in "The Twin Justice Bao"

For Chinese opera watchers who have been following our opera troupe's performances for over a decade would probably know that we once had a show titled "The Twin Justice Bao". Actually the title was rather misleading, although one part of the show has got a turtle spirit transforming itself into the splitting image of Justice Bao to create havoc, this was not the central theme, and since then the title had been appropriately changed to "Romance of the Carp Fairy".

Recently I realised that a Xiangju troupe from Zhangzhou, Chun Lan Xiangju Opera Troupe, had a show based on the same plot of this show, and same they titled it as "The Twin Justice Bao" as well!

Here are two clips of the performance. Not to say that our troupe has got higher standard, but based on what I saw in the clips, I felt that they are a disaster. Firstly, the male lead Zhang Zhen is a poor scholar, but the costume and headgear worn by the actress doing this role showed elsewise. On the contrary, the female lead, the carp fairy, who disguised herself as the Prime Minister's daughter Jin Mudan, looked too poor. And then the heavenly soldiers who were out to capture her simply looked like the average "human" soldiers, and if not because of i saw Zhong Kui the heavenly ghost catcher appeared in the clip, I wouldn't have realised that they were actually doing the roles of heavenly soldiers. Even then, the appearance of Zhong Kui is a flop to me as well.



Not that I value packaging over other aspects in Chinese opera, but I believe that outlook appearance (costume, makeup, hairdo), singing, acting and stage design are equally important, not forgetting that this is afterall a form of performing arts. Unfortunately, this is one big problem in many Hokkien opera troupes in China at the moment, whereby the troupes are more concerned over acting, and sometimes singing, but overlooked on other areas. This, I feel, is a very crucial setback in the promoting of this opera form, as it will make people think of Hokkien opera as a shabby, sub-standard form of Chinese opera.

The Golden Phoenix

Chiling Village of Zhangpu county is a place in Zhangpu county resided mainly by the She minority group. Despite it's relatively unknown status as compared to other big cities in Zhangzhou, it has found itself in the limelight after an opera troupe from this village, Jin Feng Xiangju Opera Troupe, became the top touring Hokkien opera troupe in Malaysia (as described in my previous post). Troupe leader Lan Yajin has now started a second opera troupe, and is planning to conquer other overseas venues like Singapore as well. I certainly look forward to that day!

Malaysia's "Champion Touring Hokkien Opera Troupe"

For those who are avid Hokkien opera fans in Singapore would probably know that the "champion touring Hokkien opera troupe" (local ones excluded) in Singapore is Xiamen Municipality Gezi Opera Troupe. Then how many know who's the Malaysian equivalent of the same honour? It's Jinfeng Xiangju Troupe from Zhangpu county, Zhangzhou. Other than geographical differences of their home base, Jinfeng Xiangju Opera Troupe is different from Xiamen Municipality Gezi Opera Troupe too in the sense it is not a government-sponsored troupe. Can you image this: since the troupe's founding 4 years ago, it had performed 393 days in total! With such a glorious achievement, I really want to see how the troupe's like in action...

Tang Meiyun's Female Impersonation

Tang Meiyun is a renowned xiaosheng actress in Taiwanese opera. Because of her suave and manly stage appearance, it is very hard for one to accept if she was to cross over to take on dan roles. In fact, in one of her shows, "Qin Xuemei Punishes Her Son", she took on the title role of Qin Xuemei and the result was devastating. However, recently I found this clip on tudou.com, and I thought it wasn't that bad. This show was titled "Zhuang Zhou Tests His Wife", in which Tang Meiyun took on the role of Zhuang Zhou's wife Tian Yun. Her acting wasn't very outstanding, I would say, but I feel that her "manliness" was suitable for this role, as Tian Yun is not a typical feminine character, but a very tough woman who had to make a very head-splitting decisionas to whether to chop off her "dead" husband's head to save her" lover" (her "lover" was in fact the transformation of her husband, who had faked death to test Tian Yun's loyalty towards him), or preserve her husband's corpse and let her "lover" die of a strange illness. In this aspect, an actress who is too "soft" or feminine would be deemed inappropriate because it would not bring out the role's strong character.

Tang Meiyun as a dan

Tang Meiyun as a sheng