Reflections of the Red Mansion

Zhao Zhigang, one of the very few famous male Yueju performers in China, performed in a monologue, somewhat avant-garde like Yueju piece titled "Reflections of the Red Mansion" in 2006, and this show is what I'd like to share about in this post.


Unlike all other shows he had previously performed, Zhao Zhigang acted as himself, instead of any other characters in "Romance of the Red Mansion". So what's the link between himself and this classic opera? Well, the leading character of the "Romance of the Red Mansion", Jia Baoyu, grew up being one of the few men among womenfolk, and Zhao Zhigang himself is one of the very few male Yueju performers in the scene. This to him is a very big problem, and sometimes he even feels awkward. Hence, instead of trying to create a different perspective to the classic tale, this performance tells about the unknown pressure he had all these years as a male actor, and how he isn't very happy with the fact that almost all roles on stage are taken up by female actors.

I can understand his agony; compare him with other Yueju actresses in the market and one can easily see why he's feeling this way. Maybe some people will argue that his singing is too "effeminate" for their liking. Well, he may be sounded too "soft", but I believe it isn't his fault, since when an actor's mentor or peers are generally members of the opposite sex, one tends to pick up traits of them and incorporate in their own performance. Just like when I took vocal training with my troupe members in the past, I was also the only male student, and my coach (a female) commented that I was at a learning disadvantage because male and female anatomy is different and I had no one to take reference too. She also commented that it would have been better if I joined a class with more male students, or was taught by a male vocal coach. On another hand, if Zhao Zhigang is penalised for sounding too "effeminate", why is it that Xiao Ya, a female Yin-style actress (same mentor as Zhao Zhigang) remains highly popular and appears in almost every year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala? I think she sounded creepily feminine too, but it seems audience in general can accept that better.

Talent aside, female Yueju actresses generally are far more popular than Yueju actors, to a point that they're marginalised, and in some instances they are cast aside simply because audience prefer to see female actors taking on male roles. And it doesn't help by the fact that the concept of male and female actors to have equal performing opportunities have been implemented for quite a while now. Till then, like when performing "Romance of the Red Mansion", Zhao Zhigang is always the only real biological man on stage even though there were other male characters too. Therefore, who is to be blamed: is it the opera's fault, his own fault for choosing Yueju as his career, or the fault of gender-biased audience? I believe this is something all Chinese opera practitioners and fans to really ponder about.

Yueju's "Romance of the Red Masion"

"Romance of the Red Masion" is by far the most popular show in Yueju opera, popularised by great Yueju actors Xu Yulan and Wang Wenjuan in the 60s. This show had somewhat became the representative of the Xu-styled xiaosheng and Wan-styled huadan singing. But not many people would have heard of another variation of this show, performed in Yin-style (xiaosheng) and Yuan-style (huadan).

This alternative rendition was performed by the late Yin Guifang in 1962, and her leading-female counterpart was Li Jinfeng. I am not certain if Li Jinfeng was a Yuan-styled huadan though, but subsequent re-runs of the show in Yin'a troupe (Fujian Fanghua Yueju Opera Troupe) were all performed in this style, with Wang Jun'an and Li Min being the troupe's best representatives of it. Shanghai Yueju Opera Company had did a similar rendition in 1999 starring Zhao Zhigang and Fang Yafen, as a move to revamp this timeless classic.

Here are various clips of this new rendition, alongside the ones from the "classic" version, and it's not hard to see the difference in feel and style. It is to be noted that the version shown here are from the 2001 Hong Kong performance, which was accompanied by Chinese orchestra, while the original scores used in the 1999 Shanghai version was supposedly meant to be played with westen orchestra.

Alternative "Butterfly Lovers" - Yueju Stars, Yueju-styled music but in not Yueju

This is what I had found on the net with regards to the "Butterfly Lovers", performed by Wang Zhiping and Zhao Zhigang. This is quite an unsual pairing, because this show in Yueju is usually performed by Fan-styled xiaosheng with Fu-styled or Yuan-styled huadan, and at times by Xu-styled xiaosheng with Wang-styled huadan; but having the role of Liang Shanbo being sang by an Yin-styled xiaosheng is not what I've ever heard of. Well, actually it made no difference, after watching this clip, since the actors themselves are not singing Yueju, but in Mandarin along with the Yueju-styled "Butterfly Lovers" violin concerto music.

How do you find it? To me, I may like Wang Zhiping, but then again this performance is not something I can really stomach. They sounded simply too odd in this clip!

Here is another clip, by Wang Zhiping again, but this time Huang Hui as Liang Shanbo. Still on the theme of using music from "Butterfloy Lovers" violin concerto, it sounded much better, since they're singing in their native Zhejiang dialect. However, there's completely no sense of any style of singing for the actors already. That is, Wang Zhiping totally don't sound Wang-styled, and Huang Hui no longer sounded like Lu-styled.