A Brief Introduction to Chinese Opera
Kuang-Yu Fong
Executive & Co-Artistic Director
Chinese Theater Works
The Birth of Peking Opera - A History of Chinese Theater
Plays & Repertoire - Characters & Actors
Peking is an ancient city in China, now called Beijing. It served as the Imperial capital for the Yueng, Ming and Ching Dynasties. Peking Opera gets its name from this great city, where the art form was developed about 200 years ago.
Its date of birth can be marked as the date of the emperor Chin Long's eighteenth birthday. On that historic occasion, all the best local opera companies from around the country were invited t the capital to give performances. Among these companies were four of the most popular troupes from the Anhui province. After the birthday celebration was over, they decided to stay in Beijing. They absorbed the best of what they saw of other troupes' performances, and incorporated it into their own style, presenting it in the local Beijing dialect.
This new style quickly became a favorite at the Imperial court. With strong financial support and official recognition, the Peking Opera style soon spread outward to other provinces across China. Today, nearly every city has its own local Peking Opera troupes.
Several years ago, these were great celebrations marking the bicentennial of the Anhui opera companies' original performances in Beijing. At that time, all the provinces of China sent their Peking Opera troupes to perform in the capital. In recent times, the genre has been spread all over the world by Chinese immigrants.
The history of theater in China is a very long one. The earliest historical record of theatrical activity is from the Spring and Autumn period (722-484 B.C.). During the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang had 300 performers working in his court at New Year's celebrations. As many as 30,000 performers would take part in the lavish theatrical festivals, performing outdoors stretched out along the roads for 20 miles.
The emperor Hsuan Tsung of the Tang Dynasty (618-905 A.D.) commanded that a large professional troupe be trained at the Li Hsuan (Pear Garden) in the Imperial Palace. Since then, actors and actresses in China have come to be known as "children of the Pear Garden."
Many plays were written during the Sung Dynasty (960-1273 A.D.). Some 2890 titles of various dramas have been preserved to this day.
The drama of the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368) ranks with Tang and Sung poetry as some of the best examples of Chinese literature. The plays of Yuan drama are very tightly structures into four acts, with only one performer allowed to sing in each act. Although many of the plays survive, since their music and staging methods have been forgotten, they are seldom performed today.
Kun Opera of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) originated in the city of Kunshan in southern China. In Kun Opera, the link between the poetry, dance and music, was highly refined. This genre became the favorite of scholars who elaborated the plots to extraordinary lengths. One of the most well-known plays from this period, The Peony Pavilion, had 55 acts. Less than ten of the original acts survive today.
The Chin Dynasty (1644-1911) saw the beginnings of the popular Peking Opera style of performance. In the time of the Emperor Tong Zhu, there were 13 performers who were particularly instrumental in developing this form. They were called the "Best Thirteen of Tong Zhu."
The form of Chinese theater is unlike European theater, which is mostly a text-based literary form. The traditional core of the Chinese theater is the performing art of the actor, which includes song, dance, acrobatics, martial arts, pantomime, and face painting. Chinese theater has played a unique role in the history of world theater, especially in the twentieth century when it profoundly influenced the western avant-garde theater of Bertolt Brecht and Vsevolod Meyerhold.
In old China, there was no public education system. People who were illiterate, as most common people were, used the theater for a means of education and moral instruction, as well as for entertainment. Theater taught them history and the exploits of famous individuals, and instilled traditional cultural values, such as loyalty, fidelity, chastity, and justice.
Some of the material of the Chinese theater comes from historical materials, such as Farewell My Concubine, The Orphan Chao, and Shi Shu. These three plays were all literary reworkings of events from the Spring and Autumn and the Warrior State periods. Borrowing the East Wind, Meeting at the Old City, and The Hua Rung Road are based on events from the Three Kingdom period.
Some of the plays were adapted from novels and other literary source material. For example, "Fighting in the Heavenly Court" and "Monkey King Fights the White Bone Demon" came from the famous novel, Journey to the West. "Dai Yu Buries Flowers" was adapted from The Dream of the Red Chamber. "The Fisherman's Revenge" and "At the Crossroads" came from the novel The Water Margin.
Some plays have their sources in religious stories, such as "Tien Nu Spreads Flowers" and "Thinking of the Secular World". Other plays are rooted in folk tales, including "Peacocks Flying Towards the Southeast" and The Legend of the White Snake.
The Chinese theater is a very popular form of entertainment within Chinese society. It is not only performed in theaters, but also at birthday parties, holidays, festivals, at harvest time, and to mark the birthdays of deities. The songs of the theater were the pop music of their day.
Traditionally, actors would begin studying at a professional, private training school when they were eight or nine years old. They received very strict training for eight years before becoming professional performers. In some cases, the child was apprenticed to a master, and went off to live in his master's home under a contract agreement signed by their parents.
Early in their training, actors specialize in particular types of role, from among the four main character types in Chinese theater:
These main character types are divided up further into more specific types – Sheng into Lao-sheng (older male roles), Wu-sheng (male martial artists), and Xiao-sheng (young men); Dan into Lao-dan (older female roles), Wu-dan (female martial artists), and Hua-dan (coquettes); Jin into Ton-chuai (singing specialists) and Jia-tze (acting specialists); Chou into Wu-chou (martial artists) and Wen-chou (civilians). Until the end of the Ching Dynasty, there were no women allowed on stage. All the female roles had to be performed by male specialists in the Dan roles.
Every character of the Jin and Chou variety has its own unique pattern of painted face. The difference between them is that Jin characters paint their entire face with various colors in bold designs, while Chou characters only paint around their nose, and use only black and white. The different colors and designs for the Jin carry special meaning. The colors and patterns indicate the character’s personality, age, specialty, and physical or mental characteristics. Sometimes, the same character has several faces for different ages and stages of their lives. All the actors have to paint their own faces.
Today, actors still go through rigorous training and specialize in one set of roles, though in both Taiwan and Mainland China the opera training schools are funded by the government. The Chinese Cultural University in Taipei, has established a Chinese Opera department. In Beijing, the Chinese Opera Academy is the only college training professional performers, directors and playwrights.
| All original images, characters & content on this site © Chinese Theatre Works, Inc. design © boychic aka d. lang/levitsky |