Chinese Traditional Opera

Performance art has a long tradition in China. Although performers of all kinds were belittled in ancient times, various schools of traditional operas flourished now and then along with the vicissitudes of dynasties. Many have transcended time and space and still draw large audiences even in the present-day China.

In general, there are dozens of of schools of traditional Chinese operas. The most noticeable ones are: Peking Opera, Kun Opera, Shaoxing Opera, Huangmei Opera, Yue Opera, Chuan Opera, Ping Opera, Hebei Bangzi, Henan Bangzi, Chao Opera.



Peking Opera

Known as China's national opera, Peking Opera, which originated in the late 18th century, is a synthesis of music, dance, art and acrobatics. It is the most influential and representative of all operas in China.

Based upon traditional Anhui Opera, it has also adopted repertoire, music and performing techniques from Kun Opera and Qingqiang Opera as well as traditional folk tunes in its development, eventually forming its own highly stylized music and performing techniques.

Peking Opera can be divided into "civil" pieces, which are characterized by singing, and "martial" ones, which feature acrobatics and stunts. Some operas are combination of both.

Its repertoire includes historical plays, comedies, tragedies and farces. many historical events are adapted into Peking Opera plays, which in the past were an important primer on history and ethical principles for poorly educated folk.

Two orchestras, playing string and percussion instruments, accompany the singing, which follows a fixed pattern but has a variety of melodies and rhythms. The "jinghu", a small two-strings bowed instrument, is the backbone of the orchestras.

The operatic dialogues and monologues are recited in Beijing dialect, and some of the words are pronounced in a special fashion, unique to the opera.

The actors and actresses, in addition to singing, use well-established movements, such as smoothing a beard, adjusting a hat, jerking a sleeve or raising a foot, to express certain emotions and meaning.

There are four roles in general: the male, the female, the "painted face", and the clown, which are further classified by age and profession. Sheng or male roles can be divided into three categories: the old, the young and the martial arts expert. Dan or female roles includes the young and the middle-aged, the innocent and dissolute, girls with martial arts skills and old women. Jing or painted face roles are always played by frank and open-minded men with brightly colored faces. Chou or clown roles are marked by a dab of white on the ridge of the nose. This character is sometimes positive, kind-hearted and humorous, but sometimes negative, crafty, malicious or silly. Each role has its fixed singing and acting styles.The costumes are based on those of the Ming Dynasty, no matter when the story is set. The props can include a cloth wall, tents, parasols, whips, paddles and weapons. The props are realistic, but not so elaborate that they detract from the performance. Exaggeration and symbolism are characteristics of the opera. Holding a whip is enough to indicate an actor is galloping on a horse. A few soldiers on the stage may represent a whole army. An actor circling the stage suggests a long journey.

Famous male actors include Tan Xinpei, Yang Xiaolou, Yu Shuyan, Ma Lianliang and Zhou Xinfang. The most famous actors who played female roles are Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqiu, Zhang Junqiu and Xun Huisheng.

Peking Opera represents an important part of Chinese culture and has become a refined form of art as a result of the hard work of hundreds of artists over the past two centuries.

Kun Opera

Kun Opera, also called "Kunshanqiang" or "Kunqu", originated in the Kunshan region of Jiangsu. It is one of China's classical operas, with a history of more than 500 years.

During the reign of Emperor Jiajing, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Wei Liangfu, a famous musician, combined the essences of Haiyan and Yiyang styles and created the well-known "Shuimoqing", contributing to the development of Kun Opera.

Kun Opera has a complete system of acting as well as its own distinctive tunes. Its wide-ranging repertoire has many delicate and elegant tunes. The orchestra consists of traditional instruments including the dizi, a horizontal bamboo flute which plays the lead part; xiao, a vertical bamboo flute; sheng, a mouth organ and pipa, a plucked string instrument with a fretted finger board. Many Chinese local operas are greatly influenced by its tunes and acting style.

Shaoxing Opera

Shaoxing Opera is a relatively new local Chinese opera popular in the southern regions of the Yangtze River. It originated in Shenxian County, Zhejiang Province, which belonged to the Yue State in ancient times, so it was popularly known as Yue Opera. Yue Opera has a history of about 80 years. It was derived from a kind of story-singing. At first, it was performed with a small drum and hardwood clappers for rhythm and later, choral and orchestral accompaniment was added. It drew some musical elements from Shao Opera and subsequently formed its own characteristics.

Yue Opera is noted for its lyricism, and singing is dominant in it. Its tunes are sweet and beautiful and the performance vivid and full of local color. Originally Yue Opera was only performed by males and then changed to all female performances. After 1949, male and females work together. Yuan Xuefen is the best known actress.

With the entry of television and movies into family entertainment in the lives of people in Zhejiang Province and neighboring cities and provinces, performances for Yue Opera are in decrease. Besides, Yue Opera is sung in local dialect and may not be understood by people from other parts of the country. And therefore it remains a local opera. But it is very popular in the countryside, especially during festivals such as Spring Festival. Open-air performances are commonplace with crowds gathering in a large square, sitting or standing, watching and listening to the actors and actress.

Every play of Yue Opera is divided into several acts, each of which depict an inseparable part of the whole story. The ending is usually a happy one.

Huangmei Opera

Huangmei Opera was originally called "Huangmei tune" or "tea-picking opera." It was a folk opera that was formed in the regions of Anhui, Hubei, and Jiangxi at the end of the 18th century. One of the brands shifted to Huaining County, which was the center of Anqing, and mixed with its local art, using its local language to sing and narrate.

Consequently, it formed its own characteristics, called "Huai Tune," the predecessor of Huangmei Opera. At the middle of the 19th century, influenced by "Qingyang" and "Hui" tunes, Huangmei Opera developed into reserved copy opera. As such, it was gradually known and accepted by others.

At the beginning, Huangmei Opera was mainly characterized by singing over dancing. It had no fixed mode, but rather simply mimicked natural life. Some operas had the actions of tumbling and rushing, which was transferred from Qingyang and Hui tunes.

The Huangmei Opera performers mainly came from farmers and workers. And the acting material was usually borrowed from the audiences. It this period, Huangmei Opera was just an art form for the workers to entertain themselves.

Huangmei Opera can be divided into coloratura and pingci. Coloratura stages small operas, and is full of the sense of folk music. Pingci is the main melody of reserved copy opera, which uses narration and lyrics to express its meanings.

Some excellent operas of Huangmei Opera include: The Heavenly Maid and the Mortal, Goddess' Marriage, and Emperor's Female Son-in-law.

Yue Opera

Yue Opera is one of the main operas in south china. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi and some places in Hong Kong, Marcao and Southeast Asia where the overseas Chinese are gathering. Cantonese is being used in the performers' singings and dialogues. The basic tune of Cantonese opera is Banghuang, retaining the Kun, Ge and Guang tunes as well as taking the advantages of Guangdong folk songs and the current tunes. Except using the folk music instruments, such as the erhu, gaohu, sanxian and yueqin as the accompany instruments, some middle and low pitched western instruments are also being creatively used, such as violin, saxophone.

As absorbing the absorbing the excellence of talking opera, opera and film in the performance, stage arts and lamp decorations, Cantonese opera is getting its own characteristics. There are ten main characters in this opera at first, while now it has been decreased to some unique ones, for example wenwusheng, xiaosheng, zhengyinhuadan, erbanghuadan, chousheng and wusheng.

Chuan Opera

Chuan Opera is one of China's oldest local operas, popular in Sichuan Province and some regions of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. During the early years of the Qing Dynasty(1644-1911) there were five independent local operas prevalent simultaneously in the Sichuan area. In the course of evolution, they were gradually merged into what we call Chuan Opera. Among them, Gaoqiang(high tune) is the richest, with a distinctive Sichuan local color. It is accompanied only by percussion and chorus without any wind or string instruments. Chuan Opera's wide repertoire has a strong literary quality, and is full of wit, humor and lively dialogue with a pronounced local flavor. It also has built its own system of stylized movements. Special characters use stunts such as immortals who have a third eye on their forehead that they can open suddenly to show their magic power; quick changes of facial characteristics without makeup; jumping through burning hoops, and hiding of swords.

Ping Opera

Ping Opera is very popular in Beijing, Tianjin, North and Northeast China. It has a history of more than 70 years. Developing out of LianhuaLuo, a kind of story- singing in the east of Hebei Province, it borrowed the tunes and acting style of Peking Opera, Hebei Bangzi Opera, shadow shows and drum melody, and developed its own style. Since moving from the rural areas into the cities, it has produced many new programmes influenced by modern drama and Peking Opera. Its specializes in reflecting urban dwellers' life with easily-understood text, speech-like tunes, clear articulation and the richness of everyday life. At first, female characters in Ping Opera were dominant and their tunes were beautiful and touching, while the male tunes were quite simple. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the male arias have been greatly developed and there are many new plays in which male characters play the lead roles. Xin Fengxia is one of the representative performers of the opera.

Hebei Bangzi

Hebei Bangzi is one of the major forms of local opera in Hebei Province. Formerly known as Jing Bangzi, Zhili Bangzi and Wei Bangzi, it adopted the official name of Hebei Bangzi in 1952. It is very popular in Beijing, Tianjin and some regions of Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Shandong provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Hebei Bangzi is derived from Qinqiang and Shanxi Bangzi operas, which were introduced to Hebei Province in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. Singing in Beijin dialect, its division of roles and its performance style are similar to Peking Opera. Xusheng, a man with whiskers, plays the leading male role and his tune is forceful and solemn. The Qingyi female role emphasizes loud, clear singing, and the Huadan female role stresses acting and dialogue. The tunes sung by Hualian a male role with painted face, is rustic and vigorous. Hebei Bangzi has a special acting role, the Jingsheng, which combines Sheng costumes, Jing tunes and the performance style of both Jing and Sheng. Musical patterns of Hebei Bangzi includes five types of rhythmic structures. The accompanying instruments are the banhu, two-stringed Chinese fiddle: dizi, horizontal bamboo flute: sheng, mouth organ, and percussion. The repertoire of Hebei Bangzi has more than 500 traditional and 200 contemporary plays.

Henan Bangzi

Yu Opera, also called "Henan Bangzi Opera" or "Henan High Tune," is a major local opera in Henan Province and enjoys nationwide popularity. There are four styles in Yu Opera. And it is noted for its demanding melodies, strong rhythms and intensive use of spoken language.

It is also famous for its straightforward performance and strong local flavor. There are more than 600 traditional plays in the repertoire of Yu Opera. Chang Xiangyu is the best known actress of this opera.

Chao Opera

Chao Opera, also called "Chaozhou Opera," is popular in the Chao'an and Shantou regions of Guangdong Province, in the southern area of Fujian Province and in Taiwan where people speak Chaozhou dialect. It is also performed in Chinese communities in other countries of Southeast Asia. Bases on the folk dances and ballad-singing of the Chaozhou region, it formed its own style under the influence of Nanxi(one of the oldest Chinese operas that originated in the Song Dynasty. Its tunes are graceful and pleasant, full of local color. The old form of choral accompaniment still remains its special features. The clowns and females are the most distinctive characters. The female performers are good at imitating the movements of animals, shadow figures and puppets, creating very pleasing and amusing effects. The fan-playing and acrobatic skills are especially unique.