cantonese opera

cantonese opera like cantonese operatic song and cantonese music, is also one of the exotic flowers in the cultural garden of lingnan..

how the cantonese opera generated and formed has various kinds of opinions, it is unable to decide which is right. but it can be generally recognized that the cantonese opera budded from middle of ming dynasty, and was originated from local troupe. according to the historical record, early in jajing or wanli time of ming dynasty, the local troupe has established a guild called qionghua guild hall in foshan and guangzhou. after constant development, a kind of opera formed gradually based on a cantonized jiangxi yiyang tune-pattern and banghuang sung by kun tune-pattern of jiangsu and zhejiang. this kind of opera actually consists of yiyang tune-pattern and kun tune-pattern combined with the popular folk music such as southern tone, dragon boat, wooden fish and cantonese chorus without accompaniment and salt water songs, etc. in guangdong together with the instrumental composition of guangdong. till the end of qing dynasty to the beginning of republic of china, this opera gradually evolved and became the regional opera ____ cantonese opera of strong lingnan characteristics, mixed with the tune-patterns and music north and south, home and abroad, and sung by cantonese language. the crucial distinction between cantonese opera and operas of other provinces is that it belongs to the art of chinese free-sketching opera, but it is also smooth and lively, in new style and changeable, enjoys the fame as the “jequirity in south china”.

it is worth to introduce to you that first, cantonese opera was the earliest one of all the local theatrical forms in china to play abroad and spread overseas. the cantonese opera not only concentrated on guangzhou, but was also popular in cities and countryside of guangdong province, hong kong and macao, guangxi, and yunnan, and even had spread widely to the south-east asia, europe and the united states. in accordance with the records of the american alta california daily on oct. 28, 1852 (the early xianfeng times, qing dynasty), “hongfutang, the cantonese opera troupe is performing at the theatre of san francisco”. it is proved that early in xianfeng times, the field of activities of cantonese opera troupes had reached to america, this might create a precedent for the chinese opera to present in america. in 1857, artists of cantonese opera established “li yuan tang (pear garden guild)”, the guild of cantonese opera in singapore. in the 1780s, cantonese opera had been shown in many countries and regions such as singapore, malaysia, u.s.a., vietnam, thailand and philippines, etc. mr. chen shaobai, a revolutionary and mr. huang luyi, a progressive scholar organized a “patriot troupe” of cantonese opera to put on their performance in singapore and many other countries of southeast asia in 1908.

secondly, the cantonese opera performers had sublime spirit of nationalism and glorious revolutionary tradition.. in 1854, mr. li wenmao, a famous artist of “fengyi troupe”, a well known troupe of cantonese opera, followed the call of “tian di hui”, an anti-qing dynasty society, to, contact the villagers of sanyuanli and lead the cantonese opera performers to revolt, the uprising army had developed up to tens of thousands of people very soon. after failed to besiege guangzhou city, li wenmao withdrew his troops to guangxi, conquered liuzhou city and crowned himself “king of pingjing”, and claimed to once have an army of 100,000. in 1858, he failed to attack guilin city and was severely wounded, finally died during the retreat. as an artist, that he uprised and to be a king is quite rare both in the past and at present, in china and elsewhere. at the end of qing dynasty, many cantonese opera artists support and take an active part in the revolutionary activities led by mr. sun yat-sen. the above-mentioned patriot troupe of cantonese opera took use of cantonese opera, such a democratic art form to propagandize democratic revolution, wrote and performed new plays to criticize the malfeasant and abuse of the current political situation, praised the national heroes and revolutionary martyrs, and raised money for revolution through overseas performance in the south-east asia. a lot of artists also took part in the “tong meng hui”, a chinese revolutionary league, for revolutionary activities. mr. li wenfu, coming from the cantonese opera performer, died bravely in “guangzhou uprising on march 29”, was one of the 72 revolutionary martyrs at huanghuagang.

thirdly, cantonese opera is the earliest one of all the local operas in china to be involved into business promotion and advertisement. in 1930, mr. xue juexian, a famous cantonese opera artist presented “white golden dragon”, a famous play for promotion of “white golden dragon” cigarettes of nanyang brothers cigarette co., a national enterprise. the message of “watching white golden dragon show, smoking white golden dragon cigarette” was embroidered on the front curtain on the stage during the performance. during the first performance, the golden dragon cigarette was given to the audience as a free present. this opera has been played for one year, and was made the disc and film that had been issued overseas, this greatly improved the popularity of golden dragon cigarette, and made great contributions to the development of national enterprise. 

originated from the end of ming dynasty and the beginning of qing dynasty, after the constant completion and development for more than three to four hundred years, the cantonese opera reached to the height of its grandeur in 1920s to 1930s, new plays were increased, the singing tune-pattern became plural and different,, brought up a lot of great actors and genres famous for their singing tune-patterns. in the meantime, it drew on the acting styles from other operas and acrobatic fighting from the north, made the cantonese opera art more rich and colorful and more sophisticated. it reformed the fine arts and scenery on the stage, brought in the advanced scientific and technical means of sonic, optical, electric and chemical industries, greatly enhance the charm of cantonese opera, made it become the local opera of rich lingnan characteristics which was popular in thousands of families, and developed from guangzhou, the economic and cultural center of lingnan,  the pearl river delta to the whole province, guangxi, hong kong and macao, even the places in shanghai and taiwan where the cantonese speakers inhabited, and spread widely to u.s.a, canada and southeast asia..

in 1920s to 1930s, cantonese opera produced its men of ability, the so called “five genres” and “four famous dan (female character)” of cantonese opera appeared at that time. the five genres included the “xue tune-pattern” of long lasting artistic appeal created by xue juexian, with the fame of “universal oldman”; the “ma tune” by  ma shiceng, the “chou” character (antic), that was called the “throat of beggar”; the “bai tune” created by bai jurong, the so called “king of young male character”; “liao tune” by liao xiahuai, the “young antic” and “gui tune” by gui mingyang, the “golden medal warrior”. the four famous dan were the “shanghai lady”, tan lanqing, tan yulan and wei shaofang who won high reputation among the guangdong province, hong kong and macao.

till the 1940s to 1950s, the famous dan hong xian lay (kuang jianlian), fen yanfen, chuyouyun, lang junyu, bai xuexian and lin xiaoqun came forth in succession, while the famous male character included ren jianhui (female), luo pinchao, lu yulang, he feifan, new ma shizeng, etc; and the warrior character liang shaojia, liang yintang, lu qiguang; young male character luo jiabao, and the “chou (antic) character” wen juefei, lu yunfei, etc.

in 1970s to 1980s, the excellent new generation of cantonese opera actors were lu qiuping, lin jinping, ni huiying, dingfan, liang yaoan and guo fengnv who were the outstanding persons among the cantonese opera actors, they made great contribution to the development and inheritance of cantonese opera. the fine plays of cantonese opera were white golden dragon, why didn’t come back, elder brother’s wife destroyed the fate of husband’s sister, monk visited xiaoxiang hall secretly, zhaojun married into the north of the great wall, qin xianglian, liu yi passed on the message and etc.

hong xian lady was the famous cantonese opera artist with outstanding dances and singing voice who won high reputation both home and abroad. since she presented her first show in macao in her teenage, she won great success as an actor all along banks of the pearl river, and was well known in the whole lingnan area, even hong kong, macao and southeast asia. in 1957, she won the first prize during the world youth festival in hungary by a song of ode of lichi. she wrote the excellent plays such as searching the academy and guan hanqing together with ma shizeng, and trained a lot of up-and-coming youngster of cantonese opera, she was hailed as the artist of “national treasure class”, and was praised as the “hong xian lady of working people ” by chairman mao zedong.

in order to invigorate the development of the cantonese opera, praise the contributions of the actors to the cantonese opera, guangzhou municipal government built an artistic center especially for hong xian lady.

artistic center of hong xian lady, hailed as artistic palace for cantonese opera masters, was located at the landscaped pearl riverside new town with a forest of skyscrapers. it was completed on dec. 20,1998, with the floor area of 3177m2, and the total building area of 6840 m2. the solemn architectural art, convolute and erratic dancing posture in opera, and the sweet and cadence of music next to each other. the whole structure of this building represented a kind of exquisite and convolute innervation, made the art of opera melt with the art of architecture. there are watching hall, enjoyment and study hall of hong xian lady’s plays, audio & video studio in the center. “live, live better, live again and become the hong xian lady of working people”, the script of chairman mao zedong was engraved on the red stone wall in the lobby. “this music is so beautiful that shall only belong to the heaven, it is really rare to hear in man’s world”, the epigraph of mr. lu ruihua, governor of guangdong province, reflected the cantonese opera and its artists earned high marks from the party and the chinese government.