In contrast, the British colonial government largely ignored this art and allowed Cantonese opera in Hong Kong to flourish as it will. For centuries, this was the main form of entertainment for Chinese folk both urban and rural.ĭuring the latter half of the twentieth century, however, its popularity suffered a sharp decline due in large part to the Cultural Revolution. Mao posited that traditional values and culture were part of the “backward thinking” that was holding Chinese civilisation back from modern progress, and unfortunately, Chinese opera fell into that category as well. Theatre artists and performers were persecuted for disseminating unwanted values, resulting in a generation with no exposure to Chinese opera, unless in the sharply altered form of Communist propaganda. The majority of Chinese operas are set in seventeenth-century China or before because the plotlines are mostly derived from traditional folklore or old works of literature. To this day in Hong Kong, opera is not referred to by the Mandarin Chinese name of xiqu, but rather as yuet kuk (粵曲 Cantonese opera). Various prefectures in China would have their own versions of the art, but by the Qing dynasty, the best known was Beijing opera, or Peking opera. Cantonese opera, the version performed and enjoyed in Hong Kong, is thought to be an evolution of the performances in Hangzhou theatres in the twelfth century. This is why to this day, Chinese operatic professionals are still referred to as “Disciples of the Pear Garden” (梨園弟子).įrom the Song to Ming dynasties, other concepts such as rhyming schemes, specialised roles, and performing lyrics in the vernacular tongue were gradually assimilated into Chinese opera. These artists formed what could be considered China’s first opera troupe, though they mostly performed for the imperial family. These earliest pieces of Chinese musical theatre were simple song-and-dance numbers-an example is a masked dance called The King of Lanling, featured in the 2014 hit drama series The Empress of China, starring Fan Bingbing-which were the precursors to later, more sophisticated forms of Chinese opera.ĭuring the Tang dynasty, traditionally considered the greatest age for cultivating the arts, Emperor Xuanzong founded the Pear Garden (梨園), the first such academy of music, specifically to train up musicians, dancers, and performers. Also known as xiqu (戲曲), the art of Chinese opera reached maturation in the thirteenth-century Song dynasty but was already present in an earlier form called Canjun opera (參軍戲) during the Later Zhao dynasty circa 319 to 351.
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