The Soul of Beijing Opera: Theatrical Creativity and Continuity in the Changing World (review)

In The Soul of Beijing Opera, Li Ruru has written an ambitious book that focuses on the efforts of Beijing opera (Peking opera, Jingju) performers to adapt a theatrical tradition dominated by conventions designed to present onstage an old world long gone to the new worlds that have come into being in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The book focuses on the lives of six performers who were trained under very different political regimes: namely, Republican China (1912-49), the People's Republic of China (PRC, 1949-), and the Republic of China on Taiwan (1949-). The performers in question are: Cheng Yanqiu (1904-58), Li Yuru (1923-2008), Ma Yongan (1942-2007), Yan Qinggu (1970-), Guo Hsiao-chuang (1951-), and Wu Hsing-kuo (1953-).

These performers faced different dilemmas and challenges and arrived at different solutions, but their collective story traces a shift from attempts to fuse new elements into Beijing opera to, with Wu Hsing-kuo, the creation of "collages," in which elements from Beijing opera are simply juxtaposed with material and techniques from other traditions. All six performers seriously engaged the West and Western theatrical traditions; for instance, Cheng made a study tour of Europe, Wu danced modern dance for six years, and adaptations of foreign plays or stories figure prominently in the work of Ma, Yan, and Wu. The six performers collectively cover the major role-types of Beijing opera: sheng (dignified male roles—Wu Hsing-kuo); dan (female roles—Cheng Yanqiu, Li Yuru, and Kuo Hsiao-chuang); jing (outsized male roles with painted faces—Ma Yongan); and chou (clown—Yan Qinggu). With the dan actors, we see the important shift from the dominance of male performers (Cheng) to the rise of actresses (Li and Kuo).

In The Soul of Beijing Opera, Li simultaneously combines all the skills and techniques we might expect of a scholar of Beijing opera, and of theatre in general, with the unique perspective she has as an insider in the world of Beijing opera (she is the daughter of Li Yuru). She conducted extensive interviews and seems to have been extraordinarily effective in getting the interviewees to speak forthrightly. These interviews are fundamental to the book and set it apart from other recent writings in English on the modernization of Beijing opera. The book is carefully written so as to appeal to specialists and nonspecialists alike, and since the focus is on the very human and understandable dilemmas faced by the performers, who are presented as real human beings with their own faces, histories, and personalities, it is a work that deserves (and should not disappoint) a wider readership than usual for academic books.

After forewords by Eugenio Barba and the author, The Soul of Beijing Opera begins with a prologue that uses interviews with a wide variety of people from different locations in "Greater China" to sketch out how Beijing opera is presently seen and what challenges it faces. Chapter 1 presents a concise history of Beijing opera that highlights early attempts to portray contemporary society and issues. The second chapter focuses on actor training. Both chapters present the "soul of Beijing opera" as the store of conventions built up by past actors. Li describes creativity and innovation within Beijing opera as primarily a matter of mastering these conventions, so as to be able to combine them in new ways. Both the mindless reproduction and the radical transformation or abolition of these conventions are presented as threatening to the life of Beijing opera.

The choice of the subjects for the remaining chapters allows Li to cover a variety of issues in depth. The chapter on Cheng Yanqiu focuses on the incongruity of Cheng's physical appearance (tall and heavy) with the parts he played onstage (demure, slim women), and how as a man, he tried to inject "masculine" elements into his singing and acting. The chapter on Li Yuru presents her as very successful...