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Time: Since the 1980s. Location: Shanghai. Principal subject: Yan Qinggu (1970– ). Role type: Chou. Main issues: How to cope with a shrinking audience and a fast-changing world since China adopted its open-door policy and started its economic reforms. Chou is the comic character in jingju. The role’s trademark make-up is a white patch on the nose/eye area, and it is called “small flowery face” (xiao hualian) as distinct from the “big flowery face” of the jing role (cf. chapter 5). Chou is often associated with the ugly and grotesque, which means it has “something in common with comic figures right across the world” (McCormick 2007, iv). In this volume, the words chou and “clown” are used interchangeably. However, unlike the clown in the West, which “primarily evokes the circus clown, complete with a red nose, a grotesque costume and movements, and a series of routines that might be regarded as vulgar or even unacceptable in everyday life” (iii), the chou is a unique role type in jingju. Not necessarily a fool, he may be serious and well educated, either a hero or a villain. Ashley Thorpe comments that the role “can be threatening and dangerous, ironic and satirical, while also sensitive and touching” (2007, 6). The chou not only entertains audiences with slapstick-type routines like Western clowns do, but commands the four essential skills of singing, speaking, dance-acting and combat, following the jingju aesthetic value of mei or beauty. For example, no matter how grotesque his display is, all his movements are based on the principles of “beautiful” roundness and balance, while his speech and song demand a clear diction. On the same basis, no low farcical tricks of the kind that Western clowns tend to use, such as thunderous eructation or breaking of wind, can be found in chou acting. 6 Yan Qinggu — Staging the Ugly and the Beautiful in the Millennium 190 The Soul of Beijing Opera The chou role is placed last in the hierarchy of jingju role categories. This minor position in the system shows the bias the traditional theatre has had towards its social function since ancient times. Orthodox Confucianism regarded theatre as xiaodao (a petty way of making a living), serving up mere entertainment for all classes of people from the palace to the lowliest labourers. Yet, at the same time, the theatre’s educational purpose was emphasized by imperial rulers and by professionals, especially playwrights. Although the didactic function was weakened when huabu or popular theatre appeared (cf. chapter 1), in adaptations of classical plays the theme of moral education still existed. The chou role, conventionally used to entertain audiences with jokes, could hardly fulfil such a task. The Origin defines a chou as ugly because he “makes impromptu comic gestures and remarks, and gives ugly [grotesque] performances” (Huang Fanchuo, 9:1). In long-form Chinese writing, the characters for the role type chou and the adjective “ugly” (chou) are different, but they were merged when the simplified forms were invented and the two meanings now use the same character. Very few full-length plays in the traditional jingju repertoire use a clown as a protagonist, while in variety shows it is rare to arrange a play centred on the chou as the final piece in the programme.1 Nonetheless, the jingju proverb says “Without the chou there would be no theatre” because his comic movements and humorous speeches function as “lubricating oil in the machine” (Ding Bingsui 1995, 286). In the traditional jingju repertoire, there is a large category called san xiao xi (theatre of three smalls), consisting of lighthearted comedies focusing on a xiaosheng (young scholar) and a xiaodan (a subtype of the huadan role), with a xiao hualian (the chou) as the supporting role. Despite its low rank in the role categorization, the chou occupied a special position in theatre troupes in the old days, and this was associated with its historical background. Acting in China seems to have started from the court jester (you), the ancestor of the modern chou. You soon evolved into a word meaning “actor”.2 The Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian (c. 145–90 BC) contains a chapter on jesters, and mentions in particular You Meng (Actor Meng) who was supposed to have been a jester performing music and humorous skits for the King Zhuang of Chu (r. 613–591 BC) during the Spring andAutumn period and was noted for his talent as an impersonator...

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