Chinese Opera: The Actor's Craft

A Final Word

From the Photographer The best Chinese opera troupes of various genres from across the country with top-grade actors and actresses visited Hong Kong between 1985 and 1993. This event has great historical significance and became a major part of my life’s work. Looking back at it, I believe a performance series like that will probably never happen again. I was fortunate enough to record these operas with my camera, and am pleased to share these images with the reader of this book. It has been thirty years since I first started taking pictures of the Chinese opera in performance. As an ordinary member of the audience, I took shot after shot using a hand-held camera without flash or tripod so as not to disturb the ongoing performance. My collection of opera photos grew exponentially over those three decades. Most of the images taken before 1993 were with analogue negative film; thus, the colour has faded over time. Some of the film was not well processed and the photos have been lost. I was alarmed at the prospect of losing these invaluable records of opera performances. Thanks to modern technology, I have been able to convert the analogue images to digital images, thus preventing further deterioration. I did the conversion myself—because I only trust myself—but this conversion took me ten years to complete. I must thank Peter Lovrick, co-author of this book, for his enduring support and patience. Without him this book, as well as our first book, Chinese Opera: Images and Stories, would not have come to light. I still owe much gratitude to Kwan Lihuen, who was the first to encourage me to publish my Chinese opera images. My special thanks go to Yuen Siu-fai, Shen Zu’an, He Saifei and Annie Chow Ka-yee for their expert advice all through the project. I also wish to thank my very good friends Cheng Pui-kan, Tang Wai-lam and Lum Tin-wan for their valuable opinions. Last, but not least, I extend my thanks to Cheng Kwok-ho for his Chinese calligraphy on the cover of this book. From the Writer The director could not contain himself in rehearsals as he explained this or that aspect of Chinese performing art to an amateur actor. “Chinese opera is wonderful!” he exclaimed. It is. The sense of wonder grows when that new, powerful, evocative language becomes part of our vocabulary. Suddenly, we are no longer missing something, but peering into a rich experience carefully polished through centuries of practice. We see an actor waving a whip and know he is dashing into battle; a woman biting the tresses of her hair and know that she has set her heart as solid as a rock; an official rushing onto the stage without his hat, his hair hanging down, and know that he is in distress; a general climbing upon a chair set on a table, and know that he is atop the mountain, surveying the battleground. These A FINAL WORD Chinese Opera: The Actor’s Craft 192 conventions suggest rather than realistically represent. They open the imagination rather than present all that there is so that the audience becomes an active participant in this whole amazing enterprise called the Chinese theatre. It is worth spending time to learn this language. The rewards are endless. Chinese drama brings together the Chinese heart and soul, history and philosophy, music and literature, religion and story-telling, all that is valued and despised by the culture into one package. It is surely one of the best avenues into understanding China’s past and what has formed its present. It is surely an intoxicating experience on its own merits. It is no secret, however, that Chinese opera has fallen onto hard times. Things are not what they were. Once a common feature in towns and villages, teahouses and temples, outdoor and indoor theatres, the opera is less and less attended. It has had to compete first with film and television, then with the internet and digital communication that favours the quick and the fast. It is not an art form for the impatient. Many young people have been cut off for one reason or another from the language of the stage which is the subject of this book. That means that an actor communicates in a performance language that is no longer commonly understood. The delicate movement of an actor’s fingers manipulating water sleeves has a hard time competing...