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1. How Chinese Theatre Solves Theatrical Problems
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
- Chapter
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How Chinese Theatre Solves Theatrical Problems A first visit to the Chinese opera can be mystifying, if not overwhelming. Audiences used to realistic theatre are lost. Their usual frame of reference is gone. Instead, high-pitched falsettos, clanging gongs, stylized movement, and unrecognizable props thread through the play in an often glorious, but frequently confusing, way. Audiences new to the Chinese opera hearing the explosive cries of approval “Hao!” from seasoned opera goers wonder just what they are missing. They realize then that watching a Chinese opera requires more than just knowing the story, which they can easily get from reading a plot synopsis or following subtitles in translation. The difficulty is not simply the language. After all, fans of Western opera are not necessarily fluent in Italian, French or German, but enjoy such operas nonetheless because they are also familiar with the theatrical conventions. There is another language in Chinese opera, the language of the stage. It is a stage technique made up of movement, costumes, face painting, and props, all of which convey meaning. These are not translated into subtitles over the stage or in the programme. New audiences need to learn this language. Familiarity with Chinese stage technique is the key to appreciating Chinese opera. This stage language is the Chinese opera’s response to particular theatrical problems. What does the actor do when the play calls for him to ride a hundred miles on horseback? How can a boat ride down the river be accomplished? And how, in heaven’s name, does the cast show two mighty clashing armies? Various theatrical traditions have devised their own solutions to these and other problems. The ancient Greeks and the Japanese Noh theatre use masks to convey personae. Realist and naturalist Western theatres use detailed scenery and curtains to hide scene changes and thus take the spectator from one place to another. The Elizabethan and traditional Chinese theatres use little scenery, depending instead on suggestive props and elaborate costumes. Over several centuries, Chinese opera has developed a series of stage conventions that has become familiar to regular theatre goers. They know when they see the oily white-faced actor that they have a villain before them. When they see the actor walk in a circle they know that he or she has made a journey. Knowing the conventions of this stage language means the new audience is no longer excluded from the rich theatrical experience of Chinese opera. The centre of all these conventions is the actor. Traditional Chinese opera has focused its attention upon the actor rather than the lighting, scenery, or even the director. The audience already knows the stories well. They come not to see what happens, but rather how highly trained actors present that familiar story in their singing and their mastery of stage technique. In other words, the real pleasure in store for a new audience to the Chinese opera is savouring how the actors unfold the story through their mastery of stagecraft. CHAPTER 1 2 Chinese Opera: The Actor’s Craft Chineseoperaisabroadtermthatneedssomedefining.Theterm“opera”ismisleadingforWesterners to whom opera means full orchestration and characters that sing throughout. In China, opera is more akin to a Western operetta or musical. It is a mixture of singing and speaking, prose and poetry, and even dance and acrobatics. Even with such knowledge, Chinese opera can be hard to pin down because it is a generic term for well over 360 different styles of opera that differ greatly in music styles and dialects. Taiwanese, Cantonese, Sichuan and Peking operas are connected to places. They use the language and musical forms of the localities. So what, then, makes these vastly different performance arts recognizable as Chinese opera? The answer lies in the stage conventions, which are largely, although not completely, shared. These different opera styles have generally approached theatrical problems in similar ways. This general approach can be traced back well over a millennia. One of the great artistic achievements of the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) was the Yuan zaju. This was the opera that Marco Polo would have seen. These highly polished dramas in four acts moved from prose to singing, and they had clearly established role types like the clown, the villain, the female and the male roles. Yuan zaju also depended upon the actor to set the scene rather than on scenery. The scripts continue to be celebrated as masterful pieces of literature exploring themes as varied as social justice and marriage. Following the short-lived...