Revolutionary Opera in the People’s Republic of China

Revolutionary Opera in the People 1 s Republic of China Richard F.S. Yang, University of Pittsburgh During my trip to China in 1972, just a few months after President Nixon's historic visit to that ancient (and ultra-modernistic) nation, I paid special attention to operatic performances, especially of the revolutionary Peking opera ~ fp'jf ,/}_R Jt. Among the members of Chinoperl, I think, Professor Chung-wen Shih of George fushington University and I are among the first to have seen live performances of this new art (by sheer coincidence she and I bumped into each other in Peking). I am sure she agrees with me that it was particularly interesting to see one such opera, the 'Song of the . Dragon River" (Lung-chiang J;iung{l;,t:~j_), performed in three different styles, the Peking opera style, the Shensi Ch'in-ch'iang l-Af style and the Honan Yu'-ch\lf~J1J style. At that time, the Lung-chiang Sung was the newest addition to the limited number of the revolutionary operas (to be exact, only six others had been done before). "The Song of the Dragon Ri ver 11 is concerned with the social and moral effects in a commune of a decision at the higher district level to alleviate the drought in a large neighboring agricultural region by building a canal to carry water there from the river. The building of this canal will inevitably involve the destruction of some superior cropland in the commune. This is resented by reactionary kulaks like Ch'ang F't'(Always for Money) and even the socially responsible brigade leader, Li Chih-tien --t-t \1) (Land-lover Li) finds it hard to accept. The conflict between selfish interest and devotion to the greater good is resolved through the en.ments and gestures (such as, the often-mentioned liang-hsiang ,{E;/=-€] stance in which an actor stands still for a few seconds facing the audience, with his feet forming an upside-down T, and his right arm bent in L shape but raised to chest level). The most striking held-over element in the new opera is the acrobatic display featured in fighting or other similar scenes. Other components in the new revolutionary form are all new, such as: the greater use of scenery and props:, the use of western musical instruments, modern and realistic costumes, and modern speech in dialogue, to mention a few. 186 Speaking of the three different styles of the Lung-chiang Sung play, the music and speech are perhaps the only components which differentiate them. The script is the same, and the movements (including one scene where acrobatics are required) are basically the same. I was rather amazed to discover that though an effort has been made toward the standardization of the national speech (the so-called p'u-tung-hua yuntung )f ~ ji;~f}J, or the common spoken language movement), local dialects are not only preserved, but, in the case of the theatrical arts, even encouraged. Professor Shih had trouble here and there understanding what the player said on stage because she happens to be a 11 southerner" herself; I enjoyed the northern dialects very much. Of course, what differentiates the local operas (which are plentiful in China even today) are their musical tunes and some of their local instruments (such as the different kinds of fiddles used in both the Ch'in-ch'iang and the Honan chui-tzu if } .) In the local operas the calibre of the troupe was, however, rather inferior--the singing voices were less trained, the movements and gestures were clumsy, the costumes were comparatively shabby, and the acrobatic skill was below par. Yet it was amazing to see that the stage set, props and costumes were exact replicas of those seen in Peking.,,,and that even the movements • and gestures of the players were the same. I couldn't help being amazed at the efforts made by the directors and producers of local troupes to achieve the standardization of the reformed .art. Some minor observations may be worth mentioning here. In Peking, not only did the performances open on schedule and close on time, but the...