1146013tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Beijing Opera Performance

Tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Beijing Opera Performance
Author(s): Elizabeth Wichmann

Source: TDR (1988-) , Spring, 1990, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Spring, 1990), pp. 146-178
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1146013
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Tradition and Innovation in
Contemporary Beijing
Opera Performance
Elizabeth Wichmann
Before examining the current balance of tradition and innovation in Bei-

jing opera performance, as well as some of the reasons for that balance, a
brief review of certain major traditional characteristics of the form seems
called for. In terms of both Chinese and international theatrical history,
Beijing opera is not an old form. Its genesis did not occur until the end of
the 18th century, and it did not emerge as a fully independent, influential
theatre form until the mid-I9th century-at about the same time that
realism began to replace romanticism and neoclassicism in Europe.
Throughout most of its history, performers-rather than playwrights,
composers, directors, or performance theorists-have functioned as the
aesthetic, creative, and performative center of Beijing opera.1
The majority of Beijing opera plays have simple, easily understood, and
well-known plots which were anonymously created or adapted, often by
the performers themselves, from novels, popular stories, and earlier "lit-
erary" plays. Focused neither on script nor plot, these plays feature the
mental and emotional lives of characters. They reveal the "miracle of
moments," and do so in several complexly layered "languages" which are
presented simultaneously. One of these languages is Mandarin Chinese,
performed as much for its aesthetic values as for its denotative meaning.
Other languages include the pihuang musical language of song and orches-
tral accompaniment, the language of percussive patterns (luogu dian), and
the language of conventional stylized movement-all of which are capable
of expressing dense and specific affective meaning. The characters them-
selves are each representative of a particular role category (hangdang), and
therefore "typed" in terms of sex, general age, level of dignity, and size of
expression (i.e., painted face characters [jing or hualian] are "larger than
life," and the vocal and physical techniques used in their presentation are
therefore larger-involve greater volume, broader timbre, and more ex-
pansive movements-than those used for other male role categories). But
individual characters are by no means stereotypical in terms of their values,
personality traits, and reactions to the circumstances in which they are
placed. Indeed, the same character in essentially the same situation may be
146

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Beijing Opera 147
interpreted very differently by different performers, through sometimes

subtle and sometimes explicit variations in verbal, melodic, percussive,
and movement composition, and in performance technique.
Traditionally, with the possible exception of contemporary plays (xian-
daixi, newly written plays set in the 2oth century) and the model produc-
tions (yangbanxi, selected contemporary plays concerned with socialist
revolution) of the Cultural revolution (1966-1976), creation in Beijing
opera has been primarily focused upon form and style, and has involved a
process of interpretation, synthesis, and transmutation. This is evident
musically, for instance, in the original blending of numerous regional
styles to create pihuang music itself, and in the numerous additions and
adaptations of other musical styles and orchestrations to the form, such as
Mei Lanfang's inclusion of the erhu, a deep-toned two-string spike fiddle,
to broaden the timbre of accompaniment. It is also evident in the develop-
ment of role categories and performance styles, as, for instance, in the
enhancement of nandan (female impersonation) techniques when women
were banned from the stage; in the selective blending of performance
techniques and skills from the refined (qingyi), vivacious (huadan), and
"blade and horse" martial (daomadan) female role categories to create the
new huashan category, thereby facilitating the portrayal of more complex,
multifaceted female characters; in the progression of creative development
in melodic and vocal styles from, for instance, Chen Deling to Wang
Yaoqing to Mei Lanfang to Zhang Junqiu; in the creation and enhancement
of physical expressive techniques, such as the work of Zhou Xinfang and
the water sleeve (shuixiu) innovations of Cheng Yanqiu; and indeed in the
development of successive performance schools (liupai) themselves.
To say that creation in Beijing opera has been performer centered is not
to deny the collaborative efforts of scholars and musicians, especially in the
2oth century. For example, Mei Lanfang is renowned for seeking, consid-
ering, and often then acting upon the opinions of others. He frequently
carried out musical composition in consultation with his qinshi (leadjinghu
player), and script composition in collaboration with the scholar and critic
Qi Rushan. But the center of this creative process was nonetheless the
performer-music and script were composed to convey the role interpre-
tations of Mei and his company members, and to conform to their particu-
lar technical strengths and weaknesses as performers. Much as a Western or
Western-style director may work with designers and actors to fully realize
her or his own interpretation and overall performative conception of the
work of a particular playwright, so did the actor-manager Mei Lanfang
consult with and give notes to his collaborators. But the authority-the
"final say"-rested with Mei, as with a Western director. Actually Mei's
sphere of creative authority was in fact greater than that of most Western
directors, for he was not interpreting someone else's script but involved in
creating his own for himself and his company. The same general creative
dynamics applied to the work of all other Beijing opera actor-managers.
Contemporary Beijing operas, and especially the model productions,
represent the greatest "reform effort" and in many respects the most sub-
stantial creative effort yet undertaken in Beijing opera. Nonetheless, they
were also created primarily through a process of interpretation, synthesis,
and transmutation. Traditional Beijing opera languages and performance
techniques were expanded in their creation, and numerous folk, regional,
and Western styles and techniques were adapted for use. The initial im-
petus for creation was content, however, with innovations in form and
style designed for the expression of that content. While content require-

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148 Elizabeth Wichmann
ments did not necessarily originate with the individuals directly engaged in
the creation process, actors, musicians, directors, and writers were inti-
mately involved in the interpretation of content demands, and in the cre-
ation of characters in appropriate situations. For instance, Liang Dacheng,
director of the model production Boulder Bay (Panshi wan) which was
developed by the Shanghai Beijing Opera Company (Shanghai Jingju
Yuan), described one representative work session in which he, the per-
formers concerned, and several musician-composers collaborated from
early morning until past midnight to compose the sung melody and musi-
cal accompaniment for just two lines of lyrics (1987). Primary considera-
tions included accuracy and depth of musical expression, aesthetic values,
and the particular performance skills of the actor who would sing them.
While that performer by no means exercised creative authority to the same
degree as did traditional performers such as Mei Lanfang, Liang stressed
that the actor's contribution was a crucial part of the collaborative creative
effort. In fact, many performers involved in the creation of the model
productions view that effort as the most challenging creative work in their
professional lives to date.2 And performers were unquestionably the center
of the model productions in performance. Even the now infamous struc-
tural goal of the productions-san tuchu (the three prominences), whereby
prominence was to be given in ascending precedence to positive characters,
heros, and the principal revolutionary hero (whether male or female)-
is far from alien to the traditional, lead-performer-centered structure of
Beijing opera.
Beijing opera plays, developed and polished through work sessions,
rehearsals, discussions, and performances, are ideally intended to become a
part of a permanent repertory-not just the script, as is usually the case in
the West, but rather the entire performance text. In a very real and impor-
tant sense, each play is first and foremost an example of Beijing opera, and
secondly perhaps an example of a particular performance school, rather
than a fully independent, unique production.
The traditional audience for this progressively accumulating repertory is
a popular, rather than an elite one. Bonnie McDougall (1984:280-81) de-
scribes traditional Chinese audiences as comprising three levels: a highly
educated elite audience, an intermediate semieducated urban audience, and
an illiterate peasant audience. Shejointly defines the latter two as popular,
while indicating that in pre-Liberation China xiqu (traditional theatre, or
opera) belonged to the intermediate-level audience. Yu Lin, president of
the National Xiqu Academy (Zhongguo Xiqu Xueyuan) until his death in
April 1989, felt that xiqu, including Beijing opera, was most popular with
the peasantry, and cited the recent substantial peasant sponsorship of a
national television competition for young Beijing opera performers as evi-
dence (Yu Lin 1987).
Reform in the 198os
Reform in Beijing opera has been advocated for a variety of reasons, and
numerous reforms have been carried out since the early years of this cen-
tury. The most practical and immediate impetus to the current call for
reform is the diminishing drawing power of Beijing opera. Over the past
six to eight years, audiences have become markedly smaller and the aver-
age audience age has become increasingly older. Two reasons are most
frequently given for these trends (see Hu 1984). According to the first, the
overall quality of performance has deteriorated and Beijing opera has

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Beijing Opera 149
therefore been unable to compete successfully with TV and film for audi-
ences. According to the second, Beijing opera is an old form which does
not reflect contemporary life in either content or tempo. Contemporary
audiences, especially younger ones, prefer more modern forms, such as
TV and film.
At least three different types of reform have been advocated. The first
calls for enhancing the quality of performance and the status of the art
through the development of a system of performance theory; improved
preprofessional and in-service training for performers, musicians, design-
ers, directors, composers,. and playwrights; audience education; and the
creation of new plays which fully embody traditional aesthetics and tech-
niques. By implication, reforms of this type seem intended to attract a
more intellectual, more sophisticated audience which values traditional
culture. The second type of reform calls for incorporating popular innova-
tions in the staging, costuming and makeup, music, acting, and dance of
both old and new plays. Such reforms seem intended to attract a general,
perhaps younger audience. The third type of reform calls for creating new
plays in which the primary focus is upon intellectual/philosophical content
presented via more avant-garde performance techniques, somewhat in the
manner of 2oth century nonrealistic Western theatre. By implication, these
reforms seem intended to attract a younger, more intellectual, more
sophisticated audience.
All three types of reform have been hampered by a lack of funding. The
government has gradually decreased financial support to performance
companies and training schools during the 198os, while encouraging them
to become more economically independent (see Gui 1987, Ma Buomin
I987).3 Additionally, especially in Beijing opera, the creation of new plays
is a sensitive issue. This is true at one level for a practical, organizational
reason: a substantial percentage of members in each troupe or company
regard themselves as leading performers. They are relatively willing to
serve as supporting players for a given leading performer in a traditional
play, since very little rehearsal time is required and they can feel fairly
certain that the favor will be returned. But it is much more difficult to
arrange for supporting players in new plays. Although the rehearsal period
for new plays is kept as short as possible, at least two and often three or
more months are required, as well as a much greater investment of
financial resources. These requirements limit the number of such produc-
tions and therefore make such tradeoffs considerably more difficult to
assure.
At a deeper level, however, new plays in Beijing opera are a sensitive

issue for political reasons, and have been throughout the '8os. Contempo
rary content presents numerous political problems, and new play script
must be approved by authorities at several levels before public perfor-
mances are possible. But performance innovations for contemporary plays
are also quite sensitive politically. The Cultural Revolution was a period
marked by wrenching power struggles, violence, brutality, and massiv
dislocations. The model productions created and widely performed during
that era unavoidably call up memories of such experiences for those wh
are old enough to have them. Because the model productions originated i
the Beijing opera form, even the most popular and/or successful innova
tions of those productions-including experiments in music, staging, an
group characterization-are difficult to incorporate in new productions.
Not only older audience members but also many officials find them offen-
sive, and have been quick to criticize both newly written historical play

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I5o Elizabeth Wichmann
(xinbian lishiju) and contemporary plays (xiandaixi) created since 1976 for
having the flavor of the model productions.4 Nonetheless, present day
concert performances of sung excerpts from the model productions exert
marked drawing power with younger audiences. Performers, directors,
playwrights, and composers who worked on the productions are very
anxious to continue the experiments they began during the Cultural Rev-
olution. In rehearsals, they frequently express frustration over having
solved, or begun to solve, certain problems concerning music, characteri-
zation, and staging in the model works, solutions which they are unable to
apply or continue pursuing today. "We must compromise, and select
among those possibilities originally discarded as less than ideal" is a fre-
quently expressed sentiment (Dong 1987; Gao Yiming 1987; Liang 1987;
Tong 1987). The participants also increasingly tend to look back on the
work of the Cultural Revolution period as having been carried out under
almost ideal creative conditions-a concentration of uniquely talented in-
dividuals, working together with a clear purpose, given essentially un-
limited financial resources for sets, costumes, and additions to the
orchestra, and allotted almost unlimited time in which to work.5
Because of the various difficulties involved, new Beijing opera plays-
both newly written historical and contemporary-have become increas-
ingly rare during the I980s. In 1981, the Beijing Opera Company of
Beijing (Beijing Jingju Yuan) and the China Beijing Opera Company
(Zhongguo Jingju Yuan), two of Beijing's major companies, produced a
total of 149 plays. Of these, 24 were new or substantially revised (including
only 2 contemporary plays), representing 16. I percent of the total. In the
same year, the Shanghai Beijing Opera Company (Shanghai Jingju Yuan)
produced 1 17 plays, 15 of which were new or substantially revised (includ-
ing only I contemporary play), representing 12.8 percent of the total
(Zhongguo 1982:527-3I). In 1986, however, all of the Beijing opera com-
panies in Beijing (including three not listed above) produced 245 plays, of
which only 2 were new works (including no contemporary plays), repre-
senting .8 percent of the total (Zhou 1987). And at the Shanghai Beijing
Opera Company, where 127 plays were produced, only 5 were new (in-
cluding only I contemporary play), representing 4 percent of the total (Li
Ruru 1987). Additionally, individual plays ran for progressively shorter
periods of time: "During the last five years the growing popularity of
movies and television has drawn audiences away from the theaters and
almost halved the number of appearances by the performing-arts troupes"
(Topping 1988:H7). In Fall 1987, performers in Beijing, Shanghai, and
Nanjing frequently told the same slightly bitter story: "You can't do Bei-
jing opera without losing money anymore-by the fourth or fifth day,
there's no audience." Plays created just a few years ago, which originally
drew large audiences for extended runs, now cannot maintain even a short
run, nor can new plays based upon them (Fang 1987; Ma Buomin 1987).
Only partial statistics are available to me for the years between 1981 and
1986, but what data I have strongly indicates that this decrease in new plays
has been a progressive trend throughout the period. From July through
December 1987, when I was in Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing conducting
research, no new plays were being rehearsed in Beijing or Nanjing, al-
though at least one was in the early planning stages. Only one new play
was in rehearsal in Shanghai, Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng (Liu Laolao he
Wang Xifeng), and the Shanghai Beijing Opera Company graciously al-
lowed me to observe the full rehearsal process. I was also able to view
performances of several new plays which had been previously mounted

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Beijing Opera 15 I
and of a number of traditional plays in all three cities, as well as perform-
ances of several additional new plays in and/or from other parts of the
country. The new plays were all set in pre-2oth century China, termed
variously newly written historical plays (xinbian lishiju), mythological
plays (shenhuaju), and chuanqi (literally "transmission of the marvelous";
this last term was used in the Tang dynasty [618-907] to refer to short
stories, and in the Ming [1368-1644] to refer to the lengthy, highly literary
scripts written primarily for the kunqu form). Overall, I was struck most
forcefully by a general "collage" effect in both substantially revised tradi-
tional plays and new plays. Many innovations appeared tacked on, which I
found unsettling in what is traditionally experienced as a highly synthe-
sized art.
PERFORMANCE INNOVATIONS IN TRADITIONAL PLAYS
In revised traditional plays, a number of innovations take the form of

"technique for technique's sake," demonstrations of skills which perhaps
exceed the parameters of character and expression. Vocally, in the per-
formance of young female roles, for instance, such innovations include the
use of an unusually high overall pitch in speech and of numerous extended
high notes in melismatic passages of singing-high pitch is considered a
positive aesthetic value, and extended high pitch requires considerable skill
to maintain. Physically, such innovations include both lengthening stan-
dard sequences and adding new ones, as in the August 1987 Shanghai
performance of Black Dragon Residence (Wu long yuan), in which the per-
former playing Yan Xijiao, the female lead, both extended and added to
the traditional movement sequences designed to show that the character is
a ghost in the final scene. A number of other innovations, like the addition
of new percussion patterns (luogu dian) at technical and dramatic high
points in a play, seem likewise aimed at eliciting immediate applause and/
or cries of "hao" (bravo). Performers themselves somewhat disparagingly
indicated that these "flashy" innovations are intended primarily for im-
mediate audience appeal, especially for audience members new to Beijing
opera. This emphasis on technical skill is perhaps being strengthened by
the competitions being held as part of the campaign to raise the status of
Beijing opera and educate new audiences. The National Television Com-
petition for Young Beijing Opera Performers (Quanguo Qingnian Jingju
Yanyuan Dianshi Daxuansai) held in November 1987 undeniably stressed
technique in the judging of the 51 final, I5-minute entries, in spite of the
clearly expressed desire to avoid that emphasis.
Other somewhat more fundamental structural and compositional
changes in traditional plays seem intended to update the Beijing opera form
for contemporary audiences. The play The Favorite Concubine Becomes
Intoxicated (Guifei zuijiu), for instance, traditionally includes a number of
symmetrical sequences: passages of similar, sequential lyrics are sung to
essentially the same melody, first at stage right and then at stage left, or
vice versa; a given passage of interpretive movement which employs a
section requiring technical virtuosity is performed twice, once on each side
of the stage, and in some cases a third time at stage center. In a number of
recent productions of the play such passages were not repeated, thereby
shortening the overall performance time and, according to the performers
involved, providing a greater sense of variety (Ai 1987; Shen 1987). In
some instances, new musical compositions for traditional plays have also
been created, compositions which have a faster overall tempo and a "feel of

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I52 Elizabeth Wichmann
the '8os" (bashi niandai shijian gan). For example, slow meter (manban)
passages have been recomposed in faster metrical types (banshi), such as
"fast three eyes" (kuai sanyan) and primary meter (yuanban). Also, musical
expression from regional, folk, and popular sources has been employed,
including disco in some cases.
Innovations in the performance of traditional plays are often criticized as
distorting and/or destroying the beauty of the original pieces and the
schools of performance (liupai) in which they were initially created. Per-
formers complain that traditional Beijing opera audiences tend to be highly
conservative, opposed to any change at all. As Lu Yiping, an actress with
the Shanghai Beijing Opera Company, indicated, "they just want to sing
along." She believes, however, that conservatism is strongest in the major
cities, and told of performing her revised version of The Peacock Flies
toward the Southeast (Kongque dong nanfei) first in Shanghai and then on tour
to smaller cities and towns. Audiences and critics in Shanghai told her that
she should "just sing it the way it was," while those in other areas found
the musical changes "beautiful, and more expressive of the character" (Lu
Yiping 1987).
PERFORMANCE INNOVATIONS IN NEW PLAYS
A wider range of performance innovations can be found in productions

of new plays. Throughout the 1980s, almost all productions of new plays
have involved innovations in at least one of several main areas-makeup,
costume, scenery, staging, music, acting, and directing. Most innovations
are based upon regional, popular, or foreign techniques. Makeup innova-
tions for older male characters (laosheng), for instance, include beardless
portrayals of relatively younger characters (all laosheng are traditionally
bearded), truncated beards worn by comic or ineffectual characters, and
in some cases Western "realistic" beards which are applied with adhesive.
New designs for painted face (jing, or hualian) makeup draw on traditional
designs (lianpu) from both regional forms and foreign sources. Young
female makeup increasingly employs a double line on the upper eyelid and
a line of shading between the eyelashes and eyebrow, creating the effect of
1. This innovative makeup

and beard for a painted face
barbarian general were
designed for the iangsu
Province Beijing Opera
Company's production of Lu
Bu and Diao Chan (Lu
Bu yu Diao Chan, 198o,
backstage shot). The eye-
brows, mustache, and beard
are made of synthetic mat-
erial and attached separately
to the face with adhesive;
their red color retains its tra-
ditional significance. (Photo
by Elizabeth Wichmann)

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Beijing Opera 153
2. A strikingly different
mask is worn by the clown
actor at center for his por-
trayal of Zhu Bajie in the
Shanghai Beijing Opera
Company's 1987 production
of Cave of the Coiled
Webs (Pan si dong).
(Photo by Elizabeth Wich-
mann)
a fold in much the same manner as Western fashion makeup. Masks,

constructed of papier-mach6, wood, Styrofoam, plastic, and other materi-
als, are now used with considerably greater frequency than they were
several years ago. In the August 1987 Shanghai production of Cave of the
Coiled Webs (Pan si dong), the actress portraying the female lead, a spider
demon incarnated as a beautiful young woman, initially revealed the full
extent of her demonic nature and powers by performing a number of
successive bianlian (literally, "face changes"). These almost instantaneous
and complete makeup changes were made possible by the use of mem-
brane-thin masks on which the designs had been painted-a technique
from Sichuan opera (chuanju).
Some costume innovations seem intended to facilitate the use of ex-
panded physical performance techniques. For instance, in a number of
scenes in the Huaiyin city (Jiangsu Province) production of The Untamed
Imperial Concubine (Ye huangfei) the performer playing the title role wore
wide, floor-length culottes, pleated like traditional Beijing opera skirts.
These allowed him to combine physical performance techniques used in
the portrayal of refined (gingyi) and vivacious (huadan) young female roles
with those employed for "blade and horse" martial female characters
(daomadan) involving acrobatics and high kicks. Blade and horse martial
female characters are traditionally costumed in short multipanel skirts (xia-
jia) over loose pants. Other costume innovations seem intended primarily
to provide aesthetic variety. Designs based on Tang and Song dynasty
garments are quite frequently used, as in Cave of the Coiled Webs when the
actress portraying the spider demon wore a graceful Tang-inspired gown
in one scene, revealing considerable decolletage and bare arms. In this
particular instance, however, the innovative design posed practical, per-
formance difficulties. Because the actress used expressive movements nor-
mrally employed in tossing and picking up water sleeves (shuixiu), her
performance elicited laughter from some spectators. Nylon stretch body
suits, often tight on the thighs and hips and opening out into bell bottoms
below the knees, are also increasingly popular. They were used for many

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3. The "blade and horse"

martial female character at
center wears an innovative
costume based on Tan? and

Song dynasty garments in
the Shanghai Beijing Opera
Company's production of
Cave of the Coiled Webs
(Pan si dong, 1987).
(Photo by Elizabeth Wich-
mann)
4. In this portrayal of a
young woman who has just
been poisoned and is about to of the young female characters in Cave of the Coiled Webs-sometimes
die, a single spotlight picks worn with traditional "cloud shoulder" (yunjian) collars and short mul-
out the actress, whose face is tipanel skirts; sometimes with knee-length robes, belted at the waist and
simply oiled rather than decorated with wide turned-back Western-style collars; and in one instance
made up in the traditional with a short diaphanous skirt which opened in the back like an apron. The
fashion. From the iangsu last case also posed practical difficulties in performance. When the actress
Province Beijing Opera performed a rapid circular stage cross (paoyuanchang, literally "running the
Company's production of round field"), the audience erupted in embarrassed laughter-the open
Wang Xifeng Disrupts back of the skirt exposed the tightly encased buttocks of the performer,
Ningguo Prefecture which jiggled markedly in the execution of this movement. At a sym-
(Wang Xifeng da nao posium on the production of Cave of the Coiled Webs held by the Shanghai
Ningguo fu, 1981). (Photo Beijing Opera Company in September 1987, the director, designers, per-
by Elizabeth Wichmann) formers, and officials involved all expressed a strong desire to redesign the
costumes for the production. They were anxious to create costumes which
would directly and fancifully show the "spider nature" of the female lead
and her followers while facilitating a creative physical expression of that
nature. But they indicated that lack of money and time were serious obsta-
cles to change.
A broad range of scenic innovations can be found in new plays. Dra-
matic lighting, such as a single shaft of light cutting from one side of an
otherwise dark stage to the other to pick out an individual performer, is
widespread. Special effects are also prevalent, most especially the use of
stage smoke to indicate bodies of water, to serve as clouds and mist from
which spirits and ghosts emerge, and to dramatize battlefields and forests.
At least two types of smoke are used: one which billows across the stage
and remains close to the floor; and another which rises, fills the entire
proscenium area, and dissipates more quickly. Some productions employ
elaborate, realistic three-dimensional sets. Most stages, however, are deco-
rated with a combination of draped, colored curtains at the sides and a
decorated curtain or a projected or painted backdrop at the rear (masked at
the bottom with a low, decorated groundrow). Two-dimensional set
pieces representing the interior or exterior of a building or exterior scenery
(such as a mountain or a tree), similar to the kirinuki, or cutouts, used in
kabuki, are placed within the stage space. Major set-dressing stage proper-

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Beijing Opera 155
5. Standard scenery for Bei-

jing opera productions in the
198os: draped curtains at the
sides, a decorative rear-drop
masked by a groundrow,
tables and chairs covered in
silk decorated with couching,
and a screen at center stage to
indicate an interior locale.
From the Jiangsu Province
Beijing Opera Company's
1981 production of the tradi-
tional play The Fourth
Son Visits His Mother
(Silang tan mu). (Photo by
Elizabeth Wichmann)
ties, such as tables and chairs, are then three-dimensional. Decorative de-
vices such as branches with paper leaves sometimes hang into the stage
space from above or stand at the sides, reminiscent of the kiridashi decora-
tion in kabuki. Spectacular scenery is employed in some cases. For in-
stance, tall pillars wrapped with paper leaves and little lights for a court
audience scene in Cave of the Coiled Webs changed under strobe lighting
into stalagmites rising from the floor of the spider demon's cave.
Some staging seems to be primarily decorative, such as the increasing
use of "disco" movement, especially for comic male characters (chou) and
maidservants in romantic comedies, and for attendant monkeys in plays
about Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. Other innovative staging, how-
ever, more directly involves the expansion of performance technique. In
the December 1987 Shanghai production of Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng,
hair tossing (shuaifa), a way of indicating extreme surprise or distress
through tossing and swinging a long ponytail attached to the top of the
head, was performed by the actress playing Wang Xifeng just before that
character's death. Traditionally, this technique is only learned and used by
performers of male roles. In Cave of the Coiled Webs, a three-dimensional
set piece representing a stone suddenly split open to reveal a dwarf who
had been entranced, portrayed by a martial comic actor (wuchou) in a
costume designed to be worn in full crouch (dun), similar to those created
for two of the three witches in the Shanghai Kunju Company's 1986 pro-
duction of Bloodstained Hands (Xue shou ji), an adaptation of Macbeth. The
actor emerged from the stone and performed the entire scene in full
crouch, making more complete use of the various traditional techniques
developed for that position than is normally possible in traditional plays. In
the same play, ribbons such as those used in ribbon dances were employed
in battle by the army of spider demons, suggesting the use of cobwebs as
weapons. A similar suggestion was also made with ropes-five were at-
tached to a belt worn by the surrounded Monkey King and then drawn
around him and out to the sides, imprisoning him in a large and striking
web much like those created in the takeyabu no tate rope battle scenes in
kabuki.
Some musical innovations in new plays are primarily designed to display

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6. A shoulder-height box set

into which windows are cut
is dressed with realistic furni-

ture and decorations and used
to indicate a peasant dwell-
ing, in the iangsu Province
production of the new play
A Pig Butcher Places First
in the Imperial Examina-
tions (Tufu zhuangyuan,
198o). (Photo by Elizabeth
Wichmann)
7. One of the elaborate,

three-dimensional sets fea-
tured in the Jiangsu Province
1981 production of Wang
Xifeng Disrupts Ningguo
Prefecture (Wang Xifeng
da nao Ningguo fu).
(Photo by Elizabeth
Wichmann)

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Beijing Opera 157
8. Spectacular tumbling
through a rope "net" in the
Jiangsu Province Beijing
Opera Company's 1981 pro-
duction of the revised tradi-
tional play E Hu Slope (E
Hu po). (Photo by
Elizabeth Wichmann)
technique. Like those in traditional plays, such innovations include the

extensive use of unmetered melismatic passages (sanhan) and high notes, as
well as new percussion patterns placed to encourage immediate applause.
Instruments are also frequently added to the orchestra, with Western
strings and synthesizers being the most common. Other innovations ex-
pand traditional musical practices to create new expressive mediums. In
Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng, for instance, melodic and singing styles estab-
lished by traditional schools of performance were used to distinguish and
express character. Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, and Shi Xiangyun, major
characters in the novel Dream of Red Mansions (Hong lou meng) upon which
the play was based, each had only one aria, sung in succession in the same
scene. Xue's was rendered in the style of the Zhang Junqiu school (Zhang
pai), considered expressive of her serious yet forceful personality. Shi, a
more lively and amiable character, sang in the vivacious style of Xun
Huisheng (Xun pai). And Lin, generally regarded as the tragic heroine of
the novel, was given the most highly nuanced aria, melodically based on
the Cheng Yanqiu school (Cheng pai) which is considered the most pro-
found and tragic, and given the feel of sweetness and youth through the
singing style characteristic of the Mei Lanfang school (Mei pai). In the
same play, traditional metrical types (banshi) were also expanded and used
in original ways. When Wang Xifeng teased Liu Laolao, first intimating
that she could not give her any money at all and then finally revealing that
she would actually give her much more silver than the old woman had
orginally expected, Wang's aria was composed in flowing water meter
(liushui), a rapid but lyrical metrical type sung in single-beat meter. How-
ever, although the accompaniment followed the meter in performance, the
singer and her melody were free of any metrical regulation, enhancing the
sense of anticipation and suppressed excitement. This technique is termed
"singing freely" (chang sanle), and is not traditionally applied to this metri-
cal type. In an aria of urgent remembrance and lamentation, a middle-aged
female retainer in Wang Xifeng's household sang in gaobozi, a secondary
mode (diaoshi) which traditionally is used for male roles. A unique singing
style combining falsetto (xiao sangzi) with the natural voice (da sangzi) was
also created for the role, enhancing the sense of age and vehement despair,

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and additional weight was given to major lines by an offstage "helping

chorus" (bangqiang), traditionally used in the gaoqiang musical system
rather than in Beijing opera's pihuang system.
Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng also drew upon other musical styles and
forms. For instance, three young secondary female characters closed the
scene featuring the three arias discussed above with a short, lively aria
composed to a folk melody, "Thirteen Hey's" ("Shisan hei"). Previously
used in the play Wang Baochuan, this melody indicates a happy, con-
gratulatory situation. But the most extensive musical borrowing and adap-
tation in Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng was for the arias of Liu Laolao, an old
country woman portrayed by a male performer of comic roles (chou).
Because very few precedents exist for major arias by a chou, the per-
former, composer, and director spent many hours before deciding upon a
melodic basis; in the end they chose sipingdiao, a secondary mode, because
of its broad range of expressive possibilities and because it allows for easy
modulation to other Beijing opera modes and other musical styles. Particu-
lar compositions for specific passages of lyrics then drew on a number of
musical styles, including huaiju, a regional form of xiqu prevalent in
Jiangsu and Anhui provinces and the city of Shanghai; liuzixi, a regional
form of xiqu prevalent in Jiangsu, Anhui, and Shandong provinces; huang-
meixi, a form of folk theatre (xiaoxi) in Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangxi prov-
inces; huaguxi, a form of folk theatre in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangxi
provinces; and errenzhuan, a form of storytelling (quyi) in northeast China.
Extensive musical experimentation was also carried out for the arias of
Wang Xifeng, and a great deal of initial excitement was generated in the
company. However, here again a sense of satisfaction was ultimately not
attained. Shortness of funds (Western instruments and the musicians to
play them had to be hired from outside the company) prevented extended
full-company rehearsals, which prompted one musician to comment that
"with the model plays, we spent at least a year doing what we are now
trying to do in two days."
Spoken drama (huaju) appears to be the source of the vast majority of
acting and directing innovations. In the effort to enhance the quality of
performance and the status of the art, it has become quite common to
invite spoken drama directors to direct new Beijing opera plays. They have
presumably been trained in Western performance theory, and can therefore
apply that background to Beijing opera. Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng was
directed by a spoken drama director, assisted by a "technique director"
(jidao) who was reponsible for applying the conventions (chengshi) of Bei-
jing opera to the production. In the course of rehearsals, several problems
became evident in this arrangement. One has to do with blocking. As
blocking is made "closer to life" (geng jiejin shenghuo), and conventional
Beijing opera blocking patterns are consciously avoided, performers are no
longer sure how they should relate physically to one another and basic
difficulties such as upstaging frequently arise. Discrepancies between per-
former training and directorial expectations also occur. Most Beijing opera
performers are trained in only one role category and directors unfamiliar
with the precise allocation of Beijing opera techniques can easily make
demands which performers are unable to fulfill. For instance, in Liu Laolao
and Wang Xifeng an actress trained for martial female roles (wudan) was
playing a young boy. When asked to perform an extended walk in the
crouch position (dun) she could not adequately comply, since this tech-
nique is taught to martial male clown (wuchou) performers only. A third
problem arises when performers attempt to create characterizations which

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Beijing Opera 159
are more "realistic" and "closer to life." There is a strong tendency toward
an outpouring of emotion at the expense of technique. In Liu Laolao and
Wang Xifeng, this was evident in the performance given by the actress
playing Wang Xifeng's daughter. She cried real tears at Wang Xifeng's
death and ran across the stage with heavy-footed realism to throw herself
on Wang's body. The performance of the actress playing the middle-aged
retainer also suffered because her real tears and loud sobs caused serious
problems for her gaobozi aria.
This same tendency can be seen in pieces not directed by spoken drama
directors, such as a number of scenes presented by contestants in the Na-
tional Television Competition for Young Beijing Opera Performers, and
in the work of older, more established performers faced with the demand
to show more connections with "real life." For instance, in directing a
revised version of the traditional play Wu Han Kills His Wife (Wu Han sha
qi), the xiqu director Ah Jia felt compelled to tell the leading actress that if
she would "capture the emotion that spills out at the end of the sung lines,
and feed it into the conventional expression, it would be more real" (Ah
1987).
The fundamental problem with applying realistic spoken drama tech-
niques to Beijing opera is simply that the psychological approach is not
part of Beijing opera aesthetics. As the xiqu performance theorist Huang
Kebao put it, Beijing opera performers do not ask "what is my motiva-
tion," but rather, "what is my percussion pattern" (1987). With song and
musical rhythms at the center of their aesthetics and expressive techniques,
performers cannot throw themselves into characters' emotions. "To work
in Beijing opera, the 'inner monolog' must be in or to musical language,
rather than in the daily life Chinese language" (Huang Kebao 1987). Yu
Yonghua, the technique director for Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng, said that
she found it very difficult to apply the expressive techniques of Beijing
opera essentially as choreography-as decoration for psychological real-
ism:
Although performers are trained through imitation, and tend to do

just what their teachers taught them, good, experienced performers
can digest and create for new characters, rather than stealing from
old plays for new ones. But they can't just focus on one emotion,
and try to be it. If you use energy in your whole body at once, it's
like not using energy at all. For instance, arms have three parts:
shoulder, elbow, and wrist. They must work together well and ap-
propriately, and the performer must know what is the center of a
particular movement (1987).
Yu frequently "translated" the director's comments into Beijing opera

terms for the performers. For instance, the director told one actress that her
performance needed "more excitement. Be looking for your old home,
trying to recognize it, and so overwhelmed at not having been there for
years that you slip and fall." Yu turned this into specific musical segments,
suggesting that the actress imagine a little house to the tune of a particular
instrumental melody (qupai), then see it to a certain percussion pattern,
hurry toward it to another instrumental melody, and finally slip on another
percussion pattern. This particular sequence ultimately worked to the satis-
faction of both Yu and the director. But Yu felt that in terms of her
"choreography," the total production was in many respects a rather uneasy
compromise. She generally had to work under spur-of-the-moment condi-

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I6o Elizabeth Wichmann
tions in rehearsals, devising movement to meet the director's blocking and

psychological notes (Yu Yonghua 1987).
In the general assessment of both the performers involved and the press,
Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng and other new plays, while having a number of
worthwhile innovations, are not stylistically consistent and are not draw-
ing new audiences. In symposiums held after audience dress rehearsals and
performances of new plays in Shanghai, Nanjing, and Beijing, the most
frequent criticisms leveled by performers and scholars alike were that
patching together techniques from different theatre forms has only short-
term value at best-Beijing opera must go beyond bricolage in its innova-
tions; and that strong directorial concepts, especially those from spoken
drama, are not necessarily the answer-Beijing opera is not the best place
for directors to perform liangxiang (movements into a held pose intended
to convey the essence of the character and the moment).6
Obstacles to Enhancement and Innovation
Financial concerns aside, probably the greatest obstacles to both en-

9. A group liangxiang per-
hancement and innovation are posed by two fundamentally contradictory
formed by the protagonists in
attitudes toward, or perceptions of, Beijing opera. On the one hand, the
the Jiangsu Province Beijing form is viewed as a national cultural treasure (guobao). Beijing opera and
Opera Company's 1980 pro-
kunqu (or kunju, as the form is now more commonly called) are generally
duction of the revised tradi-
considered the two principal, traditional Chinese performing arts, rich
tional play Eight treasure houses of traditional culture. This view tends to produce a preser-
Immortals Float on the
vationist approach impeding change. For instance, plays and techniques
Sea (Ba xian piao hai).
developed by the various performance schools are received in an increas-
(Photo by Elizabeth
Wichmann)

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Beijing Opera 161
ingly prescriptive manner: performances are criticized if they deviate from

established practices, and performers trained in a particular school are ex-
pected to retain all the stylistic traits of that school, even when working
with new plays. This situation is ironic, since the schools initially arose
from a master-disciple training system in which a major dynamic was to
"learn what he does, and then do better" (Ma Mingqun 1987). On the
other hand, Beijing opera is also viewed as a "backward" (luohou) holdover
from "feudal" (fengjian) times, continued up to the present day by per-
formers who are or have been, with only a few exceptions, uncultured and
uneducated (meiyou wenhua, literally "have no culture"). Indeed, some
scholars and intellectuals at least privately express the belief that Beijing
opera and other traditional art forms should be "allowed to die a graceful
death."
The view that Beijing opera is an embarrassing holdover from the past is
by no means a new one. It was prevalent in the 1930s, and David Holm
(1984:8-II) describes widespread resistance through the early 1940s to any
use of traditional forms for the expression of new content-despite Mao
ZeDong's advocacy of their use, and its justification in terms of Marxist-
Leninist philosophy (i.e., the contradiction between old form [thesis] and
new content [antithesis] would give rise to new form [synthesis] on a
higher level). As Holm explains:
[T]he revulsion against old forms was much too strongly and deeply
felt to be seriously deflected by political speeches [. . .] [especially
since] certain strands of argument in the tradition of Marxist-Leninist
esthetics provided ample justification for such prejudice [. . .]. Old
forms [. ..] were products of a feudal or semifeudal society, while
the new forms of art imported from the West were the reflection of a
society at the higher, capitalist stage in human history. Old forms
were therefore inferior to new forms, which were more "scientific"
and "advanced" in every respect. Thus, with the inevitable evidence
of human society, old forms were bound to be replaced completely,
sooner or later, by new forms. In spite of the many logical inconsis-
tencies in this argument (the Chinese forms labeled "old" were fre-
quently more recent in origin than the European "new" forms), it
was one that not even the foremost advocates of cultural populism
were prepared to challenge. Thus, by the early 1940s the use of old
forms came to be regarded almost universally among literary youth
and Party writers and artists in Yan'an as a temporary expedient
only-an artistic dead end (1984:11).
With his "Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Art and Literature" and subse-
quent party policies, Mao did overrule this tide of prejudice, at least for a
time. However, a number of policies implemented by the Ministry of
Culture's Xiqu Improvement Committee (Wenhua Bu Xiqu Gaijin Weiy-
uanhui), established in July I950, certainly reflect the problem. For in-
stance, xiqu was made "more serious" by the use of new venues with
Western proscenium stages and darkened auditoriums, and by abolishing
stage assistants and changing scenes behind closed curtains instead. A cam-
paign was also begun to raise the educational level of xiqu workers and
reform their personal lives, while simultaneously raising their status.
Throughout the 1950os and early '6os, although spoken drama playwrights
and other more intellectual artists were repeatedly asked to go down to the
countryside to learn from the masses, in essence to "lower" themselves,

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xiqu workers were frequently told to elevate their personal and intellectual
standards.
The belief that the vast majority of xiqu performers are uncultured
and uneducated, and at least the suspicion that the various forms them-
selves are too "backward" and/or intractable to serve as the basis for
modern creation, are quite evident today. I am tempted to say that the
early 20oth century prejudice of intellectuals against xiqu has resurfaced
with a vengeance, perhaps at least in part because other policies of xiqu's
leftists champions have been denounced or at least been called into question
and, in the case of Beijing opera, because it served such a pivotal role in the
Cultural Revolution. Without exception, every symposium I attended in
Summer and Fall 1987 pinpointed performers' lack of culture and educa-
tion as one of the most serious problems facing Beijing opera today. Ying
Ruocheng, a vice minister of culture and spoken drama actor and director,
expressed the belief that a new generation of "scholar-actors" is needed to
save Beijing opera:
Everyone has recognized that traditional theatre is rich-but we have

to devise some way to lure great minds into this area. Intelligence
must stoop to acquire the technique-only the combination of the
two will give traditional threatre a new lease on life (1987).
Li Yilan, administrative director of the China Xiqu Academy, confided

that:
Many policies and practices today are based in pre-Liberation preju-

dice against xiqu. Many intellectuals then and now-including my
own parents in the '50os-don't even want their children to go to
Beijing opera and other xiqu performances. They feel that such
performances are for seed-cracking townspeople [shimin] and peas-
ants, pointing out that performers are uncultured and uneducated
[meiyou wenhua], and that they or their teachers were probably once
prostitutes (1987).
Robert Scanlan, director of the M.I.T. Drama Program, was struck by

the attitude of spoken drama personnel to xiqu while in Wu Han in June
and July 1988 directing a production of Crimes of the Heart. Although he
requested that his hosts arrange for him to see as wide a variety of perfor-
mances as possible, he was not offered tickets for any xiqu during the
entire first month of his stay. When he finally insisted upon attending xiqu,
his hosts complied, but seemed actually ashamed of what they referred to
as the "medieval museum" of xiqu. Scanlan received the strong impression
that his hosts wanted China to participate in world theatre in terms of
modern, Western styles-and not to house medieval museums as exotica
for foreigners (Scanlan 1988).
These contradictory and often simultaneously held views-that Beijing
opera is on the one hand a cultural treasure, and on the other a backward
and intractable anachronism-combine to produce conflicting practices,
expectations, and aims. In the area of training, the evident problems being
experienced by professional companies and the questions arising concern-
ing the future of the art and its practitioners are affecting enrollment in
schools. Fewer students are applying for entry, and "the talent of those
who do is often somewhat doubtful" (Zhang Yijuan I987). Schools, how-
ever, are being called upon to train new performers, musicians, directors,

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Beijing Opera 163
and playwrights to reproduce traditional plays and the styles of specific

performance schools with great precision, to perfect traditional plays and
styles and make them meet contemporary needs, and to create new plays
and styles. Additionally, these new personnel are expected to be culturally
and educationally sophisticated, firmly grounded in both Chinese and
Western performance history and theory. Most schools are therefore in-
stituting special courses for directors and playwrights, special classes in
such areas as character and play analysis and performance theory, and an
expanded program of required "culture classes" (wenhua ke), including
such subjects as history, theatre history, and literature. But performer
training itself is carried out primarily through the traditional imitative
method, with teachers demonstrating and then correcting student per-
formances, first of basic exercises and then of specific plays. This method
encourages a reliance upon models, at a time when the development of
individual creative abilities is also a stated aim, and inculcates very specific
aesthetic values associated with specific traditional performance schools,
when even more general and fundamental aesthetics are now being called
into question. It is also very time consuming. At the China Xiqu
Academy, for instance, students devote an average of four in-class hours
per week for an entire semester to the learning of one 45-minute play (Gao
Yuqian 1987). Most Beijing opera performers trained since 1949 have at-
tempted eight-year-long training programs which result academically in
the equivalent of a junior high school or lower middle school diploma. In
the 'Sos, students in such programs learned a minimum of 6o plays. With
the gradual introduction of more academic and special classes, this number
was reduced to 40 in the '6os, to 20 in the '70s, and in some instances is
now as low as 10 (Ma Mingqun 1987). Teachers and cultural officials
frequently repeated the ironic observation that "soon we will be turning
out PhD actors who only know three plays." Because the creation of new
plays in Beijing opera is traditionally based upon the performer's ability to
draw upon performance techniques initially learned in the context of other
plays, and to create new techniques by building upon that foundation, the
steadily decreasing number of plays in the repertories of new performers is
seen as a serious impediment to future creative endeavors. The increasing
number of academic classes has not yet, however, resulted in enhanced
intellectual status for graduates, who still end with only junior high school
diplomas and are not eligible to take college entrance examinations (Yu Lin
1987). And as of December 1987 there was as yet only one xiqu training
school in the entire country with the official accreditation necessary to offer
high school and college diplomas, the China Xiqu Academy in Beijing.
Conflicting practices, expectations, and aims can also be seen in the area
of theory and its relation to performance. The perceived need for a body of
theory concerning xiqu and its performance appears to arise from two
major impetuses. One is practical: most scholars and performance teachers
believe that comprehensive, articulated theory would enhance training and
future creation both by clarifying traditional performance practices and by
facilitating aesthetically appropriate innovation. The other is more subjec-
tive: a substantial body of theory already exists in Western theatre, and the
relatively theory-free existence of xiqu is seen as a lack which reduces the
status of xiqu in the international theatre world. Theory, however, is to
date being articulated and debated primarily by scholars, most of whom-
with the major exceptions of Ah Jia, Huang Kebao, Sun Mei, and a few
others-have had little or no actual performance experience. This is poten-
tially problematic if one accepts Beijing opera and other forms of xiqu as

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10.-12. Climactic moments

in the Sichuan opera
(chuanju) production of the
new play A Startling
Dream of Red Mansions
(Hong lou jing meng,
1987), which prompted the
charge that the director rather
than the actors performed
liangxiang. (Photo by
Elizabeth Wichmann)

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Beijing Opera 165
performer centered. The efforts of most theorists to date also seem to be

hampered by an apparent need to stress the closeness of xiqu to daily life,
and in a sense to "legitimize" xiqu by relating it to Western theory, most
especially to Stanislavski and Brecht (see Liu Yizhen 1988). For instance,
the concept xuni (literally "invented," "fictitious," or "suppositional")
defines certain xiqu techniques primarily in terms of their distance from
realism. And the dialectic tiyan (putting oneself in another's position, as in
experiencing the emotions of a character-a term used most frequently to
describe what is generally perceived as the major component of the Stanis-
lavski system) and tixian (embodying and expressing the emotions of a
character-most commonly used to describe the stylized, conventionalized
expression of xiqu) often puts "emotional depth" in conflict with "stylized
expression," rather than resulting in a synthesis of the two. At a Novem-
ber 1987 symposium on current problems and future directions for xiqu
held by the Chinese Theatre Artists Association, one director commented
somewhat bitterly that "the only concrete theory we have now is that
everything must have the 'feel of the '8os' (bashi niandai shijian gan)."
Scholarly debates over theory, widely covered in theatrical journals, are
beginning to have marked effects on the work of performers-especially
since many of the latter tend increasingly to doubt their own abilities in the
face of repeated assertions that they are uncultured and uneducated. The
new theoretical terms developed by scholars are being used and applied by
performers, sometimes to the detriment of the creative process. For in-
stance, during rehearsals for Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng the director told
the actress playing a young peasant boy to enter the audience hall of
Wang's mansion and move about, investigating it curiously. She asked if
he wanted xuni movement and, when he said he did, began to experiment
with leaping somersaults and cartwheels. The technique director Yu Yon-
ghua then modified the movement, cutting the cartwheels and suggesting
that the actress restrict the somersaults to the floor, as if prompted by the
softness of the carpet in the mansion to roll about on it. Yu explained that
cartwheels and leaping somersaults were too large in terms of performance
scope (biaoyanfudu) for the orchestral accompaniment and the forthcoming
subdued scene which would begin as soon as the boy was discovered in the
room. She felt that the actress would have instinctively known this herself
had she not rather indiscriminately lumped a wide range of aesthetically
different movements together at the prompting of the term xuni (Yu Yon-
ghua 1987). More disturbing was the discovery that several performers in
Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng were simply not contributing their own ideas
to rehearsals. After watching them accept direction without comment and
then discuss alternatives outside of rehearsal, I asked why they hadn't
brought up those suggestions at the time. I was told that they were sure
they were wrong. They explained with no hint of intended irony that the
director was a college graduate, while they were uncultured and un-
educated-he was there to teach them how to create character, since spo-
ken drama has a system for that and Beijing opera does not.
The relationship between traditional Beijing opera performance struc-
tures and techniques and the intended audience for the various major types
of reform currently being advocated is also problematic. The first type of
reform, according to which Beijing opera should be preserved as a tradi-
tional treasure with the quality of performance and the status of the art
enhanced, seems intended to attract a more intellectual, more sophisticated
audience which has been educated to appreciate the nuances of the per-
fected tradition. According to the second, popular innovations should be

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incorporated into both new and extant plays in order to reach the broad,
"semi-educated" urban audience as well as the "semi-literate" peasantry.
And according to the third, "modern" Beijing opera plays and perfor-
mance techniques should be created, focusing upon intellectual/
philosophical content presented via more avant-garde methods, in order to
appeal to a younger, more intellectual and more sophisticated audience.
The first and third types of reform are problematic for fundamental perfor-
mative reasons. Major changes in performance structure, the dynamics of
the creative process, and basic aesthetics may be necessary if Beijing opera
is to become an elite form, representative of "high" culture. This is espe-
cially true if it is expected to employ performance methods similar to those
of the Western avant-garde, as spoken drama has begun to do-and such
performance methods are now almost certain to raise political problems as
well. If Beijing opera must adapt to an intellectual/philosophical orienta-
tion, assuming such an adaptation is politically feasible in terms of content,
even greater changes may prove necessary. And ironically, such a demand
seems to imply that art is primarily an educational/intellectual endeavor,
rather than an imagistic one-a stance which is repudiated by at least a
portion of the avant-garde artists in the West. The second type of reform is
probably the least problematic. Its intended audience is closest to the tradi-
tional audience for Beijing opera, which incidentally also most closely
coincides with the mass audience for whom the model productions were
intended. And this intended audience also has the greatest potential for
providing money, both in terms of individual ticket buyers and contractual
support from institutions such as factories. Beijing opera cannot be all
things to all people-or even most things to some people-and still retain
its characteristic "flavor" (wer), its independent existence.
For Beijing opera's practitioners, the most fundamental and pressing
conflicts are those which concern the creative process. Who is to take
creative responsibility, and exercise creative authority, in a form which is
seen as a rich treasure house of traditional culture originally developed and
perpetuated by illiterate social misfits? Should actors, directors, play-
wrights, composers, or scholars/theorists control the form and content of
Beijing opera? Should creation be centered in training, performance tech-
niques, and staging, or in script and content? Should the focus of creation
be upon moments in the lives of characters, plots and the characters in
them, or upon more intellectually and philosophically abstract themes?
Other cultures and other times have also experienced conflict over creative
authority. In a number of cases, performer-centered theatres seem to have
outlasted those structured around other cores. For instance, the playwright
Chikamatsu Monzaemon is reported to have left kabuki for bunraku be-
cause "the puppets won't change my lines" (see Keene 1961). But kabuki
thrives today, while bunraku is very much dependent upon state support.
Certainly the current staying-power of realism despite the impact of many
actor-director-theorists-from Artaud to Brecht to Schechner-owes
more to the popularity of the form and the actors working in it (and to the
power of the media) than it does to the efforts of individual playwrights
and directors.
In China, perhaps because of the experience of the last 40 years or
perhaps for more fundamental reasons, there is a strong tendency for
theatre practitioners to wait for "the top" (shangmian) to decide such ques-
tions, and to resolve conflicts concerning practices, expectations, and aims.
However, under the policies of "system reform" (tizhi gaige) which were
being instituted through the late Sping of 1989, it was clear that the major-

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Beijing Opera 167
ity of central government officials did not want to address themselves

directly to these questions and conflicts. As Ying Ruocheng very elo-
quently put it:
Sophisticated guidance, such as art criticism, is I suppose always nec-

essary. But it will not decide the future of any art form. No commit-
tee, no matter how high-powered, can decide the purposes of art.
Competition's arbiters--arbiters in the real sense-are the masses,
and history (1987).
System Reform
The policies of system reform were a national effort intended at least in
part to do away with the "iron rice bowl," or the "great wok" (da guofan).
In the performing arts, the money crunch undoubtedly provided the pri-
mary impetus-the state has other more pressing priorities for its limited
economic resources. However, system reform in the performing arts
was also based upon the belief that the state-run management system has
resulted in a lack of competition within individual forms, causing a dete-
rioration in the quality of performance and an inability to compete success-
fully with film and television.
In the first half of the 20oth century, most professional theatre companies
in China were commercial ventures, organized around one or more star
performers. In 1949, however, "with the uprising of revolutionary, na-
tional spirit, there was a sense that state-run ventures were progressive and
forward looking, while commercial enterprises were backward" (Ying
1987). State ownership and management of theatre companies increasingly
became the norm, and the process accelerated from 1957 onward, "when
the whole society began moving into a much more regimented phase,
based on the military model" (Ying 1987). By the mid '6os, more than
90 percent of China's performing artists were organized into state-owned
troupes and companies (Ying 1987). The troupe (tuan) became the basic
unit-troupes may exist independently, or two or more may be affiliated
in a larger company (yuan) which also includes various support groups.
Graduates of the state-run schools for performing arts personnel are as-
signed to a particular troupe or company, where they normally remain for
life. Major companies are now comprised of 500 to 800 people-"the new
come, but the old don't go" (Liu Housheng 1987).
As an example, the Jiangsu Province Beijing Opera Company which
includes more than 500 personnel has for most of the I980s been comprised
of three performance troupes, each with approximately o50 working per-
formers (Lu and Fang 1981, 1987). A smaller fourth troupe was also
created to accommodate recent graduates from the Jiangsu Province
Theatre School (Jiangsu Sheng Xiqu Xuexiao). Additionally, the company
includes a directorial group, a design group, a music group, and a play-
writing group. In terms of administration and management, each troupe
has a troupe leader (tuanzhang) and one or more assistant leaders, a party
secretary (shuji) and one or more assistant party secretaries, and an artistic
committee "which works out performance problems, planning, and devel-
opment, and sets standards" (Lu and Fang 1981). The company as a whole
has a director (yuanzhang) and several vice directors, a party secretary and
several vice party secretaries, a department of administration, and a depart-
ment of management. Most officials are professional administrators as-
signed by the Jiangsu Province Department of Culture; some have

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backgrounds in Beijing opera performance, and some do not (Lu and Fang
I98I).
The various companies and independent troupes throughout the country
have been ranked according to their immediate state affiliation. These
ranks reflect not only prestige and status, but also level of financial support
for operating expenses. At the highest rank are those companies directly
controlled by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China,
such as the China Beijing Opera Company located in Beijing. The depart-
ments of culture of each province and independent municipality (i.e., Bei-
jing, Tianjin, and Shanghai), which organizationally are directly under the
Ministry of Culture, administer companies and troupes in the second rank.
Such companies include the Beijing Opera Company of Beijing, the
Shanghai Beijing Opera Company, and the Jiangsu Province Beijing Op-
era Company. At the third rank are those troupes administered by city
departments of culture, and at the fourth those which are run by county
departments of culture.
The salaries of troupe and company personnel have been paid directly
by the relevant cultural departments according to 18 ranked scales (Yang
1984:o10), identical in principal and very close in actual numerical amounts
to those applied in other areas of endeavor including industry, education,
medicine, government administration, and the military. In 1979, the high-
est scale (wenyi yiji, "first-rank in literature and the arts") was RMB 200 +
and the lowest, 18th scale was RMB 40 +, a ratio of approximately five to
one. In 1987, both figures had risen by approximately 33 percent to RMB
300 + and RMB 60 + respectively (Liu Housheng 1987). Perquisites such
as size and quality of housing and the availability of cars for personal use
are also assigned according to these ranks. Actors have not had to perform,
however, nor playwrights write nor designers design, in order to draw
these salaries and perquisites. They represent guaranteed income, and
"under this system, actors [. . .] tend to 'take it easy' " (Yang 1984:Iol).
Broadly speaking, the new policies of system reform intend to gradually
introduce "a free market for talent, and a reasonable amount of personnel
flow" (Ying 1987).
In an interview conducted in Beijing in November 1987, Ying
Ruocheng prefaced his description of system reform plans by saying can-
didly that:
Reform policy is still being discussed, and nothing is final as yet. In

my present position [vice minister of culture], I'll probably be held
responsible if anything disastrous happens. It is the nightmare of
every cultural minister that the traditional theatre will die in his
hands.
He then went on to describe the three principal phases of the reform

program as envisioned at that time. First, the performance companies
would be uncoupled (tuo gou) from the state, which would involve giving
them the authority to hire and fire personnel and decide upon repertory,
providing them with a fixed subsidy which would be allocated according
to merit, and allowing them to decide how to spend and augment that
subsidy (i.e., through sideline enterprises and private support, such as
contractual arrangements with large factories). Performance companies
would then carry out the second phase themselves. Detumescence (xiao-
zhong), or "getting rid of the swollen part," would involve "reducing the

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Beijing Opera 169
number of members in each company to manageable levels. All companies

admit that they are far too large, and could do the same job better, more
easily, with half the people." Ying stressed that in preparing for this phase,
"We are now facing, and secondly trying to solve, the problem of what
happens to those who are fired." Possibilities include early retirement
(presumably on a state pension), changing professions (especially for youn-
ger personnel), and employment in other cultural centers (wenhua zhan)-
for instance, serving as artistic director for an amateur performance group
in a factory. The third phase would then involve instituting a contract
system for performance personnel.
Actors complain that they are not paid enough, and are not well
housed, all of which is true. But they are also very spoiled-they
have lost the urge to compete. There must be competition. But with
it, there will be winners and losers. With the reform, the reorganiza-
tion, there will be a period of pain, and many hearts will be broken
(Ying 1987).
In conjunction with system reform, a national program of setting pro-

fessional status or title (ping zhicheng) has been carried out over several
years in all units (danwei) in China-including agricultural, industrial, mer-
cantile, service, academic, and cultural organizations and institutions. This
program has been viewed by many as a first step toward the detumescence
phase of system reform in Beijing opera. From Summer 1987 through
early '89, all companies were deeply involved in this program. Every
member of each company has been ranked on a scale of one to four, with
those placed in rank one receiving the highest salaries and the most exten-
sive perquisites. "The ranks will help in the process of cutting people from
the company, and will encourage hard work and progress, since there will
be frequent reevaluations" (Liang 1987).
The detumescence phase appears to have already begun in another re-
spect, as well. According to Ying, there are more than 3,000 performing
arts companies in China (1987). But the number has been decreasing over
the last several years. Those companies with the most severe problems in
terms of attendance and economic viability have begun disbanding. For
instance, although Shandong Province still has more Beijing opera com-
panies than any other, the number has decreased from over 70 to less than
40 (Liu Housheng 1987). In Jiangsu Province, four Beijing opera troupes
have recently disbanded (those in Ganyu, Suzhou, Yangzhou, and Zhen-
jiang), and their members have been trying to gain admittance to the
remaining troupes and companies, or to song and dance troupes (gewu
tuan) (Shen 1989).
According to a press release published in the Overseas Edition of the
People's Daily, a National Conference on Cultural Work (Quan Guo
Wenhua Gongzuo Huiyi) was held in Beijing in May 1988 (Renmin 1988).
At the conference, system reform in culture and the arts was officially
declared a part of the total economic and political system reform being
carried out in China, and several aspects of system reform in culture and
the arts were discussed. It was announced that plans for a "double-track
system" (shuang guizhi) would gradually be perfected, comprised of two
types of troupes and companies-official, state-run (guoying, or guan bande)
and nongovernmental (minjian). In order to "accelerate and deepen" sys-
tem reform for culture and the arts, the connection between government

139.179.182.160 on Mon, 24 Jan 2022 11:02:55 UTC
officials and artistic production was pinpointed as the first priority for
reform. The article described Wang Renzhi, minister of propaganda, as
saying that:
Managing culture and the arts too much, and too specifically, are
abuses of the system of officials [lingdao tizhi]. In the future, the
Party will only manage major affairs, such as the direction and gen-
eral and specific policies of culture and the arts. In the areas of culture
and art creation, performance, and the specific issues of theoretical
debates, it must, as far as possible, manage less, and serve as inter-
mediary less (in Renmin 1988).
Wang Jifu, a vice minister of culture, was reported to have added that "an
overall outline is necessary. Each region must manifest its own abilities
under the premises of the clear directions and principles of reform, and not
follow its own inclinations and go its own way." On the last day of the
conference Wang Mang, then minister of culture, told reporters that the
government would not investigate the repertory of either the state-run or
the governmental troupes,
[E]xcept for the extremely small number of pieces which concern

important historical events or dead or living historical figures, or
have to do with foreign policy, national minorities, or religion. He
believes that in determining whether or not spiritual products coin-
cide with the demands of spiritual civilization, reliance should not be
placed upon investigation; rather we should rely upon the masses to
make the decision (in Renmin 1988).
Details of the proposed double-track system were widely discussed

throughout 1988 and early '89. At the China Beijing Opera Company,
members speculated that of the six troupes which currently comprise the
company, only one or two would be retained with full governmental
support. They would be responsible for "preserving the national tradi-
tion," and for developing new plays. All other personnel would retire,
change professions, or work under contract. Contract players and troupes
would be able to make mutually beneficial arrangements with large fac-
tories, to invite leading performers from outside Beijing to join them for
special performances, and to tour in small troupes to other cities and
towns. Members anticipated that a small percentage of the profits from
such activities would go to the state, and that the rest would be divided
among the participants (Wan 1988). At the National People's Congress in
late March 1989, Premier Li Peng announced a new policy of "retrench-
ment" in China's economic reform, to be characterized by "a few years of
austerity" and the reintroduction of "considerable centralization in plan-
ning and implementing economic reforms" (Schidlovsky 1989:AI, A4).
"Retrenchment," whether economic or political, now seems a gently nos-
talgic prospect given the methods being used since May 1989 to suppress
widespread demands for greater political and economic reforms. It is too
early to estimate the extent to which this suppression will affect Beijing
opera directly. Minimally, however, it is certain that the process of system
reform-with its political and ideological implications-will be markedly
slowed down; the entire infrastructure for system reform, associated with
former Communist party chairman Zhao Ziyang, is no longer in place.

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Beijing Opera 171
Prognostications
In an interview conducted in Beijing in November 1987, Liu Housheng,
the vice chairman of the Chinese Theatre Artists Association (Zhongguo
Xijujia Xiehui), discussed his desires and expectations concerning the fu-
ture of Beijing opera and other theatre forms in China. He hoped that a
number of different systems would ultimately emerge from the reforms,
including fixed, state-supported companies and troupes, traveling troupes,
and troupes formed for just one production or season. But he also hoped
that China's theatre world would avoid:
[B]ecoming like that in America, where only managers, principal di-

rectors, and technical staff have full-time work, and performers have
only short-term contracts and are often out of work entirely. That
system is bad for performers, and plays cannot be kept permanently
in a repertory (1987).
Liu expected that in 20 to 50 years, traditional Beijing opera and kunju

plays would still be performed, and in the traditional way. "But even these
will have small changes, even if they are unintentional, as in noh theatre in
Japan." In terms of other types of plays, he anticipated the development of
forms and performance styles "which we now cannot even name": combi-
nations of spoken drama and xiqu, or of Western opera (geju) and xiqu,
created by playwrights, composers, and performers from various forms
and backgrounds working together. Liu was convinced that at the very
least, "we will have two or more forms of xiqu joining together, especially
those which are already close to one another in language and basic style."
But he hoped that spoken drama and xiqu would not meld inextricably,
and would instead:
[P]reserve their distinctive features. Xiqu used to be the most popu-

lar [tongsu], but now film and television are more so. While xiqu can
perhaps rise somewhat, I think it should stay at the popular level.
Spoken drama should be elite (Liu Housheng 1987).
But there are almost as many different hopes for the future of xiqu in
general and Beijing opera in particular as there are individuals doing the
hoping. Ying Ruocheng, for instance, said that he would "welcome the
joining of spoken drama and xiqu" (1987). As Liu Housheng pointed out,
"there is so much in Chinese theatre. Richness is also a problem. Some-
times it is easier to build in a completely empty space, where you can just
do what you want" (1987).
China at the end of the '8os is not an easy ground for the growth of talent
and creation in any of the arts, and this is especially true for Beijing opera.
Financial support is at a 4o-year low. Talented youth are generally not
interested in joining the profession, and those who do are being trained in
an atmosphere of conflicting aims and expectations. The self-confidence
and hopefulness of older, established performers are at a low ebb, brought
on at least in part by repeated assertions of their lack of culture and educa-
tion, and by the decrease in both audience and official interest and support.
The renewed official interest which seems certain in the current political
climate will almost assuredly not be the sort of interest which promotes
individual creativity. And while reforms may still be carried out, reforms
at the best of times have usually been undertaken from an intellectual, elite

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perspective-from the top down. But creation is usually centered on indi-

viduals, even in a "group art" such as theatre, and historically, at least, this
is especially the case in Beijing opera.
However, if the proposed double-track system is actually instituted, it
does seem to have the potential for both preservation and innovation. The
proposed reform policy in fact appears designed to set up a situation in
which all hope is placed on the emergence of talented, forceful individ-
uals-and on competition among them. This is problematic in Beijing
opera, where insistence upon one's creative authority still causes compari-
sons with the "Gang of Four" for directors, composers, playwrights, and
performers alike. But ironically, such a return to a "star system" with
economic restraints would almost certainly do away with the difficulties
posed by the current system in which most members of a company regard
themselves as leading performers. If such talented, forceful individuals do
not emerge, then Beijing opera may indeed become a "medieval museum"
which, to put the best possible light on the situation, may, like kabuki,
become a treasured and perversely popular art again in the future. If such
individuals were to emerge-either from among current professionals or
through new training methods-and if they were allowed an arena in
which to work and could attract the necessary funding, then they would
probably not "reform" Beijing opera, with that term's implications of an
intellectual perspective and impetus from outside the practitioners them-
selves. Rather, new performance schools, new parameters for what consti-
tutes Beijing opera, and/or entirely new forms would be created. The
potential does exist for the creation of performer-centered pieces which
feature the miracle of new kinds of moments, if the political climate does
not make even the conception of such moments a practical impossibility.
Ying Ruocheng is undoubtedly correct-this is a difficult and painful
time. Indeed, his words now seem prophetic, especially when given a
wider application. For practitioners of Beijing opera, beset by aesthetic,
economic, organizational, social, and political problems for the last several
years, the current political situation may prove to be a final blow. But if
that situation is not too long-lived, this period of Beijing opera history just
may prove instead to be one of the most exciting, and the most creative.
Certainly the basic aesthetics and aims of the form have never been called
into question this way before. And asking fundamental questions can pro-
duce riveting, positive theatrical developments.
Notes
i. The field research upon which this article is based, conducted during July-
December 1987, was sponsored by the Chinese Theatre Artists Association
(Zhongguo Xijujia Xiehui), and funded by a Fujio Matsuda Fellowship aug-
mented by a grant from the University of Hawaii Research Relations Fund. The
essay was originally presented in Skein, Norway, at the September 1988 Confer-
ence on Theatre and Cinema Arts in Modern China sponsored by the University
of Oslo, and then revised in March 1989 for publication. I would like to express
my gratitude to these organizations, and to all the companies, schools, institu-
tions, and individuals in China who made the research possible. Opinions ex-
pressed in this paper, especially those added in a further revision in September
1989, are my own-they were not provided by my sources in China.
2. This is true of all the performers who worked on the model productions with
whom I have discussed the question. And it is not surprising. After almost two
decades (1949-1966) in which older, established performers had been the center
of Beijing opera production, they, as young performers, had been given a man-

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Beijing Opera 173
date by the highest cultural authorities to create new performance styles and
characters. During the creation process for each production, they received the full
support of not only their companies but also the state, and were therefore able to
work with the finest young composers, musicians, directors, designers, and
fellow-actors, and to experiment with a range of approaches and techniques
previously unimaginable in the Beijing opera form. While the heavy-handed,
highly political scripts of the model productions are now generally condemned in
China, many of the musical and acting innovations are widely respected and
admired by other theatre professionals and by younger theatre-goers.
3. At the end of 1980, most sizeable xiqu companies were state-supported, and
therefore in economic terms "managed" by the relevant department of culture.
The Jiangsu Province Beijing Opera Company, for instance, received two mone-
tary allocations from the Jiangsu Province Department of Culture each year, at
the lunar new year. One was for personnel salaries, and the other for operating
expenses. The company submitted a budget for the latter to the department for
approval, and the department decided, in consultation with company officials,
how much money the company should be expected to bring in at the box office
during the year. The revised budget was then reviewed and further revised by
Communist party officials, and then given final approval. Allocations were not
turned over directly to the company, however. The department itself paid the
salaries each month, and the company submitted specific requests to the depart-
ment for the release of funds for production and touring expenses as each produc-
tion and tour was being mounted. These specific requests were also reviewed by
party officials before being paid out. Box office receipts were then turned over to
the department after performances and tours, and the department "checked the
books" at the end of each year (Lu and Fang 1981).
Throughout the I980s, the percentage of operating expenses to be covered by
box office receipts grew steadily, and state funding for those expenses shrank
proportionally (Gui 1987; Ma Buomin 1987). Because box office receipts did not
actually increase, and in many instances in fact decreased (Gui 1987; Ma Buomin
1987; Ying 1987), companies have undertaken various sideline enterprises to
increase income. For instance, they show commercial films and videotapes in
their theatres, hold public dances in their rehearsal halls, and have converted
portions of their dormitories into guest houses and sections of their cafeterias into
public restaurants (which can also be reserved in toto for private parties). These
enterprises frequently interfere with the actual business of putting on plays, and
so far rarely augment income to any appreciable extent (Gui 1989; Ma Buomin
1987). During the mid-'8os, with state encouragement, companies also experi-
mented with "financially independent" or "contract" (chengbao) troupes, small
touring troupes composed of selected company members who agreed to operate
entirely on box office income, which was divided among them, after expenses,
according to the degree of responsibility which they each held within the troupe.
Few of these troupes were financially successful, however, and most of those still
in operation now receive state support as well (Gui 1989; Ma Buomin 1987).
In terms of performance, the decreasing state support, stagnant or decreasing
box office receipts, and various experiments undertaken to augment them have
resulted in fewer performances of fewer plays. For instance, Shen Xiaomei re-
ports that in 1981-83 she performed 120-15O days per year. In 1984 and 1985,
that number dropped to 60-90 days; in 1986 to 50 days (Shen 1987); in 1987 to
20 days; and in 1988 her only performances were given overseas (Shen 1989).
Gui Weizhen (1989) summarizes by saying, "We have sufficient state support and
income for salaries, but we can't afford to put on plays."
4- The most common form of criticism is to say that a given play or portion thereof
contains "model tunes and model keys" (ban qiang ban diao).
5. A principal slogan for model production creation was "take ten years to perfect
one piece" (shi nian mo yijian), and in fact most productions represented a year or
more of continuous effort.
6. In Fall 1987, a new Sichuan opera (chuanju) play called A Startling Dream of Red
Mansions (Hong lou jing meng) was toured to Beijing and Shanghai. Almost with-

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out exception, Beijing opera performers and scholars were extremely excited by
the production-many in a negative sense, however. The accusation that the
director himself was "performing a liangxiang" was frequently made. I was
personally very impressed by the production, which had a strong, consistent, and
nonrealistic stylistic conception. But I also found that an interesting inversion of
traditional xiqu aesthetics had occurred in it. While the usual focus in xiqu is from
all angles in, toward the performer-who therefore appears very large aestheti-
cally-here the focus was out to the sides, and up, creating the sensation of very
small performers almost lost in a vast space of outward-flowing blocking and
scenic and lighting design.
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1989 Telephone interview, 25 March.
Sun Mei
1987 Research fellow at the Zhongguo Yishu Yanjiu Yuan Xiqu Yanjiu
Suo (China Academy of Art Research's xiqu research institute), Bei-
jing. Interview with author. Beijing, 14 November.
Sun Zhengyang
1987 Numerous informal interviews with author and observation of his
work as an actor in Liu Laolao he Wang Xifeng at the Shanghai Jingju
Yuan (Shanghai Beijing Opera Company), 27 July-16 September,
Tong Xiangling
1987 Actor with the Shanghai Jingju Yuan (Shanghai Beijing Opera Com-
pany). Numerous informal interviews with author. Shanghai, 27
July-I6 September, 26-27 September, 5-7 December.
Topping, Seymour
1988 "An Actor Gives New Direction to China's Stage." The New York
Times, Io January:HI, H7.
Wan Ruixing
1988 Musician with the Zhongguo Jingju Yuan (China Beijing Opera
Company), Beijing. Personal correspondence, 13 May.

139.179.182.160 on Mon, 24 Jan 2022 11:02:55 UTC
Beijing Opera 177
Wang Shixu
1987 Interview with author and observation of his teaching methods at the
ber.
Wang Yumin
ber.
Wei Lisha (Elizabeth Wichmann)

1986 "Yige Meiguo ren dui jinri Zhongguo jingju de kanfa" ("An Ameri-
can Perspective on Beijing Opera in Contemporary China"). Xiju bao
(Theatre Journal) 353, no. Io (October):61-64. Translated by Zhang
Xuecai.
Xie Ruiqing
ber.
Yang, Daniel S.P.

1984 "Theatre in Post Cultural Revolution China: A Report Based on Field
Research in the Fall and Winter of 1981." Asian Theatre ournal I, no. I
(Spring):9o-IO3.
Yang Yongxuan
1987 Teacher and director of the Office of Instruction at the Shanghai Xiqu
Xuexiao (Shanghai Xiqu School). Interview with author. Shanghai,
II September.
Ye Peng
ber.
Ying Ruocheng
1987 Vice minister of culture of the People's Republic of China and a huaju
(spoken drama) actor and director. Interview with author. Beijing,
13 November.
Yu Lin
1987 President of the Zhongguo Xiqu Xueyuan (China Ziqu Academy),

Beijing, until his death in April 1989. Interviews with author. Beijing,
24 and 28 October, 2 and 5 November and numerous informal inter-
views 22 October-14 November.
Yu Yonghua
1987 Interviews with author. Shanghai, 19, 24, and 25 August and numer-
ous informal interviews and observation of her work as technique
director for Liu Laolao he Wang Xifeng at the Shanghai Jingju Yuan
(Shanghai Beijing Opera Company), 27 July-16 September, 26-27
September, 5-7 December.
Yu Yuheng
Zhongguo Xiqu Xueyuan (China Xiqu Academy). Beijing, 2
November.
Zhang Nanyun
1987 Numerous informal interviews with author and observation of her
work as an actress in Liu Laolao he Wang Xifeng at the Shanghai Jingju
Yuan (Shanghai Beijing Opera Company). Shanghai, 27 July-16 Sep-
tember, 26-27 September, 5-7 December.

139.179.182.160 on Mon, 24 Jan 2022 11:02:55 UTC
Zhang Yijuan
ber.
Zhongguo xiju nianjian bianji bu (China Theatre Yearbook, editorial department).

1982 Zhongguo xiju nianjian. Beijing: Zhongguo Xiju Chuban She.
Zhou Hong
1987 "Types and Numbers of Xiqu Plays and Performances in Beijing in
1986." Unpublished chart of statistics obtained from the Beijing Shi
Yanchu Gongsi (Beijing City Performance Company) and the Zhong-
guo Jingju Yuan (China Beijing Opera Company).
Elizabeth Wichmann is an Associate Professor of theatre and director of the Asian

Theatre Program in the University of Hawaii Department of Theatre and Dance.
She is author of the forthcoming book Listening to Theatre: The Aural Dimen-
sion of Beijing Opera (New World Press, Beijing, and University of Hawaii
Press, Honolulu) and coeditor of the Asian Theatre Journal.
TDReading
For more on theatre in China see: William Huizhu Sun and Faye
Chungfang Fei's "The Old B Hanging on the Wall: Changing Chinese
Theatre," TDR 30, no. 4 (TII2); "Speaking About Chinese Spoken
Drama: A Roundtable with Chinese Directors and Playwrights,"
TDR 33, no. 2 (TI22); Qu Liuyi's and Huangpu Chongqing's
"China's Nuo Theatre: Two Views," TDR 33, no. 3 (TI23).

139.179.182.160 on Mon, 24 Jan 2022 11:02:55 UTC

1146013tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Beijing Opera Performance

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1146013tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Beijing Opera Performance

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Tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Beijing Opera Performance

Author(s): Elizabeth Wichmann

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1146013

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Before examining the current balance of tradition and innovation in Bei-

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interpreted very differently by different performers, through sometimes

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Reform in the 198os

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At a deeper level, however, new plays in Beijing opera are a sensitive

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PERFORMANCE INNOVATIONS IN TRADITIONAL PLAYS

In revised traditional plays, a number of innovations take the form of

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PERFORMANCE INNOVATIONS IN NEW PLAYS

A wider range of performance innovations can be found in productions

1. This innovative makeup

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a fold in much the same manner as Western fashion makeup. Masks,

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3. The "blade and horse"

costume based on Tan? and

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5. Standard scenery for Bei-

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6. A shoulder-height box set

is dressed with realistic furni-

7. One of the elaborate,

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technique. Like those in traditional plays, such innovations include the

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and additional weight was given to major lines by an offstage "helping

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Although performers are trained through imitation, and tend to do

Yu frequently "translated" the director's comments into Beijing opera

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tions in rehearsals, devising movement to meet the director's blocking and

Obstacles to Enhancement and Innovation

Financial concerns aside, probably the greatest obstacles to both en-

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ingly prescriptive manner: performances are criticized if they deviate from

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Everyone has recognized that traditional theatre is rich-but we have

Li Yilan, administrative director of the China Xiqu Academy, confided

Many policies and practices today are based in pre-Liberation preju-

Robert Scanlan, director of the M.I.T. Drama Program, was struck by

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and playwrights to reproduce traditional plays and the styles of specific

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10.-12. Climactic moments

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performer centered. The efforts of most theorists to date also seem to be

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ity of central government officials did not want to address themselves

Sophisticated guidance, such as art criticism, is I suppose always nec-

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Reform policy is still being discussed, and nothing is final as yet. In

He then went on to describe the three principal phases of the reform

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number of members in each company to manageable levels. All companies