Social and cultural significance |
An important form of recreation, the opera is also, in some rural communities, combined with ceremonial, religious and sacrificial elements into a spiritual amalgam of art and custom known as Shengongxi. Yueju opera is popular throughout China and provides a cultural bond among Cantonese speakers in the country and abroad. They view its success around the world as a point of pride, regarding the opera as an important means by which foreigners come to understand their culture. |
Transmission method |
Yueju Opera, also called Guangdong (Kwangtung) Opera, which is a modality of opera sung in Cantonese dialect (one of Chinese regional dialects), prevailing in the Cantonese-speaking districts (including Guangdong Province, Guangxi Province, Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR), has a history of 300 years. In Yueju Opera, dialect is the most perfectly used among all the Pihuang (the melody in Peking Opera) Melody operas represented by Peking Opera.
Yueju Opera has absorbed the opera modalities that entered South China before the 18th century. Based on Bangzi Melody and Erhuang Melody (two kinds of melodies with respective instruments) and combined with Guangdong folk music, it formed the band constituted by string instrument including Erxian, Yuexian, Sanxian, Zhutiqin and Xiao (five Chinese traditional strings called Wujiatou in Chinese) and percussion instrument including drum and gong, which represents the Cantonese local features. Yueju Opera changed the routine that Mandarin was used in the performance when Bangzi Melody and Erhuang Melody entered the Cantonese-speaking district and perfectly embraced the Cantonese dialect.
The six genres created by Xue Juexian, Ma Shizeng, Gui Mingyang, Liao Xiahuai, Bai Jurong, Hong Xiannu are still in continuous inheritance today, especially the “Hong Melody” created by Hongxiannu, a famous Yueju Opera actress. The gest (also Kongfu) of Yueju Opera, based on Shaolin Martial Art, is performed together with stunts and fights using real weapons instead of pseudo ones, thus becoming the paragon of Chinese South Group. The Chinese saying “Lines performance depends on the mouth while fighting ones depends on the legs” reflects the achievements of the singing and fighting in Yueju Opera and gave birth to the role of “Wenwusheng”, who is good at both singing and fighting.
Yueju Opera employs the combination of syllabus and improvisation, two methods of play composition. It’s also flexibly combined with various patterns of single-person and group performances (called Paichang in Chinese). It entails legendary plots and realistic themes and has more than 10 thousand existent repertories. The costume and face-painting of Yueju Opera are gorgeous and the state styles are absolutely different from other Chinese operas.
As the most popular Chinese opera overseas, Yueju Opera is highly treasured by Chinese people. Some institutions of higher education in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao established special organizations for Yueju Opera research and Yueju Opera performances are prevailing in the Cantonese-speaking districts both at home and abroad which represents the board mass base of Yueju Opera. It is in a steady artistic inheritance through drama school education and apprentice. As the holder and transmitter of Yueju Opera, the Yueju Opera theatres and groups and representative actors in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao are recreating, enriching, and continuing the cultural heritage. Meanwhile, they are enlarging its popularity by making performances in various places and international communications. The cultural departments in the three cities propagate the cultural character of Yueju Opera by media publicities, drama compositions and transmitters trainings. In addition, they make artistic research and protections on the transmitters represented by Hongxiannu
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