Taiwan Today

Chinese opera is the national theater of the Chinese nation and people. The name is a Western improvisation. Strictly speaking, Chinese opera is Peking drama or ching hsi—the drama of the capital. It has also been called the classical theater of China. The use of the word "opera" is inevitable but somewhat misleading. Western opera has elements in common with ching hsi but is dominated by the music and singing. Chinese opera is a unique dramatic form that formally binds together song, speech, acting, dance and other movement, acrobatics, make-up, and musical accompaniment—all in a balanced performance. In Western opera, anything can be forgiven if the voice is outstanding. Lovers of Chinese theater regard singing as only one element and insignificant compared with the actor's total technique. Chinese opera singing is done in falsetto voice; it is expressive rather than beautiful.

Westerners tend to dismiss ching hsi as a spectacle—colorful because of the painted faces and lavish costuming but tiresome be­cause of the ancient, involved plays and the strange music and singing style. They miss the heart of the drama. This can be described as formal, symbolic performances by actors whose every movement is understood by the audience. Such subtlety peoples the bare stage with great armies, builds castles and fortresses, and sends vast troops of cavalry into battle. In this sense, the ching hsi is a visual theater, whereas European opera might be considered an aural one.

Although the history of the Chinese theater goes back 3,000 years or more, the real roots of Chinese opera are found in the plays of the Yuan dynasty (1280-1368). These four-act dramas combined speech and song. Ensuing years brought the development of both a Northern and a Southern theater. Provincial dramas flourished. The emergence of ching hsi came in the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911). Manchu rulers gave the Peking drama their support. Emperor Ch'ien Lung ruled for 60 years (1736­-1796). On his 70th and 80th birthdays, dramatic troupes from all over China went to Peking to give performances. Some remained in the capital. Provincial styles tended to coalesce. The older k'un ch'u, flute-accom­panied and of superior literary quality, was slowly driven from the boards by ching-hsi's visual values. The Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi (1835-1908) maintained ten Peking opera troupes at the Imperial Court.

Ching hsi continued to develop during the early years of the Republic. A setback occurred during the second Sino-Japanese war. The Japanese tried to encourage thc theater in occupied areas, but most of the leading actors refused to per­ form. A renaissance that began after 1945 was interrupted by the Communist usurpation. Some leading actors did not get to Taiwan. However, many left the stage rather than perform in the rewritten propaganda dramas that the Communists sought to substitute for the classical plays of ching hsi. The armed forces have financed most of the troupes on Taiwan. Government sup­port has been accorded training schools. Television is providing a new outlet for talent.

The plays of ching hsi are of two kinds. The wen hsi concern domestic and social affairs and the wu hsi are about military op­erations and the exploits of adventurers. Stories come from the novels The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Water's Edge, and The Dream of the Red Chamber as well as from ancient tales and a few modern themes. Older plays are rarely produced in their entirety; they are far too long for a performance time of two or three hours. So excerpts are given. Military plays are marked by plot and counterplot. Battles give wide range to the talents of acrobatically talented actors.

Story of Romance

This is the plot line of a romantic drama called The Story of Su San the Courtesan: A scholar falls in love with Su San, a sing-song girl, and they are happy. He spends all his money, however, and Su San's mistress turns him out. He takes refuge in a temple. Su San goes to him there and gives him 300 pieces of silver to finance a trip to Peking to compete in the imperial examinations. On the way he is robbed and becomes a beggar. Su San finds him and again advances money. He passes the examinations and becomes a judge. Su San is lonesome, loses her popularity, and is sold to a rich merchant. The merchant's wife hates Su San and poisons the girl's bowl of noodles. But it is the merchant who eats and dies. Su San is accused of murder and sentenced to death on the basis of a false confession. Her lover is one of the examining magistrates. He uncovers the truth, the wicked wife is punished, and he and Su San are married and live happily ever after. There is a trial scene in which Su San kneels before the judges for an hour to sing of her past life.

Principal Instruments

Music is not the core of Chinese opera but is still important. When the actor steps onto stage center and compulsively raises and lowers his full sleeves, stamps his foot or merely ends his speech on a rising inflection, this is a summons to action for the orchestra of six to eight pieces. These are the principal instruments:

Hu ch'in. This is the main instrument of accompaniment. It has two silk strings and is played with a horsehair bow. The body of this Chinese violin is made of a hol­low piece of bamboo with one open end covered by skin. The neck is a stalk of bam­boo about an inch in diameter and 18 inches long. There are two tuning pegs. The instrument supposedly was brought into China proper from the north some 500 years ago. The sound is high, shrill, and wild. It is difficult to play well. In the mainland flower­ing of Chinese opera, star performers em­ployed their own hu ch'in players. These virtuosi were applauded by appreciative audiences. A number of other instruments are related to the hu ch'in, which has become a generic term for stringed instruments. Among these is the erh hu, which has body and neck of redwood rather than bamboo. The pitch is lower than the hu ch'in and the tone softer.

Yueh ch'in. Yueh means moon and this instrument is so named for its large circular body. It is sometimes called the "moon guitar" in English. There are four silk strings, ten frets, and four tuning pegs.

San hsien. Three-stringed, it is played with a plectrum. The flattened, oval sound box is faced on both sides with snake skin. The 30-inch neck has three tuning pegs.

P'i p'a. An instrument of the lute family, it has a known history of well over 1,000 years and is a noted solo instrument. Court ladies and singsong girls studied its intrica­cies. The body is pear-shaped and there are four silk strings. From six to thirteen frets are placed on the sounding board.

Ti tzu. This is the bamboo flute and leading instrument of k'un ch'u drama. About 26 inches long and under an inch in diameter, it has a blow hole 10 inches from the left end. A second hole is covered by membrane; then come six holes for stopping. Two holes at the right end permit the air to escape. Of fixed pitch, the flute serves as guide in tun­ing the strings. The sound is sweet and clear.

Tan p'i ku or hsiao ku. Drums are important for beating out the time. China is no exception. This drum stands on a tripod and is played with two light bamboo sticks without heads. The sound is sharply clear. There are other drums Jess commonly used.

Pan. This is a wood clacker—played by the drummer—that sets the time and serves as a sort of conductor's baton.

Ta lo. This is a large gong about a foot in diameter. The hsiao lo is smaller. Gongs are much used in battle scenes and tend to give Westerners the idea that Chinese opera is too noisy.

The sound of Chinese opera has been described in the West as resembling the caterwauling of feline romance. This is unfair. Music is in the ear of the listener. Chinese who are stirred by the melancholy sound of the hu ch'in might be left unmoved by Yehudi Menuhin. When Chinese opera is taken as a whole, the music is appropriate—much more so than any Western melodies could be, although a few of the modernists might come close.

Actor's Supremacy

Acting and the actor are supreme in ching hsi. The regimen of training is comparable to that of the ballet in Russia. It begins at an age between 7 and 12 and lasts at least six years—until maturity for those who start very young. The trainee lives at the school and rarely escapes its walls ex­cept to give performances. Most of the enrollees at Taiwan's principal school are orphans; there are no family relationships to interfere with the rigorous discipline that is required in training a competent ching hsi performer.

Chinese opera offers four major types of roles. Actors do not ordinarily move from one to another. These are the four:

Sheng, male characters playing scholars, statesmen, patriot warriors, faithful retainers, etc. Their faces are not painted. Aside from the hsiao sheng or young men, they wear beards affixed to the upper lip and covering the mouth. Some sheng roles call for fighting and acrobatics, others for singing and acting, and some for both. High-ranking generals wear four battle flags or pennants attached to the shoulders. The singing voices of sheng are of low, almost baritone range.

Tan are the women's roles. Through the 19th and well into the 20th century, these were enacted by female impersonators who gained greater fame than any other players in Chinese opera history. Mei Lan-fang, who died a few years ago, toured the United States and was widely hailed as one of the world's most accomplished actors. Women began to return to the stage after the establishment of the Republic. In Taiwan today there are no female impersonators; all women's roles are filled by actresses. However, their acting styles were created by men who accentuated the mannerisms of the feminine sex in order to make their own masquerade more con­vincing.

Make-up of the tan is stylized. The face is white. Eyes are surrounded by a deep red that shades into pink. Eyebrows and the corners of the eyes are finely penciled sharply upwards. The mouth is small. Tan many be divided into six main categories. The ch'ing i are singing roles: wives, filial daughters, distressed lovers. Movements are demure and graceful. Hands are often crossed at the waist; eyes are lowered. The singing voice is a high and clear falsetto—strong but not overpowering. This is the good and virtuous woman of old China. The hua tan is a coquette, charming and seductive. Her movements are active, often coy; she flutters her handkerchief and captures hearts with her smile. Her costume is gay and colorful. Wu tan are maidens skilled in fighting and riding. They are beautiful and charming, but not the temptresses rep­ resented by the hua tan. Kuei men tan are young unmarried girls-a less mature version of the ch'ing i. Ts'ai tan are the evil women and lao tan the old ones. The latter walk with back bent and head lowered and carry a long staff. Lao tan roles accent singing. The old women must have vibrant but quavering voices to tell of other and better times.

Painted Faces

Ching are the characters with the heavily painted faces: warriors, ministers, judges, bandits, and gods. They may be good or bad; inevitably they are strong and powerful. Their costumes are padded to make them look bigger. They wear elevated shoes so as to appear taller. The face painting symbolizes character. White indicates cun­ning and treachery, although it also may be used in broken patterns on the faces of up­right men. Red stands for loyalty, bravery, and generosity. The blue face shows a fierce courage. Black denotes integrity and straight-forwardness. Yellow is for a clever fellow who hides his feelings. Purple is the color of loyalty and filial piety. Green is associated with spirits and gold with gods. Many de­signs are based on the shapes of butterfly, moth, and bat. At one time more than 500 face paintings were in use.

Singing of the ching must be loud and powerful; a nasal effect is admired. To say that the walls echoed for three days after a ching solo is a great compliment. Some ching are primarily singers. Others are more skilled in acrobatics and strong speech than in song.

Clowns But Not Fools

Ch'ou are the clowns. They mayor may not be fools. Some are good, some are bad, and some are merely comedians. Only the ch'ou speak in everyday speech; the other actors use the literary style. His make­-up is always the same: a white patch across the nose and to the cheekbones. He is a mimic and often an acrobat. He is almost always funny. Sometimes he is a philosopher and occasionally a hero.

There is another class of players without lines. These are the wu hang or acrobats who take to the stage in groups to represent soldiers or bandits. Their handsprings, cart­ wheels, and other gyrations are breathtaking. Such performances ate in the way of advertisement; they usually have little bearing on the story.

Conventionally, actors introduce them­selves when first they enter the stage. Their performances depend not merely on song and recitative but on a number of highly special­ized movements involving sleeves, bands, fingers, feet, legs, walking, beards, and pheasant feathers.

Sleeve movements are graceful and im­mensely important to the tan. The sleeves are really cuffs of thin white silk left open at the seam and attached to the ends of the ordinary sleeves. They are from 1½ to 2 feet long. Only the most skillful actors and actresses can manipulate sleeves of excessive length. The movements are made in time to the music and have symbolical meanings or serve as signals to the orchestra. When the sleeves are held in front of the eyes with the head slightly inclined, the character is weeping. Fear is shown by bending the body slightly and causing the sleeves to quiver in front of the face. To step backward as though stunned and fling out the sleeves below waist level indicates great anger. There are some­thing like a hundred meaningful movements.

Walking on Bound Feet

Hand movements also are numerous. To point at another character's face at nose level signifies anger. Eating, drinking, sew­ing, and many other actions are clearly in­dicated without the use of props. Various emotions are expressed. Foot, leg, and arm movements vary with the characters and the costume worn, including the footwear. Some of the tan must simulate bound feet, an art considerably more difficult than toe dancing. Special shoes and bindings are worn. Beards are stroked and parted to show emotion. Pheasant feathers originally were used to represent Mongols and barbarians. Their manipulation then became so popular that they were put into headdresses and meanings attached to various movements. If the feath­ers are made to sweep round in a circle, that signifies anger. When the head is bent so that the feathers touch the ground and then are quickly flung back, the implication is of surprise or thoughtfulness.

Chinese opera costumes come from different dynastic periods of the last 1,000 years. However, plays are not costumed with his­torical accuracy. The rules about dress are connected with the character portrayed and not with the period in which the drama is laid. The tan wear a Manchu lady's costume but the hairdress is that of Peking around the turn of the century. Color and ornamen­tation are symbolic. Good characters of high rank are dressed in red, men of virtue wear green, the emperor yellow. White is the color of the very young, the very old, and of mourning. Black is associated with fierce­ness and aggressiveness, but also serves for simple everyday attire. Pink and turquoise are for youth, blue for high rank without regard to character, and dark crimson for usurpers and barbarian generals. Ornamen­tation and headdress involve patterns derived from the bat (long life and happiness), the phoenix (a bird of good omen), the crane (messenger of the gods and symbol of longevity), the dragon (a royal symbol), the tiger (for masculinity), plum blossom (for long life), peony (for spring and feminine beauty), and various geometric designs, including the swastika from Buddhism.

Footwear and Garments

Footwear includes high boots with sales from one to three inches thick and worn only by men, flat-soled slippers worn by both men and women, a flat soled boot worn by acrobats and aggressive military characters, and the ts'ai ch'iao or false bound feet of the tan. A principal garment is the mang from Ming times. The tunic ends in a hoop-like girdle that hangs loosely about the actor's waist. The neck is round and not high. Men's skirts fall the floor; women's are of three-quarter length. There are many varia­tions. The p'ei is less formal than the mang. The man's version is a full-length robe; the woman's is three-quarter length and worn over a skirt. Sleeves are long. The material is a stiff satin, although women may wear softer materials. Hsueh tzu are informal robes and are worn as an undergarment with other costumes. The neck is open and there is a soft girdle around the waist. A modern version of the hsueh tzu is widely worn by women players. A soft satin high-necked tunic of knee length falls over a skirt. There is a 12-inch slit at either side. A similar costume is worn by ch'ing i actors. K'u ao consist of short tunic and wide trousers worn by maids, slave girls, and the humble. The costumes worn by generals and warriors are called k'ao. Heavily embroidered satin is used for the compartmentalized gown. Apron-like panels hang to the feet in front and back; the side panels are shorter and there is a wide girdle. Sleeves are tight and cufIed. Soldiers who are not members of the imperial forces wear short tunics and full trousers.

Headdresses are elaborate and of infinite variety. One of the most common is the sha mao worn by male officials. There is a double semi-circular crown. In the back, two fins extend from either side. These quiver slightly as the actor gesticulates. Shape of the fins has symbolic meaning: The scholar's hat looks like a tent. The principal women's hair style, ta fa or "great hair", involves the use of wigs and is a difficult and time­ consuming coiffure.

Language of Flags

Stage properties are few. Weapons are among the most familiar, especially the tao and ch'iang. The tao is a pike with a large curved blade; a red silk tassel is attached. It is mounted on a decorated haft about six feet long. The ch'iang is a six-foot spear. Scimitars and two-edged swords also are used. Weapons are used in the acrobatic fighting but do not touch. The ma pien is a riding crop with a loop at one end and four silk tassels. Manipulation of the crop in­dicates mounting, riding, dismounting, tether­ing, and so on.

Embroidered silk flags serve a variety of symbolic purposes. Black flags represent storms; actors in groups of four run across the stage waving them to show wind and rain. Flags bearing a wheel pattern depict chariots or wagons. Ensigns may be carried back and forth and around the stage to represent the number of men engaged in battle. Flags also symbolize river and sea. A dark blue cloth with a brick pattern is held aloft to depict a city wall. Behind the cloth may be a city tower of one table atop another with a chair on top. When an actor climbs upon the chair, he is looking out from the tower and over the city wall. Curtains may become a bed or a canopy. Lanterns carried on poles show the descent of night. A paddle in an actor's hands shows he is on a boat, or he may be preceded by a boatman who does the paddling.

The only properties ordinarily on the stage are a table and two wooden chairs. A chair may be a throne or a bench. Placed atop the table, it becomes a mountain. When an actor leaps from a chair, he has descended from a great height. Gates may be opened by tilting a chair. Supernatural characters en a chair are riding a cloud.

Meaningful Gestures

Much symbolism depends on gesture rather than any use of properties. The en­tering of a house is an example. In ching hsi the entry is presumed to be that of an old-style Chinese house with a double style door bolted in the center with a horizontal sliding lock. The actor uses the thumb and index finger of his left hand with the palm outward as if holding the bolt of the lock while the right hand removes it. The hands are then placed together with the palms outward and pushed forward and apart, as in forcing the doors apart. The elevated threshold is shown by lifting the feet high as the actor enters or leaves. When mounting a horse, the rider raises his right hand with fingers outstretched but together and closes his left hand as though to hold the reins. The third finger of the left hand is placed in the loop of the crop and the hand clasps the haft. The crop is drawn backward and the left foot lifted as though to the stirrup. Then the crop is lowered as though to the horse's back and the right foot thrown across the saddle. The left hand then tightens the reins and the actor faces the audience with crop lifted high.

Such is the wonderful world of Chinese opera. Changes are occurring as this theater adapts to the requirements of television and modern life. Old superstitions and customs are no longer observed. Yet the essential charm remains. In the Taiwan theater of today the stories are unchanged. Schools are training a new generation of actors. Troupes have he en sent to Europe, the Americas, and Southeast Asia. Pessimists of the ching hsi have said that the dramatic form will not survive, that young people don't understand it, and that such understanding is essential to continued popularity. This remains to be seen. To many Chinese it is inconceivable that a theater of such imagination and beauty could vanish from the world stage. As Hsu Chen-ch'ing wrote of the beauty of the dancer's sleeves:

What festival is this, with lamps filling the hall,
And golden hairpins dancing by night alongside of flowery lutes?
A fragrant breeze flutters the sleeve and a red haze arises,
While jade wrists flit round and round in mazy flight.

Those who know and love ching hsi believe the poetry and the beauty of this uniquely Chinese theatrical art will be given new impetus by the cultural renaissance that the people of the Republic of China have undertaken on Taiwan.