Seven Little Fooks

Seven Little Fooks (七小福)  a reference to folklore tales about seven kids who bring good luck.  In this case, a group of boys being trained in Beijing opera.  But they are refugee kids in a community of exiles : in the south, their northern origins don't mean much. Gradually they grow up and find work in Hong Kong kung fu movies. This is a film about their teacher, Master Yu Zhangzong, struggling to maintain his art in a world that doesn't care.  An exquistely filmed movie, sensitive to changing social nuances. Essential viewing, even for those who know only kung fu, since Chinese opera is the root from which martial arts grew. To understand kung fu, and Chinese culture itself, you need to know the world of Chinese opera. But this is also a very personal story, based on real people and real memories.  Clue : the eldest boy is nicknamed "Three Hairs". Translate that as Sammo and realize it's Sammo Hung who still carries his nickname though he's famous today. And who is "Big Nose" ? The now ubiquitous Jackie Chan, a bigger star than many in Hollywood.  In the movie Master Yu is played by the adult Sammo Hung,  who has won many awards, but must treasure this, since he's portraying the man who shaped him.  So Seven Little Fooks, (directed in 1988 by Alex Law Kai chui) is about real people, caught up in an era of unprecedented change. Evocative music by Lowell Lo Koon-ting.

It's December 1st,1962, when much of Hong Kong was stilll pre-war tenement, houses built on terraces, where people share communal spaces, like the neighbour, a tailor, who works in the yard and can't stand the sound of the kids singing.  A new boy arrives.  "Can I do cartwheels all day and not study?" he asks. "Then I'll sign for ten years!", he squeaks. His mother's crying,  but it's best for him, though the contract she seals with her thumb print (she's illiterate) is severe. If kids die in training, no questions asked.  That was the traditional way.  Notice the kid's name is Chan Kong-sang, which means Chan "Born in Hong Kong", marking his parents brief respite after 20 years of struggle in war-torn China.  He's now Jackie Chan.  And so the kids learn tthe basics of Beijing opera, as much physical fitness and gymnastics as opera in the western sense. That's why they neeed to start young to be flexible.  The school is very old style. The kids live communal and have shaved heads like kids in the North used to do. The local kids mock them, singing a rude song which the subtitles don't translate ("baldies, baldies, butter up your butts"). The kids give a performance but Big Nose fell asleep. The audience walks out "They've gone home to the radio" scolds Master Yu - the radio and big theatres being where top quality operas were done : small troupes can't compete.  So they get beaten with canes.  Mrs Chan comes to bathe the kids - no plumbing - and knows he's been beaten. But he says "Don't cry". Opera school is tough but the kids think they're freer than the ones in regular school, chanting by rote.   When Master Yu goes out the boys march into town to collect charity rice. On their way back they clash with the fancy kids and there's a brawl.   The taunt "Four eye'd boys, blind as turtles!" (meaning kids with glasses). Ponder that detail, it's important.  Wandering far from home, they need to get back by bus, but haven't any money so they con the driver and later escape without paying.  Watch them use their opera athletics to escape from the top deck !

Meanwhile Master Yu and his friend Uncle Wah chat in a teahouse. They trained together as boys themselves, in Beijing. "Rain or snow, we'd get up early and train". For what ?  Few make it big in opera. Wah works as a stuntman and stand-in for stars.  Bruises and broken ribs "Thirty years of good luck, thirty years of bad" quotes master Yu. "And then you're dead" says Uncle Wah. To cheer him, Master Wu starts singing, in the middle of the tea house, and Uncle Wah  gets his dream, to sing again, for a public.  When Master Yu gets home, the Cantonese tailor confronts him because  the opera boys punched his kid.  Master Yu holds his ground and defends his kids. Tailor and Opera master swap insults : scholars are too weak to work, too proud to beg : actors are prostitutes.  Another witty retort not in the subtiles "Chicken piss!". But when the Lunar New Year comes, they all celebrate together. 

Gradually the boys grow up, doing shows in proper cinemas. They also discover girls. Big Nose tries to impress by rotating a pot on his head, but modern girls are more interested in guitar bands.  One day, the leader of a Cantonese female troupe asks for help, since Beijing boys are much better at gymnastics. Master Yu doesn't have modern social skills either. He wants to buy the female troupe leader a "western" birthday cake, but none of the traditional bakers do that. He has to travel all round town until he finds one. Alas, the inscription says "Happy 70th, Grandad!. So Master Yu can't read!  It's extremely bad luck, since the Grandad it was baked for died that morning..... Master Yu isn't the only one  not up with the times. The Tailor can't understand modern fashion. His son "borrows" for Big Nose  the fancy togs his Dad's made for western customers and the two go out together. But the girl prefers the nerdy tailor's son who can "sing Beatles" as the girl's kid brother says. "You Beijing opera types no-one wants". Big Nose goes back, dejected but he's missed a show. Sammo substituted for him, but Master Yu beats him for covering up Big Nose's disobedience and kicks him out of the troupe. Sinc it's been his life, he has nowhere to go.

But business isn't going well and the troupe is dissolved.  Sammo reappears crestfallen and is  welcomed by Uncle Wah.  Master Yu goes to Uncle Wah's movie studio to get work for the boys.  He's forced to cut up a group photo so their heads can go on the register. Uncle Wah, who has been working as a stuntman for years, is getting old and has too many accidents.  He blows his last chance and suddenly goes insane, climbing up into the roof space in the studio, mad with grief, re-enacting opera scenes. An amazing scene. Master Yu climbs up and starts to sing an aria from The Emperor and the Concubine, where the Emperor has lost his,kingdom, but his concubine remains loyal.   For a moment, Master Yu and Uncle Wah are back to be stars again, singing together. Uncvle Wah thinks he's an opera star again. then he's taken away in an ambulance.

Master Yu calls his boys together. He's spent 40 years in opera. Success or not, he's given it full committment.   The school is closed, the house is being demolished and the boys are starting out onn their own paths. so now he'll retire, abroad. He releases the tortoise he's kept for seven years to hold up his bed, feeding and watering it . Its back is strong and it it still knows how to walk.   Master Yu boards the ship, that's taking him away, forever.  "You persevered 40 years and so will we" says Big Nose. "Sammo look after them !" the master's last command.  When they're gone he looks at the gift they've left. A white paper fan with what look like scribbles. But when the folds are aligned the squiggles spell out 七小福, Seven Siu Fooks.  Below a photo of Master Yu who lived to a grand old age and his boys, now grown men.

PLenty moire on this site about Chinese movies, Chinese oopera and music, especially Cantonese. THis ius the only site in Englishwhich does these subjects from a wider social perspective.

Doming Lam - Hong Kong Music Series, St John's Smith Square

Doming Lam, from SCMP

Hong Kong music, and indeed most modern Chinese music, might be nowhere were it not for Doming Lam ( 林樂培), who features in the Hong Kong Music Series, the biggest celebration of Hong Kong classical music ever held in Britain.  Hong Kong is a dynamic, thriving and vibrant city whose cultural life reflects the cosmopolitan creativity that makes the place flourish, despite all odds. In in the west, people only know movies, and don't realize just how much more there is in Hong Kong arts. The Hong Kong Music Series presents five productions, four concerts and one opera, at various central venues in London from 7th to 28th July.  More details HERE

Doming Lam was born in Macau in August 1926. He studied in Toronto and Los Angeles (with Miklós Rózsa). Returning to Hong Kong in 1964, he soon became a leading figure, composing, conducting and promoting music in a city where performance is highly regarded.  With his engaging personality, he's a good communicator, almost a household name, which is more than can be said about many serious composers.  Maintaining an international presence, he's a Member of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) . He also has a section in Grove. Photo at left shows Doming Lam in  his  youth when he compered a popular classical music radio show. The keynote concert in the Hong Kong Music Series will be held at St John's Smith Square on 7 July (book HERE)   Titled  "Music Interflow", the programme  illustrates the dialogue between western and Chinese music.  Doming Lam's Three Night Songs of Li Bai  will be a highlight. It's a short piece for solo voice and piano, written in 1957, but marks a significant thread in Lam's development.

Li Bai, who lived in the Tang period, was a scholarly poet who lived in solitude, eschewing worldly power.   Many of his poems dwell on Nature, specifically the moon.  He often wrote about wine, but drunkenness provided cover for the expression of deep emotion.  In traditional Chinese society, the scholar gentry were a distinct class.. Although many had careers in public service, they didn't necessarily have power or wealth, but had moral and intellectual authority.  Chinese classical music reflects these cultural values: music for contemplation and private edification.   Effectively, a chamber music ethos.  In the 19th century, Chinese audiences embraced western orchestral music. Conservatories were set up in Beijing and Shanghai. Read more HERE about Xian Xing Hai and  HERE about Ma Sicong, two important composers from the same southern delta region that Doming Lam comes from.  Guangdong culture is very distinctive: even the dialect is based on nine tones, difficult for non-native born to master.  The advent of large, western style orchestras stimulated the growth of large ensembles for Chinese music, generating a whole new genre.  Doming Lam writes music for western and Chinese orchestras, as well as synthesizing both forms anew.  He also writes large scale choral works. Read HERE for a list of his works, with links to scores and recordings.

Clarence Mak

The concert at St John's Smith Square on 7/7 includes works by Clarence  Mak, Lui Man Shing,  Tsui Wai-lam, Mailina Tsui and Chan Man Tat, music based on Chinese aesthetics, cognizant of western influence. The programme also includes works by Britten, Quilter, Bridge and Delius.  See the connections?  Chamber music and song - refined music for reflective individuals   Conducted by Lo King Man, the performers play western and Chinese instruments. The singers are Colette Lam and mezzo Carol Lin, who will also be singing in the opera Datong ; the Chinese Utopia at the Richmond Theatre on 27th and 28th July. Book HERE.  I'll write more later about the opera, and about the concert with Chinese opera in the Hong Kong Music Series.  Both deserve more time and space !  Besides, it's not easy to come to Chinese music, even modern Chinese music, without understanding the background and unique values.  Because the English-speaking world is west-oriented, it helps to understand alternative perspectives.  There is so much to discover!   To find out more, please follow the labels below to Chinese music, Chinese opera, Chinese movies, Chinese culture and history. 

Sacrifice of an Opera Singer

One of the finest Cantonese movies ever made, and one which deserves to be in the canon of world cinema, Parents Heart (父母心) starring Ma Tse Tsang  (,馬師曾) (1900-1962),  the paramount actor and opera singer of his era. As a young man, Ma was a megastar, galvanizing Cantonese opera, so significant that there's no equivalent in the west.   In Parents Heart, he plays a former opera star reduced to poverty by social change.  Watch this movie and learn a lot about the art of Cantonese opera, since performances are built into the narrative expanding the drama.  The film is also a study of Chinese values, but it's a universal story.  It's so sensitive, and so emotionally true that sometimes the intensity is hard to cope with, but its message is extraordinarily powerful. What keeps us going when life is too hard to bear ?  Love, art, aspiration and hope : utterly relevant for all.  Yet it's lost to western audiences, because it's not in English but needs an awareness of cultural background.

The title credits play out against a curtain on which two masks are placed, one smiling, one in tears : symbols familiar to all but here distinctively Chinese. Next we see neon signs : modern theatres and nightlife.  Opera has fallen on hard times, having to compete with movies and westernized entertainment.   The character Ma plays was once extremely popular but now he's reduced to playing in half empty, rundown theatres. Nonetheless, we're treated to a superlative performance -a masterclass in Cantonese rhythmic singing, a bit like Sprechstimme, but improvised and inventively spontaneous.  Listen to the phrasing patterns, and the imaginative variations on basic tunes.   Ma plays a scholar but suddenly breaks in to a march. "Quit fooling around" sings an actress "You're supposed to be singing"  Great as the performance is, the show is closing and the opera troupe breaking up.  So when Ma answers "These days, it's foreign things that count" you realize that his march isn't just improvisation but a cry of protest. Notice how the percussion clappers used to punctuate singing continue on after the show has ended and Ma relaxes with his friend Wong Chow San. The clicks suggest mounting tension. Gradually the background music turns to western orchestral (Sibelius) as in many "modern"dramas, but the point is made.

Ma goes home with the pittance he's made but his wife (Wong Man Lei)  bursts into tears.  She's on the verge of a breakdown. Wong's performance is frighteningly well observed, and the way she and Ma interact is sensitively played.  Ma plays with his younger son Wai Tsai, but in the process is also teaching the kid the rudiments of opera improvisation and movement.  The boy is played by Yuen Siu-fai, who also appeared in Father and Son, read more here)  The elder son, Ah Kuen has been studying abroad but comes back on vacation.  He's played by Lam Kar Sing of whom more HERE.  Ah Kuen immediately notices that something's wrong with his mother, but both parent keep up pretences.  Although Ma is broke, he loves his boys so much he wants to protect them. He takes them out for a meal and buys the younger one a toy monkey.  Little Wai Tse wants to be like Dad and sing opera : another chance for play disguised as teaching.

Proud of his Dad, Ah Kuen invites his friends to the theatre.   Once Ma was a star, now he's reduced to humiliating bit parts. Watch the way he does acrobatic back flips, though!  Though Ma is dressed as a lion clown, his expression is heartbreaking. Ah Kuen realizes that his parents are broke. He can't bear to take the money his father gives him for school.  Ma bursts into tears : for his son, he'd sacrifice anything.  "I don't want you to end up like me, you need an education to set you up for life".  Unlike many stage stars and opera singers, Ma was a natural in close-ups, acting with great nuance and subtlety.

Ah Kuen can't get a job because he has no experience, so sneaks back to school but leaves the money with his mother. With the money, Ma redeems the opera costumes he'd pawned and starts busking on the streets.  A big come down from the past, but better than starving. Yet again, this is an opportunity for Ma to demonstrate the art of Cantonese opera. A long sequence of skits in which he plays roles which are both theatre and "reality", for example a sad clown cheered by the thought of having children.  Meanwhile Mother becomes ill.  Another well acted scene in which Ma and Wong face her death with mutual respect and tenderness.  After she dies, there's a long shot of Ma in the now empty house, looking at photographs of the family in happier  times.  Back on the streets busking,there's a wonderful vignette in which Ma plays a beggar who sees a gold ingot, which is grabbed by a succession of other players "No mercy in this world" sings Ma.  eventually Ma becomes unwell and loses his voice, permanently.  "If I can't sing,how can I live!" he cries.

The busking troupe mates pool their own meagre earnings to help, but it's not enough. Wai Tsai misbehaves and Ma beats him with a feather duster.  "But I'm angry at myself", the father cries, "I didn't want to hurt you". Ma's ex boss, who was once his apprentice offers to train Wai Tsai for the opera. "I'd rather starve than seperate from you" the child cries,but the father knows  there's  no  choice. He walks away "Doesn't Dad love me ?" the child asks . A kind friend says "One day, when you're a parent,you'll understand".

Wai Tsai has talent but he's preoccupied, worrying about his Dad. The boss offers to send him home, but the boy says Dad would be disappointed.  When the boy makes his debut on stage, it's a disaster. Everyone laughs. In the shadows, the father watches, feeling the child's humiliation. as if it were his own.  Once home, he looks at the portrait of his wife and says "I've failed him like I've failed myself - are you mad at me, dear wife?" A single shot lingers on the photo. Perhaps she understands.  Ah Kuen returns. He's graduated !  But Ma is on his death bed   Seeing his son happy has made his struggles worthwhile. "I'm not going to die!" he grins. "I've been through so much. But I could use a rest", his says as he expires. The camera then pans away from the decrepit room to a vista over the houses, facing the horizon.  

Thunderstorm the opera Shanghai comes to the ENO

At the Coliseum,  home of English National Opera, Thunderstorm.  The opera is based on the play  Thunderstorm, (雷雨) by Cao Yu ( 曹禺, 1910-1996)  which is an iconic classic of modern Chinese literature, so influential that you need to know it to understand modern Chinese culture. So catch the opera, which the Shanghai Opera House is bringing to London from 11th August. The first night is nearly sold out downstairs but there are three other performances.  The opera reflects the spirit of the play ,which depicts a Chinese household in a time of social transition. This is not a traditional Chinese opera, but, like the play, a "western" piece with music that's recognizably Chinese but acknowledges other influences including modern Chinese song, a distinctive genre which flowered at the time the original play was written, and thus is very much relevant to the meaning of the opera.  In China, the division between high art and popular culture isn't as entrenched as it is in the west, since all "modern" art was cosmopolitan, reflecting  social change.

The opera, written by Mo Fan in 2000,  which is on DVD though in a different production, also reflects the original play with its clean "art deco" aesthetic, so evocative of China in the period up to the time of the Japanese invasion.  Zhou Puyuan, the patriarch, has made his money in mining, the "growth industry" of the period, facilitating industrial change. In feudal China, opening the earth and building railroads, ie modernization, challenged superstition. Thunderstorm is thus an allegory of early modern China.  Hence its immediate and enduring success and its significance. Photo at left is the playwright Cao Yu at the time the play was written.

There have been at least four film adaptations. The first, made in 1938, only five years after the premiere of the play, made by Hsinhua Studios in Shanghai, is a masterpiece in its own right. The remake in 1984 is also extremely good, and includes English subtitles.  There is also a version from 1955, starring the teenage Bruce Lee. This colonial-made version downplays the radical aspects of the drama,  a self-censorship which is in itself rather telling, though the reasons for this are beyond the scope of this short post.  The fourth film version, also in Cantonese, from 1960,  isn't quite as good.

Why "Thunderstorm"? The action takes place in oppressively hot weather, evoking tension and foreboding. The Zhou family live in a grand western-style mansion. Rich as they are, they don't own the house, and have moved many times, each time taking with them the ornate and over-cluttered furnishings.  Hint! This is a symbol of the malaise that affects the family.  In contrast, the young maid Sifeng is innocent and eager, and, as the original stage directions make clear, voluptuous and fecund. Thus the youngest son of the family, Zhou Chong, is drawn to her and wants to split his school fees with her so she can get an education.  Sifeng and and Chong represent the "New China" – vigorous and full of hope.  Sifeng's father, Lu Gui, warns her that the house is haunted. He'd heard voices in the living room, and  Mrs Zhou, Fanyi, (Chong's mother) is a reclusive neurotic.  But is her illness physical?  Something is very not right in this house. There's trouble at the mines, too. The workers are on strike.

Zhou Puyuan thinks Fanyi can be cured by traditional medicine. She knows better. She's desperately unhappy because she realizes that her stepson, Zhou Ping, who is almost  the same age as herself, wants to leave the house.  Fanyi and Ping had a brief affair, but now Ping is in love with Sifeng. Fanyi knows something Ping doesn't know, though. She invites Sifeng's mother, Lu Shiping, who lives far away, to visit.  Why would the mistress welcome a servant? Why does the servant recognize the furniture? Who is the beauty in the old photograph Zhou Puyuan keeps in his study?  And why is Lu Shiping so angry that her daughter is working in this household?

Zhou Puyuan and Lu Shiping both lived in Wixi when they were young. Zhou  asks if she knew where his first love was buried.  Zhou has never got over his first love, but can't recognize her standing right in front of him. She's grown old and careworn. She was thrown out of the Zhou family by Zhou's father, a conservative for whom a marriage across social classes breached rules of propriety.  Zhou Ping is Shiping's son, but he doesn't know.  Zhou Puyuan also doesn't know that Shiping had a second son by him, born after she was thrown out.

Trouble erupts at the mines. The strike leader confronts Zhou Puyuan.  Zhou Ping defends his father but little does he know, he and the strike leader are full brothers.  Sifeng and her father know that the striker, Lu Dahai, is Shiping's son, so they leave, too.  The thunderstorm erupts outside, but no raincoat or umbrella can keep anyone safe in this deluge.

As thunder crashes and lights up the dark, Ping and Sifeng announce that they're eloping.  Sifeng is already pregnant. Lu Shiping reacts with horror. History is repeating itself, and in this case, compounded by incest.  Sifeng runs out into the storm and is struck by lightning, Chong follows and dies, too, and Ping shoots himself in despair.  A house divided by injustice cannot stand, shameful secrets cannot remain unexposed.  If we don't learn from history, we are lost. Although the story is melodramatic, it';s not hard to appreciate why it had, and continues to have, such powerful appeal.  When my school produced the play in the 60's,  it shocked many, not because of the incest and infidelity but because of its deeper social and political meaning.  Although  the play wasn't translated into English until 1958, Chinese audiences knew what it was all about, and why it was important.  .

Why western opera audiences need to know Lam Kar Sing

Lam Kar Sing has died. Imagine if dozens of big names in the western opera, film, drama, popular music,  historians, athletes and arts names all dropped dead at the same time? That's how significant Lam was to Cantonese culture. Western audiences assume that high art and popular entertainment don't mix, reinforcing the myth that high arts are "elitist". Eventually that mindset will kill the arts, because dumbing down destroys the very excellence that makes high art great. So Cantonese opera represents an alternative to perceived ideas on the integration of "high art" into society.

Lam Kar Sing began his formal training at the age of 8. Cantonese opera isn't just about singing.  Physical and mental discipline are part of the craft,  since movement and gesture are integral to the expressiveness of the art. Hence the connection to martial arts, which aren't about fighting per se but themselves connect to spiritual values like justice, support for the oppressed (a typical theme inn martial arts movies, for example).  And to good physical health!  The moves opera singers use reflect the moves of qigung, with its emphasis on the harmonies of the body. Not for nothing kung fu masters often practised herbal medicine. Chinese opera doesn't need ballet interludes, it "is" dance in its deepest form.

From these foundations, the "art" side of opera grew. Chinese opera wasn't notated. People learned by watching masters, absorbing the spirit of the art. Although the genre may seem stylized, it thrives on improvisation. A basis of percussion holds the music together, from which the singers can use familiar tunes. Much of the delight lies in the way great performers individualize their work, and adapt what they sing to new situations. Hence the development of new forms of the genre, like opera adapted for the movies, where the rhythmic spoken recitative that's so much a part of  Cantonese opera comes into its own as drama. A good basic plot is acted, like in any drama, but the singers develop their own words, within reason, sometimes alluding to things way outside the plot. Tunes are borrowed from all over. Jingle bells, for example, pops up even in "formal" opera  the spoken parts, as much as the singing, reflect the beauties of a dialect that has nine tones, which can be coloured in subtle ways. There's lots on Chinese opera on this site, please use the labels below to explore.

Chinese opera .long  pre-dates western opera. its origins lie with the literati, the educated scholar class. Kunqu operas quoted huge chunks of classical literature and history, which audiences got  because that was part of the cultural vocabulary. Obviously, not everyone was educated, or even literate. Thus the proliferation of regional adaptations, built on a background of familiar basic stories and styles.  Opera thus became part of "popular" culture. Read more on this site about traditional "pop up" houses and communal celebrations.  No question of "dumbing down" though.  Different troupes competed, and great stars were (and are) idolized because they did good, innovative work. (Photo shows Lam Kar Sing as Monkey.)

And thus back to Lam Kar Sing. He was uncommonly good at all aspects of his art. He could sing, and act, brilliantly, the merest tic of a muscle infinitely moving. He sang formal traditional opera, but also variants and "straight" theatre, including modern drama.  His martial arts movies are "high art" with their historical and literary allusions,  a far cry from the crude violence that kung fu movies sometimes descend to. But even those connect to Chinese history and culture and to modern life. For more details on Lam Kar Sing's life and art, please read these articles HERE and HERE   A friend, who followed Lam's career since they were both young men, told me what Lam was like away from the camera. genuinely personable, kind and humble, who loved his art and culture. That's why he was so much loved in return.

Cantonese Opera comes to London

The renowned  Cantonese Opera singer Yuen Siu-fai (阮兆輝 ) is bringing top quality Cantonese opera to London on 4th August (details here). Masters of this calibre don't often come to the west. This will be a unique experience. Yuen is bringing his own troupe, the Spring Glory Cantonese Opera Workshop.   They will be performing short extracts from four operas - Loyalty under the Sun, The Assassin, The Celebration of Good Times (a duet) and The Princess in Distress. Each of these pieces will illustrate an aspect of the Cantonese opera tradition, so much to learn as well as enjoy. The evening will be free of charge but it's very high level indeed. In Hong Kong Yuen's workshops cost a lot. There'll also be explanations in English, though the singing will be Cantonese. A lot of the physical gestures are stylized, so the shows should be easy enough to follow even though non-Cantonese speakers will miss out on the poetry of the Cantonese language. It's organized through the True Heart Theatre, who have been creating since 2006 a platform for British Chinese voices to be seen and  heard through work in mainstream scripted productions and in applied theatre contexts.

Yuen trained under the even more famous master Mak Bing Wing. Like most Cantonese opera singers, he trained not only in classical opera singing but also in martial arts. Theyre all part of a wider cultural continuum, very different from the narrow definitions of western opera. Martial arts aren't about fighting but about mental and physical discipline. Yuen (born 1945) also did straight drama, acting in films. One of his signature roles was the boy Little Shrimpy in Father and Son (父與子, 1954)  one of the seminal classics of Cantonese cinema. Yuen was only 7 years old then and his voice was still squeaky, but already his stage presence and intelligence shine through.  Please read my analysis of the film here.

How children learn about opera in China

How to help kids love opera? These days every decent house needs "outreach" partly to develop genuine interest and partly to justify funding. Some of my recent posts on the subject : Will children ever learn about opera ? and End the Missionary Position in Classical Music

 Here's how children learn about opera in Hong Kong. These schoolgirls were given a brief to make a documentary about any subjectb they liked and somehow picked Cantonese Opera with its long and complicated history and sub-genres. They had to research the subject for themselves, read up, do interviews and then do the "practical" working with opera personnel as well as with film makers. They wrote the script and presented it themselves. The film is six years old  and the final sequence about Chinese opera in English is misguided, but these girls are in PRIMARY school. This isn't a single occasion, but a regular experience for many kids in many schools. I went through that system too though I didn't do it until the first three years of secondary school. It was my school that pioneered the system sixty years ago. They did a full production of Purcell Dido and Aeneas. and even sewed the costumes themselves.  I was seven, way too young to be involved, but remember being fascinated.  A few years ago, they did The King and I which went on to DVD and sold well.

The secret of real education, I think, is to learn by doing: self motivation and fun. The subject doesn't matter, and the whole class gets involved. It's also a good way to teach kids how to organize themselves and project manage. Good multi-skilling training for life in general.

Hung Sin Nui has died

 

Hung Sin Nui (紅線女) has died. Her passing is a huge event, for it represents the end of a glorious era in the development of Cantonese culture.  Cantonese culture is quite distinct from the culture of other regions of China. It's feisty, inventive, droll and pugnacious. It's not for nothing that China's revolutions start in the South and the world is populated with migrants from the region. Hung Sin Nui was one of the most important Cantonese opera singers of her time, but also played straight roles in costume as well as modern dramas.  There's no rigid barrier between genres in China.. She was also a passionate advocate of Cantonese culture and progressive values. The characters she played were independent minded woman with personality, role models not only for women but also for men in a rapidly-changing society. Hung Sin Nui heroines aren't passive : they think and feel and act ! 

Hung Sin Nui was a stage name, chosen for meaning. "Hung" means red : for happiness, prosperity and art.  "Sin" means thread, implying the refinement and strength of silk, which can be woven in endless filaments. "Nui" mean girl, a bit anonymous, but suggests universal experience. "Red" ironically has another connotation. At the height of her fame, in the 1950's she left Hong Kong and returned to Guang Zhou (Canton) as a statement of faith. She suffered in the Cultural Revolution but her ideals weren't dimmed. She promoted Cantonese opera and culture and kept the arts alive.

Born in the Shun Tak area, from which so many opera stars emerged, Hung Sin Nui began performing at 16. Very soon after, she married Ma Tse Tsang (馬師曾), the biggest star of the time,who created modern Cantonese opera. Read Virgil Ho's book "Understanding Canton, rethinking Popular Culture in the Republican Era (buy it here), Hung Sin Nui was Ma's muse, but also a star in her own right, making many films on her own. When a good account of the development of Cantonese opera and culture in the second half of the last century gets written, Hung Sin Nui will feature greatly.

So much material to choose ! But I've picked a short, funny piece from the film The Judge goes to Pieces (審死官)from 1948 (see the full film here). Hung Sin Nui plays the wife, who saves a pregnant woman who is escaping a murderous family. In the short clip below, she does a tour de force of Cantonese Sprechstimme. The story is comic but with deeper implications. The married couple (the husband played by Hung Sin Nui's real life husband Ma Tse tsang)  are childless and unhappy, but by helping a stranger they are rewarded. The baby inherits his father's estate, and Ma Tse Tsang's character ends up being made a judge.

Cuban Chinese Opera Singers

Cubans singing Cantonese opera? A hundred years ago there was a thriving Chinese community throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America,  descendants of coolies and merchants. The communities were big enough that they could sustain Chinese culture, even though most of the people had little contact with China.  Here is a link to a remarkable film  based on unique archives. Although it is in Cantonese, it's easy to follow because there are English subtitles and some amazing archive photos.

The film focuses on a woman called Ho Chou Lan, who was born in 1920 to a mixed-race Cuban -Chinese family. Her natural father died when she was one month old. Her mother remarried an immigrant from Toi Shan. called Fong Biu. Thus Ho Chou Lan grew up speaking Cantonese, with a Chinese education. Fong Biu was an opera fanatic, so he taught his stepdaughter from the age of 4. By her teens, she was appearing professionally. The Cuban Chinese community was big enough to support a troupe of local-born opera singers, some mixed race.

Most of the Havana Chinese community have left Cuba, but Ho Chou Lan  still lives there, in great poverty She knows enough Chinese to read the typesets in an old printing press: once  there were 4 Chinese language newspapers in the region. She shows us a yellowed manuscript from which she can sing the old operas. She also kmows what the operas are about and can explain  some of the idioms. Later, she gives a performance in what seems to be someone's living room. She puts on a traditional costume and sings from memory. Her grandson accompanies, playing the cymbals. He's Cuban, hardly a trace of Chinese, but he can pick up the rhythms of the old lady's song and improvise. Someone plays a western violin. There is another singer, also in costume, but she's learned phonetically and doesn't really have the sounds in her soul, like Ho Chou Lan does.  For the film maker, Lau Pok Chi, from Hong Kong, these women are fascinating, remnants of a once thriving Wah Kiiu  (overseas Chinese) world.  "They've never seen China", he says, "I wish we could take them to Toi Shan"; that's the district where their ancestors came from. There are houses there built in a vaguely western style, with money the emigrants sent home. It's preserved as a historic monument. Ho Chou Lan is something of a monument, too.

Opera in a Bamboo shed

Opera in a bamboo shed? Those who know opera only from a western perspective have no idea what happens in the rest of the world.  Chinese opera long pre-dates western opera, and is far more deeply embedded into popular culture than those in the west can comprehend. So when Hong Kong starts a major initiative into Cantonese opera traditions,  its significance is major, culturally and politically. It's a statement of regional identity. 

Over the Lunar New Year, the huge West Kowloon Cultural District hosts Bamboo Theatre, a series of 11 Cantonese operas held in a purpose-built outdoors bamboo shed. When Zaha Hadid's Guangdong Opera House opened, therre was much ill-informed, even racist  negativity from people completely insensitive to cultures other than their own. The West Kowloon Cultural District dwarfs the Guandong initiative many times over.

Tickets to the Bamboo Theatre operas sold out immediately, a sign that the genre is by no means as obscure as the English-language media might suggest.  Cantonese opera continues to be performed throughout the region, and classic opera films are often broadcast on TV. Traditionally, opera was performed in large temporary bamboo venues specially built for the occasion. Opera companies travelled, often by foot, carrying their props with them. Opera came to the people, not the other way around.  Fixed-site theatres became popular at the turn of the last century, starting a new variant of the tradition. One of the 1930's art deco theatres near West Kowlon is being restored.  But temporary theatres meant that operas could be performed anywhere, even on remote islands, bringing villagers into contact with wider regional culture.  Performances often coincided with important religious or clan events.

Once I was hiking and noticed streams of people with flags heading across the fields. They were going to a festival held by 3 villages every 60 years. All the villagers who'd emigrated came back with their children and grandchildren, many raised abroad, coming to connect to their roots. Talking to some emigrés I realized that some worked in the Dutch drugs trade. Haha! But most overseas communities are legit, and triads also have a positive, non-criminal role in traditional Cantonese communities. A BBC film crew was on hand, so the documentary is in the archives.  Magnums of VSOP brandy consumed, thousands of oysters (a local speciality). Outside the matshed theare there were 40-foot high effigies of village gods, to confer prosperity and protection. Arias and plots in Cantonese opera are fairly familiar, so the emphasis is on the skill of the performer, and a strong sense of personal input. None of the affectation or oneupmanship that plagues some western attitudes to opera.
 
The photo at the right shows how big bamboo theatres can be. Building bamboo scaffolding like this is an art in itself, still practised in Hong Kong with its massive skyscrapers. The big red structures are also made of bamboo, decorated with paper flowers and coloured silks, nowadays lit at night with electric lights. Theses banners appear whenever restaurant and shops open: a traditional art that certainly hasn't disappeared.

Hong Kong University is sponsoring a long-term project into regional opera, with emphasis on three village traditions, though traditional opera certainly isn't just confined to rural areas.  A few years ago a huge bamboo theatre popped up on a vacant lot among the high rises in Sheung Wan, one of the oldest districts on Hong Kong's main island, though it's completely urbanized now. HKU is doing the project because it integrates many different disciplines of study: history, culture, engineering and sociology. The project also connects the community with the university and validates regional identity. Enjoy the video below, with English subtitles:

Opera singing Rickshaw Puller

San Ma Tse Tsang (新馬師曾 1916-1997) was one of thr greatest Cantonese opera stars of his time. In The Rickshaw Puller and the Orphan (拉車行大運, 1961) he plays a rickshaw puller who shows kindness to others and is rewarded. The  opening credits are shot over Hong Kong scenes familiar to westerners, Sun Ma Tse Tsang's song tells about ordinary local people who wouldn't have gone to the Peak or to fancy nightclubs.  Rickshaw pullers were poor, but their jobs took them to all parts of town. They saw Hong Kong from different perspectives. Although this film is fiction, it's also keen social observation. The relationships between Ah Cheung and his neighbours are central to the plot. Lots of cameos for character actors of the time, like Sai Gwa pau with his buck teeth and Lau Hak Suen with his "villain" eyebrows.

Sun Ma Tse Tsang plays Ah Cheung, a rickshaw puller. Rickshaw work was tough. The men were out, often barefoot, in all weathers, and many became drug addicts. Sun Ma tseTsang's wiry physique is perfect. He looks tubercular but he's tough. In real life he was a powerful character and used to make jokes about his looks. Ah Cheung lives in a bed space. It's not a room but a space rented out for  a few hours before the next "session". He's way behind in his rent. The landlady Sam Koo (陶三姑 1895-1983) acts tough and mercenary but her droll face is inherently funny. Brilliant character actress.  One day Ah Cheung picks up a woman who is in childbirth. They start to negotiate a fare but he realizes she's about to pop, so he runs for help. When he gets back the woman is gone, but she's left the baby behind. So Ah Cheung picks up the baby and tries to cope. There's a wonderful scene where he climbs over his sleeping neighbours and steals milk and a thermos of hot water to feed the baby. The landlady charges more because babies cry and create diapers. Nonetheless Ah Cheung raises the baby, carrying in in the umbrella section of his rickshaw while he works. 

A famous opera singer Miss Chan (Fu Tsair) (Tang Bik Wan 鄧碧雲 1926-91)  also in real life a very famous actress and opera singer)  is propositioned by a sleazy rich man, Mr Lau ( Lau Hak Suen) who smokes cigars, wears a bow tie and is chauffeured around in a fancy car.  Rickshaws are called "cars" too, so there's a pun on the words "pulled car" and "petrol car". Miss Chan jumps into Ah Cheung's rickshaw to fend off Mr Lau. "Petrol cars are faster than rickshaws" says Mr Law who goes to Miss Chan's house to lie in wait. But Miss Chan gets Ah Cheung to ride around all night instead of going home. She asks about the little girl, who's name is "Thirty Cents", the fee Ah Cheung and her mother were negotiating before the baby was born. "You deserve to be loved" says Miss Chan, who admires how the toddler follows the rickshaw and helps out night and day.

Miss Chan gives Ah Cheung $20. "Too much!" says Ah Cheung. "We're behind in rent!" squeaks the kid. Rich Mr Lau is angry that  Miss Chan got out of his clutches so sends his thugs to beat Ah Cheung up and smash his rickshaw. "It's only money" says the rich man. Significantly Sun Ma Tse Tsang describes the mugging in a opera aria.  Miss Chan goes to see Ah Cheung in the "Pigeon Roost" which he calls his home, because everyone there is stuffed together like pigeons. "He lives on the thjrd tier" says the landlady, meaning the third layer of bunk beds. "He can't work" she adds, he's beaten "red, silver and yellow". 

Miss Chan gives Ah Cheung money, and he shares his good fortune with the whole household and pays for a feast. The scene where the householders eat chicken is poignant. They're too poor to nomally eat meat, so they gnaw on the bones to get every last scrap of goodness.  Details like this are lost on moderrn people who don't know what poverty was like then. For example, street kids were sometimes covred in black slime. "Don't pick her up" says Ah Cheung, worried that the dirt on the child might mess Miss Cheung's beautiful cheoung sam.  That night the householders dream of food, licking their lips and rubbing their tummies in their sleep. "They've eaten the equivalent of a month's rent" says the landlady, who dreams that her round clay piggy bank has broken.

Since Ah Cheung can't do rickshaws any more, Miss Chan hires him as her assistant in the opera house.  He mimics a snippet from a famous aria, "I am 18 years old, I've never thought of men" (is this from the Purple Hairpin?)   Mr Lau's thugs beat up one of the other opera singers, so Ah Cheung is called on to sing the role of a cheeky maid. In real life, Sun Ma Tse Tsang was a great singer, so he can do the part with great humour.  Hilarious falsetto! The Prince in the opera is I think sung by Tang Bik Wan herself. Cross dressing is no big deal in Cantonese opera.

Ah Cheung is now in western clothes and his little girl has a white fur coat and doll. They are staying with Miss Chan in a mansion.  Mr Lau wants to trap Miss Chan into marrying him, but Ah Cheung discovers a stash of white powder..So he warns Miss Chan that .Mr Lau is a crook. They sing an extended duet in traditional opera style as they decide what to do.  When the crooks discover the stash has been found, they try to stop Ah Cheung and Miss Chan from calling the police and leaving. Ah Cheung is bundled into the boot of the car, and Miss Chan is tied up in the passenger seat. But little Thirty Cents runs to tell her dad's fellow rickshaw drivers what's happening, and they all rush to help, blocking the getaway. Confronation between rickshaws and fancy foreign car, morally upright poor folks and sleazy crooks. Ah Cheung's hawker friend joins in, unleashing the pole he uses to carry his goods, and uses it as a weapon. What a clash of cultures! It turns out that Miss Chan was the lady Ah Cheung helped a few years before. Thirty Cents is her natural daughter. In the last scene, Ah Cheung is back in the Pigeon Roost with three tiers of bunks, reading about Mr Lau's arrest in the newspaper. Miss Chan enters, in simple black sam foo, (symbol of Chinese virtues) and coyly says "I want to talk to you about something". 

What every good opera singer needs

Leung Sing Por, the great Cantonese opera singer and comedian says, "In our line of business we're under pressure, need something that will keep us going all day". So from performance to business, he always has on hand a drink that smells/tastes good and is good for you. Horlicks! "Really GOOD !" says the master. (It's a pun on the word "HO" which means "good" in Chinese) Can't see Placido Domingo trying this !

Bruce Lee feral child star

Bruce Lee is a huge cultural icon but do we really appreciate just how radical he was? He brought kung fu to the west but he also transformed Cantonese values. Nowadays we don't remember just how prevalent colonial values were, and how everyone acquiesced in the status quo for many reasons, as if brainwashed.  There's no need to get defensive or deny this. It was just the way things were. It's hard to explain just how radical his impact was without relating to the context of the times Then along comes Bruce Lee.  He kicked ass in every way!  He beat up white guys! It wasn't just his moves (wilder than traditional kung fu) but his ATTITUDE. Kung fu isn't fighting but mental discipline. Bruce Lee did what many felt but could not express, and he did it to better the world around him. But what influenced him to become what he was?  The secret lies partly in his early Cantonese movies.

Bruce Lee (李小龍 Lee Siu Lung, "Little Dragon") came from a movie family, so he absorbed the socio-political values of the industry. In Chinese culture, art and education go together, so right from the start, film in China was linked to modernization and social change. Of course Chinese movies can be totally airhead, but many obliquely address moral values. Chinese films are entertainment with a subtext.

The Guiding Light (苦海明燈) (1953) was Bruce Lee's eighth film, so even at the age of 13 he had long experience. All the stars were big names in Cantonese film, and he almost certainly knew them all socially. The film begins when a pretty young woman (Ah Ngo, played by Yung Siu Yee 容小意) gives birth. She was conned into getting pregnant by Mr Chan who has no children and promises to marry her if she bears a son. In fact he just wants the kid, not her, so she runs away, heartbroken. She has no family and is so poor that she gives the child (Tien Sang) to the kindly Dr Lam who delivered him. The doctor adores the kid  but when he remarries, his wife wants to start afresh with her own child,  Incensed, the wet nurse takes the child to live with her in poverty. He's happy, though, and makes friends with a little blind girl who gers bullied. Eventually wet nurse dies, and her lowlife husband  lets his friend sell the child to a wealthy couple. The boy gets to wear a western suit and bow tie but it's a horribly tense, unhappy home. Then he overhears the new parents scrapping about money and owning children. Shocked, the boy runs away, stealing food to survive, sleeping on streets. Bruce Lee played wild, feral children in several other movies, so maybe this is when he became an independent, self-sufficent personality who wasn't going to accept anything at face value.

Then Mrs Lee,  Pak Yin (白燕 ) comes into his life. She and her huband, a doctor, run a school for blind girls and offer to let him stay. Pak Yin was a great beauty and mega star but here she's dressed frumpy and wears glasses and a grey wig, to show how serious the role is. In real life, Pak Yin was a powerful personality who made many movies with a progressive and even feminist agenda. Even in this film, all the women are dominant characters, even the minor roles.  They are agents for change, positive and negative. Pak Yin was also a partner in the film studios she worked in, and nurtured other creative people. (Read more about her here)  Clearly, she was an influence on what Bruce Lee was to become.
 
 But because the boy has has been rejected so many times, he trusts no-one. Then he sees the litttle blind girl he knew before, and settles in. When the boy grows up he morphs into Cheung Wood-yau (張活游) another mega star who nearly always played  good natured liberals. Grown-up Tien Sang becomes a doctor like his adopted Dad and makes a medical breakthrough to cure blindness. He's feted at a big party, and makes a speech to say that all that he has become is thanks to Mrs Lee who took him in and taught him to better himself and to serve the community.  "I had no parents but you were a mother to me".

Then Pak Yin makes her big speech. "It's not so simple", she says. "Every person is a result of three influences: birth, nurture, teaching. I taught you but I can't be your parent". Old Dr Lam comes in. "Do you remember me? I tried to nurture you, but couldn't, but I've brought your birth mother.".But first, the nasty Chans run in.  They read the newspapers and want to share the success. "I spent a lot of money to bring you into my family", says Mr Chan, "Now you owe me, and I'll sue you if you don't pay up". So natural birth mother, who is now poor and haggard, confronts her former lover. "He is my son. If you're going to sue him, you're going to have to answer for what you did to me". She addresses the gathering. "This man doen't deserve to be a parent". Tien Sang is shocked, as he's suddenly discovered his genes. Ah Ngo says, "I bore you but I couldn't raise you, it's Mrs Lee who made you what you are". "I'm happy just to see you." (ie she's selfless, unlike his father)

Then Pak Yin (the real star of the movie) makes her big statement. "Every child is born with potential but if they're not treated right it's wasted. We have a responsibility, because children are the foundation of good society".  Pan to a shot of a lighthouse on a rock. So perhaps we understand better what made Bruce Lee the man he was.

Lots more on this site about Chinese film and culture, including full downloads. Follow the labels below.

Peony Pavilion full broadcast online

The Peony Pavilion is one of the great classics of world literature, but in our anglocentric straitjackets, most don't know. Imagine the world without Shakespeare, Mozart or Beethoven?. That's what we're missing by not knowing The Peony Pavilion.  Now there's an easy way to get to know it thru a full broadcast of the opera version on Classical TV (link here). The synopsis on the site is good and easy to follow. Thje brooadcast is the 1998 peformance, which is on DVD but not so easy to get hold of.

The original novel was written byTang Xianzu (湯顯祖) (1550-1616), one of the greatest Chinese playwrights, and Peony Pavilion is only one of several of his sagas that have become famous Chinese operas. The Peony Pavilion and its values pervade Chinese culture, so knowing about it is a key to understand how millions of non-anglo people think.

Every region in China has its own variant of Chinese opera, and within each region there are numerous different styles. Most people in the west have seen Beijing opera masks, but Beijing opera is almost more acrobatics than other forms. My thing is Cantonese opera, glorious for voice as the dialect has nine tones, unlike the main national language which has only four. These nine tones can be varied by varying tempo, alliteration etc, so to me it's exqusite. Generally though,  the finest Chinese opera comes from Suzhou, a city synonymous with elegance, refinement and erudition. "The best scholars, the most beautiful women, the loveliest gardens" (some over 1000 years old). And the finest Suzhou opera is kunqu (崑曲).

Kunqu developed in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), China's Golden Age in artistic terms, and pre-dates all other forms of opera, both in China and in the west. It now has protected status underr UNESCO. But what's given kunqu a new life has been the work of Professor Pai Hsein-yung (白先勇). The original Peony Pavilion went on for days, the scholarly audience delighting in long literary and philosophic peregrination, which nowadays is lost on most people.

Professor Pai's edition concentrates on the essential drama in the plot A clever girl, Du Liniang, has a vivid dream about meeting the perfect lover. She believes that destiny will guide her lover to her. She dies. Her parents pine and the family mansion becomes derelict. The man is a destitute scholar, so the gardener takes pity and lets him stay in the secret pavilion. He finds the secret portrait the girl hid in a rock in the deserted pavilion. Dead girl reappears as a ghost. Intense love. Girl gets resurrected! (For detailed synopsis and analysis please read HERE).

How "modern" and universal these themes are - Dreams, the subconscious, love, nature and the supernatural, battlescenes, humour, life after death and the idea that virtue is rewarded. One big sub-theme sends up scholars and pretenders, which must have had scholarly audiences creasing up with laughter.

Du Liniang herself is an amazingly adventurous character. She's rich and spoiled but wants to study like a man. Even her snappy maid runs rings round the old fellow sent to teach her, but it's not nasty, and rather touching. Lots of scholars never went on to fame and fortune. Proactive, creative Du outfoxes everyone - her parents, her tutor, the military, her lover and even death.In the video clip below she is painting her own portrait, the audacious hussy, and hides it in a rock by the pavilion so it will be found by her future lover just like in her dream.Even the minor characters are fun, like the pert maid and a wonderful Bandit Queen.

I took a friend to the 2008 Sadler's Wells performance who didn't know much about Chinese culture and he was overwhelmed. It was so colourful and expressive - emotion transcends language. The new version is still over 10 hours, but it flies by, because the story is so strong and the performance, by the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Company, was superb.There is a DVD available of the 1998 premiere. It's been reissued in "normal" DVD form, but I have the original, in a handpainted padded silk presentation box, and signed by Professor Pai.

Although Chinese opera is very stylized, it's this very stylization that gives it the strength to renew itself. Once you're used to the basic rhythms, gestures and cues, there's a lot of interpretive freedom, even room to improvise. Chinese opera fans, like opera fans in the west, cherish minute details (especially now we have film and CD). But even an ancient form like kunqu isn't a museum piece. Like Du Liniang, it gets resurrected and lives anew. (Please see lots of other posts on this site, which is one of the few which discusses Chinese opera, movies and music  in English). You can download a translation of Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion from Project Gutenberg.

Viennese operetta as Chinese opera

What a scream! A proper Cantonese opera, but also a satire on Viennese operetta. The plot's straight out of 1920/1930's kitsch, milked for all its dotty craziness, but set to musical form that's authentically Cantonese. For most non-Chinese, Chinese opera is hard to penetrate because it involves much understanding of cultural values and customs. Romance of Jade Hall (璇宮艷史)  however, is ideal for western audiences because the plot is a send-up of 1920's and 30's kitch. Ruritanian kingdoms with autocratic aristocrats in crazy costumes, playboy lovers and lots of natty arias. Ukelele solos and badly played gypsy violins! Even a skit based on the tune Oh Susana. Corny enough in Mitteleuropa, hysterically funny with a Chinese cast camping it up for al its worth.

Prince Ali (pronounced Nali) (Cheung Ying 張瑛, famous matinee idol) ventures incognito into other kingdoms where he becomes a hearthrob nightclub singer. Regular fans will squeal at the sight of him with curly wig and lipstick, like a round eye.  Exiled from one kingdom for chasing too many women, he's arrested in another, where the Queen (Law Yim-hing 羅艷卿, another legit Cantonese opera singer) fancies him but can't marry a commoner. Convoluted plot ends well when Ali's true ID is revealed. Best of all, the Prince's sidekick, who wears shiny silk suits and plays the ukelele is Leung Sing Bo (梁醒波) the greatest comedy opera singer and actor of all time. The Queen's comic sidekick is Lolo, Tam Lan-Hing (譚蘭卿) who often paired up with Leung Sing Bo, and is his counterpart in every way. Choruses of palace maidens and princes from fantasy kingdoms.

Otherwise this is true, traditional Cantonese opera (and the movie coyly starts out like that). Rhythmic recitatives, inventive arias, percussion-led interjections. A great introduction to Cantonese opera form. English and Chinese subtitles, but the Cantonese original is best, full of wit and pun. 

The Dunce Bumps into the Ghost

Chinese Halloween Opera Bouffe! A Halloween movie you won't see anywhere but on a site like this. It's from 呆佬遇鬼, "The Dunce Bumps into a Ghost" (1957). You don't need to speak Cantonese to get it.The umbrella is walking by itself because it's possessed by a ghost. The man in the silk gown 劉克宣 Lau Hak-suen) is a loanshark. He grabs a piece of chicken off the servant but it turns into a joss candle (used in prayers) Then at his banquet the meal turns into paper offerings for the dead. A kid pees into the enamel spittoon, and the ghost empties the pot on the man's head. Then the umbrella comes in and the ghost appears. It's a young woman (紫羅蓮 Tse Law-lin) whom the man has conned and she's come for revenge.

The real star is the incomparable 紫羅蓮 Leung Sing por (1908-81), the "Dunce" of the title. He was a megastar, who sang dozens of opera roles and also made over 400 movies of all kinds. In this one he plays a humble repairer of wax umbrellas to whom the ghostly maiden appears because she needs help nailing the villain, and Leung's character is a nice, honest man. Leung gets to show his comedy skills, and act, and sing! This is a wonderful example of the way Chinese culture embraces a combination of genres: opera, movies, popular song, comedy, spooks, social comment, art and entertainment. In the west, so many barriers between genres.

Leung Sing por becomes the ghost's enabler. No-one can see her, they just see him talking to the umbrella. He helps the ghost cross water (they can't do that on their own) and go to a temple. (During this scene shot on a real village shrine a passerby runs past behind him. It's not in the script, these movies were shot on location, and ordinary people did get caught on camera). The papers he scatters in his path are "ghost money", blessed in the shrine, that give the spirit easy passage. The crooked businessman calls in crooked Daoist exorcists in to catch the ghost. I wish I could find those scenes as they are great folklore. Fancy ceremonies and conga lines of captured ghosts hopping in a line like zombies following the exorcist. But not this time. This lady ghost wreaks havoc!

牡丹亭 Peony Pavilion - Chinese saga and opera.

The Peony Pavilion (牡丹亭)(Mu Tan Ting) is one of the great Chinese classics, and at the Edinburgh Festival 2011, it appears in ballet form with the National Ballet of China. From the clips it looks fun. Tang Xianzu (湯顯祖) (1550-1616) was one of the greatest Chinese playwrights, and Peony Pavilion is only one of several of his sagas that have become famous Chinese operas. The Peony Pavilion is one of China's greatest classics, so knowing about it is absolutely key to understanding Chinese culture.

Every region in China has its own variant of Chinese opera, and within each region there are numerous different styles. Most people in the west have seen Beijing opera masks, but Beijing opera is almost more acrobatics than other forms. My thing is Cantonese opera, glorious for voice as the dialect has nine tones, unlike the main national language which has only four. These nine tones can be varied by varying tempo, alliteration etc, so to me it's exqusite. Generally though,  the finest Chinese opera comes from Suzhou, a city synonymous with elegance, refinement and erudition. "The best scholars, the most beautiful women, the loveliest gardens" (some over 1000 years old). And the finest Suzhou opera is kunqu (崑曲).

Kunqu developed in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), China's Golden Age in artistic terms and pre-dates all other forms of opera, both in China and in the west. It now has protected status underr UNESCO. But what's given kunqu a new life has been the work of Professor Pai Hsein-yung (白先勇). The original Peony Pavilion went on for days, the scholarly audience delighting in long literary and philosophic peregrination, which nowadays is lost on most people.

Professor Pai's edition concentrates on the essential drama in the plot A clever girl, Du Liniang, has a vivid dreams about meeting the perfect lover. She believes that destiny will guide her lover to her. She dies. Her parents pine and the family mansion becomes derelict. The man is a destitute scholar, so the gardener takes pity and lets him stay in the secret pavilion. He finds the secret portrait the girl hid in a rock in the deserted pavilion. Dead girl reappears as a ghost. Intense love. Girl gets resurrected! (For detailed synopsis and analysis please read HERE).

How "modern" and universal these themes are - Dreams, the subconscious, love, nature and the supernatural, battle scenes, humour, life after death and the idea that virtue is rewarded. One big sub-theme sends up scholars and pretenders, which must have had scholarly audiences creasing up with laughter.

Du Liniang herself is an amazingly adventurous character. She's rich and spoiled but wants to study like a man. Even her snappy maid runs rings round the old fellow sent to teach her, but it's not nasty, and rather touching. Lots of scholars never went on to fame and fortune. Proactive, creative Du outfoxes everyone - her parents, her tutor, the military, her lover and even death. In the video clip below she is painting her own portrait, the audacious hussy, and hides it in a rock by the pavilion so it will be found by her future lover just like in her dream.Even the minor characters are fun, like the pert maid and a wonderful Bandit Queen.

I took a friend to the 2008 Sadler's Wells performance who didn't know much about Chinese culture and he was overwhelmed. It was so colourful and expressive - emotion transcends language. The new version is still over 10 hours, but it flies by, because the story is so strong and the performance, by the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Company, was superb.There is a DVD available of the 1998 premiere. It's been reissued in "normal" DVD form, but I have the original, in a handpainted padded silk presentation box, and signed by Professor Pai.

Although Chinese opera is very stylized, it's this very stylization that gives it the strength to renew itself. Once you're used to the basic rhythms, gestures and cues, there's a lot of interpretive freedom, even room to improvise. Chinese opera fans, like opera fans in the west, cherish minute details (especially now we have film and CD). But even an ancient form like kunqu isn't a museum piece. Like Du Liniang, it gets resurrected and lives anew. (Please see lots of other posts on this site, which is one of the few which discusses Chinese opera, movies and music  in English). You can download a translation of Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion from Project Gutenberg.

More Chinese Sprechstimme

Fong Yim Fun (芳艷芬) plays the clever maiden in this 1958 film "Red Matchmaker" (red meaning auspicous not Communism). What's so special about this is the clarity of the voice parts, recitation rather than singing.  Because it's stylized, there's room for improvisation. Listen to the little kid who rats on his older sister. Later the matchmaker makes him apologize to save his sister's reputation so she can be married off to the man she loves, arranged, of course by the crafty matchmaker. The stylization is great for comedy, too. The kid wails  "Don't beat me Mama !" but byiou know it's not violent. The "mother" is a man. He's the celebrated Lee Hoi chuen (李海泉). Fong Yim Fun was the top star in her genre of Cantonese opera. All opera singers, even the greatest, made lots of ordinary films because that's how the business worked. No fuss about changing styles. Fong Yim Fun made relatuvely few straight movies, but she was brilliant in comedy where she often played a flirtatious but very sharp modern girl.

1908 Beijing opera recording

In 1908, recording technology was limited. Hardly any western opera recordings (though hear Carmen from 1905 HERE) Yet in China someone was recording Beijing opera. Don't know which performer is which but these are the names given, Xu Yin Tang  許蔭棠 and Lu Yanting.+ 陸硯亭 , The song, 趕三關 is about a drinking party in Song times. Alternative source of the recording here.

Edinburgh Festival 2011 "turning Japanese"

Will the Edinburgh Festival outshine the BBC Proms this year? Serious competition, even though lots of Edinburgh will be broadcast by BBC Radio 3 so no-one need miss out.

Big international bands! Kent Nagano conducts the lively Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in two very interesting programmes. Jonathan Nott conducts the unique Bamberg Orchestra, and Charles Dutoit conducts the Philadeplhia Orchestra in two relatively straightforward programmes. Myung-whun Chung brings the Soeul Philharmonic for their Edinburgh debut. In Korea, they take western classical music extremely seriously, so expect world class standards. The Philharmonia London (Salonen), The BBC Scottish Orchestra (Runnicles, Volkov), The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Jurowski), the superlative Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Volkov, Ticciati, Norrington) lead the local contingent. In football this would be pretty close to Premier League (Premier League being Berlin, Lucerne and Vienna).

Then look at the repertoire! Big starter is Schumann Das Paradies und die Peri with Roger Norrington who brought the piece back into the repertoire. The first time I heard him conduct it (1998) he had to explain it to the sudience, it was so "new". It will be wonderful to hear what he does with it after all these years  Nagano's programmes are adventurous - Takemitsu and Unsuk Chin and Waltraud Meier no less, singing Mahler. Myung-whun Chung is conducting Messiaen, in which he's a force of nature.

Edinburgh are using the image of a green chrysanthemum (one of my favourite flowers) to emphasize that there'll be lots of non-western music in the 2011 Festival. Takemitsu, Hosokawa, Dai Fujikura, Unsuk Chin, all leading lights of modern music who happen to be Japanese or Korean. Even the Arditti Quartet is in on the act, though they've been playing these composers long before anyone else.  Chinese musicians too, like Yundi Li, much underrated because Lang Lang grabs the limelight, and Xuefei Yang, the guitarist, and the T'ang Quartet. Note they're all playing modern works, not traditional folk music. Modern East Asian music has a tradition completely of its own, which exists in parallel with a resurgence in traditional forms.

Asia is so huge that it really can't be spoken of as one unit, anymore than you might link the Lapps of Finland to the musicians of the Cape Verde Islands. But it's time we recognised the confluence of western and non-western music. Messaien, Debussy, Ravel, all influenced by non-western worlds. Hence the Jogyakarta Gamelan Orchestra. Gamelan captivated  audiences at the 1870 World's Fair in Paris. It's influence is huge - Debussy, Messiaen, Bartok, Colin McPhee, etc.  We wouldn't have nearly as much music for percussion without gamelan. Colonialism should be as dead in music as it is in politics (where unfortunately it still exists).

Impressive opera at Edinburgh this year too, and international, too. Jont productions are a good thing as they spread costs and make adventurous fare economically feasible., From Flanders comes the Vlaamse Opera with Rossini Semiramide,. René Jacobs conducts the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in Haydn's Orlando Paladino (look at the singers!). Sir Andrew Davis conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Massenet's Thaïs. Again western fascination with non western themes, going a long way back. The "Chinese" opera here is a modern hybrid, a reworking of Hamlet, The Prince of Zhi Dan. It's by the Shanghai Beijing Opera Troupe. Beijing and Shanghai opera are quite different so I think this must just be Beijing opera done in Shanghai. Might be interesting, though there is a major traditional kunqu (southern, lyrical) opera Jade Hairpin in Amsterdam in June.

Even more interesting might be King Lear adapted, directed and performed by Wu Hsing-kuo and the Contemporary Legend Theatre. "Delivering a one man tour de force, Wu Hsing-kuo simultaneously depicts multiple characters, from the maniacal Lear and his ally Gloucester, to his evil, grasping daughters and the pitiful, lonely Fool. Further pushing the boundaries of traditional theatrical convention, he also appears as himself, exploring his own identity as an actor in relation to the fictional characters he portrays." goes the blurb. This sounds good as Wu is approaching the universal theme with fresh ideas, rather than doing a pastiche. Could well be the sleeper hit of the whole Festival. HERE is a linik to his 2007 performance of Lear in New York.

Lots of good recitals - Matila, Kozena, Damrau, Keenlyside, Kirchschlager etc most of which we can hear in London at the Wigmore Hall anytime. More of a surprise might be Julian Prégardien, son of Christoph. They're doing a two tenor, father and son recital, which should be interesting. Luckily, that is being broadcast so we won't miss out.

What will the BBC Proms 2011 have to offer? Hold your breath a little longer....