Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1146013tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Beijing Opera Performance
1146013tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Beijing Opera Performance
1146013tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Beijing Opera Performance
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Elizabeth Wichmann
146
ments did not necessarily originate with the individuals directly engaged in
the creation process, actors, musicians, directors, and writers were inti-
mately involved in the interpretation of content demands, and in the cre-
ation of characters in appropriate situations. For instance, Liang Dacheng,
director of the model production Boulder Bay (Panshi wan) which was
developed by the Shanghai Beijing Opera Company (Shanghai Jingju
Yuan), described one representative work session in which he, the per-
formers concerned, and several musician-composers collaborated from
early morning until past midnight to compose the sung melody and musi-
cal accompaniment for just two lines of lyrics (1987). Primary considera-
tions included accuracy and depth of musical expression, aesthetic values,
and the particular performance skills of the actor who would sing them.
While that performer by no means exercised creative authority to the same
degree as did traditional performers such as Mei Lanfang, Liang stressed
that the actor's contribution was a crucial part of the collaborative creative
effort. In fact, many performers involved in the creation of the model
productions view that effort as the most challenging creative work in their
professional lives to date.2 And performers were unquestionably the center
of the model productions in performance. Even the now infamous struc-
tural goal of the productions-san tuchu (the three prominences), whereby
prominence was to be given in ascending precedence to positive characters,
heros, and the principal revolutionary hero (whether male or female)-
is far from alien to the traditional, lead-performer-centered structure of
Beijing opera.
Beijing opera plays, developed and polished through work sessions,
rehearsals, discussions, and performances, are ideally intended to become a
part of a permanent repertory-not just the script, as is usually the case in
the West, but rather the entire performance text. In a very real and impor-
tant sense, each play is first and foremost an example of Beijing opera, and
secondly perhaps an example of a particular performance school, rather
than a fully independent, unique production.
The traditional audience for this progressively accumulating repertory is
a popular, rather than an elite one. Bonnie McDougall (1984:280-81) de-
scribes traditional Chinese audiences as comprising three levels: a highly
educated elite audience, an intermediate semieducated urban audience, and
an illiterate peasant audience. Shejointly defines the latter two as popular,
while indicating that in pre-Liberation China xiqu (traditional theatre, or
opera) belonged to the intermediate-level audience. Yu Lin, president of
the National Xiqu Academy (Zhongguo Xiqu Xueyuan) until his death in
April 1989, felt that xiqu, including Beijing opera, was most popular with
the peasantry, and cited the recent substantial peasant sponsorship of a
national television competition for young Beijing opera performers as evi-
dence (Yu Lin 1987).
Reform in Beijing opera has been advocated for a variety of reasons, and
numerous reforms have been carried out since the early years of this cen-
tury. The most practical and immediate impetus to the current call for
reform is the diminishing drawing power of Beijing opera. Over the past
six to eight years, audiences have become markedly smaller and the aver-
age audience age has become increasingly older. Two reasons are most
frequently given for these trends (see Hu 1984). According to the first, the
overall quality of performance has deteriorated and Beijing opera has
therefore been unable to compete successfully with TV and film for audi-
ences. According to the second, Beijing opera is an old form which does
not reflect contemporary life in either content or tempo. Contemporary
audiences, especially younger ones, prefer more modern forms, such as
TV and film.
At least three different types of reform have been advocated. The first
calls for enhancing the quality of performance and the status of the art
through the development of a system of performance theory; improved
preprofessional and in-service training for performers, musicians, design-
ers, directors, composers,. and playwrights; audience education; and the
creation of new plays which fully embody traditional aesthetics and tech-
niques. By implication, reforms of this type seem intended to attract a
more intellectual, more sophisticated audience which values traditional
culture. The second type of reform calls for incorporating popular innova-
tions in the staging, costuming and makeup, music, acting, and dance of
both old and new plays. Such reforms seem intended to attract a general,
perhaps younger audience. The third type of reform calls for creating new
plays in which the primary focus is upon intellectual/philosophical content
presented via more avant-garde performance techniques, somewhat in the
manner of 2oth century nonrealistic Western theatre. By implication, these
reforms seem intended to attract a younger, more intellectual, more
sophisticated audience.
All three types of reform have been hampered by a lack of funding. The
government has gradually decreased financial support to performance
companies and training schools during the 198os, while encouraging them
to become more economically independent (see Gui 1987, Ma Buomin
I987).3 Additionally, especially in Beijing opera, the creation of new plays
is a sensitive issue. This is true at one level for a practical, organizational
reason: a substantial percentage of members in each troupe or company
regard themselves as leading performers. They are relatively willing to
serve as supporting players for a given leading performer in a traditional
play, since very little rehearsal time is required and they can feel fairly
certain that the favor will be returned. But it is much more difficult to
arrange for supporting players in new plays. Although the rehearsal period
for new plays is kept as short as possible, at least two and often three or
more months are required, as well as a much greater investment of
financial resources. These requirements limit the number of such produc-
tions and therefore make such tradeoffs considerably more difficult to
assure.
(xinbian lishiju) and contemporary plays (xiandaixi) created since 1976 for
having the flavor of the model productions.4 Nonetheless, present day
concert performances of sung excerpts from the model productions exert
marked drawing power with younger audiences. Performers, directors,
playwrights, and composers who worked on the productions are very
anxious to continue the experiments they began during the Cultural Rev-
olution. In rehearsals, they frequently express frustration over having
solved, or begun to solve, certain problems concerning music, characteri-
zation, and staging in the model works, solutions which they are unable to
apply or continue pursuing today. "We must compromise, and select
among those possibilities originally discarded as less than ideal" is a fre-
quently expressed sentiment (Dong 1987; Gao Yiming 1987; Liang 1987;
Tong 1987). The participants also increasingly tend to look back on the
work of the Cultural Revolution period as having been carried out under
almost ideal creative conditions-a concentration of uniquely talented in-
dividuals, working together with a clear purpose, given essentially un-
limited financial resources for sets, costumes, and additions to the
orchestra, and allotted almost unlimited time in which to work.5
Because of the various difficulties involved, new Beijing opera plays-
both newly written historical and contemporary-have become increas-
ingly rare during the I980s. In 1981, the Beijing Opera Company of
Beijing (Beijing Jingju Yuan) and the China Beijing Opera Company
(Zhongguo Jingju Yuan), two of Beijing's major companies, produced a
total of 149 plays. Of these, 24 were new or substantially revised (including
only 2 contemporary plays), representing 16. I percent of the total. In the
same year, the Shanghai Beijing Opera Company (Shanghai Jingju Yuan)
produced 1 17 plays, 15 of which were new or substantially revised (includ-
ing only I contemporary play), representing 12.8 percent of the total
(Zhongguo 1982:527-3I). In 1986, however, all of the Beijing opera com-
panies in Beijing (including three not listed above) produced 245 plays, of
which only 2 were new works (including no contemporary plays), repre-
senting .8 percent of the total (Zhou 1987). And at the Shanghai Beijing
Opera Company, where 127 plays were produced, only 5 were new (in-
cluding only I contemporary play), representing 4 percent of the total (Li
Ruru 1987). Additionally, individual plays ran for progressively shorter
periods of time: "During the last five years the growing popularity of
movies and television has drawn audiences away from the theaters and
almost halved the number of appearances by the performing-arts troupes"
(Topping 1988:H7). In Fall 1987, performers in Beijing, Shanghai, and
Nanjing frequently told the same slightly bitter story: "You can't do Bei-
jing opera without losing money anymore-by the fourth or fifth day,
there's no audience." Plays created just a few years ago, which originally
drew large audiences for extended runs, now cannot maintain even a short
run, nor can new plays based upon them (Fang 1987; Ma Buomin 1987).
Only partial statistics are available to me for the years between 1981 and
1986, but what data I have strongly indicates that this decrease in new plays
has been a progressive trend throughout the period. From July through
December 1987, when I was in Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing conducting
research, no new plays were being rehearsed in Beijing or Nanjing, al-
though at least one was in the early planning stages. Only one new play
was in rehearsal in Shanghai, Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng (Liu Laolao he
Wang Xifeng), and the Shanghai Beijing Opera Company graciously al-
lowed me to observe the full rehearsal process. I was also able to view
performances of several new plays which had been previously mounted
the '8os" (bashi niandai shijian gan). For example, slow meter (manban)
passages have been recomposed in faster metrical types (banshi), such as
"fast three eyes" (kuai sanyan) and primary meter (yuanban). Also, musical
expression from regional, folk, and popular sources has been employed,
including disco in some cases.
Innovations in the performance of traditional plays are often criticized as
distorting and/or destroying the beauty of the original pieces and the
schools of performance (liupai) in which they were initially created. Per-
formers complain that traditional Beijing opera audiences tend to be highly
conservative, opposed to any change at all. As Lu Yiping, an actress with
the Shanghai Beijing Opera Company, indicated, "they just want to sing
along." She believes, however, that conservatism is strongest in the major
cities, and told of performing her revised version of The Peacock Flies
toward the Southeast (Kongque dong nanfei) first in Shanghai and then on tour
to smaller cities and towns. Audiences and critics in Shanghai told her that
she should "just sing it the way it was," while those in other areas found
the musical changes "beautiful, and more expressive of the character" (Lu
Yiping 1987).
2. A strikingly different
mask is worn by the clown
actor at center for his por-
trayal of Zhu Bajie in the
Shanghai Beijing Opera
Company's 1987 production
of Cave of the Coiled
Webs (Pan si dong).
(Photo by Elizabeth Wich-
mann)
4. In this portrayal of a
young woman who has just
been poisoned and is about to of the young female characters in Cave of the Coiled Webs-sometimes
die, a single spotlight picks worn with traditional "cloud shoulder" (yunjian) collars and short mul-
out the actress, whose face is tipanel skirts; sometimes with knee-length robes, belted at the waist and
simply oiled rather than decorated with wide turned-back Western-style collars; and in one instance
made up in the traditional with a short diaphanous skirt which opened in the back like an apron. The
fashion. From the iangsu last case also posed practical difficulties in performance. When the actress
Province Beijing Opera performed a rapid circular stage cross (paoyuanchang, literally "running the
Company's production of round field"), the audience erupted in embarrassed laughter-the open
Wang Xifeng Disrupts back of the skirt exposed the tightly encased buttocks of the performer,
Ningguo Prefecture which jiggled markedly in the execution of this movement. At a sym-
(Wang Xifeng da nao posium on the production of Cave of the Coiled Webs held by the Shanghai
Ningguo fu, 1981). (Photo Beijing Opera Company in September 1987, the director, designers, per-
by Elizabeth Wichmann) formers, and officials involved all expressed a strong desire to redesign the
costumes for the production. They were anxious to create costumes which
would directly and fancifully show the "spider nature" of the female lead
and her followers while facilitating a creative physical expression of that
nature. But they indicated that lack of money and time were serious obsta-
cles to change.
A broad range of scenic innovations can be found in new plays. Dra-
matic lighting, such as a single shaft of light cutting from one side of an
otherwise dark stage to the other to pick out an individual performer, is
widespread. Special effects are also prevalent, most especially the use of
stage smoke to indicate bodies of water, to serve as clouds and mist from
which spirits and ghosts emerge, and to dramatize battlefields and forests.
At least two types of smoke are used: one which billows across the stage
and remains close to the floor; and another which rises, fills the entire
proscenium area, and dissipates more quickly. Some productions employ
elaborate, realistic three-dimensional sets. Most stages, however, are deco-
rated with a combination of draped, colored curtains at the sides and a
decorated curtain or a projected or painted backdrop at the rear (masked at
the bottom with a low, decorated groundrow). Two-dimensional set
pieces representing the interior or exterior of a building or exterior scenery
(such as a mountain or a tree), similar to the kirinuki, or cutouts, used in
kabuki, are placed within the stage space. Major set-dressing stage proper-
ties, such as tables and chairs, are then three-dimensional. Decorative de-
vices such as branches with paper leaves sometimes hang into the stage
space from above or stand at the sides, reminiscent of the kiridashi decora-
tion in kabuki. Spectacular scenery is employed in some cases. For in-
stance, tall pillars wrapped with paper leaves and little lights for a court
audience scene in Cave of the Coiled Webs changed under strobe lighting
into stalagmites rising from the floor of the spider demon's cave.
Some staging seems to be primarily decorative, such as the increasing
use of "disco" movement, especially for comic male characters (chou) and
maidservants in romantic comedies, and for attendant monkeys in plays
about Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. Other innovative staging, how-
ever, more directly involves the expansion of performance technique. In
the December 1987 Shanghai production of Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng,
hair tossing (shuaifa), a way of indicating extreme surprise or distress
through tossing and swinging a long ponytail attached to the top of the
head, was performed by the actress playing Wang Xifeng just before that
character's death. Traditionally, this technique is only learned and used by
performers of male roles. In Cave of the Coiled Webs, a three-dimensional
set piece representing a stone suddenly split open to reveal a dwarf who
had been entranced, portrayed by a martial comic actor (wuchou) in a
costume designed to be worn in full crouch (dun), similar to those created
for two of the three witches in the Shanghai Kunju Company's 1986 pro-
duction of Bloodstained Hands (Xue shou ji), an adaptation of Macbeth. The
actor emerged from the stone and performed the entire scene in full
crouch, making more complete use of the various traditional techniques
developed for that position than is normally possible in traditional plays. In
the same play, ribbons such as those used in ribbon dances were employed
in battle by the army of spider demons, suggesting the use of cobwebs as
weapons. A similar suggestion was also made with ropes-five were at-
tached to a belt worn by the surrounded Monkey King and then drawn
around him and out to the sides, imprisoning him in a large and striking
web much like those created in the takeyabu no tate rope battle scenes in
kabuki.
Some musical innovations in new plays are primarily designed to display
8. Spectacular tumbling
through a rope "net" in the
Jiangsu Province Beijing
Opera Company's 1981 pro-
duction of the revised tradi-
tional play E Hu Slope (E
Hu po). (Photo by
Elizabeth Wichmann)
are more "realistic" and "closer to life." There is a strong tendency toward
an outpouring of emotion at the expense of technique. In Liu Laolao and
Wang Xifeng, this was evident in the performance given by the actress
playing Wang Xifeng's daughter. She cried real tears at Wang Xifeng's
death and ran across the stage with heavy-footed realism to throw herself
on Wang's body. The performance of the actress playing the middle-aged
retainer also suffered because her real tears and loud sobs caused serious
problems for her gaobozi aria.
This same tendency can be seen in pieces not directed by spoken drama
directors, such as a number of scenes presented by contestants in the Na-
tional Television Competition for Young Beijing Opera Performers, and
in the work of older, more established performers faced with the demand
to show more connections with "real life." For instance, in directing a
revised version of the traditional play Wu Han Kills His Wife (Wu Han sha
qi), the xiqu director Ah Jia felt compelled to tell the leading actress that if
she would "capture the emotion that spills out at the end of the sung lines,
and feed it into the conventional expression, it would be more real" (Ah
1987).
The fundamental problem with applying realistic spoken drama tech-
niques to Beijing opera is simply that the psychological approach is not
part of Beijing opera aesthetics. As the xiqu performance theorist Huang
Kebao put it, Beijing opera performers do not ask "what is my motiva-
tion," but rather, "what is my percussion pattern" (1987). With song and
musical rhythms at the center of their aesthetics and expressive techniques,
performers cannot throw themselves into characters' emotions. "To work
in Beijing opera, the 'inner monolog' must be in or to musical language,
rather than in the daily life Chinese language" (Huang Kebao 1987). Yu
Yonghua, the technique director for Liu Laolao and Wang Xifeng, said that
she found it very difficult to apply the expressive techniques of Beijing
opera essentially as choreography-as decoration for psychological real-
ism:
[T]he revulsion against old forms was much too strongly and deeply
felt to be seriously deflected by political speeches [. . .] [especially
since] certain strands of argument in the tradition of Marxist-Leninist
esthetics provided ample justification for such prejudice [. . .]. Old
forms [. ..] were products of a feudal or semifeudal society, while
the new forms of art imported from the West were the reflection of a
society at the higher, capitalist stage in human history. Old forms
were therefore inferior to new forms, which were more "scientific"
and "advanced" in every respect. Thus, with the inevitable evidence
of human society, old forms were bound to be replaced completely,
sooner or later, by new forms. In spite of the many logical inconsis-
tencies in this argument (the Chinese forms labeled "old" were fre-
quently more recent in origin than the European "new" forms), it
was one that not even the foremost advocates of cultural populism
were prepared to challenge. Thus, by the early 1940s the use of old
forms came to be regarded almost universally among literary youth
and Party writers and artists in Yan'an as a temporary expedient
only-an artistic dead end (1984:11).
With his "Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Art and Literature" and subse-
quent party policies, Mao did overrule this tide of prejudice, at least for a
time. However, a number of policies implemented by the Ministry of
Culture's Xiqu Improvement Committee (Wenhua Bu Xiqu Gaijin Weiy-
uanhui), established in July I950, certainly reflect the problem. For in-
stance, xiqu was made "more serious" by the use of new venues with
Western proscenium stages and darkened auditoriums, and by abolishing
stage assistants and changing scenes behind closed curtains instead. A cam-
paign was also begun to raise the educational level of xiqu workers and
reform their personal lives, while simultaneously raising their status.
Throughout the 1950os and early '6os, although spoken drama playwrights
and other more intellectual artists were repeatedly asked to go down to the
countryside to learn from the masses, in essence to "lower" themselves,
xiqu workers were frequently told to elevate their personal and intellectual
standards.
The belief that the vast majority of xiqu performers are uncultured
and uneducated, and at least the suspicion that the various forms them-
selves are too "backward" and/or intractable to serve as the basis for
modern creation, are quite evident today. I am tempted to say that the
early 20oth century prejudice of intellectuals against xiqu has resurfaced
with a vengeance, perhaps at least in part because other policies of xiqu's
leftists champions have been denounced or at least been called into question
and, in the case of Beijing opera, because it served such a pivotal role in the
Cultural Revolution. Without exception, every symposium I attended in
Summer and Fall 1987 pinpointed performers' lack of culture and educa-
tion as one of the most serious problems facing Beijing opera today. Ying
Ruocheng, a vice minister of culture and spoken drama actor and director,
expressed the belief that a new generation of "scholar-actors" is needed to
save Beijing opera:
incorporated into both new and extant plays in order to reach the broad,
"semi-educated" urban audience as well as the "semi-literate" peasantry.
And according to the third, "modern" Beijing opera plays and perfor-
mance techniques should be created, focusing upon intellectual/
philosophical content presented via more avant-garde methods, in order to
appeal to a younger, more intellectual and more sophisticated audience.
The first and third types of reform are problematic for fundamental perfor-
mative reasons. Major changes in performance structure, the dynamics of
the creative process, and basic aesthetics may be necessary if Beijing opera
is to become an elite form, representative of "high" culture. This is espe-
cially true if it is expected to employ performance methods similar to those
of the Western avant-garde, as spoken drama has begun to do-and such
performance methods are now almost certain to raise political problems as
well. If Beijing opera must adapt to an intellectual/philosophical orienta-
tion, assuming such an adaptation is politically feasible in terms of content,
even greater changes may prove necessary. And ironically, such a demand
seems to imply that art is primarily an educational/intellectual endeavor,
rather than an imagistic one-a stance which is repudiated by at least a
portion of the avant-garde artists in the West. The second type of reform is
probably the least problematic. Its intended audience is closest to the tradi-
tional audience for Beijing opera, which incidentally also most closely
coincides with the mass audience for whom the model productions were
intended. And this intended audience also has the greatest potential for
providing money, both in terms of individual ticket buyers and contractual
support from institutions such as factories. Beijing opera cannot be all
things to all people-or even most things to some people-and still retain
its characteristic "flavor" (wer), its independent existence.
For Beijing opera's practitioners, the most fundamental and pressing
conflicts are those which concern the creative process. Who is to take
creative responsibility, and exercise creative authority, in a form which is
seen as a rich treasure house of traditional culture originally developed and
perpetuated by illiterate social misfits? Should actors, directors, play-
wrights, composers, or scholars/theorists control the form and content of
Beijing opera? Should creation be centered in training, performance tech-
niques, and staging, or in script and content? Should the focus of creation
be upon moments in the lives of characters, plots and the characters in
them, or upon more intellectually and philosophically abstract themes?
Other cultures and other times have also experienced conflict over creative
authority. In a number of cases, performer-centered theatres seem to have
outlasted those structured around other cores. For instance, the playwright
Chikamatsu Monzaemon is reported to have left kabuki for bunraku be-
cause "the puppets won't change my lines" (see Keene 1961). But kabuki
thrives today, while bunraku is very much dependent upon state support.
Certainly the current staying-power of realism despite the impact of many
actor-director-theorists-from Artaud to Brecht to Schechner-owes
more to the popularity of the form and the actors working in it (and to the
power of the media) than it does to the efforts of individual playwrights
and directors.
In China, perhaps because of the experience of the last 40 years or
perhaps for more fundamental reasons, there is a strong tendency for
theatre practitioners to wait for "the top" (shangmian) to decide such ques-
tions, and to resolve conflicts concerning practices, expectations, and aims.
However, under the policies of "system reform" (tizhi gaige) which were
being instituted through the late Sping of 1989, it was clear that the major-
System Reform
The policies of system reform were a national effort intended at least in
part to do away with the "iron rice bowl," or the "great wok" (da guofan).
In the performing arts, the money crunch undoubtedly provided the pri-
mary impetus-the state has other more pressing priorities for its limited
economic resources. However, system reform in the performing arts
was also based upon the belief that the state-run management system has
resulted in a lack of competition within individual forms, causing a dete-
rioration in the quality of performance and an inability to compete success-
fully with film and television.
In the first half of the 20oth century, most professional theatre companies
in China were commercial ventures, organized around one or more star
performers. In 1949, however, "with the uprising of revolutionary, na-
tional spirit, there was a sense that state-run ventures were progressive and
forward looking, while commercial enterprises were backward" (Ying
1987). State ownership and management of theatre companies increasingly
became the norm, and the process accelerated from 1957 onward, "when
the whole society began moving into a much more regimented phase,
based on the military model" (Ying 1987). By the mid '6os, more than
90 percent of China's performing artists were organized into state-owned
troupes and companies (Ying 1987). The troupe (tuan) became the basic
unit-troupes may exist independently, or two or more may be affiliated
in a larger company (yuan) which also includes various support groups.
Graduates of the state-run schools for performing arts personnel are as-
signed to a particular troupe or company, where they normally remain for
life. Major companies are now comprised of 500 to 800 people-"the new
come, but the old don't go" (Liu Housheng 1987).
As an example, the Jiangsu Province Beijing Opera Company which
includes more than 500 personnel has for most of the I980s been comprised
of three performance troupes, each with approximately o50 working per-
formers (Lu and Fang 1981, 1987). A smaller fourth troupe was also
created to accommodate recent graduates from the Jiangsu Province
Theatre School (Jiangsu Sheng Xiqu Xuexiao). Additionally, the company
includes a directorial group, a design group, a music group, and a play-
writing group. In terms of administration and management, each troupe
has a troupe leader (tuanzhang) and one or more assistant leaders, a party
secretary (shuji) and one or more assistant party secretaries, and an artistic
committee "which works out performance problems, planning, and devel-
opment, and sets standards" (Lu and Fang 1981). The company as a whole
has a director (yuanzhang) and several vice directors, a party secretary and
several vice party secretaries, a department of administration, and a depart-
ment of management. Most officials are professional administrators as-
signed by the Jiangsu Province Department of Culture; some have
backgrounds in Beijing opera performance, and some do not (Lu and Fang
I98I).
The various companies and independent troupes throughout the country
have been ranked according to their immediate state affiliation. These
ranks reflect not only prestige and status, but also level of financial support
for operating expenses. At the highest rank are those companies directly
controlled by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China,
such as the China Beijing Opera Company located in Beijing. The depart-
ments of culture of each province and independent municipality (i.e., Bei-
jing, Tianjin, and Shanghai), which organizationally are directly under the
Ministry of Culture, administer companies and troupes in the second rank.
Such companies include the Beijing Opera Company of Beijing, the
Shanghai Beijing Opera Company, and the Jiangsu Province Beijing Op-
era Company. At the third rank are those troupes administered by city
departments of culture, and at the fourth those which are run by county
departments of culture.
The salaries of troupe and company personnel have been paid directly
by the relevant cultural departments according to 18 ranked scales (Yang
1984:o10), identical in principal and very close in actual numerical amounts
to those applied in other areas of endeavor including industry, education,
medicine, government administration, and the military. In 1979, the high-
est scale (wenyi yiji, "first-rank in literature and the arts") was RMB 200 +
and the lowest, 18th scale was RMB 40 +, a ratio of approximately five to
one. In 1987, both figures had risen by approximately 33 percent to RMB
300 + and RMB 60 + respectively (Liu Housheng 1987). Perquisites such
as size and quality of housing and the availability of cars for personal use
are also assigned according to these ranks. Actors have not had to perform,
however, nor playwrights write nor designers design, in order to draw
these salaries and perquisites. They represent guaranteed income, and
"under this system, actors [. . .] tend to 'take it easy' " (Yang 1984:Iol).
Broadly speaking, the new policies of system reform intend to gradually
introduce "a free market for talent, and a reasonable amount of personnel
flow" (Ying 1987).
In an interview conducted in Beijing in November 1987, Ying
Ruocheng prefaced his description of system reform plans by saying can-
didly that:
Actors complain that they are not paid enough, and are not well
housed, all of which is true. But they are also very spoiled-they
have lost the urge to compete. There must be competition. But with
it, there will be winners and losers. With the reform, the reorganiza-
tion, there will be a period of pain, and many hearts will be broken
(Ying 1987).
officials and artistic production was pinpointed as the first priority for
reform. The article described Wang Renzhi, minister of propaganda, as
saying that:
Managing culture and the arts too much, and too specifically, are
abuses of the system of officials [lingdao tizhi]. In the future, the
Party will only manage major affairs, such as the direction and gen-
eral and specific policies of culture and the arts. In the areas of culture
and art creation, performance, and the specific issues of theoretical
debates, it must, as far as possible, manage less, and serve as inter-
mediary less (in Renmin 1988).
Wang Jifu, a vice minister of culture, was reported to have added that "an
overall outline is necessary. Each region must manifest its own abilities
under the premises of the clear directions and principles of reform, and not
follow its own inclinations and go its own way." On the last day of the
conference Wang Mang, then minister of culture, told reporters that the
government would not investigate the repertory of either the state-run or
the governmental troupes,
Prognostications
In an interview conducted in Beijing in November 1987, Liu Housheng,
the vice chairman of the Chinese Theatre Artists Association (Zhongguo
Xijujia Xiehui), discussed his desires and expectations concerning the fu-
ture of Beijing opera and other theatre forms in China. He hoped that a
number of different systems would ultimately emerge from the reforms,
including fixed, state-supported companies and troupes, traveling troupes,
and troupes formed for just one production or season. But he also hoped
that China's theatre world would avoid:
But there are almost as many different hopes for the future of xiqu in
general and Beijing opera in particular as there are individuals doing the
hoping. Ying Ruocheng, for instance, said that he would "welcome the
joining of spoken drama and xiqu" (1987). As Liu Housheng pointed out,
"there is so much in Chinese theatre. Richness is also a problem. Some-
times it is easier to build in a completely empty space, where you can just
do what you want" (1987).
China at the end of the '8os is not an easy ground for the growth of talent
and creation in any of the arts, and this is especially true for Beijing opera.
Financial support is at a 4o-year low. Talented youth are generally not
interested in joining the profession, and those who do are being trained in
an atmosphere of conflicting aims and expectations. The self-confidence
and hopefulness of older, established performers are at a low ebb, brought
on at least in part by repeated assertions of their lack of culture and educa-
tion, and by the decrease in both audience and official interest and support.
The renewed official interest which seems certain in the current political
climate will almost assuredly not be the sort of interest which promotes
individual creativity. And while reforms may still be carried out, reforms
at the best of times have usually been undertaken from an intellectual, elite
Notes
i. The field research upon which this article is based, conducted during July-
December 1987, was sponsored by the Chinese Theatre Artists Association
(Zhongguo Xijujia Xiehui), and funded by a Fujio Matsuda Fellowship aug-
mented by a grant from the University of Hawaii Research Relations Fund. The
essay was originally presented in Skein, Norway, at the September 1988 Confer-
ence on Theatre and Cinema Arts in Modern China sponsored by the University
of Oslo, and then revised in March 1989 for publication. I would like to express
my gratitude to these organizations, and to all the companies, schools, institu-
tions, and individuals in China who made the research possible. Opinions ex-
pressed in this paper, especially those added in a further revision in September
1989, are my own-they were not provided by my sources in China.
2. This is true of all the performers who worked on the model productions with
whom I have discussed the question. And it is not surprising. After almost two
decades (1949-1966) in which older, established performers had been the center
of Beijing opera production, they, as young performers, had been given a man-
date by the highest cultural authorities to create new performance styles and
characters. During the creation process for each production, they received the full
support of not only their companies but also the state, and were therefore able to
work with the finest young composers, musicians, directors, designers, and
fellow-actors, and to experiment with a range of approaches and techniques
previously unimaginable in the Beijing opera form. While the heavy-handed,
highly political scripts of the model productions are now generally condemned in
China, many of the musical and acting innovations are widely respected and
admired by other theatre professionals and by younger theatre-goers.
3. At the end of 1980, most sizeable xiqu companies were state-supported, and
therefore in economic terms "managed" by the relevant department of culture.
The Jiangsu Province Beijing Opera Company, for instance, received two mone-
tary allocations from the Jiangsu Province Department of Culture each year, at
the lunar new year. One was for personnel salaries, and the other for operating
expenses. The company submitted a budget for the latter to the department for
approval, and the department decided, in consultation with company officials,
how much money the company should be expected to bring in at the box office
during the year. The revised budget was then reviewed and further revised by
Communist party officials, and then given final approval. Allocations were not
turned over directly to the company, however. The department itself paid the
salaries each month, and the company submitted specific requests to the depart-
ment for the release of funds for production and touring expenses as each produc-
tion and tour was being mounted. These specific requests were also reviewed by
party officials before being paid out. Box office receipts were then turned over to
the department after performances and tours, and the department "checked the
books" at the end of each year (Lu and Fang 1981).
Throughout the I980s, the percentage of operating expenses to be covered by
box office receipts grew steadily, and state funding for those expenses shrank
proportionally (Gui 1987; Ma Buomin 1987). Because box office receipts did not
actually increase, and in many instances in fact decreased (Gui 1987; Ma Buomin
1987; Ying 1987), companies have undertaken various sideline enterprises to
increase income. For instance, they show commercial films and videotapes in
their theatres, hold public dances in their rehearsal halls, and have converted
portions of their dormitories into guest houses and sections of their cafeterias into
public restaurants (which can also be reserved in toto for private parties). These
enterprises frequently interfere with the actual business of putting on plays, and
so far rarely augment income to any appreciable extent (Gui 1989; Ma Buomin
1987). During the mid-'8os, with state encouragement, companies also experi-
mented with "financially independent" or "contract" (chengbao) troupes, small
touring troupes composed of selected company members who agreed to operate
entirely on box office income, which was divided among them, after expenses,
according to the degree of responsibility which they each held within the troupe.
Few of these troupes were financially successful, however, and most of those still
in operation now receive state support as well (Gui 1989; Ma Buomin 1987).
In terms of performance, the decreasing state support, stagnant or decreasing
box office receipts, and various experiments undertaken to augment them have
resulted in fewer performances of fewer plays. For instance, Shen Xiaomei re-
ports that in 1981-83 she performed 120-15O days per year. In 1984 and 1985,
that number dropped to 60-90 days; in 1986 to 50 days (Shen 1987); in 1987 to
20 days; and in 1988 her only performances were given overseas (Shen 1989).
Gui Weizhen (1989) summarizes by saying, "We have sufficient state support and
income for salaries, but we can't afford to put on plays."
4- The most common form of criticism is to say that a given play or portion thereof
contains "model tunes and model keys" (ban qiang ban diao).
5. A principal slogan for model production creation was "take ten years to perfect
one piece" (shi nian mo yijian), and in fact most productions represented a year or
more of continuous effort.
6. In Fall 1987, a new Sichuan opera (chuanju) play called A Startling Dream of Red
Mansions (Hong lou jing meng) was toured to Beijing and Shanghai. Almost with-
out exception, Beijing opera performers and scholars were extremely excited by
the production-many in a negative sense, however. The accusation that the
director himself was "performing a liangxiang" was frequently made. I was
personally very impressed by the production, which had a strong, consistent, and
nonrealistic stylistic conception. But I also found that an interesting inversion of
traditional xiqu aesthetics had occurred in it. While the usual focus in xiqu is from
all angles in, toward the performer-who therefore appears very large aestheti-
cally-here the focus was out to the sides, and up, creating the sensation of very
small performers almost lost in a vast space of outward-flowing blocking and
scenic and lighting design.
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1987 A financial manager for the Jiangsu province Beijing Opera Com-
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1987 A research scholar, she works with the Zhongguo Yishu Yanjiu Yuan
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1987 Principal of the Jiangsu Sheng Xiqu Xueyuan (Jiangsu Province Xiqu
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1987 A director and an administrator at the ShanghaiJingju Yuan (Shanghai
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1987 Vice chairman of the Zhongguo Xijujia Xiehui (Chinese theatre artists
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Liu Yizhen
Ma Buomin
Ma Mingqun
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1988 Director of the M.I.T. Drama Program, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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1987 Actress with the Jiangsu ShengJingju Yuan (Jiangsu Province Beijing
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1987 Research fellow at the Zhongguo Yishu Yanjiu Yuan Xiqu Yanjiu
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1987 Numerous informal interviews with author and observation of his
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Yu Yonghua
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TDReading
For more on theatre in China see: William Huizhu Sun and Faye
Chungfang Fei's "The Old B Hanging on the Wall: Changing Chinese
Theatre," TDR 30, no. 4 (TII2); "Speaking About Chinese Spoken
Drama: A Roundtable with Chinese Directors and Playwrights,"
TDR 33, no. 2 (TI22); Qu Liuyi's and Huangpu Chongqing's
"China's Nuo Theatre: Two Views," TDR 33, no. 3 (TI23).