This focus can be seen easily in the operas presented at the 6th China Arts Festival, which ended in Nanjing this October. From Peking operas like "Ximenbao," "The Prosperous Years of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty" and "Camel Xiangzi " to local operas like "The Late Blossoming Rose," "Changing Faces," "Xianghunnu" and "The Return of a Deer," one can get a clear picture of what traditional Chinese operas are now amounting to: a familiar story, a current perspective, a beautiful setting, characterized mainly by artistic lighting, and an original twist in the formulated dance, singing and speech.

There is no doubt, that all these elements have been introduced for one reason - to get people back into the theaters, a goal of Chinese dramatists for the past thousand years.

When it comes to urban people today, traditional Chinese opera seems to have seen a more serious decline than during any other period in Chinese history due to the popularization of TV, the increasing pace of urban life and a richer recreational diversity for the younger generation.

Traditional Form, Modern Content

Over the past half century, reforms have been made to cater to modern tastes, like speeding up the dramatic rhythm, cutting unimportant scenes, creating more elaborate sets and, above all, staging familiar masterpieces by spoken drama directors. The efforts have been only partly successful, as while some young audiences go to the theater out of curiosity, to experience something new, older audiences are turning their backs on the operas because they veer away from tradition.

"Elderly opera fans complain that they simply can't recall even one 'duanzi' (an aria) worth memorizing from the new operas," explained Jin Dengcai, an expert in Chinese opera. "This fact discourages them from going to the opera again because, like Westerners, true opera lovers go to an opera-house for the purpose of listening to famous songs and familiar music rather than getting to know an involved plot."

In his work "Studies on the Operas of the Song and Yuan Dynasties," Wang Guowei, a famous scholar, defined Chinese opera. "Chinese operas act out the story with songs and dances." But it is mainly these formulated dances and songs that slow down the dramatic rhythm. "The songs are usually accompanied by dances, sometimes they are very slow," said Jin Dengcai, "but without them, they become something else."

The reason for these dances and songs is that Chinese opera originated from folk songs and dances. Shaoxing Opera is a typical example. Starting in Shengxian County, Zhejiang Province, in the 1930s Shaoxing Opera was initially only a collection of folk songs sung on festive occasions.

This also explains why Chinese opera is so good at expressing a character's inner feelings through song and dance, making it quite different from Western spoken drama which is good at depicting outer confrontation.

Actually dramatization only appeared in the mid-1920s due to the efforts of Ouyang Yuqian, a Chinese dramatic reformer. He opposed the stereotyped characters of traditional Chinese operas and promoted realistic characters, like those in Western drama. But it was not until the mid-1930s and the theatrical performances of Zhou Xinfang, a famous Peking Opera singer, that the idea was realized.

In his masterpiece "Four Jinshi," Zhou sacrificed the traditional songs and dances for dramatic elements like plot and characterization, focusing on the conflicts between men rather than within man and on the opera's total effect rather than just aspects of it like acting, speech or movement. These attempts were reminiscent of Wagner's reform of Western opera in which he emphasized high drama rather than beautiful arias.

As a self-contained system, Chinese operas are made up of four parts: poetry, song, dance and drama. Each part affects and is affected by the other three and so once this integrity is damaged, each part loses its balance.

"If an opera is adapted to a current theme, the music should be changed first," said Gao Shunying, director of the Jiangsu Peking Opera Troupe, "but if the dance is changed before the music, let's say, a bit faster or stronger, audiences might feel it is no longer a Chinese opera."

This problem is more obvious when it comes to highly-formulated Chinese operas like Kunqu opera in which the music, the songs and the acting are all slow. That's why few Kunqu operas support modern themes.

Although during the "cultural revolution" eight model Peking operas were successfully adapted for Western orchestras, they could not solve the problem of the dances and movements, according to Gao.

"In these operas the movements are not beautiful, they are realistic and limited, like waving a hand or running, but in Peking Opera movements should not resemble real life," she commented.

A Rural Culture Faces Industrialization

At the heart of all these problems is the conflict between form and content, a problem that can be traced back to the 14th century early in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It became most obvious at the beginning of the century with national industrialization and modernization.

In 1914, Mei Lanfang (1894-1961), a famous Chinese opera singer, first presented a series of modern Peking operas entitled "Fashion New Opera" and featuring performances like "Yi Lu Ma." In the opera, Mei sang songs supported by a modern theme but to traditional music and in a Western-style suit. Although the new form attracted a large number of audiences, not even one of the opera's arias has become a classic piece.

However, his later reform focusing on make-up and the creation of Huadan, a female role in Peking Opera, was successful. One of the masterpieces of the period "Farewell My Concubine" has become a Peking Opera classic and has been performed frequently to date.

Some local operas never face the audience crisis of the Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera. With only decades of history, and less formulated songs and dances, local troupes are often invited to present operas at times of celebration, like Spring Festival, the building of a house, a wedding or a birthday party.

According to statistics, more than 6,000 privately owned opera troupes, each with fewer than 10 members, are active in the countryside. In contrast, a number of the nearly 2,000 State-owned opera troupes, with staff of more than 20 in each; in urban areas they have to deal with dwindling audiences.

So will local and relatively unknown operas challenge the leading positions of famous ones like Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera in the future? It's hard to say.

Heritage Carried on in Diversified Ways

According to Ye Changhai, an expert in Chinese opera, it won't happen yet. "Because a primary condition for competition is that two or more different operas are popular in one place, such as big and multi-cultural cities like Beijing and Shanghai," explained Ye, "but to date no local operas can do this, even in Shanghai, where Shaoxing Opera is very popular, there is no proof that it has bigger audiences than Peking Opera."

While the local operas in small towns may have very simple sets, operas in big cities tend to be big productions with splendid sets and famous singers and directors.

This enhanced visualization now attracts bigger audiences. Take the Peking Opera "The Humpback Premier" as an example, due to enormous investment, it attained box office takings of 1.5 million yuan (US$181,000), despite only running for one week. People were impressed with its great sets, humorous songs, witty speech and current theme.

"It is a good commercial show," said Jin Dengcai.

However, commercial shows are only one avenue for the development of traditional Chinese operas, according to Ye Changhai. "We should also pay attention to promoting productions made with only limited investment, because it will take a diversity of shows, before can we say that Chinese opera is in its prime."

This comment is reminiscent of Meng Jinghui, a Beijing-based avant-garde director who has produced several influential experimental plays over the last few years like "The Accidental Death of an Anarchist" and "Faust on a Pirated VCD."

"Without experimental and small productions, big commercial shows won't have the artistic means or cutting-edge concepts needed for further development," Meng said.

Fortunately, there are some teahouses where traditional Chinese operas are still performed.

"This is a good sign," said Jin. "It shows that traditional opera is welcome in places outside big theatres."

(China Daily 11/06/2000)