The Ya-yin Ensemble, a Peking Opera company, changed that. Its performances of The Injustice to Dou E set a record by attracting an audience of 6000 in just two days. It owed its success to the improvements to Peking Opera made by the ensemble’s founder, Kuo Hsiao-chuang.
Under the headline “Making Peking Opera Cool Again” Sinorama reported on the revival of this performance art.
The Ya-yin Ensemble came out with a series of reworked classics, including The White Snake and Xu Xian, Mulan Joins the Army, and Butterfly Lovers. In the new scripts, they cut overly repetitive singing and sprechgesang (half singing, half speaking) passages. “Audiences come to watch operas,” Kuo said, “not to listen to them.”
Kuo boldly integrated techniques of Western theater and modern dance in revolutionary ways that ushered in a new era for Peking Opera in Taiwan. Purists may have sniffed that the changes were disrespectful of tradition, but these new works attracted a younger audience and propelled this traditional Chinese performance art onto the international stage.
In the 1970s, Kuo acted in the CTV dramatic series A Dynasty’s Beauty and the film Qiu Jin, as well as other films and shows. But with painter Chang Dai-chien’s encouragement, she changed tracks to perform Peking Opera. Chang suggested the name Ya-yin Ensemble, and the company ended up being what Kuo is most famous for.
Kuo threw herself into transforming Peking Opera and became a powerful promoter of Taiwan’s performing arts community. She won an award as one of Taiwan’s ten most outstanding young women as well as a National Award for the Arts. Accounts of her life story appear in primary and secondary school textbooks.
By blending in techniques from Western theater and modern dance, Kuo’s Peking operas were better able to engage young people.
