Pain or pleasure?
Another big star from Huang’s generation is Yang Shu-chin, who did a stint with the Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas in 2009 before returning to Taiwan. Now she is with Taipei Li-yuan playing wudan (“martial female”) roles.
Born in 1976, Yang was often praised by instructors at school as someone with a great work ethic who had trained her mid and lower body into very good condition. Yet after graduating from Chinese Culture University, she failed to gain admittance to either the National Fu-Hsing Chinese Opera Theater or the GuoGuang Opera Company. She ended up working stints as a university teaching assistant, and as a part-time performer in a Taiwanese Opera troupe, but it was not stable employment.
Fortunately, however, Li Pao-chun invited her to tour in Europe, and she later found full-time employment when Li arranged for her to work as a part-time administrator and part-time performer with Taipei Li-yuan. After the Cirque du Soleil decided not renew its contract with her at the end of 2009, Taipei Li-yuan welcomed her back into the fold. Li, as a Peking Opera performer himself, has a special soft spot in his heart for people of talent.
Says Yang: “Peking Opera performers are very tough and adaptable, but we need more stages where we can ply our craft.” When the Cirque du Soleil came to Taiwan to recruit talent in 2006, she adds, out of hundreds of applicants they chose just seven, of whom six were graduates of traditional opera schools, an indication of just how good the training is.
After joining the Cirque du Soleil in late 2008, she had no major problems with the trampoline, stage flying, or pendulum training. And together with fellow troupe members she performed a Peking Opera ti chu shou routine (in which performers throw and kick javelins back and forth). Taking part in this sort of fusion between different performing arts traditions was thoroughly exhilarating.
At the Cirque du Soleil, the atmosphere was very collegial. Technicians and performers all enjoyed equal respect. Everyone helped each other out, and concentrated on doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. This aspect was especially moving for Yang. “We’d all give each other encouragement before each performance by saying ‘good show’ to one another, and it was sincere.” Before she took to the stage, other performers would always say, “Have fun, Shu-chin.” “In that global village of ours, everyone went about their tasks with dead seriousness, but the most important thing of all was simply to have fun.” The atmosphere is rather different in Taiwan, where people generally just say “Thanks for your hard work” after a performance. Nowadays Yang reminds herself to “have fun.”
Though it may seem odd, Yang says that when she was selected in 2006 to be a backup performer in the Cirque du Soleil, it was the first time she had ever felt like her theatrical skills were being appreciated in the 20 years since she had first entered the opera school. But when she returned to Taiwan as “the first Taiwanese performer ever to have been admitted as a regular member of the Cirque du Soleil troupe,” it still didn’t open many new doors for her career-wise. Now 36 years of age, she must deal with the many physical injuries she has suffered on the stage.
Describing the “Catch-22” of playing martial female roles, someone once said, “When you’re young you’ve got the physical prowess but don’t understand the role, then when you’re older you’ve got the understanding but lack the physical prowess.”
No different than during her days as a student, Yang still finds time every day to practice her vocals and stage techniques. The routine has now gone on for decades. “As a Peking Opera performer, if you don’t practice, you’ve got no business on stage. The trick, however, is how to keep at it day after day, to maintain your enthusiasm, and to learn something new each day.”
Painted up with long, slender eyebrows and big, round eyes, this young Peking Opera performer looks for all the world like a beauty from centuries past.