Finding its way
Chang Yu-hua guides us through the labyrinthine corridors. The posters on the walls epitomize the 26 years of GuoGuang’s history. Originally focusing on reproducing canonical works, in recent years the troupe has espoused elements of modernity and modern literature. Unfettered by the conventions of traditional Chinese theater, it now pursues a new branding strategy.
As Chang tells us, since its foundation in 1995 GuoGuang has been exploring ways to provide a local underpinning for Peking Opera in Taiwan. It regards this as its destiny, and endeavors to pass down its experience to posterity. Chang says that the troupe spent its first decade trying to define itself. “At that time GuoGuang was in a precarious state. Its main objectives were to preserve our cultural genes and to bring out superb performances by following the time-honored conventions of Peking Opera.”
In 2002 Wang An-chi came to GuoGuang to serve as its artistic director. It was she who began to give the troupe’s solid grounding in traditional Peking Opera a modern and literary edge. “Many of GuoGuang’s productions have a strong literary quality. Their libretti, which are mostly Professor Wang’s work, merit close attention,” Chang says. For GuoGuang’s second decade, Wang drew on locally grounded cultural perspectives to invent “a new aesthetic approach to Peking Opera in Taiwan.”
In recent years GuoGuang’s productions have become more diverse in terms of subject matter, taking their inspiration from Eileen Chang’s The Golden Cangue, Wang Xizhi’s Sunlight After Snowfall, 17th-century French playwright Jean Racine’s Phèdre, and other classic works. The troupe’s wide-ranging repertoire even includes works once banned, with mildly erotic scenes, or telling stories such as the apotheosis of General Guan Yu.
GuoGuang has invented a new and distinctively Taiwanese approach to Peking Opera by giving its theatrical productions a strong literary flavor.