Although in Taiwan there are no regularly performing Kun Opera troupes, there is a group of enthusiasts who study the form continuously. Six years ago, the Kun Opera Education Plan (KOEP) was put into effect, bringing the studies of the enthusiasts to a peak. What marvels does this Kun Opera contain that even today people lose themselves in its beauty?
Song Dynasty poet Lu You and his beloved former wife Tang Wan come upon one another in the Shen Garden. They have been separated for many years and both have remarried. They have much that they wish to tell one another but are prevented from doing so by their sense of propriety. Full of wine and remorse, Lu You writes "The Phoenix Headdress" on the garden wall: "Her fine, pink hands, the huang teng wine, the scent of spring that fills the garden, and the willow by the wall. . . ." Meanwhile, Tang Wan suffers her own grief beside him.
When Kao Hui-lan, a Peking Opera performer of young male roles, and Hwa Wen-yi, known as the Queen of Kun Opera, performed a new version of the Kun Opera The Phoenix Headdress at the National Theater, the entire audience was deeply moved.
A soothing ambiance
On a Saturday afternoon at the National Kuo-kuang Academy of the Arts in Mucha, the melodious tones of a flute and voices raised in song waft by. Following the sound, one discovers 40 some students sitting in a classroom. Under the direction of Chi Chen-hwa, a performer of older male roles in the Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe, they are singing "Tan Ci" from The Palace of Eternal Youth: "The face and figure of an angel, a modesty incomparable, her ivory cheeks upon her hands, her willow waist. . . . She is more beautiful than Zhaojun, exceeds Xizi by far. . . " For a moment, the image of the beautiful Yang Guifei and the love she shared with the Tang Emperor Ming appears before one's eyes.
This is the fourth term of classes arranged by the KOEP. Many of the students present have been attending the classes since the first term. Among the students there are university professors of Chinese and graduate students of theater. There are professional performers of Taiwanese opera who have hurried all the way from Ilan to Taipei to attend class in the hope of improving their performing skills. There is even a 10-year-old girl in pig tails. She has come with her older sister, a student of Taiwanese Opera at the National Fu Hsing Dramatic Arts Academy. The little girl sings with genuine feeling.
In the classroom opposite, the students of the Kun flute class are playing under the guidance of their teacher. At the National Kuo-kuang Academy of the Arts, one usually hears the raucous crashing of cymbals and beating of drums characteristic of Peking Opera, but the clear, gentle melody that is carried to us today provides a soothing ambiance.
A display of sentiment
Kun Opera is an antiquated art, isn't it? How is it that it is not only being performed at the National Theater in Taipei, but also has so many fans who are passionate about it? What is so beautiful about Kun Opera that it moves people so profoundly?
Taking Ming dynasty writer Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion as an example, we have an opera which relates the legend of Du Liniang, the daughter of a noble house, out strolling on the grounds of her family's residence. There, she dreams of meeting a scholar named Liu Mengmei. The two have a lovers' tryst in the Peony Pavilion. . . . After waking, Du Liniang pines for her love until she eventually dies. In the end, however, her love for Liu brings her back to life and the two are married. It is a very romantic and moving opera.
Lin Daiyu, one of the principal characters in the famous novel The Dream of the Red Chamber, hearing through a wall a song from The Peony Pavilion opera describing the decline of a place once beautiful, was utterly carried away by her feelings. Such beautiful lyrics "are not only sung, they are performed, bringing the whole to life. It's a beautiful experience," says Liu Nan-fang, a graduate of Soochow University's Graduate School of Chinese and a prima donna of the Kun Opera.
Imagine two young girls enjoying the flowers in a garden. They are on a completely barren stage, yet their performance must express the colors of the scene and the complex emotions that they are feeling. It is high art.
Kun Opera masterfully expresses emotions. Most of its scripts were penned by Ming and Qing dynasty literati and express a particular mood or feeling. It is no wonder that Tseng Yung-yi, professor of Chinese at National Taiwan University (NTU), says that Kun Opera is "China's most elegant literature together with its most exquisite music."
From the heart
Chu Kun-huai, an assistant professor at the National Taipei College of Business who studies a cappella singing in Kun Opera, says that its notes are held for a long time, and its tempo is slow. A sentence is sung a few words at a time. Variations in the music include hua qiang, huo qiang, tun qiang, and even "Olive" tones, so-called for the way in which the music moves from soft to strong and back to soft again in the same way that an olive is small at the end, large in the middle, and small again at the other end.
"In the past, there were no 'annotations' [lyrics projected next to the stage] when people performed. Every line had to be reflected in the performer's movements." She says that the feeling of the opera had not only to be sung, but also expressed even through the look in the performer's eyes.
Today, it is often said of Peking Opera that "every sound is a song, every movement, a dance," but in fact, this actually describes Kun Opera. From the moment that Kun Opera performers go on stage, they are singing, and with every movement, they seem to dance. The delicate melodies describe the feelings stirring in the characters' hearts, while the performers' movements must match the songs in their delicacy. It really is a case of "performing with one's heart and eyes."
Lin Ku-fang, an ethnomusicologist, feels that Kun Opera is exceptionally refined and lacks the "fireworks" of Peking Opera. Its female characters have such a stateliness that it seems just "a backward movement of their hand would stop any kind of harassment." And when they sing something tender, it is as if they are "exhaling the breath of orchids."
This delicacy still has a place in modern people's frenetic lives. Chen Pin, a long-time enthusiast of Kun Opera, laughingly says that it cures sleeplessness. In the early years of the Republic of China, children studying at the Fu Lian Cheng used to joke that they were going to study lullabies when on their way to their Kun Opera classes. Joking aside, it really is a truism that Kun Opera helps people to relax. Su Mei-ling, a student of the flute for many years who plays well enough to perform on stage, smiles and says that listening to the opera really is a very pleasant thing to do.
The pied piper of Kun
It was the "King of the Flute," Hsu Yan-chi, and his wife whose efforts were largely responsible for the introduction of Kun Opera to Taiwanese opera fans. The two were well known as Kun enthusiasts in the mainland. From the 1950s onward, they began establishing Kun Opera clubs at universities in Taiwan, including those at NTU and National Chengchi University, and traveling all over to teach.
Master Hsu taught the flute and singing while his wife taught the movements. Yao Tien-hsing, a teacher of Chinese at National Taiwan Normal Univerity's Mandarin Training Center, tells of how she followed the bright sound of a flute across the Soochow University campus until she ran into Master Hsu, who was in the midst of teaching a class. Just like that, she began to study singing. Kun flute is soft, warm, and broad in its tones, which can be drawn out to fit a tune. It's no wonder, then, that the instrument is so well suited to the gentle, winding melodies of the Kun Opera.
In addition to performances by university clubs, there is a Kun Opera society that meets every Sunday to sing a cappella. The society was founded in 1987 by a group of students in commemoration of Master Hsu's ninetieth birthday. They thought it would be sad if they all just went their separate ways after graduation and so established the Suimo Qu Group (literally, the "water-smoothed melodies group"). The group has continued to meet for what has now already been ten years.
"The Master's wife can sing 12 episodes including 'The Dream in the Garden' and 'Qin Tiao.' At the outset, we studied these 12 repeatedly and then taught them to the newer members of the group," says Chen Pin, assistant director of the Suimo Qu Group, reminiscing on the group's early, difficult days. Then, the year after its founding, Master Hsu passed away and Taiwan's Kun Opera world was silenced for a time. When cross-strait relations began to thaw, however, it brought a ray of hope. Local enthusiasts became the disciples of "Master Video," seeking to learn from videotapes. That was all there was until professional performers from the mainland at last were able to bring the beauty and charm of the living art to audiences in Taiwan.
In 1992, the National Theater invited Hwa Wen-yi and Kao Hui-lan to bring The Peony Pavilion to its stage. International New Aspect Educational and Cultural Foundation also invited the Shanghai and Zhejiang Kun Opera Troupes to perform the entire cycles of operas such as The Palace of Eternal Youth, Lanke Mountain, and The Jade Hairpin. Taiwan audiences, used to amateur performances, were carried away by the passionate singing and brilliant acting of the mainland troupes.
Long before the mainland troupes performed on Taiwan's stages, the Kun Opera Education Plan (KOEP) had been put into action. How this plan came into being, however, is another story.
Kun Opera travels
In 1990, a group of Kun Opera lovers arranged a trip to see the Shanghai Kun Opera Company perform. Hung Wei-chu, a professor in the Chinese department of National Central University, remembers having gone to Hong Kong the year before. There, he saw mainland Kun Opera performers expressing the full range of human emotions in their roles. The experience led him to invite Tseng Yung-yi of NTU to make a trip to Shanghai with him.
Together with a group of enthusiasts, they took in 20 operas over a period of five nights, seeing each school of performance's interpretation of Chinese opera's role-types. They chatted with many of the mainland's best Kun Opera performers after the shows. These professionals, winners of the mainland's highest acting honor, the Plum Blossom Award, told Hung and his group that by the age of 50, a performer has reached his peak and begins to go into decline.
Tseng and Hung couldn't bear to think that Kun Opera, the most beautiful of the folk arts, would disappear just like that. On returning to Taiwan, they began to solicit aid, finally persuading the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) to support plans which were put into action by the Chinese Folk-Arts Foundation. The first of these was to film the mainland's six large Kun Opera companies, saving their performances on tape. The second was to set up classes to train performers in the art and to teach audiences to appreciate it. These classes formally began in March of 1991.
Learning from the mainland
In the first year after the implementation of the KOEP, there were more than 20 students in the advanced voice class, more than 100 in the basic voice class, and more than 20 in the flute class. The plan's sponsors devoted themselves to bringing in well-known Kun Opera performers from Hong Kong and Taiwan to teach. For the second term of classes, more than 10 performers from the mainland were invited to teach, many of whom were performers of the first water. Their reputations attracted even more enthusiasts to the classes.
When they teach, most of Taiwan's Kun Opera teachers emphasize aspects of singing such as articulation, projecting, finishing notes and the modulation of the melody. The mainland performers, on the other hand, began to teach movement to Taiwan's students. Han Chang-yun, a student in NTU's Graduate School of Drama, hearkens back to her university days when she met the first group of mainland performers who had come to pass on their art. Studying under famed teachers for the first time, they "studied from sunrise to sunset." She was a student in the school of veterinary medicine at the time, and as such, had a great deal of course work. Though her study of Kun caused her to fail a class, she feels it was worth it.
Not satisfied with what they had so far learned, a group of opera fanatics took advantage of their summer vacation to travel to Hangzhou to learn more. They lived with the Zhejiang Kun Opera Company and immersed themselves in opera studies for a month. They rose at 6 a.m. for voice practice, studied movement with their teachers in the 40_C heat of the afternoons, and practiced flute and drums in the evening. There, they not only came to know the artists whom they had long admired, but also received instruction from them.
Kun Opera's refinement and elegance are intoxicating. And just being a passive member of the audience is not enough for most people. Instead, they find they must sing a few pieces. Taking the tunes of love and hate, of people's rise and fall in the world, they sing them until they know them inside and out, until their very hearts melt in ecstasy. Many students of the style don't care that they sing badly; it doesn't stop them from continuing their studies. And the more they sing, the more addicted they become.
Rich and poor alike
Each term of the KOEP lasts for one year and there is a six month break between terms. By the time the fourth term was arranged, a total of more than 200 students had studied in the program, over 60 of whom were continuing their studies.
This group of students has not only become good friends, but also a loyal audience. At many opera performances, one can see their familiar faces. Chen Kai-hsiang, a student in NTU's Graduate School of Drama, says it's a pleasure to continually learn new things. To her, it's like Beiguan (a nothern Chinese style of music) singing societies; you make yourself and others happy at the same time. It becomes one of life's pleasures and something to which you become dedicated.
One can see the enthusiasm that the students have for their art, and some of them are beginning to have a professional look. This term, in addition to the classes, the sponsors of the KOEP have decided to establish an amateur Kun Opera troupe which will also train future teachers. They have selected 20 students who will be trained for three years to form the basis of the troupe. To encourage professional performers to study Kun Opera, six places will be reserved for Peking Opera performers of the Kuo Kuang and Fu Hsing Opera Companies.
In May and June of this year, Liang Guyin and Ji Zhenhua, two top performers from the Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe, taught Lanke Mountain together. This opera relates the story of a Han Dynasty scholar named Zhu Maichen's divorce of his wife. Liang and Ji have been performing it together for many years.
In the act entitled "Forcing His Hand," Zhu's wife, who is unhappy that her husband is a poor scholar of no repute, forces Zhu to divorce her so she can marry another man. "We wives never give him a pleasant expression," says Liang, instructing those who will play the female role. She demonstrates how to convey disdain for this indigent scholar with looks and movements. While guiding their students, Liang and Ji unconsciously begin to perform. Zhu loses himself in thought for a moment. Then he describes to his wife the life they will have if one day he passes the civil service examinations and becomes a government official. His wife stares dreamily ahead, imagining herself putting on the clothing and headdress of a lady of means. . . . It continues until the ladle she has put on her head in lieu of the lady's hat she has been dreaming about falls to the ground, startling both of them out of their fantasies. The students around the two actors also look dazed, as if they, too, have just awakened from a dream.
Young people are mad about it, too
Originally, Kun Opera didn't merely consist of love stories of "able men and beautiful ladies." There were also operas with realistic plots such as that above, operas with a realism that sometimes rivals that of a stageplay. Performances are still stylized, and its production is more elaborate than other operas including Peking Opera. The addictiveness of Kun Opera is easily understood; nearly everyone who has seen a performance experiences a feeling of complete satisfaction. And the older the opera is, the more power it has to move audiences.
Who says that young people don't share their ancestor's loves? In 1994, International New Aspect Educational and Cultural Foundation brought the Shanghai Kun Opera Company to Taiwan to perform. The foundation also arranged for the company to travel the island performing and teaching at a few high schools because high school Chinese literature texts contain the song "Eating Husks" from The Lute. The song tells of Cai Bojie hurrying to the capital to take an imperial examination. There, he marries the daughter of Prime Minister Niu. His head awhirl at the situation, he doesn't know of the famine afflicting his hometown. Meanwhile, his first wife, who has remained in Cai's hometown with his dying parents, cooks rice porridge for them. She herself eats only rice husks in an effort to stave off starvation.
Those exhibitions and lectures captured the interest of many high school students, who followed after the performers seeking autographs. Some of those same students are now members of the university Kun Opera clubs, having been drawn to the art by those high school exhibitions.
Pleasurable things are still more pleasurable when enjoyed with a group. Yao Tien-hsing has been attending Kun classes since the first term was arranged by the KOEP. To date, she hasn't missed a class and her enthusiasm has sparked the interest of some friends and relatives. Her son, a graduate student in physics, and her husband Yang Hsiao-jung, a professor of sociology at Soochow University, have attended classes and performances with her. And it still isn't enough for her. She also plays video tapes of Kun Opera performances for her Chinese classes at the MTC, teaching her students some of the hand movements and some of the steps used on stage. She has even taught them to sing lyrics from the operas. She says that the foreign students find it a lot of fun. Moreover, she says that as a result of her singing of Kun Opera, she strongly emphasizes proper pronunciation with her students, pushing them to enunciate precisely.
Has Kun Opera moved to Taiwan?
Earlier education plans to support Nanguan and Taiwanese Opera have been difficult to implement. Kun Opera, however, looks set to carry on for many years to come, and the more students who take part in the classes, the stronger it becomes. But Hung Wei-chu believes that the success of the Kun Opera Education Plan must be attributed to the charm of the opera itself. Says Hung, "It really is gorgeous." In addition to the efforts of the organizers to bring in good teachers, the students have been of high caliber and have put their heart and soul into their studies. For Liang Guyin, her most moving experience as a teacher has been watching some of her basic class students at their studies. Many of them are themselves university professors and "they've researched far more than we have, but they are still very, very diligent in class."
Taiwan audiences' passion for the opera has also moved many of the mainland performers who have come to Taiwan. Having gone through the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, and now with the economy taking off and society as a whole becoming much more money oriented, those who understand and appreciate the traditional opera are becoming fewer and fewer. In contrast, Taiwan's audiences have enthusiasm for the opera. They have done research on Kun Opera and have worked to preserve it. For example, there are the Kun Opera videotapes, a collection of more than 100 beautiful episodes performed by the six large mainland Kun Opera companies that is already being distributed by the Council for Cultural Affairs. And the Chinese Drama and Opera Research Center that Central University's Prof. Hung presides over has edited a Kun Opera dictionary. All these efforts have led NTU's Prof. Tseng to boldly state that Taiwan will become Kun Opera's new homeland.
Can Kun Opera really move east to Taiwan? Does it need to? The focus of the KOEP is to teach audiences and researchers. Professional performers, on the other hand, must be taught the fundamentals from an early age. And without professional performers, there is no way the art can take root. As for the amateur company, it is still in the planning stages. Another difficulty is that most of the students in Taiwan are learning the young male and young female roles. (Usually, a Chinese opera performer plays only one role-type through his or her entire career. There are basically four role-types: sheng (male), dan (female), chou (clown) and jing (masked characters including generals, gods and ghosts).) So, although progress is being made, there are still deficiencies such as a lack of teachers for chou and jing roles.
Further, in recent years, a "Taiwan consciousness" has arisen on the island. This has led to Kun Opera being viewed as a "foreign" variety of opera, creating some stormy times for the form. With insufficient resources available to support local varieties of opera, some have begun to wonder why the CCA is putting so much effort into the KOEP. The plan's students have already accepted the possibility that there will not be a next term of classes.
A gardener at work
Although Kun Opera is appreciated by only a few, how can it not find a place for itself in a pluralistic society? Ethnomusi-cologist Lin Ku-fang thinks that in Taiwan, discussion about art gets muddled by political considerations. Various arts are distinguished not by the depth and quality of their artistry, but by their ethnic or geographic origins.
He says that although at one time so much attention was paid to the refining of the music and the words that the form eventually arrived at an extremely elegant dead end, Kun Opera has a place in today's Taiwan. This is because "returning to the classics gives people a feeling of serenity." Kun reawakens people's interest in life and slows them down a little. He says, "People can learn a little of elegance from Kun Opera."
Asked why he loves Kun so much, one student used a line from "The Dream in the Garden" to reply: "If one doesn't go into the gardens, how will he know the colors of Spring?" The riot of colors in the garden, the springtime sunlight. . . these things are passed from generation to generation as culture is passed on and accumulates. If, perhaps, an old garden hasn't been cultivated for many years, one won't see a colorful array of floral brilliance immediately. But seeing the gardener at work, one can feel the springtime vibrancy that fills the garden.
p.112
"The 'everlasting earth and sky' will some day come to an end, but this agony will last forever." The story of the love shared by the Tang Emperor Ming and Yang Guifei was depicted in the Qing-dynasty librettist Hong Sheng's The Palace of Eternal Youth, one of Kun Opera's classics. The picture shows Kun Opera prima donna Hwa Wen-yi and Peking Opera artist Kao Hui-lan performing together. (photo by Li Ming-hsun)
p.114
The Peony Pavilion was written by Tang Xianzu. Even today, the exceptional beauty of its words and music make it the most widely known Kun Opera. Of those whose fate brings them to The Peony Pavilion, there are few who are not intoxicated by it.
When Kun Opera was at its zenith, Kun troupes traveled China in "theater boats," boats which carried a stage. When the troupe arrived at some location, the stage would be erected and the troupe would perform. They were extremely mobile. The model in the picture is kept at the Central University Chinese Drama and Opera Research Center.
p.115
Is reading a Kun Opera score like trying to read hieroglyphics? Actually, once you have the idea, learning it is not difficult. This score from Qing dynasty emperor Qianlong's day also includes the body movements next to the music, allowing performers to learn directly from the score. (courtesy of the Central University Drama and Opera Research Center)
p.116
The contributions of Master Hsu Yan-chih and his wife to the preservation of Kun Opera in Taiwan cannot be ignored. Those who studied with the master's wife, Chang Shan-hsiang, cherish the memory to this day. (courtesy of Chen Pin)
p.117
Since the opening up of cross-strait relations, the KOEP has invited ten mainland performers to Taiwan to teach. Students are ecstatic about having the opportunity to study with these famous teachers.
p.118
Students practicing in the Kun flute class. The gentle winding tones of the flute are the soul of Kun's music.
p.119
Kun Opera is a very expressive art. Every position of the hands represents an emotion. The pictures show the Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe's leading performer of "beautiful woman" roles teaching.
p.120
Clear enunciation is a must when singing Kun Opera. During class the teacher will choose students to sing, so they must be on their toes.
p.121
Kun Opera's fans all say that once under its spell, there is no escape. The Suimo Qu Group of Kun enthusiasts has already been in existence for ten years.
p.122
The garden of classical opera is colorful, full of the scent and romance of spring. The only question is whether or not one is willing to step into that garden. The picture shows the Suimo Qu Group performing "The Dream in the Garden." (photo by Yang Jen-kai)
Is reading a Kun Opera score like trying to read hierolyphics? Actually, once you have the idea, learning it is not difficult. This score from Qing dynasty emperor Qianlong's day also includes the body movements next to the music, allowing performers to learn directly from the score. （courtesy of the Central University Drama and Opera Research Center）
The contributions of Master Hsu Yan-Chih and his wife to the preservatio n of Kun Opera in Taiwan cannot be ignored. Those who studied with the master's wife, Chan g Shan-hsiang, cherish the memory to this day. （courtesy of Chen Pin）
Since the opening up of cross-strait relations, the KOEP has invited ten mainland performers to Taiwan to teach. Students are ecstatic about having the opportunity t o study with these famous teachers.
Students practicing in the Kun flute class. The gentle winding tones of the flute are the soul of Kun's music.
Kun Opera is a very expressive art. Every position of the hands represents an emotion. The pictures show the Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe's leading performer of "beautiful woman" roles teaching.
Clear enunciation is a must when singing Kun Opera. During class the tea cher will choose students to sing, so they must be on their toes.
Kun Opera's fans all say that once under its spell, there is no escape. The Suimo Qu Group of Kun enthusiasts has already been in existence for ten years.
The garden of classical opera is colorful, full of the scent and romance of spring. The only question is whether or not one is willing to step into that garden. The picture shows the Suimo Qu Group performing "The Dream in the Garden." （photo by Yang Jen-kai）
@List.jpg?w=522&h=410&mode=crop&format=webp&quality=80)
@List.jpg?w=522&h=410&mode=crop&format=webp&quality=80)