One afternoon in late June, 33 year-old Su Quan and 25 year-old Xue Renchai pack their passports and set out from their homes in Malaysia for the three-hour drive to meet their friend Wang Lanwan in Singapore. Later, the three join up with others for a gathering of fans of Taiwan's Yeh Ching, a star of televised ko-tzai-hsi.

In contrast to the opera patrons of yesteryear, wealthy overseas Chinese who could pay with gold chains and cash-stuffed envelopes for their idols to come on tour, these are regular working women. They range in age from their twenties to their fifties, but once they get together they could be star-struck teenyboppers, showing off their scrapbooks, photo albums and calendars, and swapping VCDs.

A bond made by TV

"Look, I've got a photo from Legend of the White Snake Fairy which I'm sure you haven't seen. It was sent me by a video pal in Taiwan," says Wang Lanwan, proudly showing off the hard-to-come-by photograph. "Looking at photos is great, but watching videos is even better!" exclaims Xue Renchai, not to be outdone, adding that she has more than 10 sets of Yeh Ching videos at home, and has watched each set several times over. That evening the three of them stay together at Wang's home and have fun watching Yeh Ching videos. "Last time we met in Malaysia because you can't get hold of White Snake or Huangfu Shaohua tapes in Singapore. We stayed up watching videos until 5 a.m.," smiles Su Quan, "because it was such a great opportunity."

These fans were too young to catch Yeh Ching, Yang Li-hua and other top opera stars from Taiwan on their grand tours through the region, but thanks to videos of the old TV opera films, a new generation of diehard fans has grown up watching those same operas with their parents and grandparents.

So keen are these fans that they watch the same videos over and over again, and when they still can't get enough opera they fly to Taiwan to catch their idols in the flesh. The first of the group to do this was Su Quan, who traveled on her own to Taiwan more than ten years ago and stayed there for six months with relatives, though she never actually managed to see Yeh Ching during that time. Zhang Lichen has made three visits to Taiwan, each time in order to see Yeh Ching perform. Wang Lanwan traveled with a group of other video enthusiasts specifically to see Yeh Ching at the National Theatre in Taipei, and attended the same opera four nights in succession. Cai Meifeng, who appreciates a wide range of opera artists, has visited Taiwan on eight occasions and been five times to the National Theatre, where she has seen Yang Li-hua, Yeh Ching and Huang Hsiang-lien.

Taiwanese opera tour groups

These overseas fans of ko-tzai-hsi are entranced by the videos they obtain from Taiwan, and some have even become personally involved with the local world of Fujianese opera. Cai Meifeng, a big fan of Huang Hsiang-lien, frequently browses the Internet in search of updates on televised ko-tzai-hsi, and is currently making a web page for a Fujianese opera troupe in Singapore. Zhuang Zhenni, who studied at university in Taiwan, is now a member of the Xiang Opera Troupe of Singapore's Fujianese Association, and frequently treads the boards herself. Zhang Lizhen, the mother of a 26 year-old, once spent a week in Taiwan with a Xiang opera troupe, and is well-informed about Yeh Ching, Yang Li-hua, Huang Hsiang-lien, Tang Mei-yun and other such luminaries of the Taiwan stage. She is also very familiar with the Museum of Taiwanese Opera in Ilan.

In the early 1980s, the most popular form of entertainment for ethnic Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia involved sitting at home watching Taiwan-made videos of ko-tzai-hsi. More recently, distributors have stopped importing the videos due to the passing of the fad, the high cost of royalties and the fact that fewer ko-tzai-hsi operas are now being filmed for television in Taiwan. What most worries the fans is that there haven't been any new operas to watch in a long time. When it comes time for them to part again at the end of their latest feast of video opera, they call out reminders to one another: "If a new opera comes out, make sure to spread the word quickly!"

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Taiwanese opera troupes from television stations in Taiwan used to cause a sensation whenever they toured in Southeast Asia, and fans would reward the performers with gold jewellery and envelopes of cash. The picture shows sixties opera star Lin Yuan-yuan with one of her fans. (courtesy of Lin Yuan-yuan)

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Today's opera fans fill scrapbooks, photo albums and calendars with pictures of their idols. Everyone in this group has been to Taiwan to see Yeh Ching in performance. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

Today's opera fans fill scrapbooks, photo albums and calendars with pictures of their idols. Everyone in this group has been to Taiwan to see Yeh Ching in performance. （photo by Pu Hua-chih）