Enlightenment of the Inheritance and Development of Traditional Opera (Creative Transformation and Innovative Development)
——Take Cantonese opera as an example
Stills from "The Legend of the White Snake". Photo courtesy of Guangdong Cantonese Theatre
Stills from "The Red Turban". Photo courtesy of Guangdong Cantonese Theatre
Core reading
Cultural character is the unique personality that chinese opera genres have gradually emerged in the process of incubation, development and evolution for thousands of years, and is the central content of the current intangible cultural heritage protection of opera
A good Lingnan cultural ecology is an important foundation for Cantonese opera to maintain its vigorous vitality
Cantonese opera has long been regarded as a drama with strong local characteristics in the Lingnan region. A cursory examination of a few numbers reveals that it is far more lucrative than we could have imagined.
In the development of Cantonese opera for more than 300 years, it has absorbed and accepted the vocal cavity and various repertoire of operas that have entered Lingnan. Statistics from the 1980s showed that cantonese opera had more than 13,000 recorded plays. In the last 40 years, the number of new plays has increased. Cantonese opera had a long period of stage dialect before the application of Cantonese dialect, which carried classic works of the north and south vocal cavities such as Gao Cavity, Kun Cavity, Zizi, Erhuang, etc., and finally condensed into a unique "pomp" of Cantonese Opera. So far, there are at least 300 recorded "pomp and circumstance". The marriage of Cantonese opera to film further strengthened the commercial style of Cantonese opera. Before the 1970s, there were nearly 1,000 Cantonese opera films produced in Hong Kong alone, accounting for 23% of the total number of sound films in Hong Kong at this stage. Many Cantonese opera celebrities and dramas are amphibious, so that the fashion and artistic temperament of Cantonese opera is fully displayed.
In 2009, Cantonese opera was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, bringing opportunities for people to re-understand Cantonese opera culture. In the following 12 years, the Lingnan Cantonese opera circles in Guangdong, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have made in-depth expansion of the protection and development of Cantonese opera, forming a series of protection experiences, providing many enlightenments for the survival of traditional opera.
Unique cultural character
In 1889, the Cantonese Opera Guild organization Bahe Guild hall was established in Xiguan, Guangzhou. Nowadays, there are Eight Harmony Guild Halls in many countries, which is a manifestation of the influence of Cantonese opera. Since the beginning of the 20th century, nearly 20 genres of Cantonese opera have emerged. Artists such as Bai Jurong, Ma Shizeng, Xue Juexian, Liao Xiahuai, Gui Mingyang, Hongxinnu, Fang Yanfen, Ren Jianhui, Chen Xiaofeng and other artists have jointly created and enriched the vocal art of Cantonese opera from modern to contemporary times.
Cantonese opera art has a very different cultural character from other genres of drama. Some experts commented that Cantonese opera "combines the great achievements of northern and southern operas" and "gives full play to national interests and local sensitivity", is "a new freehand art full of vitality", and has become one of the typical representatives of Chinese opera overseas.
Cultural character is the unique personality that chinese opera genres have gradually emerged in the process of incubation, development and evolution for thousands of years, and is the central content of the current intangible cultural heritage protection of opera. There are currently 348 opera genres in China, how are these drama genres different? At the beginning of the 2017 National Opera Census, the Xiqu Research Institute of the China Academy of Arts formulated 8 standards, involving the artistic presentation of drama in literature, music, performance, and choreography. These are all components of cultural character and embody the concept of "cultural diversity" protection.
The artistic history and cultural practice of Cantonese opera for hundreds of years has broken through the traditional definition of local drama genres. The specific Lingnan culture, modern Guangzhou life, urban commercial support, and the changing and developing fashion atmosphere make Cantonese opera present a unique cultural character and development path based on the two-way interaction between "nationality" and "locality". The continuation of this cultural character is an important factor in its active protection.
Institutionalized, specialized and ecological protection
The developed economic environment in the southeast coastal area provides the foundation for Cantonese opera to expand its market. A prominent example is the two works of the Guangdong Cantonese Theatre in recent years. "Decisive Battle of TianceFu" combines online games with Cantonese opera to attract new audience groups; "White Snake Biography and Love" uses traditional table acting methods, and is put on the movie screen in 2021, with a box office of more than 20 million yuan in the first week, becoming a "phenomenon-level" case at the box office of Chinese opera films.
It can be seen that Cantonese opera still maintains a strong vitality. The protective experience of Cantonese opera belongs to Cantonese opera and also belongs to Chinese opera.
The first is institutionalized protection experience. The four-level protection list system and the inheritor system established by the Law of the People's Republic of China on Intangible Cultural Heritage are important symbols for promoting the protection of heritage through the system. Promoting institutionalized protection has become the key to the realization of local protection of Cantonese opera. The 2011 Regulations on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Guangdong Province, the 2014 Guangzhou Municipal General Work Plan for Further Revitalizing cantonese opera, and especially the promulgation of the Guangdong Provincial Regulations on the Protection and Inheritance of Cantonese Opera in 2017 have effectively promoted the comprehensive protection of Cantonese opera art. The establishment of the Guangzhou Revitalization Cantonese Opera Foundation in 1992, the Hong Kong Cantonese Opera Development Fund in 2005, and the Guangdong Prosperity Cantonese Opera Foundation in 2006 also provided a stable institutional guarantee for the development of Cantonese opera. Since 2002, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cultural Cooperation Conference, promoted by the cultural authorities of the three places, has benefited the cultural heritage of the "Greater Pearl River Delta", including Cantonese opera.
The second is professional protection experience. Independent "learning within the line" is the inheritance method of opera heritage for thousands of years, and in this way, it realizes the creation and accumulation of art. Since the founding of New China, the focus of the inheritance and development of opera art has also been based on the professional requirements of producing people and dramas. Various art festivals, performances and awards, and the inheritance and teaching work represented by xiqu schools are all important ways to ensure the professional protection and inheritance of xiqu.
As far as Cantonese opera is concerned, a landmark achievement is the compilation of the Cantonese Opera Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Previously, the study of Cantonese opera has achieved certain results, including "Chinese Opera Chronicle (Guangdong Volume)", "Chinese Opera Music Integration (Guangdong Volume)", "Cantonese Opera Dictionary" and other works. On this basis, the Cantonese Opera Performing Arts Encyclopedia was launched in 2017, and has so far completed the compilation and publication of "Doing Scrolls" and "Singing Scrolls". In the process of compilation, the old, middle-aged and young inheritors of Cantonese opera in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Overseas Cantonese opera made concerted efforts to bring together the existing artistic heritage of Cantonese opera, restore and restore the stage presentation of Cantonese opera, and complete the recording with the assistance of contemporary technical means. In this process, the older generation of artists passed on valuable artistic experience through transmission, help and belt, and realized the living inheritance and professional inheritance. In recent years, nanpai martial arts has become a hot spot for many young Cantonese opera workers in Guangdong, which is the result of this living inheritance.
The third is the experience of ecological protection. In the process of development for hundreds of years, the cultural ecology of Lingnan has been an important foundation for Cantonese opera to maintain its vigorous vitality. As far as art forms are concerned, Cantonese opera includes Cantonese opera centered on "drama" and Cantonese opera centered on "qu", and its extension can even involve art forms such as Yong opera and Cantonese opera puppetry related to the history of Cantonese opera. From the perspective of social groups, amateur mass art characterized by sitting and singing "private gang bureaus" is very prosperous. In terms of style forms, Cantonese opera has formed different performance styles in urban theaters and rural "theaters", showing great differences in survival mechanisms, performance forms, and development models at home and abroad.
Some of these experiences have the commonality of opera inheritance and development, and some of them, although they belong to Cantonese opera culture and art, still have reference significance and are worth cherishing and promoting.
(Author: Wang Kui, Director of the Institute of Chinese Opera, China Academy of Arts, President of the Chinese Opera Society)
Source: People's Daily