In October 2023, the Kunshan Opera Museum located in Zhengyi Old Street, Bacheng Town, Kunshan City, was officially opened, making the first Chinese opera-themed museum in China to collect 348 opera genres for the first time, making this "Kunqu Opera Town" the focus.
It is understood that the Kunshan Opera Museum has a total construction area of about 17,000 square meters, and the shape of the building is based on the elements of "work ruler spectrum", and the space is flexible, interpreting the ancient and modern heritage. The museum is equipped with various exhibition halls, public education and cultural and creative areas, integrating the functions of opera theme collection, display, teaching and research, and performing arts.
Kunshan Opera Museum
Walk into the Kunshan Opera Museum, Shanghai Opera, Peking Opera, Hunan Opera, Cantonese Opera, Hui Opera...... The detailed written materials are like a rich opera dossier, combined with vivid pictures to display a collection of 348 opera genres, and each page records the precious history of drama, which is intriguing. In addition to the precious historical "treasures", on the first floor of the General History Hall of the museum, the treasure of the town hall, "the twelve screens of the Qing Kangxi style color Guo Ziyi's longevity map", quietly exudes a mysterious color, telling the ancient story.
"Qing Kangxi Cai Guo Ziyi Twelve Screens" is 270 cm high, 595.2 cm wide, using color lacquer technology. It is a decorative technique that carves a concave outline on the lacquer floor, and fills it with lacquer, oil or gold and silver. It is one of the popular lacquerware decoration techniques in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, which reached the peak of development in the Kangxi period and was widely used in screens, hanging screens or murals. There are 12 screens, each 49.6 cm wide. Among them, the left and right two are used as frames, and the middle ten doors are painted with a picture of "Guo Ziyi's birthday", and the back is a picture of "a hundred birds and a phoenix". Around the screen are made of begonia type, scroll type, sunflower petal type, fan-shaped, oval, horn type and other kinds of light, the interior has rare animals, all kinds of flowers, historical allusions and other ornaments. The shape of this screen is huge, the craftsmanship is exquisite, standing in front of people to give people a sense of shock, and the meticulous depiction can be seen when approaching and looking down, representing the high level of color craftsmanship in the Kangxi period.
Screen front
What is the story of "Guo Ziyi's Birthday Greetings" on the screen? According to records, Guo Ziyi's son Guo Hua married Princess Shengping, and both of them were young and vigorous. On Guo Ziyi's birthday, Princess Shengping said that she was unwell and did not go to celebrate Guo Ziyi's birthday, Guo Hua lost her temper and beat Princess Shengping, and said that her father Guo Ziyi just disdained to be the Son of Heaven, otherwise how could Shengping be willful. Shengping felt aggrieved and ran into the palace to complain to Daizong. When Guo Ziyi heard about this, she took her son to the palace to be blamed. Daizong trusted Guo Ziyi, not only did he not care about what Guo Yu said, but also promoted him to his official position, and after the couple finally got back together, they went to Guo's mansion together to celebrate his father's birthday, and Guo Ziyi and the mansion rejoiced. This story later became the famous repertoire of Huangmei Opera "Hitting the Golden Branch", and also became an important repertoire of many operas such as Henan Opera, Yue Opera, Peking Opera, Jin Opera, and Hebei Bangzi.
"This treasure was once exiled overseas, and later collected back to China. Wang Wei, deputy general manager of Suzhou Branch of Nanjing Daming Culture Industry Co., Ltd. and executive deputy director of Kunshan Opera Museum, told reporters that this treasure of the town hall comes from the century-old Duchamp Gallery in France. Hundreds of years ago, a large number of color screens in mainland China were acquired overseas, and the luxurious style of color complemented the aesthetic taste of foreign aristocrats advocating noble and gorgeous. Some foreign craftsmen peeled off the paint layer from the screens and embedded them in the newly made furniture, while others even dismantled the screens to make tables, chairs, and other furniture. And this "Qing Kangxi color Guo Ziyi birthday picture twelve screens" after a hundred years and thousands of miles across the ocean still maintain good condition, it is really commendable.
The back of the screen
The Kunshan Opera Museum is full of fascinating exhibitions and themed activities around opera. "The silk blows to the idle courtyard, swaying the spring like a line. The beautiful lyrics in the classic play "The Peony Pavilion" are supplemented by the flow of the actors' water sleeves, and all kinds of feelings flow quietly. In the museum, the beautiful interpretation of "The Peony Pavilion" continues, "Who is like me in the spring - congratulations on the 20th anniversary of the youth version of the "Peony Pavilion" tour theme exhibition" brings people into this love story like a song and tears, and the exquisite melody belonging to Chinese opera will continue to echo in the sky over Kunshan, and the ancient opera will rejuvenate here.
(Jiangnan Times reporter Xu Xi)