Origins of Chinese Opera (2010 Edition - EPUB)
Origins of Chinese Opera (2010 Edition - EPUB)

Author: Lim SK

Publisher: Asiapac Books Pte Ltd

Published: 2018-09-26

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 9812299882

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Chinese opera is one of the world's oldest dramatic forms and a well-loved treasure of Chinese culture. It is a wonderful combination of dance, music, literature, poetry, singing and dialogue, acrobatics and martial arts to create a unique form of acting that includes "singing, speaking, acting and acrobatic fighting". Find out more fascinating details about Chinese opera: * Why is the clown mask so colourful? * Who is the "big painted face"? * What does it signify when an opera performer stands on the table? Origins of Chinese Opera is definitely an eye-catching book complete with pictures and comics vividly portraying various opera genres popular in China. You will be fascinated by how the art form is able to transform and adapt itself to appeal to the sophisticated audience of our digital era.

Chinese Opera
Chinese Opera

Author: Peter Lovrick

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2011-11-01

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 0774844450

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Chinese Opera looks at Chinese society through an exciting series of photographs of operatic performances from many regions of the country. The book introduces the reader to this unique theatrical form and tells the traditional stories that are its narrative foundation. Siu Wang-Ngai's extraordinary images, taken in natural light during performances, lovingly reveal the visual excitement of Chinese opera and point to the differences in costuming and presentation that distinguish each regional style and character type.

Chinese Theater
Chinese Theater

Author: Colin Mackerras

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0824842499

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This volume is the first concise introduction to the splendid variety of the Chinese theatrical tradition. It presents a rounded perspective on the development of Chinese theater by considering all of its major aspects—history and social context, performance, costume, makeup, actors, playwrights, and theaters—and by discussing all the major forms of Chinese theater, including the Beijing opera, which arose in the eighteenth century, and the spoken play, an entirely twentieth-century form. Its contributors are uniquely qualified to write about the Chinese theater. They have enjoyed an intimate relationship with their subject, both as academics and as theater workers, and they have combined a deep knowledge of Chinese theater with a high regard for its long tradition and continuing vitality. The book is intended for general as well as more specialized readers. Those with an interest in theater as a worldwide phenomenon and those wanting a new light on Chinese culture and society will find it equally useful. To those with a particular interest in Chinese theater, it will be a rich and important resource.

The Rise of Cantonese Opera
The Rise of Cantonese Opera

Author: Wing Chung Ng

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2015-05-15

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0252097092

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Defined by its distinct performance style, stage practices, and regional and dialect based identities, Cantonese opera originated as a traditional art form performed by itinerant companies in temple courtyards and rural market fairs. In the early 1900s, however, Cantonese opera began to capture mass audiences in the commercial theaters of Hong Kong and Guangzhou--a transformation that changed it forever. Wing Chung Ng charts Cantonese opera's confrontations with state power, nationalist discourses, and its challenge to the ascendancy of Peking opera as the country's preeminent "national theatre." Mining vivid oral histories and heretofore untapped archival sources, Ng relates how Cantonese opera evolved from a fundamentally rural tradition into urbanized entertainment distinguished by a reliance on capitalization and celebrity performers. He also expands his analysis to the transnational level, showing how waves of Chinese emigration to Southeast Asia and North America further re-shaped Cantonese opera into a vibrant part of the ethnic Chinese social life and cultural landscape in the many corners of a sprawling diaspora.

Opera and the City
Opera and the City

Author: Andrea Goldman

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2013-12-10

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 0804782628

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In late imperial China, opera transmitted ideas across the social hierarchy about the self, family, society, and politics. Beijing attracted a diverse array of opera genres and audiences and, by extension, served as a hub for the diffusion of cultural values. It is in this context that historian Andrea S. Goldman harnesses opera as a lens through which to examine urban cultural history. Her meticulous yet playful account takes up the multiplicity of opera types that proliferated at the time, exploring them as contested sites through which the Qing court and commercial playhouses negotiated influence and control over the social and moral order. Opera performance blurred lines between public and private life, and offered a stage on which to act out gender and class transgressions. This work illuminates how the state and various urban constituencies manipulated opera to their own ends, and sheds light on empire-wide transformations underway at the time.

Women Playing Men
Women Playing Men

Author: Jin Jiang

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2009-04

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 0295988444

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Modern forces converge and gender roles are challenged in this volume that explores the influence of Yue opera - a subgenre of Chinese opera that transformed all-male opera into an all-female art forms, with women cross-dressing as male characters.

Opera, Society, and Politics in Modern China
Opera, Society, and Politics in Modern China

Author: Hsiao-t'i Li

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-10-26

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 1684171016

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"Popular operas in late imperial China were a major part of daily entertainment, and were also important for transmitting knowledge of Chinese culture and values. In the twentieth century, however, Chinese operas went through significant changes. During the first four decades of the 1900s, led by Xin Wutai (New Stage) of Shanghai and Yisushe of Xi’an, theaters all over China experimented with both stage and scripts to present bold new plays centering on social reform. Operas became closely intertwined with social and political issues. This trend toward “politicization” was to become the most dominant theme of Chinese opera from the 1930s to the 1970s, when ideology-laden political plays reflected a radical revolutionary agenda.Drawing upon a rich array of primary sources, this book focuses on the reformed operas staged in Shanghai and Xi’an. By presenting extensive information on both traditional/imperial China and revolutionary/Communist China, it reveals the implications of these “modern” operatic experiences and the changing features of Chinese operas throughout the past five centuries. Although the different genres of opera were watched by audiences from all walks of life, the foundations for opera’s omnipresence completely changed over time."

Peking Opera
Peking Opera

Author: Chengbei Xu

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-03-09

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 0521188210

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Peking Opera provides a comprehensive illustrated introduction to the origins and development of this unique performance art.

Beijing Opera Costumes
Beijing Opera Costumes

Author: Alexandra B Bonds

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-01-17

Total Pages: 632

ISBN-13: 1351380451

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Beijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture illuminates the links between theatrical attire and social customs and aesthetics of China, covering both the theory and practice of stage dress. Distinguishing attributes include an introduction to the performance style, the delineation of the costume conventions, an analysis of the costumes through their historical precedents and theatrical modifications, and the use of garment shape, color, and embroidery for symbolic effect. Practical information covers dressing the performers and a costume plot, the design and creation of the make-up and hairstyles, and pattern drafts of the major garments. Photographs from live performances, as well as details of embroidery, and close-up photographs of the headdresses thoroughly portray the stunning beauty of this incomparable performance style. Presenting the brilliant colors of the elaborately embroidered silk costumes together with the intricate makeup and glittering headdresses, this volume embodies the elegance of the Beijing opera.