Starting from around 12 years
old, I went to see Taechew Opera with my parents at temple fairs. I fell in
love with the acting, the music, the vocal acrobatics, the costume, hair and
makeup even though I didn’t understand the operatic singings. Today I still
watch old Taechew Opera from Youtube that are played by famous actors.
Right now, according to BBC’s
article The youths out to
save Hong Kong's unique opera, Cantonese
Opera in Hong Kong is being performed by young people, with the support of
Academy of Performing Arts. They have to learn to act and sing as certain
character because main male character is always performed by female, but they
are facing issues of decreasing audience.
These operas audiences are
normally limited to old people who understand the mood of the performance
because the language isn’t commonly used. Also, the audience has to know the
meaning behind the body language in order to understand what the actors are
expressin. In addition, each character’s costume, color and make up tell us who
they are and whether they are good or bad.
Today Taechew Opera in Thailand
is rarely performed by Chinese but mainly by Thai people from the Northeast. Even
though these Thai people don’t know the Chinese language, they learn to sing,
to act, to dress, to do make up by being with the theatre. If you would like to
see Taechew Opera, you can only see at the Chinese temples. There is no longer
a theatre for these Opera anymore.
___________Reference
The youths out to save Hong Kong's unique opera. (27, November, 2015). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33784720
Although the colourful picture accompanying this story caught my eye a couple of days ago, I didn't read it. Now Na has saved me the trouble with her summary and more interesting comments on how it survives in Thailand. But not having the background to appreciate it, I might give it a miss.
ReplyDeleteActually, now that I think back, I saw bits in one of the Chinese temples near my home when I used to live on the river in the Sampanthawong area down past the Central Post Office. It did look impressive, but I'm afraid that it didn't tempt to me to loiter for more than a few seconds. However, I'm glad that it survives and continues to give pleasure to people who do love it, and that makes the society we share richer for all of us. I have a passion for Homer and a few other odd things that I don't think should be forced on those not truly keen on them. Quest 3 does briefly discuss Homer in its unit on literature, but I still resist the temptation to make students read it, although if they asked for it ...
I also enjoy reading US Supreme Court decisions. The nine justices are great writers of academic English that is lucid, unified and often witty. But again, I don't often inflict this slightly unusual interest on my students, although Ning's reading and speaking class is tackling their recent ruling which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the US in June of this year.
DeleteI know Chinese operas from Thai soup operas. When protagonists come from Chinese culture, they always show scenes with Chinese operas. I think many traditional plays are facing similar problems; their spectacles are decreasing in popularity. One reason I think is that now we have TV, computers, the Internet and so on. They are convenient to access and provide people with many interesting programs, so people forget about these traditional plays.
ReplyDelete