Chinese opera is more often than not dominated by a small number of established stars, the emerging talent relegated to secondary roles where they are likely to be overlooked by all but the most sharp-eyed of aficionados. One benefit of the hard struggle that traditional opera faces in the modern era is that many companies have looked to their junior members to inject new blood into productions and attract a younger audience.
Performers such as Shan Wen (單雯), 22, and Shi Xiaming (施夏明), 27, have come into their own in this new environment, and have already established themselves as celebrities within the kun opera (崑劇) community, and will be headlining a visit by the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theater (江蘇省崑劇院) to Taipei this weekend in 2012 Kun Opera: Tale of Youth, Operatic Highlights by the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theater (2012崑曲青春說故事 — 江蘇省崑劇院精采折子戲).
Despite her tender years, Shan has already been a member of the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theater for over a decade, having joined the company when she was 10. She has won a reputation as “the most beautiful Duli-niang” (最美麗的杜麗娘), which refers to the leading role in the opera The Peony Pavilion (牡丹亭), a classic of the kun opera repertoire. Shi, who has picked up numerous awards, stepped into the limelight last year after he wowed audiences in Beijing with his performance as Jia Baoyu (賈寶玉), the effete hero in The Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢), highlights of which will be included in this weekend’s program.
Photo courtesy of Chien Kuo Foundation For Arts And Culture
Shan has already won a high level of recognition within China and is reported to have turned down lucrative offers from movie and TV companies, saying that any time spent away from kun opera would be time wasted. Shan is a disciple of Zhang Jiqing (張繼青), arguably the most respected kun opera performer still practicing today, and recognized as one of the foremost interpreters of the Duli-niang role.
The production touring Taiwan is a selection of highlights from mostly well-known operas. In addition to Shan and Shi, the talents of many other young performers will be on display, providing a showcase of the new blood that kun opera lovers on both side of the Strait hope will further invigorate this operatic form.
May 11 to May 18 The original Taichung Railway Station was long thought to have been completely razed. Opening on May 15, 1905, the one-story wooden structure soon outgrew its purpose and was replaced in 1917 by a grandiose, Western-style station. During construction on the third-generation station in 2017, workers discovered the service pit for the original station’s locomotive depot. A year later, a small wooden building on site was determined by historians to be the first stationmaster’s office, built around 1908. With these findings, the Taichung Railway Station Cultural Park now boasts that it has
Wooden houses wedged between concrete, crumbling brick facades with roofs gaping to the sky, and tiled art deco buildings down narrow alleyways: Taichung Central District’s (中區) aging architecture reveals both the allure and reality of the old downtown. From Indigenous settlement to capital under Qing Dynasty rule through to Japanese colonization, Taichung’s Central District holds a long and layered history. The bygone beauty of its streets once earned it the nickname “Little Kyoto.” Since the late eighties, however, the shifting of economic and government centers westward signaled a gradual decline in the area’s evolving fortunes. With the regeneration of the once
The latest Formosa poll released at the end of last month shows confidence in President William Lai (賴清德) plunged 8.1 percent, while satisfaction with the Lai administration fared worse with a drop of 8.5 percent. Those lacking confidence in Lai jumped by 6 percent and dissatisfaction in his administration spiked up 6.7 percent. Confidence in Lai is still strong at 48.6 percent, compared to 43 percent lacking confidence — but this is his worst result overall since he took office. For the first time, dissatisfaction with his administration surpassed satisfaction, 47.3 to 47.1 percent. Though statistically a tie, for most
In February of this year the Taipei Times reported on the visit of Lienchiang County Commissioner Wang Chung-ming (王忠銘) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and a delegation to a lantern festival in Fuzhou’s Mawei District in Fujian Province. “Today, Mawei and Matsu jointly marked the lantern festival,” Wang was quoted as saying, adding that both sides “being of one people,” is a cause for joy. Wang was passing around a common claim of officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the PRC’s allies and supporters in Taiwan — KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party — and elsewhere: Taiwan and
RSS