Chinacyber.com
PERFORMING
ARTS
MUSIC
THEATER
THE "HUNDRED ENTERTAINMENTS"
FILM
Performing Arts
MUSIC
Legend assigns the birth of Chinese music to the reign of the semi-mythical Shang emperor Huangdi in 2697 BC. Allegedly, Huangdi sent his advisor Ling Lun to the mountains of the west to find bamboo pipes on which a noise that sounded like the call of the phoenix could be blown. With these pipes, the emperor would be able to harmonize his reign with the larger workings of the universe. Written and archaeological records indicate that the history of Chinese music stretches back at least this far. Archaeologists have turned up remains of a number of instruments that were most likely used in burials and ritual ceremonies in the Shang dynasty (1600-1050 BC). Textual evidence of the importance of music in early Chinese society is found in the Record of Rites (Li Ji, 2nd century BC) and in the poems of the Classic of Poetry (Shijing), which were originally meant to be sung to music.
Traditional Chinese music uses a 12-tone system that is markedly different from the traditional Western scale. Major traditional instruments include the zither (guqin), the lute ipa), the horizontal flute (dizi), the vertical flute (dongxiao), the ceremonial trumpet (suona), and the two-stringed viola (huqin). Recordings of traditional instrumental and vocal music are available in China, as are creative arrangements, some involving heavy synthesizer, of various folk tunes. Most of the elements of traditional Chinese music are indigenous, but during the Tang the music of the Muslim people to the West was quite popular, and the influence of those elements can still be heard in a number of folk pieces. An excellent resource on traditional Chinese folk music, complete with sound clips, is the Internet Chinese Music Archive (http://metalab.unc.edu/chinese-music/).
In the early years of Communism, a number of folk songs, thought to be the music of the people, were rearranged from simple tunes meant to be sung by a single singer to lavish affairs sung by large choruses, in keeping with communal principles. The officials also reconstructed or replaced the lyrics of many of these tunes. "The East is Red" (Dongfang hong) is perhaps the most famous and ubiquitous example of a provincial folk tune reworked into a political anthem.
These days, a visitor to China is more likely to
encounter Taiwanese or Hong Kong pop songs than either traditional tunes
or Communist hymns. Sino-pop has developed into a genre unto
itsell Imports from Taiwan and Hong Kong, many of the latter re-worked
into Mandarin from the original Cantonese, still dominate the market,
but China is steadily developing its own popular music industry. Until
the mid-1980's, rock'n'roll music, of which the authorities were
profoundly suspicious, had next to no following in China; but, since
regulations have relaxed, a number of local bands have risen to
prominence. A great deal of Sino-pop tends toward heavily-synthesized
love songs that emphasize the star qualities of the singer more than the
music itself, but a full range of styles, including rap and heavy metal
derivatives, can be found. Cul Jian, Dou Wei, and Faye Wong (Wang Fei) are among the performers widely considered to be on the cutting
edge of Chinese popular music.
THEATER
Traditional Chinese theater is better described as opera, since it makes use of instrumental and vocal music, dance, acrobatics, martial arts, poetry, and elaborate costumes. All of the various styles of opera tend to share certain comnion elements, including bare stages, set role types indicated by the type of face paint worn by each actor, complex conventions of symbolism and pantomime, and highly trained performers who must be skilled in operatic movement, singing, and, in many cases, dance.
In ancient times, allegorical masques, short plays with masked actors, were performed, and the Tang emperor Xuanzong sponsored actors in the study of formal technique and helped foster the development of longer and more complex dramatic works. But it was in the Song that Chinese theater began to attain its greatest complexity and ewoy widespread popularity. The zaju ("variety plays") of the Northern Song and the nanxi ("southern drama") of the Southern Song were promoted by a new class of professional playwrights, who wrote in the vernacular language and whose works would be set to popular music. Stories of love and betrayal were the most popular subject matter, and these highly accessible works reached a wide audience.
In the Yuan, a more norlhern-oriented form developed, using more poetic language and emphasizing the beauty of the opera's lyrics more than its plot. Within this highly artistic context, however, the lives and problems of common people were given great attention. The texts of a number of religious, historical, romantic, and bandit plays have been preserved to the present day; many of them were adapted repeatedly as musical styles evolved.
During the Ming, the center for dramatic innovation shifted from the north to the south. A Suzhou scholar, Wei Liangfu, single-handedly developed the conventions of southern folk tunes a new style of opera, called kunqu. For several centuries, kunqu enjoyed incredible popularity; originally an entertainment for the masses, it gradually trickled upward to gain a wide audience among the literati, gaining in poetic subtlety all the while. The love plays of Tang Xianzu are among the most well-known works originally written to performed as kunqu pieces.
Toward the end of the 18th century, a new operatic form arose. Jingxi or Jingju ("opera of the capital"), known now to most Westerners as "Peking opera," represented a mix of folk elements from the northwestern regions of Shanxi and Gansu, singing styles from Anhui province, and acrobatic styles popular in Be@ing. Jingxi is markedly distinct from kunqu. The former makes emphatic use of cymbals and other percussion elements, while the latter uses the flute as its main instrument. Jingxi lyrics were written in the vernacular language and as a consequence were thought of by many as less poetic, andjingxi tends to be quicker in pace and to involve more elaborate acrobatics. This new form gained legions of converts in the capital. Manyjingxi plots are lively military tales. Today, jingxi is by far the most popular form of traditional theatre practiced in China. Kunqu still survives, but its audience and adherents axe much fewer in number.
In the early 20th century, Westem-style spoken drama attracted quite a few followers among the intelligentsia. Amateur study groups devoted to the reading and performance of Western plays proliferated. Cao Yu was among the first Chinese playwrights to write spoken drama; among his most successful works of the 1930s and 1940s are Thundersto , and Beijingers, portraits of the changing social order of urban China. In the face of WWII and the Japanese invasion, nationalist propaganda plays also became quite common. These works provided many ordinary Chinese with their first exposure to spoken drama; many of them also incorporated folk songs and dances to create a uniquely Chinese version of the genre.
After 1949, officials tried to keep theater in accord with the principles laid out in Mao's 1942 "Yanan Talks on Art & Literature," which declared that art should serve the masses as well as aesthetic principles. To that end, in the 1950s realistic drama was encouraged. In the 1960s, Mao's wife, the former actress Jiang Qing, led a movement to write traditional-style operas that took workers and the common people as their heroes and embodied revolutionary principles. During the Cultural Revolution, many of the classic operas were banned, and members of notable theater troupes were persecuted. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, however, traditional opera edged back into the public sphere, and contacts with Western dramatic developments were gradually renewed.
THE "HUNDRED ENTERTAINMENTS"
By the 2nd century BC, a number of vaudevillian entertainments had migrated into China via the nomadic cultures of Central Asia. Sword-swallowing, fire-eating, juggling, acrobatics and tumbling, and other such theatrical tricks were known as the "hundred entertainments." These days, one is not likely to find any practitioners of the more exotic arts, but acrobatics and tumbling, which was one of the rare performing arts to enjoy the approval of the Communist authorities, are alive and well in many parts of China today.
Shadow puppet theater is among the more unique ancient art forms to have survived into modern times. Legend has it that, the form originated in around 100 BC, when a priest used a lamp to cast a woman's shadow onto a screen and assured the emperor that his deceased wife had been brought back to life. Like those used in Javanese and Indian shadow theatre, Chinese shadow puppets are made of leather and brightly colored with transparent dye. The dye allows the shadows themselves to appear in color. Shadow puppet performances can still be found in parts of China, particularly the South and Northwest.
Traditional Chinese dance
comes in countless
forms-Buddhist ceremonial dance, folk dance, operatic and theatrical
dance, and separate dance traditions for each minority community all
survive into the present. Western ballroom dancing is quite
popular among the older generations; a striking number of middle-aged or
older Chinese are masters of the tango or the waltz.
