A Delightful Evening with Peking Opera 101
In an earlier story, “Reflections on ‘Medea’ and My Intimate Experience with Chinese Opera “, I wrote about my personal encounter with this unique art form considered as the essence of Chinese culture. Last Wednesday, after a long day of work and with much hesitation, I went to Authentic Playground in Taipei city centre where I had one of the most enjoyable moments of learning about Chinese opera.
Performance Program for San Cha Kou at Authentic Playground
This event hosted by Authentic Playground began by staging an excerpt titled “San Cha Kou” (literally “Where Three Roads Meet”) from Peking opera repertoire. The story of “San Cha Kou” takes place during Northern Song dynasty (960–1127 AD). JIAO Zan, accused of committing a murder, was sent into exile. On his way to foreign land, JIAO spent the night over at this inn located at where three roads meet.
Inn owner LIU sneaks up on REN in the dark
Courtesy of Authentic Playground
The performance started with REN Tang-Hui, who’s been secretly protecting JIAO from getting revenge from his enemies, entering the stage. REN, dressed in white, was mistaken as JIAO’s enemy by the kind-hearted inn owner LIU Li-Hua who is dressed in black. Since the event took place at night, REN and LIU got into a blind fight without knowing the real identity of their opponent.
The storyline may sound just as ordinary as any other excerpt found in Chinese opera, but what makes this performance so special is that the whole act is a mime. Throughout a performance that lasted about 20 minutes, it was the actors’ movement and facial expression — rather than the scripts — that made the story come alive.
REN tries to reach out his sword in the dark, not knowing that his opponent is standing right in front of him
Courtesy of Authentic Playground
It was funny to see how the two performers — acting as REN and LIU — had to fight on a stage that was just as bright as daytime, but had to pretend as if they were in the dark without the slightest bit of light. As the most classic excerpt from Peking opera repertoire, “San Cha Kou” is perhaps the most hilarious and memorable excerpt I’ve ever seen.
In line with the aim to promote Chinese opera through its public events, Authentic Playground also conducted a short workshop after the performance. In what I would call a workshop on Peking opera 101, performers who were just acting on stage showed up before the audience and shared their insights on the four basic techniques in Peking opera performance: singing, reciting, acting, and martial arts or collectively known as “ chang nien zuo da” (唱念做打) in Chinese.
The host compares the opera beard made of human hair (left) and yak’s tail hair (right)
One of the hosts also walked us through the types of facial makeup for different characters, and what each of them represents or symbolises. I was particularly intrigued by the black beard worn by the sheng role. It turns out that this opera beard, known as ran kou (髯口) , is usually made of hair from yak’s tail or artificial material such as nylon. However, only the beard worn by the reverend military general Guan Yu (關羽) would be made of real human hair!
Besides the focus on the four basic techniques, musicians were also invited on stage to talk about the types of instrument played to accompany the performers’ act and movement. Music ensemble played a significant role in a mime like “San Cha Kou”, directing the pace and rhythm throughout the performance.
A musician teaching the audience how to pronounce the mnemonic on sheet music
It was interesting for me to hear that these musicians learned to play their instruments first by memorising the mnemonic. In the early days, a beginner musician could only learn by memory, without a sheet music to look at. Towards the end of the sharing, one of the musicians also taught us how to pronounce the mnemonic and how each of these characters represent a particular instrument.
In only half an hour’s time, not only did audiences like me get to enjoy one-of-a-kind performance, we also learned about the basics of Peking opera. The performers’ attention to details and their pursuits of perfection in the arts really moved me. I feel honoured to have been part of this fruitful event organised by Authentic Playground as it was surely an evening well spent!