Performance Review: Two Decades of Selling Peking Opera White Snakes to Foreigners: From Tourist Peking Opera in Beijing (1996) to Zhang Huoding at Lincoln Center (2015)

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Notes

1 My first visit to Beijing was in 1982. I had to buy tickets several days in advance to be sure of their not being sold out on me, and when that strategy did not work on one occasion, I went to the theater the night of the performance anyway and after being told to my face that there were indeed no tickets left, went to stand outside the theater to compete with numerous locals to try to buy a ticket from a scalper or whoever happened to have an extra (a so-called huangniu piao 黃牛票), by waving my money in an attractive fashion. This turned out to be too much for the theater to take, and they came up with a ticket for me. Just one more advantage of being a foreigner in Beijing.

2 From here on, I will be concerned with the question of presenting Jingju for the consumption of foreign audiences, and so will switch to “Peking opera,” the term for Jingju most familiar to that audience.

3 Logically, foreigners, and the equivalent Chinese term, waiguo ren 外國人, should include everybody but Chinese, but in practice, especially when it comes to the topic of this review, it basically means Euro-Americans.

4 Informally known as Beijing Xixiao 北京戲校 or Beixi 北戲, Beijing Opera School has gone through a number of Chinese names ever since it was first privately established in 1952 and then nationalized the following year as Beijing shi xiqu yishu xuexiao 北京市戲曲藝術學校. It was promoted to the level of an “academy” (xueyuan 學院) in 2002.

5 The official premiere of Legend¹ was on August 21, 1996, at another theater than Chang’an, because that theater had yet to open. See the note about the premiere on p. 99 in the chronology appended to Sun Yumin 孫毓敏, Beijing shi xiqu yishu xuexiao wushi huadan jinian wenji 1952–2002 北京市戲曲藝術學校五十華誕記念文集 1952–2002 (Commemorative writings for the 50th anniversary of the founding of Beijing Opera School; Beijing: Beijing shi xiqu yishu xuexiao, 2002), which acknowledges that the play stirred up controversy (zhengming 争鸣). A notice on the next page records that by December 18 the play had already been performed 100 times.

6 Sun Yumin 孫毓敏, “Xiqu jiaoxue yao you shichang yishi” 戲曲教學要有市場意識 (Chinese indigenous theater education has to have a market consciousness), Zhongguo xiju 中國戲劇 (Chinese theater) 1998.11: 32, talks about the students working on the play over summer breaks.

7 He Baotang 和寶堂, ed., “Xiqu xuexiao xiang hechu qu?” 戲曲學校向何處去? (Where is Beijing Opera School headed?), Zhongguo Jingju 中國京劇 2002.4: 33.

8 Lu Yang 盧揚, “Chang’an da xiyuan: Ba fuwu zuo dao jizhi de lao xiyuan” 長安大戲院: 把服務做到極致的老戲園 (Chang’an Grand Theater: An old theater house that takes service to the ultimate degree), Beijing shangbao 北京商報 (Beijing Commercial Daily), November 2, 2012, p. A03.

9 Quoted in Xue Xiaojin 薛曉金, “Zhao Hongtao chuangxin zai Chang’an” 趙洪濤創新在長安 (Zhao Hongtao innovates at Chang’an [Grand Theater]), Beijing zhibu shenghuo 北京支部生活 (Party branch life in Beijing), 2003.1: 40. Zhao notes that some thought such a kind of Peking opera was a mongrel creation that doesn’t end up looking like anything (si bu xiang 四不像 is the term he uses), but he defends himself by saying that at the time he had to concentrate on the “greatest audience” (zuida de guanzhong qun 最大的觀眾群) available at the time and also claims that he was still working to forward the “transmission of Peking opera” (Jingju de chuanbo 京劇的傳播).

10 Less used is a synonym, guanguang ju 觀光劇. For how Zhao had begun to try and distance himself from the term tourist Peking opera by 2006, see Feng Jie 封杰, “Jiang shichang linian rongru Jingju benti: Fang Beijing Chang’an zong jingli Zhao Hongtao xiansheng” 將市場理念融入京劇本體: 訪北京長安總經理趙洪濤先生 (Taking market principles into Peking opera: An interview with the manager of Chang’an Grand Theater, Mr. Zhao Hongtao), Zhongguo Jingju 2006.12: 6.

11 For the claim that performances topped 800, see Wang Xinwei 王新偉, “Beijing fahui youshi, fazhan wenhua chanye” 北京發揮優勢, 發展文化產業 (Beijing develops its advantage, developing cultural industries), Beijing zhibu shenghuo 2002.1: 16.

12 See Feng Jie, “Jiang jichang linian rongru Jingju benti,” p. 4.

13 A succinct summary of these activities by Zhao and his staff can be found in Yu Ming 于明, “Huanghe Sanjiaozhou wenhua chanye kechixu fazhan yanjiu” 黄河三角洲文化產業可持續發展研究 (A study of whether the development of the cultural industries of the Yellow River Delta can continue; doctoral thesis, Shandong daxue, 2013), p. 128.

14 Cui Changwu 崔長武, ed., Jingju xianzhuang yanjiu 京劇現狀研究 (A study of the present state of Peking opera; Beijing: Zhongguo xiju, 1996), pp. 74–75, 88.

15 Xiaofeng 曉峰 and Hongshi 紅石, “Jingju—Fanrong lüyou, Lüyou—Cujin Jingju: ‘Jingju yu Lüyou’ zuotan jiyao” 京劇—繁榮旅游, 旅游—促進京劇: ‘京劇與旅游’ 座談紀要 (Peking opera can make tourism prosper, tourism can stimulate Peking opera: A concise record of the symposium on Peking opera and tourism), Zhongguo Jingju 1993.2: 50–51. One participant is quoted as saying that in the last two-plus years, Liyuan juchang had been patronized 500,000 times by foreigners visiting Beijing, which represents one sixth of all foreigners visiting Beijing during that time (p. 50), but another claimed that what foreigners want to see is “real Chinese Peking opera, and not some distorted version of Peking opera that mixes in foreign elements” 道道地地的中國京戲, 而不是變了樣子的, 摻了 ‘洋’ 的京戲 (p. 51).

16 Cui Changwu, ed., Jingju xianzhuang yanjiu, p. 129.

17 For this performance review, I had the opportunity to visit the Beijing Opera School to talk to participants in the production and watch a video of an early performance. I am very grateful to those at the school who were generous with their time and set up the watching of the video. It is clear that over the time it was performed a lot of changes were made to the play, but I was not able to get access to the kind of material that would have allowed me to track those changes in any detail, so in this review I will be concentrating on the version that I saw.

18 Another way that the Beijing Opera School tried to use the White Snake back then to interest foreigners in Beijing in Peking opera was to put on performances of Tian Han’s version of the play with simultaneous translations through headphones. I was able to find a pessimistic report, “Guonei shoubu Yingyu peiyin Jingju; Baishe zhuan Jingcheng yu ganga” 國内首部英語配音京劇;白蛇傳京城遇尴尬 (The national premiere of Peking opera with audio English translation; The White Snake in Beijing does not go so well), Xinwen chenbao 新聞晨報 (Morning news daily), September 3, 2001, that claimed that the tickets for the premiere had been given away and not bought. A more optimistic report, Zhang Jiuying 张久英, “Yingyu peiyin Jingju jiaozuo: Tongsheng fanyi Baishe zhuan rang laowai kan de jinjin youwei” 英語配音京劇叫座: 同聲翻譯白蛇傳讓老外看得津津有味 (Peking opera with audio translation finds favor: Simultaneous translation allows foreigners to watch with great interest), Wenhui bao 文匯報, August 29, 2001, p. 6, admits that listening to the translation through earphones will prevent the foreigners from hearing the play itself (something I can confirm: about that time I happened across a Tourist Peking Opera performance at Huguang Huiguan where such an audio translation system was being offered on an experimental basis, and found it a bad idea not well done).

19 See Xiaofeng 曉锋, “‘Baishe chuanqi’ yanchu baichang, zhengxun yijian zai qiu wanshan” 白蛇傳奇演出百場, 徵詢意見再求完善 (The Legend of the White Snake is performed the one hundredth time; suggestions are sought in the hope of perfecting the play), Zhongguo Jingju 1997.2: 13.

20 Xiaofeng, “‘Baishe chuanqi’ yanchu baichang,” p. 13.

21 See, for instance, Xu Chengbei 徐城北, Jingju yu Zhongguo wenhua 京劇與中國文化 (Peking opera and Chinese culture; Beijing: Renmin chuban she, 1999), p. 377.

22 Xiaofeng, “‘Baishe chuanqi’ yanchu baixchang,” p. 13.

23 See, for instance, Li Zigui 李紫貴, dictation, and Jiang Jianlan 蔣健蘭, ed., Yi Jiangnan 憶江南 (Memories of Jiangnan; Beijing: Zhongguo xiju, 1996), p. 60. Li grew up in the “wild and woolly” traditions of Peking opera as performed by Jiangnan troupes that traveled from stage to stage by boat (shuilu ban 水路班) and in Shanghai but became a widely respected and influential Peking opera director.

24 The original source of this news report was http://www.infobeat/stories/cgi/story/.cgi?id+256511290-901. It was forwarded to me on March 23, 2000.

25 See Shi Shuqing 施叔青, “Xifang ren wufa jieshou Jingju de yuanyin” 西方人無法接受京劇的原因 (The reason why Westerners are unable to stand Peking opera), in her Xifang ren kan Zhongguo xiju 西方人看中國戲劇 (Westerners look at Chinese theater; Taibei: Lianjing chuban shiye, 1976), pp. 67–74.

26 For a representative expression of uneasiness with the phenomenon of nandan, see Zhong Jieying 中杰英, “Nandan xianxiang houyi” 男旦現象後議 (On the phenomenon of male performers of female roles), Xiju dianying bao 戲劇電影報 (Theater and film daily), April 28, 1995, p. 9.

27 See Su Yi 蘇移, Jingju erbai nian gaiguan 京劇二百年概觀 (An overview of two hundred years of Peking opera; Beijing: Beijing Yanshan, 1989), p. 59.

28 See Xu Chengbei, Jingju yu Zhongguo wenhua, p. 580.

29 See Xu Chengbei 徐城北, Mingzi jiu you xi 名字就有戲 (Just the names have drama; Beijing: Zhongguo shudian, 1997), “Mei Lanfang yu Jing erhu” 梅蘭芳與京二胡 (Mei Lanfang and the erhu), pp. 118–19.

30 For domestic complaints about the percussion in Peking opera, see Cui Changwu, ed., Jingju xianzhuang yanjiu, p. 12.

31 For an illustration of how this works, see Li Zigui and Jiang Jianlan, Yi Jiangnan, p. 5.

32 See Chen Zhenjia 陳震嘉, “Jingju xi shuo” 京劇戲說 (Playful comments on Peking opera), Zhongguo Jingju 1999.4: 48–49.

33 In the context of interaction between actors, this was called chudian 觸電 (giving a shock); see Yuan Shihai 袁世海 and Xu Chengbei 徐城北, Jingju jiazi hua yu Zhongguo wenhua 京劇架子花與中國文化 (The posturing painted-face role type and Chinese culture; Beijing: Wenhua yishu, 1990), pp. 87–88.

34 See, for instance, Ye Tao 葉濤, Zhongguo Jingju xisu 中國京劇習俗 (Xi’an: Shanxi renmin, 1994), p. 183.

35 I saw a different approach to the same problem at a performance of “retro” Peking opera at Gongwang fu, in which the entire percussion section was put in a separate room at the side of the stage, while the drum master sat in the doorway straddling the doorstop so as to be able to both follow the action on stage and monitor the percussionists in the separate room.

36 Zhao Xiaodong 趙曉東, “Jingju de houzhong, chenzhong, yu zizhong” 京劇的厚重, 沉重, 與与自重 (Praise, stagnation, self-respect when it comes to Peking opera), Liyuan zhoukan 梨園周刊 (Theater weekly), March 6, 2000, p. 7.

37 See Xu Chengbei, Jingju yu Zhongguo wenhua, pp. 19 and 482.

38 See Xu Chengbei, Jingju yu Zhongguo wenhua, p. 21.

39 See Zhou You 周游, “Xin xi xin ren xin zhizuo: Daxing Jingju ‘Jujian’ jijiang luohu Chang’an” 新戲新人新製做: 大型京劇 “鑄劍” 即將落户長安 (New play, new people, new production: The large-scale Peking opera play “Smelting the Sword” is about to take up residence at Chang’an Grand Theatre), Xiju dianying bao, June 4, 1998, p. 3.

40 See Ma Shaobo et al., Zhongguo Jingju shi 中国京剧史 (History of Chinese Peking opera), 3 vols. (Beijing: Zhongguo xiju, 1990–2000), 2: 40.

41 See Xu Chengbei, Jingju yu Zhongguo wenhua, pp. 133–35.

42 See, for instance, Zhang Dongmei 張冬梅, “Helan Kunqiang” 荷蘭崑腔 (Kunqu in Holland), Liyuan zhoukan, March 13, 2000, p. 8.

43 For two opinions on this phenomenon, see Xu Chengbei, Jingju yu Zhongguo wenhua, p. 430, and Chai Junwei 柴俊為, “Ren bi ziru er hou ren ruzhi: Yougan yu gudian xiqu de dazhonghua qushi” 人必自辱而後人辱之: 有感於古典戲曲的大眾化趨勢 (You have to shame yourself before others can shame you: A reaction to the trend to popularize classical Chinese indigenous theater), Xiju dianying bao, August 8, 1993, p. 3.

44 For an introduction to “Haipai” and the differences between it and Beijing-style Peking opera (Jingpai 京劇) see Ma Shaobo et al., Zhongguo Jingju shi, 2: 78–79; and Xu Chengbei, Jingju yu Zhongguo wenhua, pp. 140–41.

45 See Zhang Xiaochen 張曉晨, “Yang wawa kan wawa Jingju” 洋娃娃看娃娃京劇 (Foreign kids watch kid Peking opera), Liyuan zhoukan, March 29, 1999, p. 3.

46 Revenues declined with the world economic crisis that began in 2008. See, for instance, Wang Xinrong 王新榮, “Huiguan: Bugai yiwang de wenhua yichan baohu duixiang” 會館: 不該被遺忘的文化遺產保護對象 (Native place associations: A cultural legacy to be protected that should not be forgotten), Zhongguo yishu bao 中國国藝術報 (China arts), February 25, 2011, p. 1, says “in the last two years, under the influence of the world financial crisis, business has become daily more depressed” 近兩年，随着世界金融危機的影響, 日顯蕭條. Since then, one of the “retro” venues, Zhengyi ci, completely changed its business model so as to be more attractive to Chinese play goers willing to buy expensive tickets for productions that feature short excerpts from classic plays.

47 Qiao Yu 喬玉, “Jingju yu shichang” 京劇與市場 (Peking opera and the market), Da wutai 大舞臺 (The great stage) 2007.2: 69.

48 See Li Hongyu 李宏宇 et al., “Zuo, qingzuo, qing shangzuo” 坐 請坐 請上坐 (Sit, please sit, please take your seat), Nanfang zhoumo 南方周末 (South China Daily), August 16, 2007, p. D22, where the remark is attributed to Wang Xiang 王翔, producer of the long-running and very successful “Imperial Granary” production of Mudan ting 牡丹亭 (Peony Pavilion), reviewed by Colin Mackerras in volume 29 (2010) of this journal.

49 The quote comes from a contribution by Zhang Chunhua 張春華, one of the creators of the new version (post 1949) of Sanchakou (Fight at the crossroads), a staple item (in a shortened, simplified form) in the repertoire of “retro” Tourist Peking Opera, in a symposium: “Jingju wuxi: Yige bei yiwang de huati” 京劇武戲: 一個被遺忘的話題 (Martial Peking opera plays: A forgotten topic), Guangming ribao 光明日報 (Guanming Daily), December 17, 2004, p. 5.

50 It was only later that I heard that she would also be giving a performance of The Jewelry Purse on September 5 in Toronto; I was unable to attend that performance.

51 My (not entirely serious) suggestion for the translation for the title of this play, The Purse to Encourage Having Honored Sons, was rejected, not least because the marketing people had already begun to work with The Jewelry Purse.

52 NACTA trains more actors than the profession needs and has been diversifying for some time.

53 I was given a pass to the Koch Theater and worked in a lounge backstage. I would far rather have had the chance to watch the troupe get used to the new venue (not long before I had seen a public performance of one of the plays and rehearsals of both of them in Beijing). There were last minute changes that had to be made for both sets of subtitles up to very day of performance for each play. The most major of the changes had to do with the fact that the visa of the person selected to play Xu Xian (who was himself called into replace a long-term collaborator of Zhang Huoding’s) was rejected three days before the performance of the play. Luckily, a former actor who had gone into administration at NACTA stepped into the role, but some changes had to be made to the performance version to accommodate him.

54 The official name of the meeting was “Zhang Huoding fu Mei xuanchuan tuiguang yantao hui” 張火丁赴美宣傳推廣研討會 (Conference on publicizing Zhang Huoding’s trip to the U.S.).

55 Despite (or perhaps this is one of the factors behind) her fame, Zhang Huoding is famously reclusive. At the rehearsals with orchestra but not full costume (xiangpai 響排) I attended in August in Beijing, I gave her my card but did not otherwise bother her, nor did she appear to express any interest in this odd foreigner who liked to sit right behind the percussion orchestra and appeared to be a good friend of the person who played the small gong (his name is Mu Hongwei 牟宏偉 and has been a good friend since 2002; I love Peking opera percussion). Zhang Huoqian is an actor of male martial roles (wusheng 武生), and I had originally thought that New Yorkers would have the delight of seeing elder brother (playing one of the immortal guardians guarding the immortal herb that White Snake needs to save Xu Xian after her inadvertent revelation of her “snakiness” had scared him to death), fight his younger sister (as White Snake), but for the New York performances Zhang Huoqian was too busy acting as stage manager.

56 At one of the rehearsals in August, a CAEG official stressed how the upcoming review of the troops was an example of China’s “hard power” and Zhang’s trip to the U.S. was one of “soft power.” Niu Yue, “China's Performing Arts in the U.S.,” China Daily (U.S. ed.), March 25, 2016, p. 20, quotes Winston Wang (Wang Xiuqin 王修芹), the CAEG official with whom I interacted the most, as having said, “It’s difficult and impractical to ask foreigners, who are bread eaters, to change their habits and eat Chinese buns.”

57 He complained to me about a number of things and his firm got out of their contract to promote the performances in New York sometime in the middle of the summer.

58 O’Quinn later published a piece on Zhang and the New York tour: “A Beijing Star Heads West: Chinese Opera Diva Zhang Huoding Rides a Wave of Adulation to Lincoln Center,” American Theatre 32.7 (September 2015): 58–60.

59 Much has been said of the widespread efforts to promote the performances in New York but I found them in general not creative or well thought out. The two lectures that David Wang and I gave before the performances, for instance, were in a very small venue, and not well advertised. For a more “independent” review of the performances, see Rose Jang’s review in CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 35.1 (July 2016): 77–84, although I should point out that I was editing the journal at the time and commissioned her to do the review (she does criticize the subtitles, p. 81), and she is beholden to NACTA in that she has taken students to study there twice (for a report on the first time, see the same journal, 34.1 [July 2015]: 22–40).

60 They have a special name for themselves, Dengmi 燈迷 [lit: Lantern Fans], that doesn’t make sense unless you use the simplified character for deng 灯, which combines the two elements of Zhang’s personal name.

61 Sun Huizhu 孙惠柱, “Zhongguo xiqu de haiwai chuanbo yu jieshou zhi fansi” 中國戲曲的海外傳播與接受之反思 (Reflections on transmission and reception of Chinese indigenous theater abroad), Zhongguo wenyi pinglun 中國文藝評論 (Critical essays on Chinese literature and the arts) 2016.3: 51–59.

62 The Qi School takes its name from Zhou Xinfang 周信芳 (1895–1975), stage name Qiling tong 麒麟童; Zhou Shaolin was his son.

63 At the 296 performances given at Liyuan juchang in 1993, no White Snake play appeared in the 3 most often performed plays (i.e., more than 80 times), but there were 2 that appeared in the next most popular category (31–80 times): Dao xiancao 盗仙草 (Stealing the magic herb) and Dao yinku 盗銀庫 (Raiding the official treasury), and another in the next category (11–30 times): Shuiman Jinshan 水漫金山 (Flooding Jinshan Monastery). All three involve acrobatic fighting, and the third involves water creatures (which can be played to great comic effect, especially the turtle generals).

64 Chen Nan, “Set for Show,” China Daily (Hong Kong ed.), May 11, 2015, p. 22 (the awkward ellipsis appears in the original).

65 For a review that is of a different opinion on this point, see James R. Oestreich, “Zhang Huoding Makes American Debut in Two Operas,” The New York Times, September 4, 2015, who wrote, “Where is a good sword fight or acrobatic brawl when you need one?”

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David L. Rolston

David L. Rolston is Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Literature in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. After working and publishing on traditional Chinese fiction (with an emphasis on traditional Chinese fiction commentary and its influence on later writers), for some time he has turned his attention primarily to traditional Chinese theater in general and Jingju (Peking opera) in particular. While studying in Taiwan in the early 1980s he discovered that Jingju was a convenient avenue to at least one kind of Chinese past. He participated in student productions and worked at Fuxing Opera School in Taiwan. He has taught and lectured at the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts, and produced English language introductory material and subtitles for Jingju and Kunqu troupes in Taiwan, Beijing, and the U.S. He is presently working on a book on the “textualization” of Jingju (the writing down, circulation, and consumption of Jingju plays in various written forms).