Bring Peking opera reform on the track

Women Generals of the Yang Family, a classical piece from the Peking opera repertoire, is coming to New York. [Provided to China Daily]

Years ago Martin Scorsese and I visited Beijing. Marty is a world-famous American movie director. It was his first trip to China. Out from curiosity he asked to go to a Peking opera. It was promptly arranged.

The name of the play was Mirror of Happiness and Longevity (福壽鏡), a Ming dynasty story. It's about an ill-fated pregnant concubine who runs for her life from the jealous wife. Her baby is born on the road and she loses her child. After all these miseries, the husband finds her and the child and they live together happily ever after.

Marty is an Italian-American. The operas he is familiar with are Rossini's compositions. In the beginning he was shocked by the high DB level generated by the gong and other music instruments in the opera band. Mr. Liu Ronghuan (劉榮桓) played the female lead, a young attractive lady. Liu is a first generation disciple of Shang Xiaoyun (尚小云), who was one of the four most prestigious male actors who played female leads in the 1930 and 1940s. Mr. Liu's craftsmanship and artistic achievement won nationwide praise at the time. But Mr. Liu was a tall, middle-aged man. The moment Mr. Liu appeared on stage, I noticed the suspicious look on Marty's sarcastic face.

That was my first time watching this play. Therefore my translation for Marty was brief and sketchy just to keep him interested. Mr. Liu's presence was stunning and commanding. He sang with a sweet impersonation of a female voice with a touch of sadness. He was obviously too tall for an ancient Chinese beauty but Mr. Liu's elegant body movements, soft and mysterious hand gestures and beautiful dancing steps immediately persuaded the entire audience that he was our lady of the night. Marty stopped my half-baked translation. He told me: "I can follow the play well, just keep quiet".

Then our heroine lost her newborn baby. She immediately turned insane. This particular performance is called "Insanity after losing her child"(失子驚瘋). Mr. Liu's performance was convincing and breathtaking. We faithfully followed her act, shared her misfortune and misery. We began seriously worrying that her sanity might never be recovered. The happy ending is a must. Along with all the crazy, nutty fans, we screamed out our loudest bravos.

Nowadays we hear numerous critical criticism in present-day Peking opera: