I started this blog to popularize Chinese Opera in English, and in the beginning my intention was to remain neutral and provide info about Chinese Opera in general, write short biographies about performers, dig up reliable and useful links, stuff like that, but nowadays I’m so bitchy, snappy and picky that I had to go through posts and remove a few very personal remarks. I read back my blog entries and comments and I see that I stress my opinions too violently, possibly hurting people.

Please forgive me all this. My way of thinking is in a major change right now, it’s not a sudden twist, better the climax of a slow and gradual process.

I got hooked by Beijing Opera suddenly in my adulthood, and entered the world of Chinese Opera with an initial set of preferences that changed with time. I felt that the deeper I dig, the more I see that I’m just scratching the surface, and by discovering too many things in an almost torturous pace, I didn’t let myself enough time to digest and synthesize everything peacefully. Illusions broke, idols fell, priorities dwindled to nothing. At least my solid obsession with the art and legacy of Zhou Xinfang, Ma Lianliang, Li Shaochun, Zhang Junqiu, Ye Shenglan remained unchanged.

I read about other people’s similar experiences, and got a bit consoled. It’s the well-known screenplay, you start to consider different aspects as important than before, adopt a different set of values, your taste changes, you can’t control it.  But sooner or later everything will fall into place.

Just personal matters.

I already mentioned once that almost from the beginning, I got hooked by the style and high aesthetic standards of Ma Lianliang. Not to speak of Qi school – I know you all are sick and tired of my endless eulogy, but it’s so hard to believe history will be able to produce a Zhou Xinfang once again. The charm saturating Xi Xiaobo’s art was a later discovery, and though I haven’t turned into an unconditional fan, I like to listen to it, Zhang Jianguo for example, he’s just great.

However, though somewhat inseparable from Li Shaochun’s unique style (that you know I adore), I failed to grasp the spirit of the new Tan (Tan Fuying’s) school. In theory, I knew that Tan Yuanshou is a great teacher, but nowadays I really realized what a first-class, superb teacher he is, with vast, vast knowledge.

After Wang Ping’s Wildboar Forest with that sophisticated Li Shaochun flavor left me stunned, I was re-watching some of his performances, especially Tan school representative plays, paying more attention. Adept at dramas with elegant acrobatics, but the level of his singing and acting skills in civilian plays is also above average – no wonder that soon I got heavily struck by wangpingitis (not to be confused with the also severe and infectious anpingitis).

Wang Ping helped me out of my misery of trying to figure out what’s so great about Tan style – penny starts to drop nowadays, just it needed a bit more listening. I tell you it’s pretty much an exciting feeling. This is all I wanted to say today.

Happy New Year!

If you wanna see this year’s New Year’s Jingju Party, it starts on CCTV1 at 12:00 UTC.
Only 15 minutes left to place your bets on the color of Yu Kuizhi’s bow tie.
My bet: shiny white, oversized.

(edit) Wonder of wonders, no bow tie. Costume. Zuo Gong with Li Shengsu, of course.

You know the first person I heard singing Beijing opera was Yu Kuizhi. I was fascinated by his great voice and for a long time he was my Nr.1 favorite. He has a good voice, an excellent voice, a nothing-to-criticize-on voice.
But nowadays I can’t find that extra charm in his performances that makes someone really unique and touches the heart of the audience… When I hear him singing, I always say: “Wow!”, but can’t wholeheartedly laugh or cry…

OK, I finally spit it out:
Let’s take a young artist with outstanding talent. It’s so interesting to watch him in the phase of learning, finding his path, later discovering his own style (if he has one), polishing his skills and gradually get better and better. (In these last few months, I particularly enjoyed watching Wang Peiyu, Zhang Jianfeng, Lan Tian… also the guys of Chen Shaoyun’s Qi school class.)

Then it’s interesting to watch this artist for a while when he’s already an established professional with great skills. The bowl of ice cream is done, with topping, cherry, little umbrella and all – pleasing to the eye and pretty tasty. But if you have to eat the same perfect bowl of ice cream every day, after a while you want something more, a pinch of nutmeg or chili… And I don’t mean experimenting with new, modern plays or coming up with something unusual. Better seasoning the existing repertoire somehow…
I don’t know how, I’m not an expert nor am I old and experienced enough to tell.

Not necessary to officially belong to this or that school if you’re able to work out your own, unique style… but otherwise what to lean on? I admit I’m confuzzled about Yu Kuizhi nowadays. What I hear, what’s this exactly? Somehow this 100% accurate ice cream doesn’t seem to have distinctive taste…

When writing about Chinese artists, I repeatedly find myself in a difficult situation when it comes to professional job titles. You can frequently meet the expressions in the post title when browsing Chinese wiki.  ”First class performer on national level”, this sounds nice, but “second class”, “third class”… these sound so utterly derogative in English, especially if applied to artists.

Just to clear things up: the title “first class actor/actress” is awarded to artists by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China for outstanding contribution to the blooming cultural life of China in the field of literature and art, also political achievements are a plus, as far as I noticed.
Also dramatist, directors, conductors and composers are entitled with “first class” rank.
Artists have to meet requirements for the title “second class performer” too, must have certain cultural and artistic accomplishments, like fairly strong natural talent and specialized knowledge of their profession.
Thus, if you see “second class actor/actress” in someone’s profile, it doesn’t mean that the performance of the person is second class, it better applies to his contribution to the cultural prosperity of the nation.

I brought up this issue because I’m unable to add “second class”, “grade B” or similar titles to artists’ profiles, in English it clearly has a bad aftertaste and might mislead readers.