Kun Opera - Ancient Art Striving for New Life

(The oldest form of Chinese traditional opera has recently named one of the world 19 “masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity” by UNESCO. Hopefully, this international recognition will help this ancient art regain its popularity at home. )

With its distinctive artistic beauty, Kunqu, or Kun opera, is considered to be one of the most elegant of China’s classical art forms. The piece you’ve just been hearing is an excerpt from a well-known Kunqu, “Tao Hua Shan”, or “Peach Blossom Fan”. The beautiful melody, the graceful acting and choreography, and the poetic lyrics have captivated audiences for hundreds of years.

The performers of this particular piece are all famous artists from the Kun Opera Troupe in east China’s Jiangsu Province. Among them are Zhang Jiqing, a Kunqu master who can sing over 300 excerpts of this form of opera, and Zhang Jidie, one of the best Kunqu comedians in the country. Zhang Jidie is perhaps best known for his portrayal of a dwarf. Despite remaining cross-legged throughout his performances of this part for the sake of realism, he is still able to move across the stage both quickly and expressively.

Shao Kaijie, head of the Jiangsu Kun Opera Troupe, says artists such as these two, and indeed all of the artists on his team, are invaluable to the success of Kunqu.

He explains that Kunqu is considered to be the forefather of more than 300 local operas in China, including the internationally renowned Peking Opera, now also the national opera of China.

“ Kunqu originated in the Kunshan region in the south of Jiangsu Province. The first Kunqu was “Huan Sha Ji”. It was written about 500 years ago, during the Ming Dynasty, by two famous musicians from Jiangsu who composed music to accompany the local dialect of Kunshan.”

Shao says that Kunqu rapidly spread to the rest of the country. Many local operas later derived from it, and many more were greatly influenced by its tunes and acting style.

Kunqu has its own, unique system of acting and distinctively elegant tunes. The orchestra consists of a number of traditional instruments. These include the Dizi, a horizontal bamboo flute, the Xiao, a vertical bamboo flute, the Sheng, a mouth organ and the Pipa, a plucked stringed instrument.

The wide ranging repertoires of the operas are based on references to a wide variety of classical literary works, such as “Tao Hua Shan”, translated as the Peach Blossom Fan; “Mu Dan Ting”, or the Peony Pavilion; and “Dou E Yuan”, known in English as Snowfall in June.

Nowadays, there are altogether seven Kun Opera troupes across China. The Kunqu troupe from Jiangsu Province is certainly one of the best. Fifty-six-year-old Lin Jifan, who plays comic parts in the Jiangsu Kun Opera Troupe, has established himself as one of greatest Kunqu artists in China. Although he has performed Kunqu since the tender age of 13, he claims that his knowledge of the art form is still far from complete.

“ Kunqu is extraordinary. I’ve been studying it for over 40 years, but I’ve only barely scratched the surface. It’s just too profound an art from.”

After its conception in the Ming Dynasty, Kunqu enjoyed widespread popularity throughout the country for a period of over 200 years. According to historical records, when a performance was given at the time, it was received with a tremendous ovation from the thousands of people in the audience.

Today, however, as many more modern art forms have begun to grow in importance, the glorious past of Kunqu has sadly become little more than a distant memory in China. Since the opera is sung in a complex dialect that is difficult to understand for the majority of Chinese people, and since most of its repertoire is derived from stories of the distant past, many believe that Kunqu is too highbrow to be popular.

Nonetheless, this classical art form now seems to be increasingly appealing to people in other parts of the world. Over the past few years, the Jiangsu Kun Opera Troupe has toured many countries and regions, and has been extremely popular among overseas audiences. With this current trend, supported by UNESCO’s recent recognition of the art from, ironically it may be that the future of one of China’s most traditional art forms for the moment lies in the hands of overseas theatre-goers. Let’s hope, however, that this growth in Kunqu’s popularity abroad will soon start to rub off on domestic audiences in the near future, so this elegant art form may be restored to its rightful place in China’s rich cultural heritage.