Jonathan P. J. Stock
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262733
- eISBN:
- 9780191734502
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262733.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
China has over three hundred distinct styles of music drama, from exorcism theatre to farce, historical romance, and shadow puppetry. This study considers one of the newer operatic forms. Established ...
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China has over three hundred distinct styles of music drama, from exorcism theatre to farce, historical romance, and shadow puppetry. This study considers one of the newer operatic forms. Established just two centuries ago, huju (Shanghai opera), is renowned for its portrayal of ordinary people, not the emperors, courtesans, and heroes of older forms. Acting and make-up aim for realism rather than symbolism, and stories deal with contemporaneous themes: the struggles of lovers to marry, women's rights after the Communist revolution (1949), and life under the new social order established by Deng Xiaoping's reforms in the 1980s. Music ranges from local folksong to syncretic adoptions of Western popular music. Adding to his extensive research on Chinese music, the author's eighteen months of fieldwork in Shanghai have allowed him to interweave material from historical reports, sound recordings, live performance, and first-hand accounts of three generations of singers into a study of a unique Chinese opera form seen equally as historical tradition, venue for social action, and forum for musical creativity. Assessing first the roots of huju in local folksong and ballad, he looks at the enduring role of emotional expressivity. The text then focuses on the rise of actresses, laying out a ‘musical’ reading of gendered performance.Less
China has over three hundred distinct styles of music drama, from exorcism theatre to farce, historical romance, and shadow puppetry. This study considers one of the newer operatic forms. Established just two centuries ago, huju (Shanghai opera), is renowned for its portrayal of ordinary people, not the emperors, courtesans, and heroes of older forms. Acting and make-up aim for realism rather than symbolism, and stories deal with contemporaneous themes: the struggles of lovers to marry, women's rights after the Communist revolution (1949), and life under the new social order established by Deng Xiaoping's reforms in the 1980s. Music ranges from local folksong to syncretic adoptions of Western popular music. Adding to his extensive research on Chinese music, the author's eighteen months of fieldwork in Shanghai have allowed him to interweave material from historical reports, sound recordings, live performance, and first-hand accounts of three generations of singers into a study of a unique Chinese opera form seen equally as historical tradition, venue for social action, and forum for musical creativity. Assessing first the roots of huju in local folksong and ballad, he looks at the enduring role of emotional expressivity. The text then focuses on the rise of actresses, laying out a ‘musical’ reading of gendered performance.
Jonathan P. J. Stock
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262733
- eISBN:
- 9780191734502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262733.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
Scholars of Shanghai opera accord their tradition, huju, a history of some two centuries or more, typically describing its rise in terms of a development from local traditions of folk song to ...
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Scholars of Shanghai opera accord their tradition, huju, a history of some two centuries or more, typically describing its rise in terms of a development from local traditions of folk song to balladry, and from ballad-singing to staged and costumed opera (in the 1920s). This chapter begins with a brief summary of the history of opera in China to provide initial orientation for the subsequent evaluation of how huju relates to and contrasts with other dramatic forms. The analysis draws on surviving primary and secondary source materials, such as the memoirs of old singers, to assess the question as to how much huju changed as it gained acceptance in the city of Shanghai. The data suggests that the generally cited model of development through stages of folk song-ballad-local opera is in need of revision, and new models are generated.Less
Scholars of Shanghai opera accord their tradition, huju, a history of some two centuries or more, typically describing its rise in terms of a development from local traditions of folk song to balladry, and from ballad-singing to staged and costumed opera (in the 1920s). This chapter begins with a brief summary of the history of opera in China to provide initial orientation for the subsequent evaluation of how huju relates to and contrasts with other dramatic forms. The analysis draws on surviving primary and secondary source materials, such as the memoirs of old singers, to assess the question as to how much huju changed as it gained acceptance in the city of Shanghai. The data suggests that the generally cited model of development through stages of folk song-ballad-local opera is in need of revision, and new models are generated.
Jonathan P. J. Stock
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262733
- eISBN:
- 9780191734502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262733.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
A central element of the history of huju in the 20th century is the emergence of female performers: this in a tradition formerly dominated by men, some of whom impersonated female roles. This chapter ...
More
A central element of the history of huju in the 20th century is the emergence of female performers: this in a tradition formerly dominated by men, some of whom impersonated female roles. This chapter focuses on issues pertaining to and associated with these new performers. Treated as a case study in the field of music and gender, and drawing on theoretical proposals from several fields, the chapter begins in the same historical area as that discussed in Chapter 1 but ranges beyond the former chapter's historical confines to consider some later data also.Less
A central element of the history of huju in the 20th century is the emergence of female performers: this in a tradition formerly dominated by men, some of whom impersonated female roles. This chapter focuses on issues pertaining to and associated with these new performers. Treated as a case study in the field of music and gender, and drawing on theoretical proposals from several fields, the chapter begins in the same historical area as that discussed in Chapter 1 but ranges beyond the former chapter's historical confines to consider some later data also.
