¹ In Peking Opera, there are five main roles: the sheng and the tan are the leading ones, and the ching, mo and ch'ou are the minor ones. The sheng (male) role is again divided into several kinds: the lao-sheng (old man) role, hsü-sheng (bearded or middleaged man) role, wu-sheng (young and military-type man) role, and the hsiao-sheng (young and civilian type man) role. The tan (female) role is also sub-divided into the lao-tan (old woman) role, the ch'ing-i (the black-dressed or young woman) role, the hua-tan (young and flirtatious girl) role, and the wu-tan (young and military-type) role. The ching role is the painted-face role, again divided into the wen-ching (civilian) and the wu-ching (military, usually called the hua-lien or “flowery face”). The mo is usually the supporting role; it differs very little from the hsü-sheng, except it never plays an important part in the opera. The ch'ou role is the clown in the opera, divided into the wen-ch'ou (or fang-chin ch'ou, the civilian type) and the wu-ch'ou (the military type). Generally speaking, the distinction between the wen (civilian) type and the wu (military) type of role is simply that the military type is usually involved in some kind of fighting in the play.

However, if we use the “voice” as a criterion for dividing the various roles in Peking Opera, all the roles described above can be grouped into three or five voices, the lao-sheng (and htü-sheng) voice (the man's voice, sounding something like a baritone), the ch'ing-i voice (the young woman's voice which sounds like a soprano), the hua-lien voice (of the painted face role which sounds like a tenor). These are the three main voices. Then we may add two minor ones, the hsiao-sheng voice (of the young man) which sounds very much like the ch'ing-i (young woman) voice, and the lao-tan (old woman) voice which differs very little from the lao-sheng (old man) voice.

² Of these famous actors, Yü Shu-yen took the lao-sheng (or hsü-sheng) role (actually the only difference between these two roles is in the beard worn); Yang Hsiao-lou took the wu-sheng role; Chin Shao-shan took the ching role; and Mei Lan-fang took the ch'ing-i role and was famed throughout the world as the greatest female impersonator.

³ Chou Yang is one of the most important cultural spokesmen in the Communist Party. He is a deputy head of its propaganda department.

⁴ Ch'eng Yen-ch'iu was one of the four great female impersonators of modern times. He died in 1958.

⁵ Shao-p'o, Ma, Hsi-ch'ü kai-ko lun-chi (On the reform of the Opera) (Shanghai: 1952), pp. 11–12Google Scholar, in an article entitled “Cheng-ch'üeh Cbih-hsing Tui-ch'en Ch'u-hsin te Fang-chen” (“Correctly Carrying Out the Policy of ‘Pushing Out the Old and Producing the New’”).

⁶ Ibid. pp. 13–16.

⁷ In discussing the drama of China, one must always keep in mind that the broad meaning of this term refers to two distinct forms, the traditional operas (of which Peking Opera is but one) and the so-called “spoken drama,” a modern form influenced greatly by the West.

⁸ Ma Yen-hsiang's article entitled “Shih Shem-me Tsu-ai-che Ching-chü Wu-t'ai I-shu Chin-i-pu-te Fa-chan?” (“What is obstructing the further development of the stage art of Peking Opera?”) was published in the Hsi-chü Pao, 11, 1954, pp. 21–22.Google Scholar

⁹ Tsu-kuang, Wu's article, “T'an-t'an Hsi-chü Kai-ko te Chi-ke Shih-chi Wen-t'i (“Let us talk about several concrete problems involved in the reform of the opera”), was published in the Hsi-chü Pao, 11 1954, pp. 15–16.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Mei Lan-fang died in August 1961 in Peking.

¹¹ Mei Lan-fang's article was also published in the Hsi-chü Pao, loc. cit.

¹² One of the important principles of Peking Opera is that of the so-called “immediate identification” of the character on the stage. The Chinese term is “k'ai-men chienshan” (“open the door, see the mountain”). Unlike the modern drama in which a character can be gradually identified by the audience as the play progresses, all the traditional operas in China identify the character on the stage as soon as he appears. One of the common devices used for “immediate identification” is the so-called “self-introductiani” by the characters themselves. The “faces” (males) traditionally used by some of the historical figures on the stage is another device by means of which the audience can identify their heroes.

¹³ Mei Lan-fang, op. cit.

¹⁴ Among the professionals present at the meeting were Chang Yun-hsi (who usually plays the young military type) and Yeh Sheng-lan (who plays the young civilian type). Their opinions were recorded in the Hsi-chü Pao, 01 1955, pp. 40–42.Google Scholar

¹⁵ The story of this opera is based on the novel Shui-hu Chuan (translated by Pearl Buck under the title All Men Are Brothers), a story about a group of outlaws (regarded by the Communists as revolutionaries) of the Sung period who occupied a swamp area (located in modern Shantung province) called Liang-shan po and behaved very much like Robin Hood and his men.

¹⁶ Wu Tsu-kuang's argument is cited in an article written by Lü Ch'i-t'ung entitled “Kuan-yü Ching-chü Ts'ung-k'an chung San-ke Chü-pen te Cheng-li Wen-t'i” (“On the Revision of Three Plays Incorporated in the Ching-chu Ts'ung-k'an”), published in the Hsi-chü Pao, 06 1955, pp. 48–49.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Ibid.

¹⁸ This novel, Hsi-yu Chi (or The Western Travels), has been translated by Arthur Waley under the title of Monkey; another translation was done by Timothy Richard, who entitled it A Mission to Heaven. Hsi-yu Chi was written by Wu Cheng-en during the Ming period.

¹⁹ The Chinese phrase is huo-yen chin-ching (fire eyes, gold pupils), being the result of taking a Taoist formula for cultivating supernatural qualities.

²⁰ Before the Monkey King, or Sun Wu-k'ung, was finally subdued by the Monk of Taag (the famous Hsüan-tsang), he occupied a mountain by the name of Flower-Fruit Mountain and used it as his hideout.

²¹ The story of the contest between the Monkey King and the Buddha is told in the novel Hsi-yu Chi. The story goes like this: the Monkey King challenged the Buddha to a contest to see whose magic was the more potent. The Monkey boasted that with a somersault he could travel 180,000 li (a li is a third of a mile). The Buddha challenged him to try it. So the Monkey made a somersault. After he thought that he had already travelled more than 180,000 li, he came down, and marked the bottom of a huge “post” he happened to see there. To his surprise, the Buddha was standing by him when he came down from his somersault. The Buddha then showed the Monkey the so-called 180,000 li in his somersault was actually a distance shorter than the Buddha's palm. In disbelief, the Monkey looked around for the “post” he had marked. Indeed, he found that what he believed to be a huge “post” was actually the small finger of the Buddha, who thus admonished him, saying, “No matter how hard you try, you can never jump out of my palm.” With this done, the Monkey was finally subdued, and made one of the followers of the Monk of T'ang.

²² An O's article, “Ssu-lang T'an-mu, Lien-huan T'ao teng Chü-mu Neng-pu-neng Shang-yen?” (“Can Such Plays as Ssu-lang T'an-mu and Lien-huan Tao be Allowed to be Performed?”), was published in the Hsi-chü Pao, 09 1956, p. 30.Google Scholar

²³ For example, veteran actors and big names in theatrical circles such as Ma Lien-Hang (leader of the Ma School in the sheng role), Shang Hsiao-yun (one of the great female impersonators) and Hsün Hui-sheng (another of the four great female impersonators), still head their own troupes in Peking.

²⁴ Chou Hsin-fang, whose theatrical name is Ch'i-lin t'ung, is a veteran actor of more than fifty years' experience. He plays the sheng (either lao-sheng or hsü-sheng) role, and is famous for his characterisation of Kuan Yü (of the Three Kingdoms period).

²⁵ Hsiao Ch'ang-hua is perhaps the oldest member of the Peach Garden in China. He plays the ch'ou (down) role. Now he teaches at the newly formed Chinese Academy of Peking Opera in Peking.

²⁶ Li Shao-ch'un usually plays either the wu-sheng (military young man) or hsü-sheng role; Tu Chin-fang is a young actress who is considered to be the heiress-apparent of the famous Mei Lao-fang

²⁷ In these newly created plays, all that which the reformers had dreamed of, such as modern techniques in make-up, stage settings for different scenes, and so on, is being experimented with.

²⁸ Cited by Lin Han-piao in an article entitled “Lüeh-lun Ta-yao-chin i-lai Hsien-tai-hsi te Wei-ta Ch'eng-chiu” (“A Brief Discussion on the Achievements of Modern Drama since the Great Leap Forward Movement”), appeared in Hsi-chü Yen-chiu, No. 4, 09 25, 1959, p. 151.Google Scholar

²⁹ This writer had the rare opportunity to see a performance of a Peking Opera troupe in Vancouver, B.C., when the group was invited by the municipal authorities to help celebrate its centennial in the summer of 1960. Of all the opera numbers presented on the stage, not one was a “new opera” produced since the reform movement. Although some changes in the tunes in the opera White Serpent could be noticed, all the other traditional features of the opera remained the same as before.