ELIZABETH LOMINSKA JOHNSON
Cantonese opera has had a history of more than 100 years in British Columbia, and has been performed from the second decade of this century in those Canadian cities with significant populations of Chinese origin. It is currently extremely popular in Vancouver and Toronto, with large numbers of well-attended performances every year, most put on by local amateurs. In the earlier years performances were primarily given by professional troupes touring from China, meeting the needs of the segregated Chinese Canadians for familiar entertainment. Since the 1920s, local non-profit organizations dedicated to the purpose have trained amateur performers and organized their own performances as well as tours by actors and troupes from Hong Kong and Canton. During the last few years, many professionals have immigrated to Canada and opera has moved towards a more commercial organizational base.
L'opéra cantonais est joué depuis plus de cent ans en Colombie Britannique et depuis la deuxième décennie de ce siècle dans les villes canadiennes qui ont des concentrations importantes de population d'origine chinoise. Présentement, l'opéra cantonais est très populaire à Vancouver et à Toronto où un grand nombre de spectacles, dont la plupart sont organisés par des amateurs locaux, attirent beaucoup de spectateurs. Au début, ces représentations étaient le fait de troupes professionnelles venues de Chine pour offrir des divertissements familiers aux canadiens-chinois. Depuis les années 20, des organismes locaux à but non lucratif ont formé des acteurs amateurs et monté leurs propres spectacles en plus de régler les tournées des acteurs professionels venus de Hong Kong et de Canton. Depuis quelques années, plusieurs acteurs professionnels ont immigré au Canada et l'opéra s'est doté d'une base organisationnelle plus commerciale.
Cantonese opera is presently enjoying extraordinary popularity in the Vancouver area. I estimate that in 1995 at least twenty different major public performances were held, each of a different opera or series of acts, 1 and each attracting an audience of 500 people or more. In addition, there were innumerable smaller performances, especially during the weeks before and after Chinese New Year. 2 Vancouver is now considered to be the major centre of Cantonese opera outside Hong Kong; Toronto and Los Angeles are runners-up. Singapore and New York are also important overseas centres (Chan Kwok-yuen). In Canada, performances on a smaller scale take place in Victoria, Montreal, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. Because Vancouver and Toronto are the preferred places of residence of many Chinese Canadians, and the destinations of most recent immigrants, 3 they offer particularly supportive environments for these performances.
Productions range in scale from full operas, five hours long, to public recitals given by students learning to master the form. Many of the Vancouver performances are spectacular full operas or series of famous scenes. These productions are long and complex, with full complements of musicians and actors, 4 many new, costly, and splendid costumes made in Hong Kong and China, and a wide range of stage and musical skills demonstrated by the participants.
During 1995, for example, there were three performances of a special act called "Six Kingdoms Invest a Chancellor," which is designed to show off the artistry and costumes of a troupe to the fullest, and features distinctive ceremonial music and archaic speech. As the drama unfolds, the audience is dazzled by six generals, six high officials in full regalia, beautiful and talented ladies, mimed journeys on horseback and in chariots, and a battle among the generals, supported by soldier-acrobats. Although the actors and musicians included professionals from elsewhere, many participants were local people who are "amateurs" in that they perform for the love of it and earn their living in other ways. They have reached their levels of skill through training after work or in their spare time. Their extraordinary levels of skill and commitment are not consonant with the implications of the term "amateur" in English.5
How is it possible that so many performances, some of exceptional complexity, could be organized in Canada, where there are no resident professional troupes? Such productions require a strong organizational base to bring together people with the requisite skills, as well as substantial financial resources. How could it be that there are such numbers of people in Vancouver who have had the training necessary to enable them to perform these demanding roles, whether as actors, musicians, or backstage support? Why have they undertaken a serious commitment to traditional theatre from their homeland, and why should it be so evidently meaningful to them and to their consistently large audiences?
From 1990 until now, I have been a member of these audiences, one of the few non-Chinese people present. Initially I was doing research for the exhibit A Rare Flower: A Century of Cantonese Opera in Canada, which opened at the University of British Columbia (U.B.C.) Museum of Anthropology in 1993. Many Vancouver participants in Cantonese opera have been very generous in sharing their knowledge with me, and with my colleague Rosa Ho, who co-curated the exhibit. Through these experiences we have gained a deeper appreciation of their commitment to their art, and have begun to get some insight into the forces that attract them and their audiences. We are also learning about recent changes in the organization of opera training and performance here, changes that could threaten its long-term stability.
Why Cantonese Opera?
In Canada, Cantonese opera (Yueh-chu) is the most commonly performed of the hundreds of regional forms, because the Canton Delta, the delta of the Pearl River in Guangdong Province, has been the place of origin of most Chinese immigrants to North America. Cantonese is the Chinese dialect most commonly spoken there, although its speakers share a common written language with all of China. There are other regional opera forms in Guangdong Province, but Cantonese opera is predominant throughout the delta and in Hong Kong.
In recent years, Canada has received many immigrants from Hong Kong, where Cantonese language and culture are also dominant (Wickberg, From China 7-10, 245-252). Immigrants from Hong Kong have the advantage of coming from an environment where opera has been strongly supported in recent decades. Through regular exposure they have had the opportunity to maintain a sophisticated understanding and appreciation of opera (Ward, "Regional Operas" 161-2). In contrast, opera in the People's Republic of China, although generally supported by the state, was criticized and reformed as early as the 1950s, and was severely disrupted during the Cultural Revolution. The long hiatus led to a loss of audience familiarity which has made it difficult to reestablish (Mackerras and Wichmann 6).
There are several contexts for performance in Hong Kong, as there were elsewhere in China before the revolutionary period. Commercial theatres in urban areas offer venues for regularly-scheduled performances, and in recent years these have been supplemented by civic theatres supported by the government. Simpler performances have long taken place in teahouses and street markets. In addition, wealthy families and clans have sometimes hired troupes to perform in their homes or villages on special occasions. Temple festivals, such as those celebrating the birthdays of gods, have also long provided occasions for opera performances. In preparation for a festival, villages or urban neighbourhoods arrange for large temporary theatres to be built, complex structures of lashed bamboo poles covered with mats or sheet tin, and hire troupes to perform for extended periods, most commonly four days and five nights. Such performances often include auspicious short ritual plays (Chan 54-58; Ward, "Not Merely Players" 29-31), and they not only entertain the large numbers of people who gather for the celebration, but also are given as offerings for the gods who are being honoured (Ward, "Not Merely Players" 24-5; Ward, "Regional Operas"; Chan 33-80).
In Hong Kong, many people also gained exposure to Cantonese opera during the 1960s-70s through films, many of which were televised. Enormous numbers of them were made (Wong Hok-sing), and they were an important means of giving prominence to opera actors and improving their status.
Until at least the 1940s, professional opera actors were of despised status (Mackerras and Wichman 4). In general they came from poor families and were forced into this occupation as a means of earning a living. Originally they were only men, some of whom played female roles, but by the 1920s there were female troupes and a decade later mixed troupes became acceptable. The majority were trained through an arduous system of servile apprenticeship,6 and their working conditions were often extremely harsh, especially if they were members of troupes that performed in temporary theatres in the countryside. They lived in makeshift facilities, performed long hours, and travelled around the delta on boats fitted out for the purpose (Ward, "Red Boats"; Wong Toa).
The first opera schools were established in the early 20th century in Beijing (Scott 121) and by the late 1920s in Guangzhou (Huang Jinpei). After the Second World War, formal training, with specialized teachers and a set curriculum, replaced the apprenticeship system and working conditions 7 improved . With the advent of opera films, outstanding performers were able to gain the status and wealth of movie stars. The glamorous lives of some of the well-known stars have given Cantonese opera an aura that may have seduced aspiring performers in Canada.
What Distinguishes Cantonese Opera?
Cantonese opera has its own history and distinctive features, but shares certain commonalities with other regional operas through historical and contemporary contact among players who have had opportunities to observe and emulate each others' art (Scott 118). In contrast to others, Cantonese opera is said by its practitioners to be particularly open to outside influences, including even the playing of some western musical instruments and western theatre's use of scenery (Huang Jinpei; Wong Toa). Cantonese opera practitioners were exposed to these influences through the European colonies of Hong Kong and Macao as well as their own performances in Chinese centres abroad. Audiences have come to expect novelty in certain aspects of performance, including costumes and special effects. Improvisation also can add novelty, when creative actors interject comic puns (often rude) or humorous local references (Chan 58-60).
Cantonese opera is also distinguished by its use of the Cantonese dialect in performance and by the large variety of named tunes and tune-types 8 in its musical repertoire and its large number of plots. It also uses an exceptionally large number of musicians and types of instruments, with lively and dominant percussion. It places relatively minor emphasis on martial performance, and it rarely uses painted-face roles. In contrast to Beijing opera, full operas, lasting many hours, are common in Cantonese opera (Yung 11-22; Mackerras, Chinese Theatre 145-50).
All the major forms of Chinese opera share certain features that distinguish them from western theatre. They are called "opera" in English because of the prominence of music (Yung 6), but there are many differences between western and Chinese opera. In the latter, virtually all singing is solo, although it may be in the form of antiphonal dialogue between two or more players. The singing, especially in female roles, is usually highly stylized and has a falsetto quality that is highly valued and projects well. On stage, even speech is usually song-like. The singers are accompanied by musicians, each playing a different instrument. There is no conductor, so the lead percussionist and the two-string violin player coordinate with the actors and lead the others using a complex system of unspoken communication. The cast is relatively small Musical notation is now sometimes used, but performers will commonly work from a script that includes only reference to the titles of tunes to be sung. 9 The repertoire of tunes can be used with different words, although there are conventions as to how they should be used. In the temple festival context operas may still be performed without a script. Players and musicians know the form so well that they can perform creatively after looking at a sheet that gives only the outline of the story and the names of the tune-types (Chan; Mackerras and Wichmann 3; Yung ix). This was the case in all performance contexts until the 1920s, after which time actors were expected to adhere more closely to a script. Only the short auspicious ritual playlets, such as "Six Kingdoms Invest a Chancellor," traditionally had set scripts (Luk).
Even today, Chinese operas take place in imperial settings, 10 and many plots are old and familiar stories and histories that have deep significance for audiences. They teach and reinforce important societal values as they show the struggles of good, self-sacrificing, and loyal characters against those who are selfish and greedy. Although the good may suffer or even die in the course of their struggles, the values they represent triumph in the drama's final happy resolution (Ward, "Regional Operas" 183-4). Played out in imperial settings, the stories give performers the opportunity to dazzle their audiences with rich and splendid costumes.
Chinese opera is "total theatre," a rich and integrated symbolic system that demands a multitude of complex skills from each player (Ward, "Regional Operas" 184; Ward, "Not Merely Players" 20-21; Mackerras and Wichmann 1), as well as the stamina that makes it possible to sustain a five-hour performance in elaborate costumes and headdresses, and with heavy make-up. Stage movements are highly stylized and dance-like. Mime is important in communicating context and action, while hand movements and facial expressions are also finely controlled (Ward, "Not Merely Players" 21). Until the 1930s, there were no scenery and props in Cantonese opera, and mime, which remains important today, conveyed setting and actions. Scenery is more backdrop than three-dimensional setting, and actors often face away from it to address their actions, and sometimes even their words, to the audience (Brecht).
An actor's performance style depends on the role type in which the player has been trained. The structure of role types has varied over time, but in Cantonese opera it has included the military gentleman, civil gentleman, clown (male and female), the painted face, and several primary female types, including a lively, beautiful, and coquettish young woman who may have martial skills, a dignified, virtuous, and struggling woman of strong character, and an old woman (Scott 123-5). The structure of role types has been simplified in recent years.
This complex dramatic form, which until recently has been highly improvisational, is arduous to perform well and takes years to master in its many aspects. Audiences have high expectations and, despite their apparent inattentiveness, will concentrate closely on important dramatic moments and express their appreciation for outstanding performances, as well as their scorn for lapses and mistakes (Ward, "Regional Operas" 182, 184).
Canadian audiences also show warm appreciation for good performance, while openly criticizing less successful moments, but in the contemporary context their reaction is tempered by the fact that performers are often their friends and relatives. The social organization of performance in Canada has gone through a long evolution that reflects changes in its political and economic context.
The Early Development of Cantonese Opera in Canada
As far as we can determine, the earliest performances of Cantonese opera in Canada, and elsewhere in North America, were those of professional troupes. In San Francisco they were performing in specially-built theatres by the 1850s (Rodecape; Riddle 15-94). In Canada, the Victoria British Colonist described the building of three theatres for Cantonese opera in the 1880s, one of which had a seating capacity of eight hundred (British Colonist, July 23, 1885).
In Vancouver, Major J.S. Matthews, a local historian and archivist, wrote an essay describing his visit in 1898 to a Cantonese opera performance, providing the first evidence of its existence there (Matthews). The theatre visited by Matthews may be the one visible in a 1907 photograph that shows the damage inflicted on Shanghai Alley by anti-oriental riots. There is a sign on one of the buildings that says "Theatre Upstairs" (Yee 31). At that time, Cantonese opera must have been an important source of familiar diversion to Chinese people here.11 There were few other cultural activities in their ghetto-like existence in Chinatown, and their activities outside of Chinatown were severely constrained by discrimination. People who lived through those years here tell of extremely restricted employment opportunities, and pervasive barriers to physical and social mobility.
Until the 1960s, there were relatively few Chinese women and children in Canada because of immigration restrictions that prevented men from bringing their families.12 The head tax, in force from 1885-1923, made it increasingly expensive to bring relatives to Canada (Yee 19, 41-45). In 1923, the Chinese Immigration Act virtually prohibited the entry of Chinese people (Yee 83). These prohibitions remained in force until the late 1940s, when immigration restrictions began to be eased. The present regulations, which do not discriminate on the basis of race, were fully enacted in 1967 (Johnson and Lary 88).
Even during the ban on immigration, individual actors and troupes could enter in bond to perform. Articles in a Vancouver daily Chinese newspaper, The Chinese Times, show regular professional performances in Vancouver from 1916. At least one troupe came most years, many apparently on tours that included such cities as Honolulu, San Francisco, and Seattle. The evidence that remains suggests that these early tours were sponsored by local merchant companies. 13 Certain years were particularly active, with two troupes performing at once in 1921, 1923-4 and 1941-2. The troupes performed nightly for several months, doing a different opera each night (Yip), although audience enthusiasm usually declined once the initial novelty of the new troupe had worn off. Cantonese opera was relatively quiescent in Vancouver from 1945 to the mid-1960s, as the older generations diminished and younger Canadian-born Chinese diversified their interests in a city that gradually became more accepting of Chinese people (Yip, The Chinese Times; Ng i-ii). Cantonese opera films were popular during this period, and there were some amateur performances. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, amateur opera societies again began to bring in professional actors and troupes from Hong Kong. After restrictions on Chinese immigration ended in 1967, the substantial flow of new immigrants contributed to the beginning of a revitalization of Cantonese opera.
A New Canadian Base for Opera
By the 1920s, if not earlier, Chinese people in Vancouver had begun to produce opera themselves. According to Louis Chang, who was a young boy at the time, a music society called Yin Cheung Se was established in Vancouver's Chinatown in about 1920. It had a resident teacher who charged people one dollar to study one opera song until they knew it, and who also taught them to play instruments.
It is organizations like the Yin Cheung Se that have helped to guarantee the survival of Cantonese opera in Canada by teaching those who wished to learn opera, organizing performances, and providing meaningful social activities for those who shared this interest. Although that particular society did not last past the 1920s, many others have been founded in Canada. At present, to my knowledge there are Cantonese opera societies in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Victoria. In Winnipeg, the Manitoba Chinese Dramatic Society, established in 1921, continues to the present. The Jiing Shyh Jung Society, established in Edmonton in 1919, was revitalized in 1945 after some periods of inactivity (Hoe 46). In Vancouver, two societies established in 1934 and 1935, the Jin Wah Sing Musical Association and the Ching Won Musical Society, are still active. The Ngai Lum Musical Society was established in the 1960s. Its members explain their purpose as follows:
The Ngai Lum Music Society is a non-profit organization for cultural entertainment. It fosters the singing of Cantonese opera songs while strengthening cultural activity in the overseas Chinese community. It promotes understanding of Chinese culture by others, and supports the multicultural activities of the Canadian government.14
Associations devoted to fostering Cantonese opera are one of the many kinds of voluntary associations found in Chinese communities overseas. Their signs are prominent features of the upper floors of buildings in North American Chinatowns. Many are organized on the basis of common place of origin or common surname; others may be based on shared occupation or interest in an activity such as opera. For early immigrants, they helped provide meaningful social relations and welfare services to men with few family members here; even now they help people to promote mutual interests and concerns (Wickberg, From China 77-79, 157-170; Ng). Joining such an association is a significant long-term commitment, and loyalty an important value. Many are committed to public service, and regularly hold fund-raising activities for causes in Canada and in the homeland.15 The Ching Won Musical Society in Vancouver proudly displays the banners presented to it in appreciation of the performances it gave to raise funds to defend China in the Second World War. In recent years, opera associations have given performances to raise funds for flood relief in China and to help Vancouver hospitals, among other causes. Ad hoc groups of actors from various associations will also sometimes cooperate to perform for a particular charitable purpose.
Religious activities are important to opera associations. There are shrines in their headquarters, and places to honour the souls of deceased members. The two oldest Cantonese opera associations in Vancouver have shrines where offerings are made to Wah Kwong Sifu, the patron god of Cantonese opera actors, and other deities, and portable shrines are sometimes placed backstage.
In Vancouver, the Jin Wah Sing Musical Association and the Ngai Lum Musical Society have had professionally-trained teachers for their members for many years. In 1961, Jin Wah Sing invited Master Wong Toa, a musician also trained in acting, to come from Hong Kong, where he was active in the opera guild. He taught society members without remuneration, earning his living in other ways, from that time until his recent retirement from his teaching position. He has devoted his life here to teaching and researching Cantonese opera, and in recent years he has published extensively on the subject. The Ngai Lum. Musical Society has also had a professional teacher, Master Yung Cheong-hoe, since 1971.
The headquarters of Cantonese opera associations can be identified from the street by the sounds of singing, accompanied by instruments. On weekdays, society members may come in to practice or to have lessons with their teachers. The headquarters of each society consists at a minimum of one large room, decorated with commemorative banners and photographs. There are tables and chairs for members and friends, and a performance area with large percussion instruments and microphones at one end. Each society has regular meetings and social events, such as parties to welcome visiting performers. Each also has at least one annual banquet, at which guests are entertained with continuous opera performance by members. Society members all gather at a regular time each week to practice. Normally, one or two members will go up to the microphones in turn to sing through an opera song, accompanied by the society's musicians.
When a society is preparing its annual performance the members will practice episodes at their headquarters, but only one or two dress rehearsals can be held that bring together the whole complex performance because this requires access to the performance locations, which in Vancouver are either the Multi-Purpose Hall of the Chinese Cultural Centre or a civic theatre. If a series of short acts is being presented, the lack of rehearsal space is not a serious problem, but if a full opera is being performed, bringing it together with so few rehearsals requires considerable skill on the part of the director, actors and musicians.
There are certain people who have skills that are in short supply. Musicians are always in demand, especially as many local ones are now elderly. Skilled stage hands and make-up artists are also needed. Although such individuals are usually members of particular societies, they are often asked by others to help with their productions. The same is true of certain outstanding actors, or those with particular specialties such as training in clown roles, and they can be seen performing in a variety of contexts.
Cantonese Opera into the 1990s ...
During the five years or so that I have been attending performances and talking with participants in Vancouver, significant changes have taken place in the way opera is being taught, in its organizational basis, and in the ambience of performances. Although this is a time of great activity, there is also some instability.
A new type of setting for teaching and performing has been created within the last ten years. These new institutions might be called academies, small schools with one or more professional teachers. Unlike the associations, they are not non-profit societies, but function as small businesses. Students pay fees to study in these schools. Seven or eight, at least, have been established within the last few years. This proliferation in numbers and diversification in types of opera settings reflects the significant growth in the Chinese population, its dispersal in terms of residence and activities (Johnson 127), and the business opportunities offered by the potential interest in opera.Academies share some characteristics with the non-profit societies in that loyalty is expected among the group of students who study with the same teacher. They may worship a patron god. They hold regular social functions and give at least one annual performance, which is normally a series of recitals by students, singly or in pairs, and of variable quality depending on the students' abilities and level of training.16 Their headquarters are much like those of the societies in appearance, but some are located outside the old Chinatown.
Most of the teachers in the academies were professionally trained in China, Hong Kong, or Macao and had performance experience there. Two come from a well-known Cantonese opera family. In addition to those who run academies, there are other former professionals who work independently. A society or academy may invite one or two of them to coach members in preparation for a performance, and individuals may also hire them for this purpose. They are compensated for these services. The presence of these professionals, most of whom are recent immigrants, has had a significant impact on the standard of performance in Vancouver. They are able to introduce their specialties, contributing to a greater variety of performance. For example, Lee Sui-wah is a recent immigrant, trained in Beijing opera, who before coming here worked for many years in Hong Kong to introduce Beijing opera style martial arts into the repertoire there. He is committed to doing the same in Vancouver.
In addition to these teachers, at least seven professional musicians have come to Vancouver from China in the last few years. They are middle-aged people, most of whom were trained at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou. They support themselves by playing at academies and private Cantonese opera functions (Huang Jinpei).
These changes have meant that for most people participation in Cantonese opera has become a much more expensive undertaking than it once was. The societies have low annual fees, and other incidental costs used to be minimal. The two oldest societies even have a stock of beautiful old costumes that can be used by members. People of ordinary means have been able to participate in them at relatively low cost. Participation is more costly in other societies and in the academies. Fees must be paid for study, and individuals must buy costumes, which cost at least $1000 apiece. As the same costume is rarely worn twice, this is a significant expense. A player in a leading role may change costumes five or six times in the course of one production. Furthermore, there is now serious competition for some resources. Academies compete for new students, and everyone competes for good musicians, who are in short supply. It is now customary in all except the Ching Won Musical Society for musicians to be paid by performers each time they accompany them.17 Some wealthy aspiring singers also pay groups of musicians to accompany them in their homes. This commercialization is changing the ambience of opera in Vancouver.
During the past few years, increasing numbers of professional performers, including actors and musicians, have been brought from Hong Kong and other North American cities to perform in Canada. These tours may be arranged by an academy, or by a consortium formed for the purpose. The performers usually include not only the professionals but also local amateurs. A few wealthy amateurs are able to pay professionals to perform with them. The performances, held in civic theatres, are usually of high standard. As with other Cantonese opera performances, they do a different opera each afternoon and evening of their tour in any one city. Audiences would not expect the same opera to be offered more than once.
And in the Future?
It is fascinating to be a member of the audience at the many types of performances now taking place, to marvel at the complexity and sophistication of most productions, to admire the skill of performers who may otherwise be real estate agents or hairdressers, and to observe the reactions of the different kinds of audiences. What draws people to participate in these productions, to develop the requisite skills, and to commit the necessary time and financial resources? What draws audiences to spend four or five hours watching and listening to emperors and concubines, generals and scholars in stories from other eras?
Although I have talked with many of these people, I have not systematically interviewed them and so cannot speak confidently about their motives. For the audiences, it is clear from their overheard comments that many find the performance riveting and the stories meaningful. The audiences for the older societies' productions tend to be middle-aged and elderly people, predominantly women, who do not appear wealthy. Those attending the performances of the newer societies and academies appear younger and wealthier, and many seem to be there to support their friends and relatives who are performing.18 There is a tradition of showing tangible support by presenting a basket of flowers, with a ribbon expressing good wishes to an individual or the organization, and naming the donor. These are displayed in front of the stage or in the foyer. Recently, in the newer and more commercial contexts, it has become common for admirers to flock to the stage after a performance, thrusting big bouquets into the arms of the performers.
I hesitate to generalize about performers' motives, because I suspect they are not simple. For some, it is clearly rewarding to work closely with friends to put on a meaningful and significant opera. To take on a demanding role, and perform it well, is exhilarating. The discipline of training is also rewarding in itself. Many are concerned to display their art as a public service, to make Cantonese opera accessible to others and use it to support worthwhile causes. Some are content to labour backstage, preparing costumes and moving props. For others, having a taste of celebrity status is exciting, and an element of vanity is sometimes apparent. Being at centre stage, showered with praise and bouquets, is quite evidently gratifying.
Why, in Vancouver and Toronto at this time, is Cantonese opera so significant? Many reasons have been suggested to me. Recent large-scale immigration from Hong Kong, and, to some extent, from China, has been an important factor. Professionals have come to teach. Individuals with some prior knowledge of opera have immigrated, and some among them have time and the financial means to enable them to participate in this demanding activity. Many are relatively wealthy women with some leisure whose husbands continue to work in Hong Kong much of the year. Unlike the situation of several decades ago, there is now a preponderance of women in Cantonese opera here. As many play the roles of young male scholars, this gender disparity is not an insurmountable problem.19 Of all the available activities, why should they choose opera, though? Some people credit the recent popularity of karaoke, which has shown people that they can sing in public, and perhaps do it well. Is it because opera is a familiar Chinese form in a rather foreign environment? Recent immigrants have the great advantage of knowing spoken and written Chinese, which is essential for their participation. Without this knowledge, people cannot become either actors or musicians, limiting participation to first-generation immigrants.
Performances of high standard can also take place here because local people have the organizational skills, contacts, and financial base to invite professionals from Hong Kong to come to perform on a short-term basis. Other opera specialists may move between there and Canada on a regular basis according to need. 20
Cantonese opera has been able to flourish because of the groundwork done by the opera societies. For years they trained musicians, performers, and support people, and provided a meaningful social environment in which members could confidently develop their enjoyment of their art. They built and maintained audience knowledge and interest, in this place so far from their homeland.
Many questions presently trouble those who are committed to Cantonese opera. Will the societies be able to continue to teach and put on performances, in this increasingly commercial environment, and what will become of their members who cannot afford the various new costs? Can enough people be found who are willing to undergo the rigorous training necessary to be musicians, or who will do backstage work, without the glamour of being at centre stage? Will wealthy recent immigrants sustain their interest in the study and support of opera, in the presence of other diversions? Can the academies, and the groups who organize professional performances, survive financially under increasing competition? Contemporary Cantonese opera in Canada is vital and exciting, but its organizational foundations are seen to be vulnerable.
NOTES
The following people offered valuable comments on various drafts of this paper: Rosa Ho, Huang Jinpei, Alan Thrasher, Mary Ip, Michael Luk, Ellen Judd. I would like to thank them. The original research for the exhibit A Rare Flower: A Century of Cantonese Opera in Canada was conducted by Rosa Ho as well as myself, and the research and exhibit implementation were done with the guidance of Wong Toa and Huang Jinpei; the latter also provided research assistance and translation. Many individuals and organizations provided information, insights, and advice throughout this project, including Chan Fei-yin, Chan Kwok-yuen, Louis Chang, Wallace Chung, Huang Jinpei, Alex Hung, Hung Zhigang, Graham Johnson, Lawrence Law, Lucy Law, Terry Lee, Paul Pi, Monica Bai, Ruth Orr Huber, Sandra Lau, Rosa Lee, Raymond Li, Kevin Mah, Carrie Mak, Wayne Mak, Winnie Poon, Karrie Sebryk, Tan Dierong, Alan Thrasher, Diana Tong, Wong Hok-sing, Wong Toa, Victoria Yip, Yung Cheong-hoe. Many Vancouver Cantonese opera associations generously welcomed me at their performances and other functions, and associations elsewhere in Canada provided information on their histories and activities. The project was originally inspired by the Jin Wah Sing Musical Association, which transferred to the Museum of Anthropology a large collection of costumes dating from c. 1910-1940. These historic costumes had been left in Canada by troupes that came here to perform, and later preserved and used by Jin Wah Sing.
Research for this project was supported by the Museums Assistance Programme of Communications Canada and the Secretary of State, Multiculturalism Directorate. These bodies, as well as Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., the Museum of Anthropology Members' Fund, and Sandra Lau, supported the exhibit A Rare Flower: A Century of Cantonese Opera in Canada, which opened at the U.B.C. Museum of Anthropology in May 1993. It then travelled to the Kelowna Centennial Museum, the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, the Provincial Museum of Alberta in Edmonton, the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature in Winnipeg, and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, finishing its tour at the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal in the winter of 1995-96.
1. This form is generally recognized and accepted in Chinese opera, although full operas are more likely to be performed in the Cantonese tradition (Judd).
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2. At this time, members of opera associations and students in opera academies give free public
performances at the Pacific National Exhibition and in shopping malls and other public settings.
While in a shopping mall in Chinatown in January 1996, for example, I came across a group of
students from a localacademy, singing opera songs for an attentive audience of older people, in interesting
juxtaposition to the nearby McDonald's.
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3. According to The Globe and Mail of January 9, 1996 (page A4), Vancouver received 22,899
Chinese-speaking immigrants in 1994, and Toronto received 20,566. Of the Chinese immigrants
to British Columbia in 1994, 16,000 were from Hong Kong, and most settled in the Vancouver
area (Globe and Mail, January 15, 1996: A7).
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4. A local performance of an opera would require at least 20 actors and ten musicians.
Approximately six of the actors would have major roles. A performance of short excerpts
would require about the same number.
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5. Performance by people who are not professionals has had a long and honourable history in
China. Until recently, professional performers were looked down on as being poor, often
illiterate, and itinerant (Mackerras and Wichmann 4). In contrast, amateurs were often gentry
who could develop these and other artistic skills for the pleasure of doing so (Mackerras,
Amateur Theatre 2-5). According to Ellen Judd, there has also been a history of sophisticated
English-language amateur theatre productions in Canada, at least in Ontario, where performers
were former professionals coming from the little theatre tradition in England.
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6. The recent film Farewell My Concubine graphically depicts these training conditions.
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7. Hong Kong has never had fully-developed opera training schools, but Guangzhou has, with
state support in the revolutionary period.
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8. The music of Chinese opera consists of a repertoire of pre-existent and named tune-types,
varying by region, with which different words may be used (Yung 7, 67-819 128-137). There
are conventions for choosing and combining particular tunes.
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9. In general, operas are rarely attributed to particular composers or script-writers.
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10. This tradition was disrupted for some years in the People's Republic of China during the
Cultural Revolution, when the traditional repertoire was banned (Mackerras and Wichmann 6).
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11. Opera would have been familiar to all immigrants because the enjoyment of opera was not an elite activity in China. It was a highly meaningful activity even for relatively poor rural people,
because of the itinerant troupes who contributed to temple festivals (Ward, "Regional
Operas").
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12. The Chinese population in Canada was nearly 90% male in 1921, and 78% male in 1951 (Ng
33).
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13. Files from one such company are held in the B.C. Archives and Records Service, by a private
individual, and in the City of Vancouver Archives. Strangely, all are for the years 1923-24,
perhaps because this was when immigration was first banned. In the 1960s-80s, tours of
professional performers were arranged by the Jin Wah Sing Musical Association, until theatre
rents made this prohibitive (Wong Toa).
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14. Statement of purpose and history provided by the Ngai Lum Musical Society to the U.B.C.
Museum of Anthropology in 1993.
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15. As early as 1915, musicians from the Chinese theatre in Vancouver raised funds to help
destitute unemployed men (Yee 49).
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16. It is possible to give a public recital after studying for some months to learn to sing one song,
without stage skills or any great depth of understanding of the complexity of opera.
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17. The payment of fees began in one academy in 1991 and in most situations musicians now
expect fees or monetary gifts (Huang Jinpei).
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18. Performers often are allocated (and may have to buy) blocks of tickets to distribute, and in
some situations they may now pay for the privilege of performing (Huang Jinpei).
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19. There is a long tradition of cross-gender acting in Chinese opera. In Cantonese opera, some
men were trained for female roles, as women's participation in opera was limited until the 1930s (although it may have been more common overseas). There were
all-female troupes by the late 19th century, in which some women must have played male roles.
The artistic implications of the present preponderance of female performers here should be
pursued, although I have heard no unfavour-able comments.
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20. One of these, Chan Kwok-yuen, is Hong Kong's best-known costume designer. He has immigrated
to Canada, but the demands of performances in both places for costumes take him back and forth
regularly.
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WORKS CITED
Brecht, Bertolt. "Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting." Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. Ed. and trans. John Willett. New York: Hill and Wang, 1964. 91-99.
Chan Kwok-yuen. Personal interviews. 1991-95.
Chan, San Y. Improvisation in a Ritual Context: The Music of Cantonese Opera. Hong Kong: Chinese UP, 1991.
Hoe, Ban Seng. "A Chinese Dramatic Club in Edmonton." Rikka 2.2 (1976): 45-47.
Huang Jinpei. Personal interviews. 1991-96.
Johnson, Graham. "The Chinese Community in Vancouver." Skeldon 120-138.
Johnson, Graham and Diana Lary. "Hong Kong Migration to Canada: The Background." Skeldon 87-97.
Judd, Ellen. Personal interview. 1996.
Leung, Chun-kin. "Notes on Cantonese Opera in North America." Chinoperl News 7 (1977): 9-21.
Luk, Michael. Personal interview. 1996.
Mackerras, Colin. Amateur Theatre in China 1949-1966. Canberra: Australian National UP, 1973.
________ The Chinese Theatre in Modern Times. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975.
Mackerras, Colin and Elizabeth Wichmann. "Introduction." Chinese Theatre from its Origins to the Present Day. Ed. Colin Mackerras. Honolulu: U of Hawaii P, 1983. 1-6.
Matthews, J.S. "Chinese Theatre, Chinatown." Early Vancouver 7 (December 4, 1947): 408. Vancouver City Archives.
Ng, Wing Chung. "Ethnicity and Community: Southern Chinese Immigrants and Descendants in Vancouver." Diss. U of British Columbia, 1993.
Riddle, Ronald. Flying Dragons, Flowing Streams: Music in the Life of San Francisco's Chinese. Westport, Conn.: Westport, 1983.
Rodecape, Lois. "Celestial Drama in the Golden Hills: Chinese Theatre in California, 1849-1869." California Historical Society Quarterly 23 (1944): 97-116.
Scott, A.C. "The Performance of Classical Theatre." Mackerras 118-144.
Skeldon, Ronald, ed. Reluctant Exiles? Migration from Hong Kong and the New Overseas Chinese. Armonck, New York: Sharpe, 1994
Ward, Barbara. "Not Merely Players: Drama, Art, and Ritual in Traditional China." Man 14 (1979): 18-39.
________"The Red Boats of the Canton Delta: A Chapter in the Historical Sociology of Chinese Opera." Proc. of the International Conference on Sinology. Taipei: Academica Sinica, 1981. 233-257.
________"Regional Operas and their Audiences: Evidence from Hong Kong." Popular Culture in Late Imperial China. Ed. David Johnson, Andrew J. Nathan and Evelyn S. Rawski. Berkeley: U of California P, 1985. 161-188.
Wickberg, Edgar, ed. From China to Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982.
________. "Overseas Chinese Adaptive Organizations, Past and Present." Skeldon 68-86.
Wong Hok-sing. Personal interview. 1991.
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Yee, Paul. Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 1988.
Yip, Victoria. Personal interviews. 1991-95.
Yung, Bell. Cantonese Opera: Performance as Creative Process. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989.