Posted by China Magazine |Aug 19, 2022 |ARTS, CULTUREIn recent years, the traditional arts scene in China has opened up and diversified, becoming more and more "trendy".Liu Dake, an actor who specializes in Hualian male roles, told the CIIE website that the mission of his generation of Peking Opera professionals is to adhere to the principle of "walking on two legs" and innovate while preserving heritage.Inscribed in 2010 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Peking opera is a performing art integrating singing, storytelling, movement and martial arts.Its practice is widespread throughout China, its centers of representation are Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.Peking opera is sung and recited primarily in the Beijing dialect.He attaches great importance to rhyme, according to the UNESCO press release.Its booklets are composed of a set of strict rules emphasizing rhyme and rhythm.Peking operas evoke history, politics, society and everyday life, and are as instructive as they are entertaining.Moreover, the music of Peking opera is essential because it punctuates the show, creating a particular atmosphere, shaping the characters and guiding the thread of the story.The so-called “civil music” favors string and wind instruments such as the jinghu, with its delicate shape and high-pitched sound, and the dizi flute.While "military music" is represented by the playing of percussion, such as the bangu or the daluo.The interpretation of the scene is characterized by its symbolic and ritualized style, with actors and actresses following an established choreography for the movements of the hands, eyes, torsos and feet.Traditionally, stage sets and props are few.It's all about the flamboyant costumes, the outrageous facial makeup that uses symbols, colors and patterns, meant to reveal the personality and social identity of the characters.Peking opera is transmitted primarily through master-to-student learning where the student acquires basic skills through oral instruction, observation and imitation."Peking opera is considered an expression of the aesthetic ideal of opera in traditional Chinese society and remains a widely recognized part of the country's cultural heritage," UNESCO said.Moreover, the 200-year-old traditional Chinese art form has four basic roles: sheng (man), dan (woman), jing (painted face) and chou (male clown).Each has a number of subtypes.Therefore, nan dan is a branch of dan roles.According to China Daily, the heyday of the nan dan genre took place in the first half of the 20th century, when four male actors Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqiu and Xun Huisheng were hailed as the "Four Great Dan" in the history of Peking opera.They established the four styles of dan that bear their name: the schools of Mei, Shang, Cheng and Xun."If you want to succeed as a nan dan actor, you need to master more skills than actresses, from eye contact to stepping," said Mou Yuandi, who teaches at the Shanghai-affiliated Chinese Opera School. Theater Academy since 2009.“Nan dan actors must master skills that blur gender lines, such as using a high-pitched voice like a woman's.But I am good at practicing martial arts, which is an advantage for me,” said the latter.For his part, Liu Dake embodies the character of Zhong Kui in the classic Peking opera “Zhong Kui marries his sister” and Faust in the experimental opera of the same name.Liu Dake is part of the family's second generation of opera professionals.Her father being a zither master and her mother an actress.His parents founded in 1989 in Jilin, the children's opera troupe “Petits flocons”.Joining the troupe at the age of eight, Liu Dake was one of the first students.Witnessing the importance China places on its traditional culture, Liu Dake explained that "over the past decade, the country has emphasized cultural trust and a tremendous effort to introduce Chinese culture to the public. foreign.“We are taking advantage of this return to vogue which is boosting our confidence, we opera enthusiasts!".In recent years, he has visited Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, the United States, Singapore, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan for performances and exchanges, thus becoming an ambassador of mutual appreciation among civilizations.Since Mei Lanfang first performed in Japan with his troupe in 1919, Peking opera has gained prominence overseas for more than a century.So much so that many Chinese actors play in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, the United States, Singapore, as well as in Hong Kong and Taiwan, such as Liu Dake.Méi Lánfāng (October 22, 1894 – August 8, 1961) was a Chinese singer.For Liu Dake, Mei Lanfang is a cultural icon having been the first person to contribute to the diffusion of Peking opera internationally.This Peking Opera singer made his various audiences shudder with emotion during his interpretations of female roles, as early as 1904 when he began his career at the age of ten.The richness of the scenic presentation, with the multicolored faces and costumes, as well as the combat scenes have made martial arts operas such as "The Monkey King" very popular abroad.In order to make this art more popular abroad, the National Peking Opera Company of China is looking for new ways to tell about China through opera.In the 1980s, in order to overcome the language barrier, actors tried to sing in other languages, especially English, with mixed results.Subsequently, performing Western themes in Peking opera became a new possibility, according to Liu Dake.The latter thus participated in the creation of several experimental operas, including Faust, Turandot and The Ring of the Nibelung, which received good reviews.For the actor “it's not a risky attempt, but creation with a new thought!".Thus the creation of the crossover opera Faust, in 2015, by the National Company, with a German director and an Italian composer, is an example of these artistic innovations in China.The team from three countries worked for three months to rewrite the script of the play to fit different cultural aspects.This avant-garde opera has performed at major universities in China, including Tsinghua University, and has also been presented on four tours in Germany and Italy.Its fame is such that in 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping invited German President Joachim Gauck, visiting China, to discover this opera at the Great Hall of the People.“I would never have thought that our little play with only four actors would arrive on the stage of the Great Hall of the People and become a calling card of national diplomacy!”, explained Liu Dake.Designed by Elegant Themes |Powered by WordPress