The Rise of Cantonese Opera

Abstract

This is certainly the most up-to-date study of Cantonese opera in English. Relevant books in the English language are mainly older works by ethnomusicologists (e.g., Bell Yung’s book from 1989 and Sau Y. Chan’s book of 1991). However, Wing Chung Ng’s book is more a social and cultural history of this theatrical genre, and probably the first one by a historian. The book focuses on the birth and development into maturity of the genre, which took place during the period from the late Qing dynasty to the 1930s, but features some significant figures in the profession who remained active until the late 1950s. While previous works mostly center around actors, actresses, troupes, the complex musical system of Cantonese opera, and the standard repertoire that has been sustaining the genre, Ng’s book focuses on how the profession operates—how its practitioners interact with each other, with the owners of theaters, and the government; and how they respond to the ever changing political, social, and cultural environment in Late Imperial and Republican China, colonial Hong Kong, and the Cantonese-speaking diaspora. The book makes use of an ocean of data from newspapers, magazines, diaries, travelers’ notes, and documents from archives in various Western and Southeast Asian countries. Despite the large amount of information, Ng is successful in outlining a detailed but dynamic picture of Cantonese opera activities during the period he concentrates on. A photo of the famous Cantonese opera actor Gui Mingyang 桂名揚 (1909– 1958) appears on the book cover and reappears in the final chapter (p. 179), along with a brief mention (p. 186). He is then the focus of a special section (pp. 191–95) that ends the conclusion and the book. Although Ng does not go into a lot of detail about the last part of Gui’s career, he ends the book with these words summarizing his career (and how it represents elements of the history of Cantonese opera): “He was one of those revered practitioners of stagecraft who had seen the best and the worst of times during the rise of Cantonese opera, both in South China and in far-flung corners of the diaspora.” Besides an introduction and conclusion, the book has eight chapters, divided into three parts. Part I, which includes chapters 1–3, is headed “Formation of Cantonese Opera in South China”; Part II has two chapters and is entitled “Popular Theater and the State”; while Part III is entitled “Local Theater, Transnational Arena” and includes the last three numbered chapters. In what follows I will not attempt to