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| Mei Lanfang with his fellow apprentices in a Peking Opera school. Some of them became famous performers later. | Peking Opera performers are a special group of artists. In the past, they did not generally have a high social status. This has changed in the last decades. But famous performers have always been held in high esteem. In their time, master actors Mei Lanfang and Ma Lianliang were so popular that ordinary people deemed it living a lifetime in
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| The handsome and gentle Xiao sheng. | vain not to have seen them perform.
In Peking Opera, no actor can hope to win fame unless he has devoted years to painstaking practice. Acting in Peking Opera is also an occupation for which talent is important. There are often stories in which the son of a well-known Peking Opera master is but a mediocre actor and is even forced to shift to another occupation.
In Peking Opera, home teaching is recognized, but most people have to enter a Peking Opera school to learn skills collectively be/ore becoming
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| Tan Fuying inherited the artistic style of his grandfather Tan Xinpei. | professional performers in a troupe. Cultivation of actors for Peking Opera is quite different from that in a Western-style school. The most striking features of a Peking Opera school are: first, face-to-face tutoring between the master and the apprentice, away from books; and second, teaching students in accordance with
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| Yang Xiaolou playing a role in a patriotic opera he created in 1934. | their aptitude. In Peking Opera teaching, it is normal for just one or two outstanding trainees to emerge out of a class of students. This method of cultivation corresponded with the
need of the Peking Opera market. Peking Opera schools did not intend to produce stars in batches.
Actors have two important relationships: teacher-student relationship and family relationship. The former involves performing schools. and the latter surnames and relations by marriage. The two relationships are often intertwined. Those born to families of famous actors and actresses have a better chance of becoming famous
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| Mei Lanfang (right) and his son Mei Baojiu playing on the same stage in Shanghai in 1950. | performers themselves than those born to ordinary families. For an actor, talent and diligence plus a good marriage often ensure a great future.
There are generations of families dedicated to the art of Peking Opera. More than 40 members of the Tan family, of seven generations, have worked as Peking Opera performers. And 18 members of the family of Xiao Changhua, a great clown player, of five generations, have been dedicated to Peking Opera. Usually, family members of the first and second generations pave the way for later generations; the family then has its heyday with a number of its members winning national fame; and this is then followed by a decline. After
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| Yan Huizhu, a famous player of the dan, plays a lao sheng in an opera titled Ceding Xuzhou (rang xu zhou). | another one or two generations , the same family would experience a short period of "resurgence."
People often see old actors and actresses playing young ladies, scholars, pages and maids. Why? People not familiar with Peking Opera would ask. In fact, this is because, in Peking Opera circles, old artists command respect and have the best performing skills. Another r
eason is that it is a custom in Peking Opera for actors of the same generation to perform in the same play because they understand one another and have better cooperation on the stage. It is only on special occasions such as the Chinese New Year or the staging of shows featuring guest actors that actors of different generations play in the same shows.
In Peking Opera circles, there is a hierarchy of actors and actresses. Backstage, no actor can freely move about except the one playing the clown. Legend has it that Li Longji, a Tang Dynasty emperor who is regarded as the founder of the acting p
rofession, once played the role of a clown. Because the art of Peking Opera is passed down from generation to generation via a master-apprentice relationship, many
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| Mei Lanfang and Zhou Xinfang performing on the same stage. |
actors abide by the principle of "once my teacher, always my father." In Peking Opera circles, much emphasis is given to family status and origin. If generations of a family are dedicated to Peking Opera, their offspring will be taken good care of when they become apprentices. It is hard for an outsider to go up the professional ladder even though he sings well. He needs to take a well-known actor as his master at a public ceremony.
In the heyday of Peking Opera, it was relatively easy for actors to make a name. An actor might become famous overnight if he performed in a few new shows in a short period of time and invented some acting skills. But the fame of most of such actors was short-lived. Actors having a lasting fame had enough performing art to bequeath to their successors and have left an indelible imprint in plays they have created or inherited.
There are various performing schools in Peking Opera. Actors and actresses with different performing styles are classified into
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| Women Generals of the Yang Family, a traditional Peking Opera put on by outstanding young performers of China Peking Opera Troupe. | different schools. For the dan role, there are the Mei School represented by Mei Lanfang and Chen~ School represented by Cheng Yanqiu. The former is graceful and unrestrained, whereas the latter is deep and distant. For the sheng role, there are the Ma School represented by Ma Lianliang and the Lin School represented by Zhou Xinfang ( 1895-1975). The former is lively and natural, whereas the latter is experienced and worldly-wise. And for thejing role, there is the Qiu School represented by Qiu Shengrong (1915- 1971). There were once dozens of schools in Peking Opera. The founder of a performing school has unique characteristics in performance, in singing in particular, recognizable to the audience familiar with the actor. In the heyday of Peking Opera, different schools playing the same role type held public contests on performing and singing skills amid support by their respective fans.
Because lao sheng (elderly man) actors played the leading
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| Sisters Tong Zhiling (left) and Tong Baoling, who are both famous dan players, perform on the same stage in Shanghai. | role at the earliest stage of Peking Opera, there have been more lao sheng performing schools than those for other roles. Well-known lao sheng performing schools were headed respectively by Tan Xinpei, Yu Shuyan ( 1890- 1943), Yan Jupeng (1890- 1942), Gao Qingkui ( 1890- 1940), Ma Lianliang, Zhou Xinfang ( 1895-1975), Yang Baoseng ( 1909-1958) and Xi Xiaobo (1910-1977).
Performing schools for the dan (female) role were represented respectively by Mei Lanfang , Shang Xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqiu, Xun Huisheng and Zhang Junqiu.
Ye Shenglan, reputed as the best player of the xiao sheng (young man) role. developed a unique performing style after reaching middle age and has founded the most popular xiao sheng performing school.
Yang Xiaolou and Gai Jiaotian developed their own wu sheng (man with martial arts) performing schools.
After the 1950s, greater emphasis began to be placed on role-playing and the types of opera being played rather than on performing schools. Never have new schools appeared in Peking Opera circles since then. The audience of today knows little about differences among performing schools. New generations of actors and actresses tend to imitate predecessors rather than innovate. Development of schools in Peking Opera performing art has largely come to an end. |
