RED BOAT TROUPES AND CANTONESE ... - University of Georgia

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CDs, and news. In subsequent years, I became attached to Cantonese opera and the performance. Yuet Kek, 1 Yuet ju, Yuet Kelk, or Yuetju is a Chinese opera genre of the Guangdong Province commonly known as Cantonese Opera, or Cantonese Grand Opera. It is one of the opera genres, Chinese or Western, that is performed often in many parts of the world. Cantonese is a spoken dialect of the capital city Guangzhou of the province Guangdong in China, and in Hong Kong and Macau. 2 Many dialects in the region surrounding Guangzhou are closely related to Cantonese. Cantonese is also spoken in Guangxi, the province west of Guangdong. 3 The audience of Cantonese opera is mostly concentrated in the Pearl River Estuary, where the river flows into the Pacific Ocean. Major cities in the Estuary include Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, and Foshan, a city that is believed to be where Cantonese opera originated. 4 Because of the immigration culture among many Cantonese, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, are also diasporas of Cantonese opera. 5 Despite its popularity and long history, hardly anyone living in the estuary nowadays knows that the term “Cantonese Opera” was only coined in 1925. Prior to this period, traveling troupes performing Cantonese opera in the Pearl River Estuary were called Red Boat Troupes— named after the carrier these troupes used for traveling. 6 The Red Boat Troupes were Cantonese opera performing troupes that used boats as carriers for performers, managers, musicians, and 1 Yuet is an abbreviation for the Province of Guangdong; both Kek and ju mean opera. Kek is the Cantonese transcription while ju is the Putonghua transcription. 2 Guangzhou is the earliest port in China that stayed open to international trade. It used to be called “Canton” in English. 3 Cantonese is also spoken in the eastern part of Guangxi, but the dialect is referred to as “baak waa.” 4 Foshan is a city about 15 kilometer away from Guangzhou. 5 In 1999, just the metropolitan area of Vancouver had 33 amateur Cantonese Opera associations (Wong 1999b). In Melbourne, Australia, one third of its residents speak Chinese at home; and Cantonese opera is the most represented of all Chinese operas in the Metropolitan of Melbourne (Wong, C.T., 2007). 6 2008 telephone Interview with Mr Lee Yau Wor (b. 1924 in China) who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 3
properties from town to town in the Pearl River Estuary. The boats were also sleeping quarters for troupe members during the performing season. The practice began flourishing in the 1910s. More than 30 Red Boat Troupes coexisted. Each troupe used two to three boats that toured the waterway of the Pearl River. The practice ended in 1938 when Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong, was seized by the Japanese. 7 Pacific Ocean Figure 1. Map of China. Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macau are located at the south eastern part of China. 8 Like operas in other parts of China, Cantonese opera flourished with the establishment of the Republic in 1911. Led by Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the rebellion against the minority rule Qing ended thousands of years of control by imperialists and kingdoms. The emergence of a new society allowed freedom that had never been given to individuals, particularly women. Introduced by 7 Toa Wong, Hung shun time bai [In Searching the Mystery of Red Boats] (Vancouver: Wong Toa Publishing, 1999a), 3. 8 Map drawn by the author. 4
Page 1 and 2: RED BOAT TROUPES AND CANTONESE OPER
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Page 5 and 6: Electronic Version Approved: Mauree
Page 7 and 8: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to D
Page 9 and 10: LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Map of Ch
Page 11 and 12: transcriptions retain the old Yale
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Page 17 and 18: perform at venues such as Caesar’
Page 19 and 20: After reading Lai Kin’s proceedin
Page 21 and 22: This report includes voices from va
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Page 27 and 28: performers were selected from ladie
Page 29 and 30: places gathered in Peking to perfor
Page 31 and 32: home. But Dr. Sun Yat Sen, a leader
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Page 35 and 36: Chapter Three The Red Boat Society
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Page 41 and 42: on a hill, or at the river-bank ear
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Page 47 and 48: Chapter Four The Plays According to
Page 49 and 50: The performance practice of ritual
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Page 53 and 54: ecome a zong jyun, bon aan, or tam
Page 55 and 56: Chapter Five The Music Cantonese op
Page 57 and 58: Recitatives in a Cantonese opera in
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Many ji ceong 120 lie in the backst
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of the eyes upward and ties it tigh
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1911 and 1949. Audiences are no lon
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performing industry when I was youn
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Chapter Seven Hong Kong— Social I
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To attract spectators, Sit and Ma h
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women looking forward to troupes co
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After his teacher 13 th Son of Nam
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made up new industries in the 1960s
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Peking opera fa dan (leading female
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Selecting virtues of a few male fri
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Chapter Eight China and Vancouver M
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violin, the koh hu, and he also tra
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Figure 13. Mr. C. Chan at the Qing
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The 94-year-old gentleman walked ad
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Ling: What is in your mind when you
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legendarily departed from Hong Kong
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A Chinese instrumental orchestra, s
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Ms. Chan was the lead singer in the
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Cantonese opera is not static; it i
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___. “Chinese Street Opera Perfor
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___. “Narrative Song: Southern Tr
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second jester Ga Lueng Yee, a serva
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4. As the two young people are havi
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features, he turns to Ci Yung. Wai
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Appendix B: Interviewees 104
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