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

goe tan are actually more attractive and practical to amateur singers. At their leisure, non-
professional singers go to commercial singing clubs to sing for fun at a fee. Most of these
people are middle-aged woman who can afford it. The singers select whatever song they would
like to sing. The clubs supply the orchestra and tea. The fee charge is according to the length of
the song. Women flock to clubs across the border to Shenzhen in China from Hong Kong on
weekends or after work, because it is much cheaper in China. Those who can afford to sing a
few arias in concerts at government or private concert halls sponsored by certain institutions or
clubs, hire a profession with whom to sing duets. The woman or man who performs pays a
portion of the rental fee, pays the teacher for lessons, and pays the instrumentalist for the service.
These women dress in contemporary colorful, mostly western, long formal gown at the events.
Some talented ones may eventually become opera singers, but most of them are amateurs. They
sing opera arias and Cantonese tunes.
The goe tan club business is prosperous but at the same time, the continual aging of the
Cantonese opera audience in Hong Kong puzzles scholars and concerned artists. One
explanation is that middle-aged people are only interested in their own performance. They are
satisfied with the glamour of singing on stage, wearing pretty gowns, and showing off their
talent. These aficionados of the aria may not be interested in watching a three-hour opera.
Indeed, with expensive housing in the high-pressure society of Hong Kong, working people
seldom have the luxury to spend three hours on the opera at all.
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