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

made up new industries in the 1960s, followed by the garment industry in the 1970s. Some
employees were middle aged women, and others were young women whose education was
interrupted by poverty. These women were consumers of opera and opera films, especially films
with the factory as a backdrop. Chan Po Chu, the young movie star who was in may factory
background movies in the 1960s, was their idol.
Many movies were made in the 1950s and 1960s. Yum Gim Fai, the female who played
male- roles was in several hundred movies. Audience loved her posing as a young scholar.
Because of her singing technique, she was an imaginary male sweetheart for many women who
worked as domestic servants. Ms. Tse Suet Sum (b. 1953), who was Yum and Baak Shuet
Seen’s “in-house disciple,” 147 recalled going to their living quarter after school each day for
training from she was about 11. Each day’s practice would last until dark. Tse became a
prominent fa dan but when Baak and Yum did not want her to get married, her studies from the
two masters stopped. Tse performed again after her daughter was a few years old as a fa dan by
singing zi hou. After Yum died in 1989, Tse switched to take the male-role by singing ping hao.
To Tse, the change was economically unwise because she had to learn the moves and singing in
addition to buying different kinds of shoes and costume herself. 148 She did not speak about her
motivation in the past, but after more than a decade she broke her silence by saying that it was
because of her teacher Yum. Tse wished to pay her si fu (teacher) respect and perform what
Yum had done. I asked what she had in mind every time she was about to play the male-role.
She said, “Once the procedure of laak je 149 is done, my mood is ready for the sex change, and I
147
An ‘in house disciple’ is a student who is recognized by the teacher as having potential to become a performer.
These students are trained seriously for a long period of time. Usually a ritual initiates the close rapport relationship.
These students are different from those who pay the teacher for hourly instructions.
148
Since some Red Boat performers start owning their costume to elevate their status, it has become a practice in
Cantonese opera performance.
149
Using a long piece of long cloth to tie the skin of forehead in order to make the eyes looks bigger and more
engaged.
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