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

The 94-year-old gentleman walked adroitly with a cane up a slope, I followed him to the
bus stop. As we sat on the bus, he told me that he was one of the many children of a widow. He
attended a traditional si sok (a private teaching arrangement; a teacher is hired to teach reading,
writing, literature to a small group of students) as a pui dok (an accompanying student) to his
cousin. At the age of fourteen, his mother melted a tel of gold to pay for his si fu (teacher) who
worked as a performer of Red Boat, and he became an apprentice of kungfu in wu play. For his
mother, the aim was to get him into a trade and reduce the expense of eating at home. In his
youth, Mr. Wong found kungfu playing was too physical for him, and he turned to playing
instruments.
The following conversation took place at his neat apartment:
Ling: Cantonese opera did not use all Cantonese to begin with; how did Cantonese became the
sole language of the opera?
Wong: In the old days, officers from the north took a few performers to the south for entertaining
the family. The language was brought through Kwai Lin, a city in the Guangxi Province, west of
Guangdong. The language is called Kwai Lin kwong song, which is equivalent to Goon Waih.
Ling: When did Cantonese opera start using all Cantonese in performance?
Wong: 1940s and 1950s.
Western instruments were commonly added for accompaniment between 1950s and 1970s.
Starting in the 1980s, the trend reversed to using more traditional instruments. During the
occupation by the Japanese, Western instruments were commonly used. At Chan Fei Lung’s
time, violin, banjo and guitar was named sam gin toa, the three pieces. Ma Sze Tsang used
mostly western instruments. Once audiences were unhappy about not hearing the traditional
gongs and Chinese drums, they demanded reimbursement of the money paid for the tickets. The
audience's were expecting to hear the traditional drums and gongs— instead, Ma provided the
audience with jazz drums.
Ling: Zhang Ngh, the northern performer who came to Foshan, taught opera and made Foshan a
center for Cantonese opera; how important is Foshan in the development of Cantonese Opera.
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