Qiju Opera Troupe from Qiyang county, Hunan province, gives two shows in the capital on Jan 15 and 16. The 500-year-old opera genre was listed as a form of national intangible cultural heritage in 2008. [PHOTO BY ZOU HONG/CHINA DAILY]
Peking Opera costumes from a private collection are on show in Beijing, Chen Nan reports.
An olive-green robe fashioned from handmade silk, with an embroidered image of a qilin, a mythical beast, caught antiques collector Chen Shen's attention when he first saw it.
A seller brought the long robe to Chen's home in Beijing in the late 1990s after learning that Chen was looking for old Peking Opera costumes.
Chen was impressed by the embroidery and the materials, especially the golden thread used to embroider the image of the qilin. He bought the robe at a high price.
Chen believed the robe had a connection to Peking Opera master Zhou Xinfang (1895-1975).
"When Zhou started to perform as a teenager, he was also known by his stage name, Qi Lin. Traditionally, Peking Opera costumes for male roles have dragons rather than images of qilin. Only Zhou wore qilin costumes," says Chen, 69.
He found out about the robe's late designer, Xie Xingsheng, a silk-embroidery master from Suzhou, Jiangsu province, who made costumes for established Peking Opera artists, including Mei Lanfang (1894-1961), Cheng Yanqiu (1904-58) and Ma Lianliang (1901-66). Chen brought the robe to Suzhou to meet Xie in 2006. Xie confirmed the connection. The costume-maker died in 2013.
A Peking Opera costume exhibition at the China Millennium Monument in Beijing includes late Peking Opera master Zhou Xinfang's long olive-green robe (second from left). The exhibition will run through Feb 10. [PHOTO BY ZOU HONG/CHINA DAILY]
The robe was made by more than 200 workers and took months to finish.
In the 1950s, Zhou wore the robe while performing the classic Peking Opera, Xiao He Chasing Han Xin in the Moonlight (Xiao He Yue Xia Zhui Han Xin).
"After learning about the history of the robe, I was amazed. It's a work of art," says Chen.
Now, the robe is on display at the China Millennium Monument along with 30 other Peking Opera costumes. All are designed in four major colors-red, yellow, green and blue. The costumes that Chen collected over the past 30 years came from different parts of the country, including Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou.
Chen says he watched performances of Peking Opera masters, such as Mei and Cheng, as a child. They helped the art form blossom at home and abroad.
"Though I couldn't understand the lyrics back then, I was enthralled by the martial arts, the music and the costumes."
Mei toured the United States. He staged one of the first Peking Opera performances in the West.
Chen, who was born in Shanghai and raised in Beijing, studied photography at Renmin University of China and graduated in 1983. He started collecting Peking Opera costumes in 1989 after being invited to edit a book on the subject. Chen has more than 300 costumes and stores them in his house in Beijing.
Chen Shen started collecting Peking Opera costumes in 1989 and now owns more than 300. [PHOTO BY LIU FEIYUE/FOR CHINA DAILY]
"I enjoy looking at the costumes as much as I enjoy seeing good photos. They are both works of art and powerful."
Chen exhibited some costumes from his collection in Macao in 2017, and last year, he showed some at Shanghai's Tongji University.
According to Lyu Guliang, director of the traditional Chinese opera committee under the China Association of Performing Arts Committee, which aims to revive public interest in the art form, the Peking Opera costume exhibition in Beijing will run through Feb 10 and will travel to Taipei in June before touring other cities on the mainland.
Beijing-based artist Su Yongge, inspired by the exhibited costumes, painted 12 pictures of different Peking Opera roles from classic shows, such as Farewell My Concubine and Jiang Xiang He. The paintings are being displayed alongside the costumes.
"We want to showcase the knowledge and beauty of Peking Opera from various aspects," says Lyu.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in a report released in 2017 after a two-year nationwide survey on traditional Chinese operas, such as Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera and Yuju Opera, said there were 348 forms of traditional Chinese operas. When this data is compared with the figures of 1999, one can see that about 60 traditional Chinese opera forms have died while many others are facing extinction.
The traditional Chinese opera committee, which has more than 100 members, including the National Peking Opera Company, the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater and Xi'an Qinqiang Opera Company, offers platforms for traditional Chinese opera troupes from around the country to perform and communicate.
On Jan 15 and 16, the Qiju Opera Troupe from Qiyang county, Hunan province, gave two shows in Beijing. The 500-year-old Qiju opera genre originated in Qiyang. The troupe, which was founded in 1952, first came to Beijing in the 1960s and hadn't returned until this month.
"Like many traditional Chinese opera forms, Qiju Opera struggled to survive in the 1980s. The situation got better after the art form was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage form in 2008," says Zheng Anshun, the troupe's director.
The year 2020 will mark the 230th anniversary of the birth of Peking Opera, which originated from four famous Anhui Opera troupes that came to Beijing to celebrate the 80th birthday of emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in 1790. The tour was a big hit, which enabled the troupes to stay in the capital, and Peking Opera formally took shape.
Lyu says the committee is working on building a center for traditional Chinese operas in Beijing's Tongzhou district that is scheduled to open in 2020.
