Response to Papers in ACTR in June

[Tony Vickery]

To Walter Cassidy,
        Your letter through the E-Mail system was interesting.  I would enjoy
a discussion with you regarding Chinese opera.  Researching the history of
Chinese theatre/opera never looses its fascinating lure.  The role of women in
theatre is most intriguing.  Entrenched in the enigmatic intricacies of their
ancient Chinese culture is the belief that women are inferior to men.
Women`s traditional inferiority was given philosophical legitimacy in the
Chinese elaborate cosmological explanation that believed the world is divided into two interacting elements: one being the Yin, the attributes of all things
female, which are dark, weak and passive, and the second being Yang, the
atribute of all things male, which are bright, strong, and active.  Confucian
ideology did little to improve this bleak attitude as you would know.  I belive the opera, from its very beginning during the Yuan Dynasty, perpetuates and reinforces this image of women.  Until the eighteenth century, women performed the female character roles.  From the eighteenth to the twentieth century, the femalepersonae were male constructs.  To satisfy Confucian ethics, male actors had
"to create a symbol which personified the essence of feminine character"
(Scott, Mei Lan-Fang, p. 2).  Women were not involved in this creation.
 
        According to Mackerass in Chinese Theatre, all classes of Chinese
society over the centuries were influenced by the images and values portrayed
by the characters on stage in the opera.  so deeply did the opera`s influence
extend into the lives of the Chinese, they were inextricably woven into the
religious ceremonies (Chan, Improvisation In Ritual Context, p. 39).  As opera
is considered "The literal embodiment of Chinese culture" (Ward, Barbara,
"Regional Operas and Their Audiences," p. 187), they are indeed teaching
devices that reinforce and sustain their culture.  Interviews with elderly
Chinese in Victoria have agreed with Barbara Ward and stated they were "drug"
by their mothers to the opera "to learn how the celestial acted," and/or "how
to be Chinese."  Opera is total theatre in which the visual elements are as
important as the audible.  Like you, I feel strongly about this.  I look
forward to further discussion.  Where can you be reached in Canada?
 
 
 
from: Karrie Sebryk (ksebryk at nero.uvic.ca)