Cultural bridge links China with SE Asia
Shantou authorities popularise the nearly forgotten art of chinese opera in a bid to promote 21st century maritime silk road running through the region
Chinese opera, which is known as “Nguew” in Thailand, has been phased out from the entertainment world in this country and in Southeast Asia for some time now, but authorities in Shantou, which millions of overseas Chinese in this region originally hail from, are making another attempt to bring it back.
More than 30 years ago, Chinese opera in Thailand featured people from the Northeast who rarely knew a single word of the Teochew dialect in performing the play during worship at Chinese shrines. Young generations of overseas Chinese in Thailand seldom learn their ancestors’ culture and language. They never enjoy the opera, leave alone taking part in performances.
In a move to promote the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road to link its economy and culture with overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, authorities in Guangdong province’s Shantou used the opera to promote its presence in the region.
Xie Jishun, deputy chief of Chaozhou Opera Company in Shantou, said the company put on the show in Vietnam and Cambodia last year and visited Singapore in April this year. The company also plans to come to Thailand for more performances.
“Our previous show in Thailand was in 2009, and we got a wide welcome from the people there,” Xie said in Shantou.
The opera would serve as a cultural bridge linking and enhancing relations between Asean countries and China, he said.
Chaozhou Opera, also called Chaozhouxi or Chaoyinxi, is a traditional local opera sung in Chaozhou or Teochew dialect. It is a branch of Nanxi in the Song and Yuan dynasties with a history of more than 430 years, prevalent mainly in East Guangdong province, South Fujian province, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
There are some 20 opera companies presently in Shantou, said Xie, but he noted that not all of them are experiencing good business these days and hence require government subsidies.
Established in 1958, Chaozhou Opera Company is a non-profit organisation which needs 70 per cent of government subsidy to generate the show. In order to preserve the intangible cultural heritage, authorities in Guangdong have a policy to subsidise opera shows at the provincial and county level.
The company has more than 200 artists who are an average 30 years old, Xie said, adding that the youngest one in his company is 18 years old.
New recruitments of artists are from art colleges, he said. “We don’t need to train them as all of them learn in schools, so we don’t have a problem of new recruitment,” he said.
The opera requires talents and skills of performers. Chaozhou opera features more than 200 traditional plays and over 1,000 musical compositions. It adopts the ancient musical score.
The company runs the show in Shantou every Friday for local and international audiences, but mostly local, Xie said.
Business revenue is not the question since the main purpose is to preserve and promote the culture domestically and in foreign countries, he said, and noted that he understood that the Chinese opera is still popular although the new generation are interested in other kinds of entertainment.
Since 1960, the company has performed more than 200 shows around the world, he said.
The company is cooperating with Singapore to promote Chinese opera and will expand this cooperation to other counties in Southeast Asia, which has a significant number of overseas Chinese and is familiar with the culture, he said.
