Cantonese Opera Cantonese opera is one of the major Chinese opera categories. It is a traditional Chinese art form that originated in southern China’s Cantonese culture, and involves music, singing, martial arts, acrobatics and acting. Today it is not only very popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macao, but also performed in Southeast Asia, Oceania and American countries where Cantonese people live. Cantonese opera was included in the first list of 518 state-level intangible cultural heritage elements, which was announced on May 20th, 2006.
History Cantonese opera was originally called Narm hei (南戏), or Nanxi (Southern opera) in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, and was popular in Guangdong and Guangxi at that time. The first performance language was Central Plains music (中原音韵), also known as Theatre Mandarin. Later, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Theatre Mandarin was changed to Cantonese so that it could be easy for people to understand. During the Qing Dynasty, Nanxi employed “Banghuang” as the basic tone and had also preserved tones of Kunqu opera, Ge opera and Guang opera. By absorbing the folk melodies and tunes of Guangdong, Nanxi was developed into the earliest kind of Cantonese opera.
During the Xinhai Revolution, many patriotic Cantonese performers promoted the idea of fighting with the Qing Dynasty, imperialism and feudalism through their performances in Cantonese opera. They often practiced and organized performances, and meanwhile absorbed the cream of dramas and movies. Soon Cantonese opera had been enriched by the cream of dramas and movies.
Since 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded, the Chinese government has placed great importance on the arts. Consequently, Cantonese opera has obtained further development and many excellent operas have been performed. In addition, many new people have been cultivated to engage in this profession. In 1958, the Guangdong Opera House was founded.
Print
Save