It's curtains for men playing women

But middle-aged and elderly opera fans are enthusiastic about nandan, appreciating the artistry and getting lost in the tale.

Surprisingly, there was a huge nandan Peking Opera hit in Shanghai last month when Bi Guyun and Mou Yundi, currently the only two nandan performers in Shanghai, presented the classic The Fall of Lady Green Beads at the Yifu Theater. It's the tale of Lady Green Beads who seeks revenge against the people who killed her parents and turns to an official for justice. But when he demands sexual favors, she "falls," committing suicide by jumping from a building to defend her chastity. On stage, it was a four-meter jump, requiring training to land without injury.

Green Beads was played by the 29-year-old Mou, who received strict nandan training starting at the age of nine. Bi, Mou's 82-year-old teacher, gave artistic direction to the show.

The show had not received much advance publicity, but the theater was nearly full. There were six curtain calls.

"The success of the show strengthened our confidence as nandan today," Mou says. "To win the hearts of our audience we must perform extraordinary stunts on stage and really do better than our female counterparts."

To imitate the mincing step of a woman with bound feet, Mou walked in high-heeled wooden shoes for two hours. He also jumped from a four-meter-high "building."

"Compared with female performers, nandan have a stronger physique and can do many more complicated stunts," says Bi, who broke a lumbar vertebra severely when performing the same scene in 1983.

The performance last month was the first time the play was performed since then, 30 years later.

Peking Opera actress Shi Xiaojun, who plays the role of Huan Feng, a good friend of Green Beads, says, "Nandan is a profound art, since nandan performers usually spend much more time than women studying their roles and their portrayal of women is more delicate and artistic after long-time observation."

But 28-year-old Shi is "not optimistic" about the art's future. "Nandan actors face bigger challenges than Peking Opera actresses. Many are eliminated because of voice change during puberty."

Though nandan today is a lonely profession, it enjoyed a golden period when Peking Opera flourished in the 1920s and 30s and nandan artists Mei Lanfang, Cheng Yanqiu, Shang Xiaoyun, Xun Huisheng and Xu Biyun were treated like celebrities and superstars.

In addition starring in classics such as Farewell, My Concubine and The Drunken Concubine, they presented new performances based on legends, such as Hua Mulan Joins the Army and Nie Yinniang (about a female assassin). Their characters were mostly charming women performing martial arts.

Bi, a student of both Mei and Xu, says nandan performers are chosen at a young age, perhaps 7 or 9, based on comely appearance, height, slender build, poise, voice and appearance in makeup and costume. Then begins rigorous training in martial arts, nandan posture and movement, as well as speaking and singing.

"At the beginning, I took up the career to make a living, but then I fell in love with it," Bi says.

The art is considered much more complicated than the shows of popular cross-dressing singer Li Yugang, who also has staged highly popular vignettes of China's great beauties and has performed The Flowers in the Mirror, the Moon in the Water at the Sydney Opera House.

Bi says it usually takes several months to work on the detailed personality traits of a young female "so he will offer his unique interpretation of the beautiful girl." An artist must continuously improve his aesthetic taste by reading and watching films of the classics, studying various portrayals of ancient ladies, he says.

The adolescent voice change, when a male voice begins to "crack" and then deepen, is considered the biggest challenge.

Xu Hongqing, a 38-year-old costume artist with the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, used to perform xiaosheng, or young male roles, for eight years. But puberty forced him to abandon his career and work backstage, where he has achieved some distinction.

Peking Opera nandan Mou, who played Lady Green Beads in Shanghai, describes the ordeal as that began when his voice changed when he was 15.

"During those dark years, I couldn't sing high notes," Mou recalls. "I appeared in small 'extra' roles such as maid and vendor. It took almost five years to overcome my fear and anxiety and to get my confidence back with more intense practice and exercises. Many boys couldn't persevere and had no choice but to quit."

Despite aches and pains, Mou says he can twist his waist almost 180 degrees and execute 54 different "orchid-like" finger gestures.

"A woman playing a woman is life, while a man playing a woman is art," says Mou, adding that "a perceptive, objective man is more likely to discover, appreciate and depict a woman's grace and softness."