Old roles, new look

First, the maestros are aging and no longer fit enough to play the roles of young men and women in the various Kunqu Opera love stories; while the young actors just get a few supporting roles. The second main problem is that the audience comprises usually old people.

He also points out that Taiwan and the mainland have different problems. Taiwan has a wide audience base who appreciate Kunqu Opera, but less well-trained performers. The mainland, on the other hand, has the best performers but a shrinking audience and low income for the performers.

A breakthrough came in 2002, Pai was invited to give lectures about Kunqu Opera to middle school students in Hong Kong.

"It was the biggest challenge of my teaching career: How to attract some 1,500 teenagers who speak Cantonese and have probably never heard old opera to concentrate for two hours. I asked the organizer to get some performers to give a demonstration at my lecture," says Pai.

Yu Jiulin, in his early 20s, from Suzhou Kunqu Opera Company, performed a scene from The Peony Pavilion and convinced Pai he was the perfect Liu Mengmei, the leading male role in the play.

"Everybody in the lecture hall watched his performance carefully. Nobody walked out, nobody used their cell phone and nobody talked during the demonstration. I thought since these kids speak Cantonese and can appreciate it, why not those in Jiangsu, Shanghai or Beijing?"

Soon after, Pai went to Suzhou Kunqu Opera Company where he discovered Shen Fengying, "a young girl with charming eyes that bespoke shyness, tenderness and love". In Pai's eyes, she was the perfect Du Liniang, a leading female role in The Peony Pavilion.

Then Pai collaborated with Suzhou Kunqu Opera Company, getting two Kunqu maestros Wang Shiyu and Zhang Jiqing to work with Yu and Shen to create what he calls the "Young Lovers' Edition" of The Peony Pavilion, a lightly modernized production.

Since its premiere in 2004, the nine-hour, three-night show has been performed over 180 times in the mainland, Taiwan, United States and Europe, to great acclaim. The main reason for this success is the blending of tradition with innovation, thus giving Kunqu Opera aesthetics a new direction.

"What challenges us most is how to combine tradition and modern aesthetics, how to revive the 600-year-old art on the 21st century stage," Pai says.

"My practice is to follow tradition. But it is not limited by tradition and has a correct modern interpretation. It is like you cannot add or change any stroke in a piece of ancient calligraphy, but you can mount it in a nice frame to hang on the wall in the right light. With Kunqu, we use modern lighting, costumes and settings but the acting, narrative and singing retains a traditional style."

Pai's second "Young Lovers' Edition" Kunqu Opera play The Jade Hairpin (玉簪记), also performed by Yu and Shen, premiered last night at Peking University Hall and again demonstrates his concept of modernized Kuqnu Opera.

To Pai, The Peony Pavilion is an epic love story while The Jade Hairpin is more exquisite and a typical play between the sheng (male role) and dan (female role).

Based on a well-known Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) story, The Jade Hairpin by Gao Lian (1527-1609) is a passionate love story between the young scholar Pan Bizheng and the Taoist priestess Chen Miaochang. It is one of the earliest romantic plays that deals with sexuality. The young lovers defy the conventions of puritanical Confucianism and religious abstinence to unite in secret.

Director Weng Guosheng from Zhejiang Kunqu Opera Company takes another big step toward simplicity and freedom in expression. The linear beauty of Chinese calligraphy occupies a central place on stage. Dong Yang-Tzi's calligraphy, and Hsi Sung's paintings create an "ink-wash" world on stage. The costumes designed by Wang Tong have an understated elegance. This production endeavors to raise the aesthetics of Kunqu Opera to an even higher level of poetic expression.

The Jade Hairpin is on tonight and The Peony Pavilion will run from Dec 18 to 20 at Peking University Hall. The performances are part of Kunqu Opera Culture Week, co-launched by Pai and Peking University. Aside from the performances, Pai is also giving lectures at Peking University, Peking Normal University, Tsinghua University and China Europe International Business School Beijing Campus.

The on-going Kunqu Opera Culture Week at Peking University kicks off a five-year project on Kunqu Opera, co-launched by Peking University, Suzhou Kunqu Opera Company, Kenneth Pai Hisen-Yong - and sponsored by Coca-Cola China.

In the next five years, Peking University will regularly hold international symposiums and seminars about Kunqu Opera; establish a digital database to record, collect and preserve Kunqu Opera performances; open classes on appreciating the opera; collaborate with opera schools to train young performers; and set up a foundation to finance student Kunqu Opera societies and communities. During the annual culture week, leading companies will perform new productions of classic repertoires and renowned artists will give lectures at campuses.