The Chinese Artists Association of Hong Kong - Cantonese Opera "Seven Filial Kin" from "The Eighteen Libretti" 【Talk Broadcast Online】

Speaker：Law Ka-ying、Dr. Poon Po-chiu

Moderator：Alisa Shum

Topic: The Disappearing Didactic Functions of the Chinese Stage

In Cantonese

Speaker: Sun Kim-long, Loong Koon-tin, Leung Sum-yee

Topic: Revamping Traditions

In Cantonese

According to Guangdong Xiju Shilue (A Brief History of Guangdong Opera) written by Mak Siu-ha, The Eighteen Libretti refers to a repertory of Cantonese Operas popular during Emperor Qianlong's reign of the Qing dynasty.  It contains eighteen sets of libretti in a designated order, with Seven Filial Kin being in the seventh position.  Early Cantonese Opera productions did not have a pre-written script with libretto, and performances were guided by outlines only.  When a show was on, a rundown in outline form would be posted backstage, which included the scene-by-scene synopsis, the dramatis personae, the names of the actors performing them, and points to note in the musical accompaniment.  They were therefore relatively simple when compared with the fully written scripts of today, which include the full music score, the spoken lines, and the action in detail.  Performances of such a format are called tigangxi (literally 'outline play').  They require actors who can freely improvise based on their own stage experience.  Seven Filial Kin belongs to this type of Cantonese Opera, with no extant script designating the arias to be sung.  The present production is revived by the famous actor in Cantonese Opera, Sun Kim-long, who had performed this play in the 1970s and 1980s.  Based on the content of the production outline available, his own stage experience, relevant material he could find today, and the staging practice of the traditional paichangxi (formulaic plays), Sun created a new version by adding various theatrical traditions and elements.  For example, the delivery of lines will include guanhua (the official lingo), and 'borrowings' from the traditional paichangxi excerpts, such as Wang Yun Becoming a Celestial after Dying from Cold, Drawing the Live or Die Lots, Stopping the Entourage to Make an Appeal, and A Happy Ending.  All these attempts are to enrich this restaged production. 

Synopsis

Madam Yao has two sons, Liu Quanyi by her own birth, and Liu Quanding, from her husband’s previous marriage.  In order to enhance Quanyi’s chances of inheriting the family fortune, she orders her servant to kill Quanding.  Helped by a loyal servant, Quanding narrowly escapes from being killed and is able to continue his journey to the capital to take the imperial examination.  When Quanding’s wife Madam Wang hears about her husband’s ‘demise’, she goes to the crime scene with her son and daughter to pay respects, accompanied by Quanyi.  There, they are attacked by a tiger.  Quanyi is dragged away by the beast in his attempt to save his sister-in-law and the children.  On hearing this, Madam Yao is much aggrieved and takes Madam Wang to court, accusing her of putting Quanyi in harm’s way on purpose because he did not succumb to her seduction attempts.  Madam Wang is caned into admitting the offence, and her young children Jintong and Yunu are expelled from the Liu household.  The siblings are saved by their servant Liu Bing.  Then Jintong seeks a retrial for his mother and intends to serve the sentence on her behalf.  The local magistrate is sympathetic and only sends Jintong into exile as punishment.  On the way to the frontier, Jintong bumps into Quanding and Quanyi.  His father and uncle have simultaneously scored the highest honours in the imperial exams, one topping the civil branch and the other the military.  At last, Quanding reunites with his wife and children.  The story ends with magnanimity from the brothers and their family, as Madam Yao is forgiven, they are one happy family after all.

Cast (In order of appearance) 

Liu Cheng: Ng Kwok-wa 

Liu Tang: Ng Lap-hei

Madam Yao: Wan Yuk-yu

Liu Quanyi: Loong Koon-tin

Liu Quanding: Sun Kim-long (former), Law Ka-ying (latter) 

Madam Wang: Wong Chiu-kwan (former), Wan Fai-yin (latter)

Jintong: Leung Siu-ming

Yunu: Leung Sum-yee*

Liu Bing: Hong Hai*　

Liu Bing's wife: Chan Yuk-hing

Huang Yingcai: Ng Chin-fung

Running Time: Approx. 3 hours and 30 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.

Programme will be performed in Cantonese and guanhua.  Lyrics and dialogue with Chinese and English surtitles. 

*By kind permission of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

Information provided by the arts group.

The programme does not represent the views of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

Understanding the Whys and the Wherefores

– A Way to Enjoy the Cantonese Opera Seven Filial Kin

Dr. Poon Po-chiu

     Chinese culture stresses morality and ethics and is heavily imbued with humanism.  It aims at a pragmatic approach towards the real life and the practical application of such values in everyday issues.  From as early as the lifetime of Confucius (551BCE to 479BCE), literary works were expected to espouse a didactic purpose. He remarked that poetry “had the four functions of imagination, observation, social convergence and grievance”; "in the Book of Poetry are three hundred pieces, but the design of them all may be embraced in one sentence -- 'having no depraved thoughts.'" (James Legge) The Great Preface to The Book of Songs defines poetry as this, “Hence, in order to realise the objective of redressing the administration, move Heaven and Earth and touch the spirits and celestial beings, nothing is better than poetry.  Rulers of yore employed poetry to advise on the husband-and-wife relationship, cultivate filial piety, strengthen the principles of human relationship, improve pedagogy, and transform social customs.”  This edifying approach has not changed over the millennia.  Chinese literary works are expected to embody moral principles and uphold ethical conduct.  Traditional theatre as an art form has also assumed an important didactic role: with the public as its audience and the narrative format reflecting life and reality, it can easily take on the tasks of edification and political improvement, thus becoming a significant exponent of Confucian utilitarian aesthetics.

     As traditional theatre is often a microcosm of life, and everyday familial issues are what most people care about, plays dealing with familial ethics constituted an important subgenre in traditional theatre from the Yuan to the Ming and Qing dynasties (14^th century to early 20^th century).  Such themes are also varied and aplenty, among which are works that have been critically acclaimed.  For instance, Bao Daizhi Zhi Kan Hui Lan Ji (The Chalk Circle) by Li Qianfu (dates unknown) of the Yuan dynasty was adapted by Bertolt Brecht (1898 – 1956) in the 1940s for a new play The Caucasian Chalk Circle, which has been highly regarded in the West.  Among zajus in the Yuan dynasty, works that feature familial ethics and conflicts are great in number and varied in appeal.  For example, Yang Xianzhi’s (dates unknown) Zheng Kungmu Feng Xue Ku Han Ting (Zheng Kungmu in the Wintry Kuhan Pavilion) gives a vivid account of how a concubine-stepmother abuses the late first wife’s two children.  Yet there are also those that portray the great virtues of the stepmother, as exemplified by Guan Hanqing’s (1230? – 1300?) Bao Daizhi San Kan Hudie Meng (Bao Daizhi Contemplates Thrice the Butterfly Dream) and Wang Zhongwen’s (dates unknown) Jiu Xiao Zi Lie Mu Bu Ren Shi (Righteous Mother Refuses to Identify Daughter-in-law’s Body to Save the Filial Son).  Both are remarkable works with distinct characteristics.

     Whether the characters in question are virtuous or not, these stories have a clear goal of advocating familial ethics, and this thematic dominance has never waned in Chinese traditional theatre.  Cantonese Opera Seven Filial Kin was born amidst this grand tradition.  It treads closely the path laid down by the didactic aesthetics of Chinese traditional theatre, portrays many a virtuous and loyal persona, and through the unravelling of an intricate network of relationships, shows the glorious side of human nature.  There are parent-child, husband-and-wife and fraternal relationships, virtuous officials and their righteous subordinates, and loyal bonds between master and servant.  These roles and relationships extol virtues such as filial piety, forgiveness, repaying a debt of gratitude and righteousness.

     From a strictly artistic perspective, Seven Filial Kin, taken from the grand repository called The Eighteen Libretti, is a legacy that needs to be preserved as it has retained many stage routines of Cantonese Opera.  It will serve as an important foundation for expert-level performance and appreciation of Cantonese Opera and for the understanding and mastery of its traditional presentation formats.  Practice, appreciation and research are key to the success of this art form and there is no shortcut.  For those that love Cantonese Opera, be they performers or the audience, with such a centuries-old script in hand, to be able to appreciate, seek, interpret, respect and cherish is already a kind of shared joy, wisdom and self-cultivation.

     The main didactic point in Seven Filial Kin is the advocation of filial piety, with loyalty, righteousness and the repaying of debts of gratitude also recognised as virtues and extolled.  In the play, the kind of “filial piety” and “the son not referring to the father’s wrongdoings” may well appear dogged and unreasonable, and a violation of common sense, to a contemporary audience against a backdrop of modern values.  This entails the question of how one should approach Chinese traditional theatre.  In its age-old system, its formulaic and representational methods do not lend themselves to empathy on the part of the audience.  It allows the audience to either accept or reject the characters’ viewpoints.  While watching a play, this artistic alienation is, quite surprisingly, conducive to pinpointing the origin of the embedded culture and thinking.  The idea of “filial piety”, expounded by Confucius as “not contradicting”, “taking care of parents with a pleasant mien”, “pointing out their shortcomings in a subtle manner” and “covering their wrongdoings with an honest heart”, may well lead one to revisit Chinese culture with its emphasis on morality and sentiments, against a backdrop of filial piety being a given and the basis of all virtues, and work out how to comprehend and aspire to the familial ethics which have made us happier and more full of life, and hence also to reach out to the entire tapestry of Chinese values and culture.  Hence, an entire batch of didactic plays, namely Lao Sheng Er (An Heir in His Old Age) and Hudie Meng (Butterfly Dream) of the Yuan dynasty to Wu Lun Quan Bei Ji (The Story of Wu Lunquan and Wu Lunbei) and Xiang Nang Ji (The Fragrant Sachet) of the Ming dynasty, though rarely staged nowadays, are still very important in the long tradition of Chinese dramatic literature, culture and thinking.

     Seven Filial Kin depicts a stepmother whose villainous intent is forgiven in the end.  This obvious didactic element constitutes an important characteristic of Chinese traditional theatre among the dramatic forms of the world.  It has been remarked that “Good as it may be, if it is not edifying, it is in vain”.  Through traditional theatre, the audience realises the influence of history, culture and the times on humankind and understands the moulding and unfolding in life of various ethics and values, which impact and stir up our feelings, thinking and imagination.  Now being in the 21^st century, it is not important whether we agree with the ending of the stories – they are only staged dramas after all.  Even if we do not endorse the thinking and behaviour of the characters, it can easily be dealt with – tweaking the scripts will do the job.  Most important is that while we trace the source of this long tradition of culture and thinking, we understand it and also know its whys and wherefores.

Playwright: Sun Kim-long

Artistic Director: Law Ka-ying, Sun Kim-long

Coordination Team: Law Ka-ying, Sun Kim-long, Loong Koon-tin, Ng Chin-fung, Wong Chiu-kwan

Percussion Leader: Ko Yun-kuen

Ensemble Leader: Ko Yun-hung

Production: The Chinese Artists Association of Hong Kong

Production Manager: Lam Kwan-ling

Administrator and Coordinator: Alisa Shum, Kenji Lin

Stage Manager: Mang Kam-chuen, Ko Man-him (2-3/6), Cheng Shui-wah (23/7)

Set Producer: Kwong Hing Stage Scene Productions Company

Costumes and Props: Kam Yee Drama Dress Company Limited