The Rise Of Huangmei Opera (1911—1966)

Huangmei Opera originated in Hubei province, it enterd Anhui province in mid Qing Dynasty. After the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, Huangmei Opera stood out of other regional Operas quickly, it has developed into one of the most resplendent art forms in20th Century. Taking Huangmei opera as an empirical case, this dissertation hopes to explore the social cultural history of the people’s Republic of China in its early time and hopefully to give Huangmei Opera a well deserved position in Chinese history.This dissertation contents four chapters.The first chapter has traced the flourishing development of Huangmei Opera from its origin in countryside of Anhui in the late19th Century to its becoming of a very popular art form in Anqing area around1949. Although well liked amongst local people, Huangmei Opera was repeatedly forbidden by the authorities and scorned by local elites as pornographic show, which has led to the indignity and hardship of art staff’s life. At that time Huangmei Opera was rarely known outside of Anhui.The second chapter is about the era of early People’s Republic of China. As the change of governments and the poor majority turned over, Huangmei Opera was finally admitted as an art by the state after being suppressed for many years. For the first time, the acting artists were treated as equal individuals, with the change of their identity from lowly"xizi" to well respected acting artists, their life standard was highly improved. At the same time, state-owned opera companies were founded and the human resources in acting business was optimized. Lastly, with the help of new artists, Huangmei opera had been highly improved in quality and succeeded in two opera festivals, thus Huangmei Opera became popular among national audience and had entered the "golden17years" era.Chapter three discussed about the relationship between the rise of Huangmei opera and the modern media such as film. Since1949, China has carried out the "national film policy":First to popularize film in the whole country and to turn it from a metropolitan lifestyle into an entertainment for common people; then to exclude all American films and let domestic film companies to make a series of national films from plebeianized angles, with opera films as a special type. The success of Huangmei opera across the country was directly related to the release of two film:Goddess Marriage and Emperor’s Female Son-in-law. Hereby we can conclude that film was the factor that had enabled Huangmei Opera to break the limitation of geography and to become a nationally known type of opera. Later this Huangmei Opera heat had infected both Hongkong and Taiwan and thus started the Huangmei film heat in Chinese culture circle for decades.Chapter four discusses about the gender factor in the rise of Huangmei Opera. One of the most important characteristics of Chinese popular culture was the feminine trend. In this background, factors like female audience and female acting artists had become a strong power to promote Huangmei Opera as an art form. We can expect that Huangmei Opera’s success is thus due to its success in well shaping female characters and exhibiting beauty of females.This kind of feminine touch had complied with the trend of the popular culture. Huangmei actress Yan Fengying’s talent and charisma had played a significant role in the rise of Huangmei Opera, which will be especially mentioned. The last part of this chapter is going to reveal the work and life of Huangmei actress in early time of the Republic and special highlights will be shed on the relationship between their marriage and politics.Huangmei Opera had experienced the transformation from a local opera in rural side of Anhui to a major opera well loved by audience all over the country in early Republic. During the rise of Huangmei Opera, the time background, the government, the gender factor, the film and yanqing [elaborating of feelings] had all exerted very important functions, among which the admission and support from the government was the most significant and direct factor. The rise and fall of Huangmei Opera was tightly but not only related to the socialism revolution.