A
simple stage had been set up at the entrance of Balun Village
in the Qiongshan District of Haikou City. Curious villagers
gathered around to watch the actors and actresses prepare
for their performance. It had been three days since the troupe's
first Qiongju Opera show in the village, and public interest
was so strong that Chen Zeliang, manager of the troupe, decided
to put on a fourth show. Chen's troupe comes from Dazhipo
Town, Meilan District, Haikou. To date, more than 20 independent
troupes from all over the province are based in Dazhipo, and
each stages over 250 shows a year. They cover every corner
of the province, sometimes traveling to neighboring Guangdong
Province's Xuwen and Zhanjiang. Qiongju Opera is a particular
favorite of native Hainanese, and no festival or traditional
ceremony is complete without it.
From
the performers' point of view, one of the biggest attractions
of these tours is the opportunity to perform before diverse
audiences. Another is that such troupes sponsor their performers,
so local opera school graduates flock to Dazhipo, regarding
it as the first step in their stage career.
Qiongju
Opera began in the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It became
popular in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and most particularly
in Hainan and Guangdong provinces, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region and Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. It was during
the Qing Dynasty that Qiongju Opera, originally performed
as puppet plays, began to be acted. In 1922, Xu Chengzhang,
a Qiongju Opera artist dedicated to the reform and modernization
of Chinese traditional art, formulated the more contemporary
performance style seen today.
