No one ever believes me when i say this but i love canto opera. The old fashioned kind. The painted faces and the high notes the story lines. I really really love it. all the tragic misunderstandings the angry court the love stories. All of it. the reason i am saying this that i have been listening to it for an hour. Just a community thing we sometimes have here. its full of crap like hoola hoop demonstrations bad canto pop renditions by no longer famous t v stars. But sometimes they have chinese opera singers and it fills the neighbourhood fills the street and all our apartments and suddenly you know you live in hong kong and not anywhere else.
I heart Cantonese opera
Published by Yan Sham-Shackleton
Yan Sham-Shackleton is a Hong Kong writer who lives in Los Angeles. This is her old blog Glutter written mostly in Hong Kong from 2003 to 2007. Although it was a personal blog, Yan focused a lot on free speech issues and democratic movement in Hong Kong. She moved to the US in 2007. View more posts
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That’s weird. I thought they did that during hungry ghost festival.
Hey, are you posting in a “post-dated” way?
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That sounds great. Is Cantonese opera at all similar to Japanese Kabuki? (I’ve seen kabuki many times and enjoy it, but never had the opp to see Cantonese…)
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Hi Yan,
I’ve been a fan of your blog for sometime. I like your recent post about Cantonese Opera, and coincidentally I’m writing a short piece right now about the Yue Laan Festival opera performances for an American magazine. Do you know much about Cantonese Opera and the festival traditions? I’d love to include something in my article about how the younger generation of Hong Kongers relates to the opera performances– when I saw the Yue Laanjit events in Sheung Wan and Shatin, it seemed like only old people attended the concert. Do any young HKers (besides you) have interest in the neighborhood performances of Cantonese opera? If you don’t mind me picking your brain, I’d love to include some of your perspective in my piece.
Thanks,
Samantha
samantha.culp@aya.yale.edu
http://www.samanthaculp.com/newterritories
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I love chinese opera too..or at least used to. I mean, my grandma used to live down the road from a makeshift open-air opera theatre in Malaysia. When I was young, I remember tagging along to watch and was always fascinate by all the lighting, props and resplendent costumes. But I’ve not seen one in ages.
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My girlfriend’s father is a huge Canto-Opera fan and singer, and as a result I am invited to all of his concerts…but it’s usually the kind without all the make-up. I wish I could understand it better, but I can’t speak Cantonese, so must rely on the the lyrics being flashed on the sideboard. I have to say, they are a bit long for me…my first experience lasted literally 4 1/2 hours. I have to say I’m more partial to Beijing Opera, and I do agree I hate that these traditional arts seem to be rapidly disappearing…
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