Culture

Kunshan has a rich cultural heritage which includes its Stone Age settlements, ancient water towns, traditional foods, special flowers, precious stones, art museums and Kunqu Opera (or Kunshan Opera, a 600-year-old art form from which all Chinese opera styles, including Peking Opera, were derived.) There are things you need to do if you want to understand Kunshan's cultural history. You must go to a Kunqu opera, visit a water town, see the treasures of Tinglin Park, try the local foods and spend an afternoon appreciating the local tea culture.

Kunqu Opera

Of all its ancient cultural offerings, Kunqu Opera is what Kunshan is known for. Kunqu's 600-year continuous history includes four distinct phases: a 200-year development stage, a 200-year golden age, a 200-year decline and a rebirth which started after the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

The Development Period

The Kunshan Diao (Kunshan melody) was one of five major melodies in South Chinese theatre in late Yuan Dynasty (about 600 years ago). Mr. Wei Mingfu (1489-1566), a musician in the mid-Ming period, modified the Kunshan melody and combined it with some features of northern theatre. Consequently, Kunqu Opera was formed. Renowned for its gentle and clear vocals, beautiful and refined tunes, it gradually spread from Kunshan to nearby Suzhou and then the rest of China where it eventually became the dominant Chinese performance genre from the late Ming (1500s) to mid-Qing (1700s).

The Golden Age

Favored by the nobility, Kunqu Opera became a status symbol event. With more than 1,000 professional Kunqu actors around Suzhou alone, the talent pool was large and competitive. Most worked for public performing groups, while the best were recruited by wealthy families who used their private opera troupes to entertain themselves and their guests. If you were having a grand banquet, Kunqu Opera was essential. Banquets could last for over 10 hours, during which there would often be continuous opera performances.

During the reign period of Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), Kunqu Opera reached its peak. In Suzhou there were 47 performing groups, and shows ran all year. Almost half of the children in Kunshan joined drama schools to be professional actors. The popularity of Kunqu Opera transcended differences of education, economics and class. It was even immortalized in Chinese writing where it was one of the running themes described in the Chinese classic A Dream of Red Mansions, by Cao Xueqin.

From the 1500s to the 1700s, 200 consecutive yearly Mid-Autumn Opera Festivals were held in Suzhou's Huqiu Hill. Every year over 10,000 Kunqu fans gathered there to watch the spectacle and decide by popular acclaim who the leading talents were.

The Decline

Although Kunqu Opera was widely appreciated, its flowery lyrics, slow tempo and historical symbolism were, for some, an acquired taste. It was also an expensive and time-consuming passion. Over time, Kunqu Opera became more of a special occasion, as opposed to a weekly entertainment. Tastes changed and more new accessible forms of opera developed. These new forms were referred to as "fickle opera" as opposed to Kunqu Opera which was referred to as "elegant opera."

Emperor Qianlong was so unhappy with the popularity of other operas that he ordered that all "fickle opera" shows be banned in Beijing. His attempts ultimately failed as the "fickle opera" continued to evolve in response to popular demand, while Kunqu Opera remained beautiful but static. It marked the beginning of Kunqu's decline. Peking Opera, which was developed based on Kunqu Opera, soon became the favorite of people in northern China, including the royal family and Empress Cixi. By 1920s, there was only one small authentic Kunqu Opera performing group called Quan Fu Ban in southern China. Eventually it was forced to disband by the war and a lack of financial support.

Rebirth

In 1921, Zhang Zidong, a scholar from Suzhou, fearful that Kunqu would be lost forever, organized a group of twelve to raise funds for what became the Kunqu Transmission Institute. In August 1921, the institute began selecting students between the ages of 9 and 14. By 1922, 50 students were admitted after spending half a year probationary period to judge their talent and dedication, each one was asked to sign a formal five-year contract (three years of study, two years of performance).

These 50 people then carried on Kunqu until New China was founded in 1949.

After the founding of the People's Republic, a number of artists started to use the Kunqu format to create new operas which had nationalistic themes. Their attempts met with approval both from the government and the local audiences.

The most successful performance took place in 1956. Shi Wu Guan (Fifteen Strings of Coins), a new Kunqu Opera show developed from an old story centering on concepts of "anti-subjectivism" and "anti-bureaucracy", was greeted warmly by central government leaders, including Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. Premier Zhou Enlai had a 50-minute face-to-face talk with the performers after watching the show. Chairman Mao was so impressed he told the Minister of Culture: "This is a good show; it should be encouraged; it should be promoted nationwide."

With support from the authorities, Kunqu gained a new lease of life. Shi Wu Guan was being staged all over the country, at one point there were more than 60 performing groups which were performing the show in Zhejiang Province alone.

Following its success, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and provincial governments, seven additional Kunqu Opera performing groups and institutes were founded over the following years. In 2000, the first Kunqu Opera Festival was held in Suzhou. In 2001, Kunqu Opera was listed as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. In 2004, Mr. Bai Xianyong created a new Kunqu Opera show, Mu Dan Ting (Peony Pavilion), which blended the traditional with the modern in an attempt to cater to young people's taste, which became successful.

There were over 360 regional opera styles which developed in China over 600 years, of which Kunqu Opera is regarded as one of the oldest and most influential. In 2008 Kunqu Opera was chosen as one of the performances for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics. At present, with less than 1,000 practitioners and less than 500 professional actors, Kunqu Opera is still struggling to reestablish itself.