Vivien Huai-chun Koo hopes to begin a dialogue via the arts, and she has chosen Peking Opera as her voice. Koo, president of the Taipei Novel Hall Theater, has brought her Peking Opera troupe to Shanghai for four nights of arias beginning Tuesday at the Yifu Theater.

A tenured professor at the Taiwan University's Foreign Language Department, Koo inherited her love of the Peking Opera from her grandfather, Hsien-jong Koo, who bought the former Tamsui Theater from a Japanese banker in 1916, changing its name to the Taiwan Novel Hall. The theater became the island province's first Chinese-owned venue for traditional Chinese stage performances. Peking Opera was particularly popular.

By 1944 there were 160 theaters in Taiwan, according to Shi-yi Wang, a professor at the Chinese University of Culture in Taipei. Taiwan's occupation by Japan during WWII made it a target of Allied bombing in 1945, the final year of the war, and many of the theaters did not survive - including Novel Hall.

Traditions are not so easily destroyed, however. Hsien Jong Koo's son, Chen-fu Koo, rebuilt the Novel Hall in the Sung-shan District, Taipei's financial center, in 1997.

The Hall hosts a mix of concerts, dance shows, plays, special programs and traditional Chinese operas, as well as its own Peking Opera troupe.

Chen-fu Koo, who is Vivien's father, studied Peking Opera during his childhood, and is now the honorary chairman of the Ho-hsin Group, one of the biggest conglomerates in Taiwan. In 1987, he founded the Koo Foundation with the intention of spurring cultural communication and promotion. Chen-fu Koo, head of the Straits Exchange Foundation, is also an idealist: he is known for opening the "Koo-Wang Talks" with Wang Daohan, head of the Chinese Mainland Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, to promote the reunion of the mainland with Taiwan Island.

Li, the troupe's star performer, will stage a range of operas over the four nights in Shanghai. Shang Changrong and Sun Zhengyang, two noted actors with the Shanghai Peking Opera Theater, will join Li in the performances.

"The Forest of Wild Boars," selected for the first night, is tinged with nostalgia: 50 years ago, Li's father made a name for himself with this opera at the Yifu Theater. The tale was adapted from the classic Chinese novel, "Outlaws of the Marsh" by Shi Nai'an. The opera describes how the martial arts instructor, Lin Chong, lost his family and joined the rebel army on Liangshan Mountain.

"It is such an impressive and touching story. Anyone over 70 in Taiwan has seen this opera," says Koo, adding. "It even fascinates children." There will also be a special performance of the opera for children.

The opera's second night features "Too Late to Repent," a fixture of the senior Li's repertoire. This mysterious story is about Liu Xiu, the first emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 25-220), said to have become emperor thanks to divine intervention.

"Meeting at Gucheng" is the performance for the third night. Here, the junior Li changes the main role of Guan Yu from a martial general into an arts general, focusing on his gift of speech instead of kung fu. Adapted from another Chinese classic novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) novelist Luo Guanzhong, the opera's changes are based on Li's interpretations.

On the final night, Li steps out of his father's shadow with "Sun An Rushed into the Capital City." Debuted in 1950 by an unknown actor, Li has retained the storyline but revised all the other elements. Sun An confronts corruption head-on to expose corrupt officials in front of the emperor. His integrity, alas, is of no use: he ends up being killed at the behest of other corrupt officials.

Koo is hopeful that the shows in Shanghai will open a window on Peking Opera in Taiwan for those from the Chinese mainland. "Taiwan Peking Opera is very traditional, even more than the mainland, " she says. "Perhaps because no Western orchestra interfered its development."

(eastday.com November 26, 2001)