Exhibition of Jao Tsung-I's Artistic Attainments 學藝融通—饒宗頤百歲

Exhibition of Jao Tsung-I’s Artistic Attainments學藝融通—饒宗頤百歲藝術展 p2-3

From the Editor : the Significance of Guan Di Festival編者的話 :《關帝誕談關帝》 p4

興建道家文化公園——「太極園」計劃 p5

An Initial Plan for the Establishment of the Tai Chi Park :a Daoist Theme Cultural Park p6

The Chinese in North East Tasmania and the Chinese Collection in the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery東北塔省的中國移民及維多利亞皇后博物及藝術館關帝廟藏品 p7-10

The Art of Yueju (Cantonese Opera) : an Introduction粵劇藝術簡介 p11-18

香港中國語文課程改革下的粵劇劇本教材The Incorporation of Cantonese Opera Scripts into Course Materials for the Teaching of Chinese Language and Literature in Secondary Schools in Hong Kong p19

Hidden Dragon : A few notes from China潛藏的龍 : 漫遊中國隨筆 p20-21

我的繪畫老師 (四) : 鮑少游先生和劉秉衡先生My Teachers in Chinese Painting (4) : Master Bao Shaoyou andMaster Liu Bingheng p22-23

Reminiscences of Memorable Moments活動重溫 p24

In honour of Professor Jao Tsung-i’s 饒宗頤教授 100th birthday, the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole at the University of Hong Kong 香港大學饒宗頤學術館, has organised several celebration events. The highlight is a touring Exhibition of Jao Tsung-I’s Artistic Attainments (學藝融通—饒宗頤百歲藝術展), held at the National Museum of China 國家博物館 in Beijing from 29th April to 28th June. To celebrate this occasion, there were about 200 guests from Hong Kong who made a special trip to Beijing. This event was also highly valued by the Chinese government that on the day of opening, a meeting between Professor Jao and Li Keqiang 李克強, the Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, was arranged.

The exhibition title, Xueyi Rongtong(學藝融通), means “the integration of the attainments which have been achieved in the academic and art field.” As Professor Chack-fan Lee 李焯芬, the Director of the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole said, “this title summarises the concept thatProfessor Jao has integrated the knowledge of art and academic learning that he has acquired, and his capability of amalgamating his research accomplishment into his art creation.”

To date this exhibition is the most large-scale and comprehensive presentation of Professor Jao’s artistic and academic achievements for the past 80 years. The artworks contain various subjects including landscapes of the world, landscapes of China, paintings in ancient style, Dunhuang style, Zen painting, Buddhist and Dao figures, Northwestern School landscapes, flower and bird, animal, lotus painting, as well as collaborative works; while the calligraphic works consist of those done in official, seal, regular, running, cursive, Han bamboo slip, Han stone inscriptions, bronze, oracle bone and needle point seal script. This exhibition also displays different types of artefacts derived from Professor Jao’s painting and calligraphy, such as guqin, a type of ancient Chinese musical instrument, teaware, bamboo carving works, furniture engraved with ProfessorJao’s works, ink slab, and other studio objects such as wrist-rest, water-dropper, water container, brush pot and so on. The photos below demonstrate thescenes of the exhibition. For Professor Jao’s publications, the exhibits included exhibition catalogues, academic research, literary compositions, books, edited works, academic papers, and manuscripts. Due to the space limitations, only the important ones were selected. On 28th April the exhibition was grandly opened at the West Hall. Before the ceremony started, there were already visitors crowded into the site. To accompany this event, the Museum invited renowned scholars from home and abroad to a seminar, the topic was “Jao Tsung-1’s Academic and Art Attainments”, taking place on 29th April. At this special occasion, Professor Wong Shiu Hon was invited to give a presentation. On that day, almost all seats were occupied, and the audienceresponded enthusiastically. If you are interested in seeing more about the exhibition, please visit

http://www.chnmuseum.cn/tabid/236/Default.aspx?ExhibitionLanguageID=481 (Chinese Version).

This website includes the actual scenes of the exhibition space and the video of the opening ceremony. The Museum also provides a video clip recording the seminar and uploaded it to thefollowing link:

http://www.chnmuseum.cn/tabid/310/InfoID/105508/frtid/303/Default.aspx

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When the ceremony was concluded, all the guests moved to the exhibition halls. After that, the guests were invited to a banquet hosted by the Museum.

Premier Li Keqiangmet with Professor Jao1

BrochureExhibition catalogue

The Museum prepared a birthday cake forProfessor Jao.

Significant publications of Professor Jao

Exhibition of Jao Tsung-I’s Artistic Attainments

Christine To

學藝融通—饒宗頤百歲藝術展

杜英華

*

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1 Photo by Liu Zhen. “Li Keqiang Met with Mr. Rao Zongyi Professor Emeritus of University of Hong Kong.” Chinese Dishes. 27 Apr. 2015. Web. 18 June 2015. <http://www.chinesedishes.tk/archives/24339>.

* The author is Assistant Curator, Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole, the University of Hong Kong.# 作者為香港大學饒宗頤學術館助理藝術統籌主任。

From the Editor : The Significance ofGuan Di Festival

It is with great pleasure and honour that the Chinese Art Society, Australia joins with the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, the Launceston Chinese Association and the Australia China Friendship Society (Tasmanian Branch) to celebrate the Guan Di Festival 關帝誕 on 8th August 2015 Saturday at the Queen Victoria Art Gallery, Launceston. Features of the day will include Lion Dance, performances,an introduction and talk on the Guan Di Temple Collection by history curator Jon Addison, and a public talk given by myself “On the Worship of Guan Di and Chinese Culture”. I am most indebted to all those who make this special function a reality; my sincere thanks to all.

Guan Di, originally named Guan Yu 關羽 (c.160-219) and commonly known as Guan Gong 關公 was a historical figure who flourished inthe Three Kingdoms Period (220-265) in Chinese history. It was believed that the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month of the lunar year was the birthday of Guan Di, and this year that day falls on 8th August of the Georgian Calendar. By celebrating the festival, it is our aim to take this opportunity to sharewith the community, especially those who are interested in Chinese culture and all things Chinese, the background, history and culture related to the worship of thispopular deity.

Guan Di was originally a general, active during the turbulent years in Chinese history but after his death he was gradually and widely revered by the common people, the ruling class, Buddhists, Daoists and even Confucians as the supreme deity. The popularity of the worship of this historical figure outshone the adoration of China’s greatest educationist and philosopher, Confucius (551-479 B.C.). Temples worshipping Guan Di within and without China outnumbered those dedicated to Confucius. As a matter of fact, Guan Di was adored by all sectors and all walks of life, no matter who: emperors, politicians, scholars, businessmen, workers, farmers, soldiers and gangsters alike. Therefore, it isindeed important to look into thereasons for this phenomenon.

Guan Di’s colourful life and his gallant behaviours won him the symbol of “loyalty, righteousness, benevolence and courage”, the most important values admired and upheld by all Chinese, past and present. In Chinese eyes, to pay respect to Guan Di is to acknowledge respect and support of the conventional moral culture of China. Therefore, to celebrate Guan Di Festival is to recognise the significance and richness of Chinese traditional moral virtues and culture.

It is therefore not surprising that in 2012 supporters lodged an application to UNESCO to inscribe the worship of Guan Di onto the “Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanities”. In fact, the worship of Guan Di is not confined to China or theChinese people, it has become a worldwide culture. The representation of Guan Di, whether it is a portrait or a statue can be seen everywhere, even in the cities of Hobart and Launceston.

編者的話 : 《關帝誕談關帝》

關帝是指中國三國時代（220-265）的蜀中名將關羽（約160-219），就是世人所盛稱的「關公」。據說關帝的生日是農曆六月二十四日，古時以這天為祭關帝之期，適逢今年是陽曆八月八日，故我們的澳洲中國藝術協會，連同維多

利亞博物及藝術館、朗塞華人協會及澳中友好協會（塔省分會），於是日舉辦慶祝關帝誕多項活動。其中包括公開講座（黃兆漢教授主講：「關帝信仰與中國文化」）和參觀維多利亞博物及藝術館所收藏的塔省東北部關帝廟遺留下來的文物等等。我們深盼通過這些活動讓世人認識或更進一步認識這位中國的「全能大神」，更希望一些對中國傳統文化不

熟悉的外國朋友有一個適當的機會體會關帝信仰甚至關帝信仰文化，讓他們知道中國有一位可與來自印度的大神觀音菩薩同日而語的中國「地道」大神——關帝。

關帝最初只不過是一名武將，（雖然生前被漢朝廷封為「壽亭候」）死後卻被歷代朝廷封為王、為帝；又被佛教尊為「護法神」、「古佛」，被道教

尊為「真君」、「天尊」，被儒教尊為「夫子」、「聖人」。到了十九世紀關帝更獲得清廷一個長達二十六字的最尊貴封號，而到了二十世紀中期關帝竟晉升為「協天上帝」，更有不少關帝信仰以關帝取代玉皇大帝的地位，成為中國神界最高的領袖！

關帝是歷代各階層崇拜祭祀的大神，無論統治者、政界、文人、學士、商人、工人、農人、軍人、幫會、商會、會館、酒樓、茶室各行各業，都崇祀關帝！衪被世人崇祀的程度遠遠超過中國最偉大的教育家孔聖人，而關帝廟的數量在中國和中國以外的華人聚居地方亦遠遠多於孔子廟。為甚麼會如此？因為關帝是中國傳統道德「忠、義、仁、勇」的化身，是這四大德的最具體象徵，是「忠、義、仁、勇人格」的完成，其表現是最顯明和活生生的。

尊崇關帝，便是尊崇中國的傳統道德；祭祀關帝，便是信仰和追認中國固有的道德文化；紀念和慶祝關帝誕，便是意識到中國傳統道德和固有文化的精彩處和重要性。怪不得2012年有關人士（或可說為認識關帝信仰文化重要

性的人士）已向聯合國教科文組織申報列入「人類非物質文化遺產代表名錄」。

實際上，「關帝信仰」已不限於中國境內或中國人，而早已成為世界性的文化了！只要我們稍為注意，關帝神像，無論是畫像或塑像，到處可以見到，就算在霍巴特和朗塞市都可以見到！

P.4Newsletter of the Chinese Art Society, Australia

[email protected]

#8, AUG 2015

霍伯特(Hobart)這個美麗優雅的城市，有著濃厚的歐洲文化色彩，在原居民質樸文化的襯托下更顯出其獨特的韻味。當今，世界大同，東方文化亦漸融入這座城市，令它更加和諧舒服。

「太極」是東方文化多種理念的代表之一；老子(約生於西元前六世紀，與孔子同時而為孔子之長輩。孔子曾問禮於老子）所著之《道德經》有云：

致虛極，守靜篤。萬物並作，吾以觀其復。(復命章第十六)

意思是：當能達到致虛極空，堅守著清靜無為時，我們便可從萬物的變化中觀察到其循環往復的規律性。

「太極」源於中國的道家文化，有著人與大自然的哲學道理，講求天人合一，任物自然。

「太極」與太極拳往往是並論的。太極拳在行拳時，有其獨特的拳理，它遵循著八卦、五行、陰陽的原理，也恰好與事物的發展變化相吻合。人們在練習太極拳的過程中，鬆靜心，腳為根，讓勁、氣運行暢順，便會精神飽滿，可除病，致健康。並且在長期練習中會明白到人與自然相通的道理。又如《道德經》所說：「萬物紛芸，各歸其根。」(復命章第十六)靜則根生，根為生命的本源。人能明此理，亦會明白世間的事理了。

現今世界各地喜歡太極拳的人越來越多，而傾向推崇這項養生文化的亦與時俱增！

有見及此，本人所屬東海公司遂有在塔省Kingston區興建一個綜合型的「太極園」的計劃。計劃中的「太極園」內有含太極與道家文化的設計。本人熱愛太極拳，剛參加完在中國咸

陽舉辦的太極拳大賽，很幸運獲得永年楊式太極拳比賽三等獎。最難得的是有機會觀摩太極拳大師的表演，真是獲益良多。這更加深了本人對太極拳的認識，也更鞏固了推行建設「太極園」計劃的理念。

更值得高興的是，這個計劃獲得澳洲中國藝術協會會長黃兆漢教授的大力支持，答應作為顧問參與籌建策劃工作。眾所週知黃教授有著深厚的中國文化底蘊，為當今國際上道教研究權威之一，著作等身。在這樣一位高質素的學者的輔助之下，我們將會順應當地環境，用最有利的風水佈局建造成中西文化相適宜的「太極園」。

計劃中的「太極園」將建造在39公頃的林地中，背靠威靈頓山(MountWellington)，面向Kingston海灘河口處。四周為Browns河環繞，樹木鬱鬱蔥蔥，生機盎然。園內將設有綜合樓、住屋、水亭、園藝、菜園、果樹林和太極練習場地等等，使人的活

動與大自然息息相承，融為一體，更令人能在大自然中得到一種最高的享受。

綜合樓內將設有：餐室、太極養生練習室、文化交流展廳、演講室、會議廳以及各種服務設施，為公眾學習交流東西文化藝術，提供一個理想的場所和環境。

我們會以任物自然的態度營建和管理「太極園」；「生而不有，為而不恃，長而不宰。」(《道德經》第十章)讓萬物生長而不佔有，撫育萬物而不自恃，任萬物成長而不主宰。我們會將「太極園」創建成一個和諧、自然、充滿道家文化氣息和現代文明的小區。

Newsletter of the Chinese Art Society, Australia

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興建道家文化公園——「太極園」計劃

崔立An Initial Plan for the Establishment of theTai Chi Park : a Daoist Theme Cultural Park

Leo Cui *

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P.5#8, AUG 2015

# 作者為朗塞華人協會副會長，亦為澳洲中國藝術協會北區代表。

* The author is currently Vice President, Launceston Chinese Association and Northern Representative of the Chinese Art Society, Australia.

計劃中的「太極園」的位置

老子圖像

Hobart is a beautiful city with strong European influences reflected in the ambience and cultures of the city today. Being a member of the global village, Hobart embraces all cultures with open arms. The closer tie with China in recent years sees the city increasingly enriched with oriental culture, making it a very pleasant home. Tai Chi is an icon of oriental culture. The great Chinese philosopher Lao Zi (active 6th century B.C.) remarked in his noted work, Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing, the Book of Dao)1 :

Attain to Utmost Emptiness,Cling single-heartedly to interior peace.While all things are stirring together,I only contemplate the Returns. (Chapter 16)2

The meaning in essence is that when a person reaches and maintains a state of absolute serenity and tranquillity, he will be able to observe the cyclical regularity in the ever changing universe. Tai Chi takes root in Daoism in China. The relationship between man and nature is embedded in the Daoist philosophy. It is about convergence with nature and flow with nature. The term “Tai Chi” is often synonymous with “Tai Chi Chuan” which is a type of Chinese martial arts. Tai Chi has a unique choreograph, grounded in the principles of the eight trigrams (bagua 八卦); the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water (wuxing 五行); and the two contrary forces of yin 陰 and yang 陽. It emphasises the agreement with the evolvement of the environment. When practising Tai Chi Chuan, one should relax, let his heart at peace and focus on the foothold. When the energy and qi (氣 force) flow freely within the body, we will feel energised and healthier. Through practices, one will also be enlightened by the idea of the convergence of man and nature. As it is noted in the Dao De Jing which says, “For flourishing as they do, Each of them

will return to its root” (Chapter 16). When one reaches a state of serenity, he returns to his source which is the basis of life. As more and more people around the world practise Tai Chi Chuan, the pursuit for healthy culture has become more and more popular. In view of the above, the East Ocean Proprietary Limited of which I am a director hasworked out a conceptual plan to undertake a comprehensive development by the name of Tai Chi Park in Kingston, Tasmania. As an advocate of Daoist philosophy, I have a deep passion for Tai Chi Chuan. I have just returned from Xianyang 咸陽, China, after participating in a large scale Yang style Tai Chi Chuan competition held there in the famous old city. It was a great honour that I have been awarded a prize of the Third Grade.

What was most rewarding was that I was given the opportunity of observing the masters of Tai Chi Chuan in action. This experience has thus deepened my interest and knowledge of Tai Chi Chuan and consequently reinforces my desire to undertake the Tai Chi Park Project we have in mindfor so long. It is a great honour that our project has obtained the strong support of Professor Wong Shiu Hon, President of the Chinese Art Society, Australia who agrees to be our consultant involving in the planning and design of the Park. As we all know that Professor Wong has a profound knowledge in Chinese culture, being one of the world authoritieson Daoism3. We firmly believe with the support of such a high calibre Chinese scholar as ProfessorWong, we will make use of the natural environment onsite and create the best geomancy layout forTai Chi Park which will encompass both Eastern and Western cultures. The Park will be located amidst 39 hectares of lush greenery, surrounded by the Browns River, facing Kingston Beach and against thebackdrop of Mount Wellington. The development will

feature a multi-purpose complex, residential houses, a water garden, a landscaped garden, vegetable patches, orchards and a park for practising Tai Chi Chuan. This will be a place where human activities and nature will co-exist harmoniously, a place where we will find the utmost enjoyment in nature. In the multi-purpose complex, there will be catering facilities, a Tai Chi and health preservation studio, a hall for cultural exhibitionsand other service facilities. This complex will be an ideal venue for cultural exchanges for everyone. Our management philosophy for the Tai Chi Park will be based on the Daoist philosophy of flowing with nature. Again, quoting from the Dao De Jing which says:

Rear them without claiming them for your own!Do your work without setting any store by it!Be a leader, not a butcher! (Dao Te Jing chapter 10)

Our aim is to build the Tai Chi Park into a harmonious, environmental and natural community.

1 The Dao De Jing consists of 81 chapters divided into two parts: the Upper Part and the Lower Part. The Upper part, chapters 1 to 37, begins with the word “dao” 道 and is known as the dao jing (Classic of Dao).The Lower part, chapters 38 to 81, begins with words “shang de” and is known as the de jing (Classic of Virtue). The two parts constitute the complete work, the Dao De Jing. There are over 300 translations of the Dao De Jing which have been published in many different languages. It has been translated more than any other book in the world except for the Bible.

2 Translations of the quotes in this essay are based on the Lao Tzu: Tao The Ching translated by Dr. John

C.H.Wu (New York: St. John’s University Press, 1961), for this quote, see p.21.

3 Professor Wong has written 8 books (6 in Chinese and 2 in English) and numerous papers on Daoism. He is formerly Professor, School of Chinese, the University of Hong Kong.

An Initial Plan for the Establishment of theTai Chi Park : a Daoist Theme Cultural Park

Leo CuiTranslated by Cecilia Chiu

興建道家文化公園——「太極園」計劃

崔立CeciliaChiu翻譯

*

#


[email protected]

#8, AUG 2015

* The author is currently Vice President, Launceston Chinese Association and Northern Representative of the Chinese Art Society, Australia.

# 作者為朗塞華人協會副會長，亦為澳洲中國藝術協會北區代表。

Location of the Tai Chi Park

Introduction I have been Director of the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery (QVMAG) for a little over four years. It was a museum that had a high reputation and I was delighted to be selected for the position. During my time in Launceston I have got to know Professor Wong Shiu Hon 黃兆漢 and Nancy Wong well especially when they kindlydonated a collection of Chinese antiquities from their private collection. We mounted a display of the collection in 2012. QVMAG already had a connection with China through the donation of the Chinese temple material in 1934 and I was keen to draw more on this and have sought the Wong’s assistance. Through them I am pleased that I have theopportunity tonight to talk about our Chinese collection. I would first like to acknowledge my Curator of History Jon Addison who has provided most of the material I will talk on and who has the responsibility for the care of this collection. We are also indebted to Dr Hu Jin Kok (Sydney) who did a conservation report including translations of most of our items and who has assisted us with the temple layout.

Histor y QVMAG has a long history with its development mirroring the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery in Hobart. Our origin goes back to the formation of the Launceston Mechanics Institute in 1842. They had the charter to provide education and enlightenment for an increasing population of migrants and ex-convicts. It was a time when most did not have a formal education. They very quickly began classes covering a wide range of the arts and also mounted exhibitions. In the 1880s they and the northern branch of the Royal Society (1863) agitated for a purpose built museum to house their growing collections and in 1887 the State Government agreed to provide the funds to construct the museum on Wellington Street. The Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery opened in 1891, which at the time coincided with the peak of Chinese numbers in North West Tasmania. The collection then was fairly representative of collecting

institutions around the world, with items from the natural sciences and fine arts.

In 1934 the Museum received a significant collection of Chinese objects from several former temples from North East Tasmania. It was asignificant donation which immediately provided a working Chinese temple within an Australianmuseum, something very unique and illustrative ofthe racial harmony that existed in Launceston atthe time. Even today I am not sure if there is a working temple in any other general museumaround Australia.

Chinese in Tasmania In 1830 nine carpenters were brought to the colony as skilled labourers. They were probablythe first Chinese people in Northern Tasmania. Some Chinese people came to Tasmania in the 1860s in search of gold. However, the success oftin-mining in the North East attracted far more.Chinese labour was often preferred as they had experience in mining and were prepared to do the work. By the 1880s many mining towns had been established with Weldborough housing a large Chinese population. With a focus on communal life and worship temples were built in many of the towns. Often modest on the outside they contained items expressly ordered from China as the fortunes of the miners increased. By 1891 the Chinese population was almost 1000, making it the largest non-European group in Tasmania. Most were young men who came to make money and then returned to China. Although there was some resentment and hostility, the Chinese miners were usually accepted by most Tasmanians. Some leaders, such as Maa Mon

Chinn 馬文振 (c.1845-1923) of Weldborough andChin Kaw 陳高(1865-1922)of Launceston, became highly respected members of the community. Few women made the journey out from China, and it is partially because of this that many Chinese men stayed because they had met andmarried into the local European community. It is interesting to note that during the 1880s tin exports accounted for 25% of Tasmania’s export earnings. In 1881 tin was a more profitable metal to mine than gold which gives you a good indication of why the miners went to the effort. The Chinese population gradually reduced with the decline of alluvial mining. In 1887 the government brought in immigration restrictions, reducing the number of new Chinese immigrants. Many Chinese moved into Launceston. In 1891 a Chinese Carnival took place in Launceston lasting four days including performances in City Park, Chinese opera, dancing and processions. It made a significant profit with funds being directed back into the community including hosting events such as lantern parades and fireworks displays in Cataract Gorge. By 1921, 234 Chinese people remained in Tasmania. Most had left mining to run small businesses such as market gardens, laundries or general stores. During this time the temples in North East Tasmania gradually closed down as the population moved. By 1934 the last remaining temple was at Weldborough, once the biggest, which was part of a significant Chinese sector in the town. Fearful that the temple contents which now comprised of several temples that had closed earlier, would be stolen and vandalised, the caretaker Hee Jarm approached J.Chung Gon 鍾潮孔 (1855-1952) in Launceston to see if the contents could be relocated. On 12 January 1934 the minutes of the Launceston City Council note:

The Mayor reports a visit to Weldborough for the purpose of taking possession of contents of Chinese Joss House.

The Joss House (Guan Di Temple) It was of course much more complicated than the Council records present. It does however illustrate the good relationship between the city and the remaining Chinese descendants who were now fully integrated in Launceston. Launceston City Council agreed on taking the objects that the ‘Joss House’ would remain a consecrated temple not just a collection of objects for display. In 1935 they added an extension to the QVMAG in Wellington Street that was

The Chinese in North East Tasmania and the

Chinese Collection in the Queen Victoria Museum &

Art GalleryRichard Mulvaney

東北塔省的中國移民及維多利亞皇后博物及藝術

館關帝廟藏品李察．茂華利

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Maa Mon Chinn and his son – image Chinese Museum, Melbourne

a faithful representation of the temples in North East Tasmania and allowed the Chinese community the right to continue to worship in it. On opening the Joss House the city received a silk banner which translated “Myriads of Lodge Harmoniously United. To the Launceston Museum for repository. The whole overseas Chinese community of Tin Mountain respectfully presents. Heavenly official bestows happiness. Beckon with wealth and advance with treasures.”

The term ‘Joss House’ was used by Europeans to refer to Chinese temples and ancestral halls. The term ‘Joss’, referring to a figure of a god or idol, is thought to be a corruption of the Portuguese Deos, meaning God.

Ceremonial Items QVMAG has 86 distinct items that do include multiple objects that largely came from the North East settlements of Garibaldi, Moorina, Gladstone, Lefroy, Branxholm and Weldborough. Not all the items were displayed in the temple with many placed in display cases around the temple entrance. We are indebted to Dr. Hu Jin Kok, Sydney University who provided a catalogue andconservation report of our collection.

Guan Di This temple’s principal deity is Guan Di (關帝 or Kuan Ti), the Daoist god of war andBuddhist protector.

He represents loyalty, righteousness, justice and humility, as well as literature and learning. He is worshipped for his ability to cast out demons and prevent war. Guan Di was a patron of brotherhoods and secret societies, and encouraged loyalty between unrelated people. Guan Di temples were a centre of Chinese life. They were used not only for worship

but also as social spaces for entertainment and New Year festivities. Guan Di strengthened the ties of Chinese people when they were far away from their native home. I am not sure if it was in the temple but Weldborough boasted the State’s first casino.

Main Shrine The image behind the main altar shows Guan Di (centre) with his Assistant General ZhouCang 周倉 (left) and his son Guan Ping 關平 (right). It is only a copy as the original watercolour hasfaded and is kept in our store.

At the centre on the back wall is a shrine carved of wood painted in gold placed on a tablewith the portrait of Guan Di in the middle. Theawning bears a motif of two dragons fighting for a pearl with two phoenixes below. Manufactured byXie Sheng Store of Hai Wai, Guangdong, 1883. We are able to source a lot of the temple materials as the manufacturers label was often left on the item. Almost all of the materials in our collection came from Guangdong in the 1880s.

Also, the inscriptions on many of the items in this temple tell us that they were donated by individuals,surname lodges, lodges of the Hong Men 洪門 or district associations. In front of the table is an apron of carved wood with considerable inscription translated byDr. Kok. One includes “on the auspicious festive dayin the winter month during the ninth reigning yearof Guang Xu 光緒” (November 1883).

Main Altar

Placed in front of the shrine probably made in Tasmania, holds the incense burners which are used during prayer with incense sticks placed in the pots containing past incense which provides a link between the past and the present.

Two bamboo divining holders with divining sticks and divining blocks. Traditionally divining sticks come in a set of seventy-two or thirty-six. Each stick is inscribed with a different number designating a verse which is used to predict the seeker’s fortune. A pair of divination blocks are thrown, and the combination of the way both blocks land is used to determine the answer to a question. A box containing the great Seal of Guan Di with the line ‘The seal delivers all things auspicious’. The seal is said to hold great spiritual power. An Imperial Tablet, the text is an inscription pledging the loyalty of worshippers. These tablets are found in every Chinese temple. A red wooden tray containing three porcelain cups which may be used by a devotee for pouring a libation.

Historical photographs of the temple

P.8The Chinese in North East Tasmania and the Chinese Collection in the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery

Richard Mulvaney

On each side of the altar are vases containing peacock feathers to signify luck. In front of the altar is a carved wood incense stand for three large incense sticks. The carving depicts a scene of a court in session. Sitting on top are two young men representing Concord and Harmony with the feet of the stand depictedas lions.

Floats of Golden Palaces On each side wall are two floats of golden palaces which contain ornately carved figurines of people, flowers and animals. These represent views of heaven.

Weapons, Emblem Poles and Parasols

One rack contains three long handled weapons, a halberd, a long knife and a trident. There are other ceremonial weapons including a knife in a stand with an ensign of the Seven Star Constellation. It was to symbolise Guan Di’s central military role. It was a training weapon used in martial arts and it is considered that Guan Di was so strong he used the training weapon in battle. A series of poles holding ceremonial symbols appear on the banners in the rack on the temple’s walls. Many are associated with the Daoist eight immortals - eight ordinary people who gained immortality through selfless actions and good deeds. The immortals (seven men and one woman) represent different conditions of life - male, female, aristocrat, commoner, old age, youth, poverty and wealth. Each immortal had a unique symbol known as the hidden immortal.

There are several parasols of embroidered silk fabric. They were used to shade the principal deity and other temple objects when they were removed for public processions during festivals. It was a mark of respect.

Lanterns There are several lanterns and lamps. Lanterns were a Chinese innovation that were used particularly for outside events and processions. I have already mentioned the Chinese carnival that occurred in 1891, however the Chinese community were also involved with various illuminations of the Cataract Gorge including Chinese lanterns hung along the walks of the Cliff Grounds and fireworks displays to celebrate the Chinese New Year in 1895.

Banners, Flags and Scrolls

There are numerous textile-based objects with inscriptions. Some are key parts of the temple’s accoutrements, such as the red triangular pennants. Others are decorative, and like the wooden plaques these were items given to temples or lodges by those who had found (or were courting) success in their endeavours. They feature intricate embroidery and couching - sometimes in gold thread. Most of the fabric items are stored as they are very susceptible to damage and in many cases the fabric hasalready deteriorated. There is a large triangular flag which was presented to the Guan Di Temple by members of the lodge which owned the temple. The lodge was a branch of the Second Division of the Hung Men, which originally were a secret society which fought the existing regime. In Southeast Asia these societies became criminal gangs (the triads, orHeaven and Earth society) but in Australia theybecame service groups (Chinese Masonic Societies) and were highly regarded. One group regularly donated to the Launceston Hospital in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Carved and Painted Plaques and Panels There are numerous inscribed plaques and panels in the collection all dating to the 1880s and 1890s. Many contain important statements around piety and commitment.

This one is above the front door. Its translation is: “The spirit of righteousness fills heaven and earth. At the dawn of the festive day in the eleventh lunar month in Gui Wei 癸未 lunar year during the ninth reigning year of Guang Xu 光緒, The followers of Nan Tang 南堂 (South Lodge) from Lan Li Ru 藍利汝 (Moorina) who received benefits and favour from time to time, respectfullyreciprocate” (November 1883). It is not possible to list all the plaques in the collection so I will just show you a few to give you an indication of their variety. Some of theinscriptions include:


Richard Mulvaney

Ceremonial weapons

Eight immortals and other symbols

Textiles

“Supreme loyalty persists for ten thousand years”

“The love of brotherhood is heavier than a mountain and deeper than a river”

Musical Instruments

Some of the musical instruments are displayed in a showcase outside the temple. They were normally stored within the temple. Music is played during important festivals. Instruments like the drums and Suona 嗩吶, a flared double-reed wind instrument in the same family as the oboe, are loud enough to be played outside. The Suona is important in the ritual music of Southeast China.The inscriptions on the drums tell us that they were made (by different makers) in Guangdong Province in Southeast China. The temple contains a gong and cymbal that were in processions. Traditionally gongs were used to clear the way ahead. In China these gongs were used not just for religious purposes but to clear the way for important officials as well. Drums, gongs and cymbals are also used in lion or dragon dances.

Rocking Horse

A rocking horse was placed in the original ‘Joss House’. It is currently in the store undergoing some conservation work and will be returned. It was made in Guangdong in the 1890s (circa) of pig skin and wood. The horse represents the Red Hare which was the famous mount of Guan Di. In the 1950s a museum attendant was dismissed because he was letting children ride on it.

Figurines

The collection also includes two sets of figurines, one containing eleven figurines the other ten. They were originally displayed in the Museum in cases just outside the entrance to the temple. They are dressed in elaborate costume and were used as visual cues in Chinese opera for the audience to understand what was happening on stage. Maa Mon Chinn and Chin Kaw were responsible for bringing out a Chinese opera troupe in 1883 who toured North East settlements and it is believed that the figurines came out with them. They are very rare and we really need to do a lot more research on them.

Conclusion I have really only had the opportunity to talk to you about the early Chinese settlement of Tasmania’s North East and some of our contents from our Guan Di Temple. As you can see we have an extensive and rich collection that is unique in Australia and the Museum is investigating ways to have more of the collection accessible online on the Museum’s website. We do hold other items relating to Chinese culture including items that belonged to the Chin family (descendants of Chin Kaw), and others with links to the Chung family (Chung Gon) including these fabulous shoes, worn by Mei (Mary) Lee Ying Chung Gon, who was one of the few Chinese women to come to Tasmania to marry, and like Mrs Maa Mon Chin,had bound feet.

We also as mentioned previously have a collection of 40 Chinese antiquities donated by Professor Wong Shiu Hon in 2012 which were on display for twelve months. We have placed some of these items in a new showcase near the temple, and the items are being changed over regularly.

What is clear is that we need to do more work on the collection to better understand it. Wealso need to do more with it. It is one of our real points of difference from our other museum colleagues in Tasmania. Out of respect to the collection and in the spirit of the original donation by Hee Jarm in 1934, we owe it to the past and present Chinese community to improve our presentation of thetemple and collection.

The current temple was reinstated to its original position in the Art Gallery in 2011. While work was being done on the refurbishment of the original building the temple was housed intemporary quarters in the Museum at Inveresk. During that time it remained a consecrated place of worship. The external portico does reflect faithfully what most looked like in the 19th century. However in creating the portico which is an important element of ‘Joss House’ design, we reduced the space inside. With a recent visit of Chinese tourists it became very apparent that the space was not sufficient and weare looking to move the wall further back. With more research we may even look to relocate the temple and expand the external displays. What is clear is that the temple is of enormousinterest to Chinese visitors and with the increase in Chinese tourism we have an important opportunity to do something that truly provides a memorablevisit to Launceston. In tourism we also need to do more to connect with the Trail of the Tin Dragon, a self-guided tour of the Chinese tin sites of North East Tasmania that starts at QVMAG and ends at St Helens. I was moved by the reaction of the Chinese tourists who visited recently. The temple was important to them and they all wanted to light incense, pray and give a donation to Guan Di. It made me think that we were providing something meaningful for them that is now not that available in China itself. I would encourage you to see ourcollection and I am happy to arrange a privateviewing for the Chinese Art Society of items that arein store at any time. I would like to thank the Society and Professor Wong for inviting me to speak and to you the audience thank you so much for listening.


Richard Mulvaney

d This paper is based on the talk delivered by the author for the event March 2015 Dinner Talk and Celebration of the Lantern Festival organised by the Chinese Art Society, Australia on 5 March, 2015, Thursday at the Me Wah Restaurant, Hobart.

* The author is Director, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston.h 本文乃作者為澳洲中國藝術協會於2015年3月5日 (星期四)在霍巴特美華樓舉辦的演講全文。# 作者為朗塞市維多利亞皇后博物及藝術館總監。

“Brings the benefits of peace and stability”

Rocking horse representing Guan Di’s mount ‘Red Hare’

Figurines from Chinese Opera

1. The Place of Yueju in Chinese Opera The word Yueju 粵劇means the opera of Guangdong 廣東and Guangxi 廣西 provinces. Yue is the word for the two Guangs and ju means opera. At the same time, Cantonese opera is used as a convenience to Westerners. Canton stands for Guangzhou 廣州 or is a distorted pronunciation of Guangzhou, which is, as we all know, the capital city of Guangdong province. So no matter whether wecall it Yueju or Cantonese opera, it is the same kind of opera. It is the same form of Chinese opera we are going to talk about. However since all Chinesepeople call it Yueju, I shall follow the old tradition asI prefer to call it Yueju. There are about 320 types of opera in China, and no doubt, some of them may be more important and popular than the others. As a form of performing art, approximately 50 types of opera are well structured and refined. It is really very hard to say which one is better than another. But amongst these 50 strong types of Chinese opera, there are at least three types which are particularly well known to people inside and out of China. They are Kunju 崑劇, Beijing opera 京劇 and Yueju. Kunju is a very old form of Chinese opera, even contemporary Chinese could hardly appreciate it. It is a graceful, elegant and of course good! It is the perfect form of performing art, but not popular even in China. Only upper class people or literati love it. For common people, it is too elegant and not interesting enough. However, it was the first type of Chinese opera that was inscribed in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2001. It has become a classic in Chinese performing arts. As for the Beijing opera, the northerners love it very much. It is actually the most representative form of Chinese opera in the northern part of China. Many people, and especially the northerners, regard it as the “national opera”. I believe that one of the reasons that Beijing opera became so popular outside China was because of the wonderful achievements of a great actor named Mei Lanfang 梅蘭芳 (1894-1961). His performances both nationally and internationally were so successful, that besides making a big name for himself, he also made Beijing opera extremely popular in Japan and in many Western countries. Mei Lanfang was a female impersonator. His acting and singing were so exquisite that theatre-goers could barely perceive that he was a male! He was regarded as the most successful female impersonator in the entire history of Beijing opera. He was also the most important actor in making Beijing opera sowell-known and so popular world-wide that it was

inscribed in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO in 2010.

While Beijing opera is the most representative type of Chinese opera in northern China, Yueju is the most representative one in southern China. Scholars called it “the powerful one of the South” 南方之強. Yueju was originally from the Guangxi province, a province in the west of Guangdong, but very quickly spread to the rest of Guangdong where it became more popular than in its own birthplace. In Guangdong, Yueju at first prevailed in the Pearl River delta region. Following the Pearl River, the art form spread to other parts of the Guangdong province. As we know Guangdong is coastal and people of this province liked to emigrate to places overseas. Consequently, Yueju gradually spread to places outside of China, including Southeast Asia, for example Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. It also spread to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, following in the footsteps of the numerous emigrants from Guangdong province. It may well be correct, therefore, to say that Yueju was the first type of Chinese opera that non-Chinese people became familiar with and fell in love with. There was an actress/actor in Yueju who was as famous as Mei Lanfang was in Beijing opera. She was the great Yam Kim Fei (or Ren Jianhui 任劍輝 1913-1989). She was the one or at least one of the few opera artists who had made Yueju well known in countries outside China. Yam Kim Fai was a woman, but she played the role of a male. She was a male impersonator, being in complete contrast to Mei Lanfang. Because of the achievements and contributions of Yam Kim Fai and other performing artists, Yueju was inscribed in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO in 2009, even one year sooner than Beijing opera.

Beijing opera and Yueju are very closely related, because both of them originally belonged to the same system of music—the pihuang 皮黃. However, when the pihuang music was combined with the local music of Guangdong province, changes occurred and a different type of music was born. Accordingly a different type of opera came into existence. We shall elaborate on this point in the later part of this paper. There are about 20 types of local opera in Guangdong province, and Yueju, the most well structured and refined, is the most popular. No doubt, it is the most popular type of traditionalChinese opera overseas. It is indeed popular inAustralia and New Zealand and there are many Yueju troupes in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

2. A Short History of Yueju Yueju in its present form began as late as the early 18th century, in the period of Yongzheng 雍正 (1723-1735) of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). That means that Yueju has a history of about 400 years. To the Chinese of that time Yueju was a newform of opera. There was an actor by the name of Zhang Wu 張五, active in early 18th century, who was originally an artist of the Beijing opera. Hefled to the city of Foshan 佛山 in Guangdong province in order to escape from the arrest of the central government. There in Foshan he tried to make a living by teaching opera to the Guangdong people. That was the actual beginning of Yueju. Because the Manchurians, the ruling class at that time, liked to see Beijing opera flourishing everywhere in the country, the Yueju performers of Guangdongprovince pretended that they were performingBeijing opera, they used Beijing dialect in Yueju. That meant that even artists of local opera had to use Mandarin 官話, the “official language”. At the early stage, performances were carried out on the stagein a big shed built with bamboo sticks, called xipeng 戲棚 (shed theatre). The above kind of language

used for performance was called xipeng guanhua戲棚官話, meaning “the official language usedin shed theatre”. At that time it was difficult for the Yueju artists to speak and to sing in the official language or mandarin. What they used on stage was not mandarin, nor any of the Guangdong dialect. The language used on stage was only a casual mixture of these two dialects. Very often, the Guangdong performers just distorted the pronunciation of the words and pretended that they were speaking the official language. They could not help doing that, because they were not allowed to use local dialect in operas. It was only as late as in 1920s thatGuangdong dialect or Cantonese dialect began to be used on the stage.

The Art of Yueju (Cantonese Opera) :

an IntroductionProf. Wong Shiu Hon

粵劇藝術簡介黃兆漢教授

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It is interesting to know that a Yueju actor had once established a small kingdom in China and claimed himself to be a king. The kingdom was called Dacheng 大成 Kingdom and he called himself Pingjing Wang 平靖王 (the king of pacification). This actor was by the name of Li Wenmao 李文茂 (?-1858). He was a hualian 花臉 or “painted face” actor with very colourful facial makeup. In 1857 itwas recorded that Li Wenmao and his followers, who were all good in martial arts, joined the forces of the Taiping Rebellion to go against the Manchurian government. Li captured a few cities in the southern part of China and established a kingdom in Guangxi province. But after a couple of years Li was killed and his kingdom subsequently collapsed. Because of his involvement in the Taiping Rebellion, Yueju was prohibited from the stage for more than 10 years. It was only in 1869, the 8th year of the Tongzhi 同治 period (1862-1874), after so many efforts and hard struggles by the Yueju performers, that this local opera was allowed to be performed again. The Yueju performers had established a guild organisation called Qiong hua huiguan 瓊花會館 (The Viburnum Guild Hall). It was later reformed under the leadership of Kuang Xinhua 鄺新華 (1850-1923), a great Yueju performing artist. The name of the union was then changed to Bahe huiguan 八和會館 (Union of Yueju Artists). To the present this union is still the guild of Yueju artists, musicians and other related industries. It exists everywhere in large cities of the world where Yueju is performed. In the early stage the Yueju performers travelled along the Pearl River Basin by boat. Since all the boats were painted in red, they were called Red Boats 紅船. Thus the Yueju troupes were called Red Boat Troupes 紅船班. Since then, all participants in Yueju were called “the disciples or members of the Red Boats”.

A large Yueju troupe, with about 100 members, usually hired two boats. One of them was called the Heaven Boat, and the other the Earth Boat. All the members of the troupe would stay in these two boats during the course of their performances. All of them were male, no women were allowed to stay on the boats. The size of each boat was about18 m x 5 m. Each boat had two storeys. Each storey was divided into a number of rooms or areas. As a rule, all important members of the troupe occupied theupper level which was smaller than the lower deck.The other members would stay in the lower compartment which also included the storage rooms, kitchen and toilets. Red Boats had been used formore than 200 years and it was only in late 1940s that Yueju troupes stopped using them. In the early development of Yueju, nearly 200 years, all the performers were male. The female characters in the opera were taken care of by maleartists or the female impersonators. It was only as late as the early 20th century that there were female performers. But even at that time the male andfemale artists were not allowed to perform on the same stage. Because of this reason, there were all

female troupes 全女班, in contrast to the all male troupes 全男班. It was only in the 1930s when male and female artists were eventually allowed to perform in the same troupe and appeared together on the stage. It had taken such a long time for both the male and female artists to start working together to perform an opera. At this time, when male and female performers began to work together in the same troupe, it was a big issue in the history of Yueju. But it was not the only one. There were other changesthat helped to shape Yueju into its present form. First of all, in view of the influx of Western cultures in the 1930s, we can find new elements inthe subject matter, content, themes and even characters within the operas of this period. Inaddition, the change in music was even more prominent such as the advent and influence of jazz. Western musical instruments for example the violin, banjo, viola, cello, and piano were also introducedinto Yueju.

3. Roles in Yueju: System of the Six Pillars As far as the roles in Yueju are concerned, the introduction of the system of the six pillars 六柱制 is most worth mentioning. Before 1930s there were ten main types of role in Yueju. Each type was subdivided into a number of smaller sub types. Together with the actors of minor roles, the total number of actors in a troupe was more than 100. As I have pointed out before a large troupe, including the musicians, would have about 140 members. The proprietors of the troupes gradually found that they could no longer afford so many performers, hence they had to reduce the numbers. That was only one reason. Another reason was that, as some of the “famous and important” male artists wanted toshow their versatility in acting and singing, they decided to combine the xiaosheng 小生 (civilised male role) and the wusheng 武生 (martial male role), thus forming one role the wenwu sheng 文武生 (civilised and martial male role). As a result, the traditional ten main types of role system wasreformed and the new system of the six pillars was established and is still used today. Each role in the opera has its own characteristics in acting, singing, speaking, make up and costumes. The six pillars are the mostimportant roles.

Wenwu sheng 文武生: The civilised and martial male role. This is the principal male role in the opera. He could be a scholar, a student, an artist, a musician or any type of literati. He could also be a marshal, a general, a palace guard, a warrior, a knight or even a martial arts master. The artist can perform as a cultural man or as a military man.He is expected to be good at singing, speaking, acting and acrobatic fighting. He should be completely versatile.

Zheng dan 正旦: The principal female role. Just like the principal male role, the female artist has to be good at the four basic skills i.e. singing, acting, speaking and acrobatic fighting. Her role is as important as the principal male performer.Xiaosheng 小生: The second male role. His role is also important, though not so important as the first one. There is no need for him to be good at all the four skills, but singing, acting and speakingare essential. It is ideal if he is also good atacrobatic fighting.Dier huadan 第二花旦: The second female role. The artist is regarded as assistant to the principal female role. It is expected that she has to be versatile to some extent. At least she should be good at singing and acting. In case the principal female role cannot appear on the stage, due to illness or some other reason, the second female artist has to take her place to perform the principal female role.Wusheng 武生: The aged martial male role. He is expected to be able to perform the stylised acting 功架, handed down from generation to generation. His skills of acting form the focalpoint of his performance. He may even be expected to play the role of an aged woman, if necessary. Therefore he has to be able to sing in the female voice. The most important point about this role is that very often he has to play the role of the “painted face” characters in the opera.

Chou 丑: The Clown. This is the last but definitely not the least role in the opera. Good acting and speaking are expected from him. He is usually the one who can make the opera more entertaining and lively. Sometimes, like the wusheng, he has to play the role of an aged woman.

Although all the six roles are equally important, as they are the pillars of the troupe and the opera, the highest salary is always offered to the principal male actor or the principal female actress. These two artists are actually the two mostimportant pillars of the troupe and the opera. Theyare like the soul of the opera.

4. How to Appreciate the Art of Yueju When appreciating the art of Yueju, theatre-goers have set up three criteria to determine whether a Yueju artist is up to standard or not:

P.12The Art of Yueju (Cantonese Opera) : an IntroductionProf. Wong Shiu Hon

a)

Right:Wenwu sheng 文武生

Left:Zheng dan 正旦

b)

c)

d)

e)

f)

a) good voice c) good performing artb) good looking or skills

I think those three criteria are also applicable to all performing artists, not necessarilybe confined to Yueju artists. A good voice is, no doubt, very advantageous. A well trained voice is basic for opera singers who have to sing most of the time whilst on the stage. But to have a good voice does not mean that the artist can sing well. In fact, singing skills are more important than good voice. In the Yueju circle, there is a saying, “The artist has a good voice, but sings badly; the artist sings well, but he hasn’t got a good voice!” So the voice of an artist does not have to be really good, instead it is the singing skill that counts. In this case, artistic skills are more important thanthe natural voice. As for good looking, I think it depends largely on personal taste. But on the other hand I agree that there is some sort of common standard. Basically I believe that there is no need for a male actor to have a face as handsome as a movie star, nor for a female performer to be as beautiful as a Miss Universe. However I firmly believe, with the sophisticated makeup in opera, the face of a male or female artist will become good looking. Of course, if the artist still does not look well after makeup, then the audience will be disappointed and it will bevery difficult to attract their attention. It is of utmost importance for any performing artist to have adequate skills. The artist could hardly be regarded as successful otherwise. In Yueju artists are expected to demonstrate four types of skills as below.

a) singing c) speakingb) acting d) acrobatic fighting

All of them are equally important, but in comparison the first three are more important than the lastone, because there may not be acrobatic fighting in some performances. To the artists and theatre-goers, singing is ranked as the most important in the list of skills. Good singing is essential to any opera artist. When talking about the skills of acting, in general, Yueju artists are governed by the following five methods:

a) moving the hands d) moving the bodyb) moving the eyes e) moving the legsc) moving the mouth

All of these five movements are important to aYueju performing artist. They are actually the skillsof acting. Of the five, I think moving the eyes is most important. What does moving the eyes mean? It means the movement of the eye-balls, showing the expressions of the eyes. Eye expressions are indeed of utmost important in performing operas. If one is an experienced and good performing artist, one’s eye expressions can capture the heart and soul of the audience as soon as he or she comes on stage. The movements of the two hands, particularly the fingers, are undoubtedly important. Most of the acting on the stage involves the movements of hands and fingers. It is well known to the Yueju artists that there are 17 standard types of movement of the fingers during performance. At this stage, I am not going to elaborate any more on the five methods. To sum up, all of them are essential parts of the skills of acting. However,

I would like to go back to the four types of skills and elaborate on them.

5. Singing Before we go any further elaborating on singing, I would like to point out here that Yueju isnot simply a kind of opera, it is , in fact, a combination of opera, ballet and drama. That is because apart from acting, including acrobatic fighting, there is singing, dancing and speaking in Yueju and they form thebasic elements of the opera. As far as the singing part is concerned, we have to know the musical background of Yueju,or more correctly, the musical elements of this form of opera. Roughly speaking, the musical part of Yueju is made up of four main types:

the tunes of the Banghuang 梆黃the tunes from other types of music found inYiyang 弋陽 opera and Kunju opera 崑劇traditional tunes of speaking and singing 講唱folk melodies, folk songs, modern melodies andeven modern Western melodies

Bang 梆, which is a shortened form for bangzi 梆子 was originally produced in Shaanxi 陝西 province. It is a vigorous type of music, being suitable for expressing one’s joyful feelings. At first it was called xipi 西皮, but after it was introduced into Yueju, it was given the name of bangzi. Gradually and gradually it spread to Shanxi 山西, Hebei 河北, Henan 河南 and Shandong 山東 provinces, all of these are in the Yellow River Basin. Huang 黃was actually called erhuang 二黃. It was originated in Anhui 安徽 province. This type of music is slow and solitary and is most suitable for expressing one’s sad feelings. There is a saying in the Yueju circle, “the type of music that is vigorous is xipi (i.e. bangzi), the type that is slow is erhuang.” So, we can see clearly the different nature of these two types of music.

Each type of music, no matter it is bangzi or erhuang has a large number of tunes, each of which has a fixed pattern of measures. These measures are clearly shown by the rhythmic beating of the small drum and the wooden block of the orchestra. Yueju artists are not expected to be good at all these tunes, in fact no artist could be good at all the tunes.Usually they are only good at a few of them. That means that by making use of these few tunes, the artist can well express his or her emotions and feelings in the opera. Some talented and well experienced artists would just concentrate on a few of them, they also try to refine and develop these tunes, and eventually build up their own distinguished singing styles. Bangzi and erhuang form the most important parts of music in Yueju. Without them, Yueju cannot be called Yueju, or at least not the authentic form. All artists of Yueju have to be able

to sing the tunes of these two types of music. If one cannot manage to do that, one just cannot become a Yueju artist. Bang and huang are essential to Yueju as far as music and singing are concerned.

The tunes and music of Yiyang opera originating from Jiangxi 江西 province also exerted great influence on Yueju. Generally speaking, the loud and high pitched tunes we found in Yueju are in fact the traces of the influence of Yiyang opera. As a rule, the tunes are usually accompanied by the loud sound of the beating of gongs and drums, whichare the two important types of musical instruments in percussion music. The singing is usually done with loud, broad and vigorous voice. It was a custom in the past to use this type of bold music as a welcome music in Yueju performance.

Kunju opera is another source that nourished Yueju. The birthplace of Kunju was the Jiangsu 江蘇 province. This form of opera is a very elegant and expressive. The singing is absolutely beautiful. In fact Yueju has inherited a large number of tunes and scripts from Kunju, including The story of Xi Shi 浣紗記, The story of the lady with a red whisk 紅拂女, The romance of purple hairpin 紫釵記, The romance of peony pavillion 牡丹亭, The romance of red blossoms 紅梅記, The story of Mulan 花木蘭 and Zhaojun going to the frontier 昭君出塞. Those famous plays in Yueju are originally found in Kunju opera. Also, some famous tunes in Yueju have their origin in Kunju, for example Acacia cry 哭相思, Dianjiangchun 點絳唇 and Sigh Yanhui 嘆顏回.

Traditional tunes of speaking and singing type of music. These tunes are local. That means they were originated in Guangdong province,particularly in the areas of the Pearl River Basin. These tunes include

Nanyin 南音, Yueou 粵謳,Muyu 木魚, Longzhou 龍舟, Banyan 板眼.

The first one is the most unusual and outstanding type of music in Guangdong province. It is absolutely important in Yueju. There are a number of different tunes in Nanyin and there have been a number of expert singers of Nanyin in the history of Guangdong music. There is no Yueju artist who cannot sing Nanyin, because Nanyin is a typical Yueju music. There is a saying in the Yueju circle, “If one cannot even sing Nanyin well, how can one dare to claim he is a Yueju singer?”.

Melodies came from various sources, past and present, Chinese, Japanese and even Western. For example, Autumn in the Han palace 漢宮秋, Sorrow of the two stars 雙星恨, Bells tolling from the temple 禪院鐘聲, Hungry horse shaking the bells 餓馬搖鈴, Ambush from all directions 十面埋伏, they are typical Chinese melodies. Even Blue Danube from the West is sometimes used in Yueju. Singers find it easy to sing these melodies because they can easily follow the rhythm of the music, but they also say, that in singing these melodies, they cannot adequately demonstrate their range of singing skills. This is because there is not enough room for them to manifest their skills. Some artists even think that singing melodies is not the important or classic part of singing in Yueju. Artists who stick to the tradition would be reluctant and even refuse to sing those modern


a)b)

d)c)

a)

b)

c)

d)

and foreign melodies for they regard such melodies as not authentic. Nevertheless, some of those melodies are very beautiful and pleasing to the ears. I do like some of them.

6. Acting Acting in Yueju is as important as singing. Just now I have mentioned that there are five methods in acting.

a) moving the hands, c) moving the mouth including the fingers d) moving the bodyb) moving the eyes e) moving the legs

That means that the movements of all parts of the body are important in performing Yueju. Again, there is a saying in the opera circle, “There is no movement which is not like dancing, and there is no sound that is not like singing”. So all movements in opera should be presented beautifully and gracefully as dancing. As there are numerous ways of moving of the hands, eyes, mouth, body and legs for the Yueju performers to express themselves, it is very hard for us to go through all of them one by one. At this stage I would just like to point out that only for laughing, which is actually the movements of the mouth, there are 30 different ways. For crying, there are at least five ways, as for the movements of the eyes, there are 14 ways, for the legs, 16 ways and for the face, there are 17 types of expressions. Indeed there are a lot to talk about on the acting in Yueju! However, I have to emphasise two very important points. The first one concerns traditional skills of acting 傳統功架. As everyone knows acting is essential in Yueju. To be specific there is a criterion or universally recognised criteria for acting, otherwise how can people judge whether one’s acting is good or not? The criterion involves stylised ways of acting, or simply stylised acting. In Yueju, as well as in other forms of traditional Chinese opera, all the important and essential skills of acting are stylised. Artists have to learn, remember them and perform the different styles on stage whenever necessary. There are quite a large number of stylised skills of acting, for example the following:

a) manipulating the g) opening the door long sleeves h) crossing the thresholdb) manipulating the hair i) welcoming the guestsc) manipulating the beard j) to go up the stairsd) waving the whip k) to write a lettere) riding a horse l) to try a casef) pouring the wine

All these skills of acting are stylised and they form the traditional skills of acting. Ifthe performers do not take them seriously and do not perform them correctly, they would becriticised by the audience. They would be regardedas poor performers. The other point I would like to emphasise is the old stylised acts. In Chinese it is called gulao paichang 古老排場. What is the actual meaning of paichang? Pai means rehearsed, chang means acts or acts of the opera, or sections of the opera. So paichang means rehearsed acts or acts that have been rehearsed. It further means that the acts, after rehearsal, are all settled and refined, being right in all respects, including singing, acting and other elements of the opera. They are in good shape and can be performed on the stage as they are . In other words, the acts are stylised. When they are put on

the stage, performers have to follow the stylisedform. The following are some of the stylised acts:

a) killing a loyal wifeb) killing a disloyal wifec) meeting with the ex-husband in the studiod) meeting with the ex-wife in the storage roome) the daughter leaving the family in angerf) writing the letter of divorceg) chasing after the husbandh) searching in the palacei) intruding the palacej) creating a disturbance in the official residence

The performers of each of these acts have to follow the stylised singing and acting, otherwise there will be no collaboration, no co-operation between the performers. In this case, the performances will be chaotic and there will be no proper opera at all! In the history of Yueju, there were more than 100 of such old stylised acts. Some scholarseven said that there were totally 200. However, there is no need for an artist to learn all of them, as some are seldom used. However in the past it was essential, fundamental and important for the performers tolearn a number of them, otherwise they would not be well equipped as a Yueju performer of high standard. They just could not make a living if they had notlearned enough. Today I am sorry to say thatperformers of the present time could only know and have learned a small number of these stylised acts, because they do not have the exposure to perform many operas. At the same time, audience are not so critical as those in the past. Many theatre-goers actually do not understand the true value of thisform of dramatic art. In fact, these stylised acts are of utmost importance and they are very useful to theperformers, for without learning the acts, a performer could not perform an opera properly. But, on the contrary, if a performer has learned one stylised act properly, he then can apply the same act in more than one opera. For example, if opera A used a special stylised act, opera B with a similar story could also make use of the same stylised act, and furthermore, in opera C the same stylised act could again beemployed and so on. The actual condition is that as long as an act of all these operas is of similar nature, similar story, having the similar characters, the special stylised act could then be used. So, stylised acts, inthis sense, are very useful. In fact, they are quite versatile. Some of the Yueju artists are only good at certain stylised acts. As long as they are specialised in some of the acts and could perform brilliantly then they will become well-known and can make a comfortable living.

7. Speech Delivery in Yueju The Chinese word for the speech delivery of the opera is nian 唸 or 念. The literal meaning is to read aloud. But very often reading aloud is simply speaking aloud or just speaking. Nian is in fact more than speaking, it also includes reciting or recitation. There are a number of types of speaking or recitation in Yueju, depending on the character who is speaking and on the emotion of the speaker, for example:

a) kou bai 口白 e) yingxiong bai 英雄白b) kou gu 口古 f ) langli bai 浪裡白c) yun bai 韻白 g) bai lan 白欖d) shi bai 詩白

All of these are different from one another, no matter how small the difference is. Roughly speaking, there are two main categories, one is pure speaking, the other is speaking with rhyme and rhythm which is actually some sort of recitation. As I have pointed out before that in Yueju performance, it is emphasised that “There is no sound which is not singing”. So, when the artist speaks or recites on the stage, he should speak or recite in the way as if he is singing. That means that he should speak or recite musically, so every bit of his speech or recitation is just like a piece of song. Our great Yueju performing artist Madam Yam Kim Fai had once said, “Speaking is the same as singing, while singing is the same as speaking!” The real meaning of these two sentences is that speaking should be as pleasing as singing, while singing should be as natural as speaking. Speaking on the stage hasto be skilful and artistic, and singing should be as natural as possible, without being too skilful orover skilful. No matter speaking or reciting, it must be clear, expressive , musical, refined and most important of all, pleasing to the ears of the audience.

8. Acrobatic Fighting Before 1930s, Yueju performers, especially those who played the roles of generals, warriors, knights, palace guards, heroes and bandits, had to learn real martial arts and they had to perform on the stage as if they were fighting. They had to use real swords, big blades, clubs, spears, whips and other types of weapons. The performers had to be really good at gongfu 功夫, i.e. martial arts. It was recorded that in the early 18th century during the Qing dynasty, a great monk called Master Zhishan 至善 came from the Shaolin Temple 少林寺 in Fujian 福建 province to Guangdong to teach martial arts. Shaolin school of martial arts was swift, vigorous, powerful and aggressive in nature. TheYueju artists were fortunate to learn martial arts from the great monk. But later Yueju artists began tofind it was too difficult and too painstaking tobe really good at this type of martial arts and theyoften got injured fairly easily. They therefore lookedfor a change. It happened that starting from 1930s onwards some great artists tried to reform Yueju and became interested in other types of opera. They were particularly interested in Beijing opera. They were very impressed with the type of martial artsperformed in Beijing opera which was beautiful, graceful and very good to look at. Most important of all, this type of martial arts could be learned easily.So the northern type of martial arts was introduced into Yueju. It was then called the northern style, and the type that came from the Shaolin monk was called the southern style. These two styles were verydifferent from each other. The southern style was vigorous and forceful, while the northern style was gentle, graceful and very spectacular. Therefore, starting from 1930s most Yueju performers learned and performed the northern style instead of the southern style of martial arts. In fact, the northern style of martial arts was just acrobatic fighting, while the southern style was real martial arts fighting, at least very close to real fighting. Nevertheless, some old fashioned Yueju performers still adhered to the southern style though


it was not so popular as before. There were others who combined the two styles together and presented some very good and beautiful performances. As I have pointed out that there is a saying, “There is no movement that is not like dancing”. This can be well illustrated by the acrobatic fighting of the performances in Yueju. When the artist is performing acrobatic fighting, his postures could be as beautiful as a piece of living sculpture. There are more than 200 routines or sets of skills and tricks in acrobatic fighting. Only those performers who are particularly specialised in them know most of the skills. We should not expect all performers to learn all these skills and tricks. Again, the skills of moving the eyes, the mouth, the hands, the body and the legs are extremely important and essential in acrobatic fighting.

9. The Opera Scripts In the early stage of the development of Yueju, there were 18 traditional operas that were frequently performed and they were called The 18 Operas of the Rivers and Lakes 江湖十八本.

Actors were trained to perform all these operas. Why were they called “operas of the rivers and lakes”? In the Chinese mind, the term rivers and lakes stands for places other than their native villages. So rivers and lakes means the outside world. The Yueju performers believed that if they were good enough to perform these 18 classic operas properly and brilliantly, they could make a living in the outside word, places other than their native districts. In the later stage of the development of Yueju, more operas were produced. A new set of the18 operas of traditional Yueju were born. They were called the 18 New Operas of the Rivers and Lakes 新江湖十八本. These operas provided more training for the performers and greater enjoyment to the audience. Later in the 19th century, what we now call The 18 Great Operas with Stylised Acts 大排場十八本 were produced. In each of these 18 operas, focus was made on one or two of the main roles in the opera. These operas with stylised acts are really important in the acting and singing in the development of Yueju, because they could help performers to be really specialised in their own particular roles. Therefore, altogether there were 54 traditional operas. Up to that stage it seemed a bit too many for the performers to master. Because of this reason, performers tried to concentrate on just a few of them, so eventually a series of Eight Great Operas 八大曲本 were chosen. These 8 great operas were actually the essence of the 54 traditional operas. Prior to the 20th century, there were no complete opera scripts written for the performers. Performers had to remember what their teachers had taught them by heart. In fact, what they learned were mainly those stylised acts which could be used in

more than one opera, as I have explained before. For new operas, or rather operas other than the 54 traditional ones, these were only what we call tigongxi 提綱戲, opera scripts with just a broad outline.

These operas with only the outline were written by the playwrights. It was roughly divided into a number of scenes. Each scene was given a short description of the plot, roles involved and a few important tunes to be sung. As for the rest, for example, the actual wording of the songs, the spoken parts of the opera, and the acting skills were all left to the performers themselves. The performers were supposed to begood enough to handle all these sorts of things related to the performance. If there was a particular act similar to one of those stylised acts, then thewriter of the new opera would point out clearly that a certain stylised act should be used in the written outline. For the outline of the opera script, there was actually only a piece of paper which was pasted on the wall in the backstage. Performers had to read it carefully every night after each performance, so as to get well equipped for the next day’s performance. Artists in the past really had a hard life. As there was no specific indication of which particular song or tune to be used in those outline scripts, so as a rule, some songs had to be created by the performers for that particular opera and some particular tunes were used. In this casehow could the musicians accompany the performers? There was a set of hand signs for this purpose.

Suppose the performer was going to use a particular tune for his song, he had to show the hand sign to the leader of the orchestra first. Then he would start singing. This practice had been prevailed for hundred of years in Yueju performances. Even in 1960s I noticed that some experienced performers still used this method on the stage. Of course, they did it skilfully without being too obvious to the audience. There was another reason why performers used the hand signs. It was for the control of time. If the performer noticed that time was running out, he would like to skip one or two songs, then he would give the hand sign to let the leader of the orchestra knowing that he was not following the order of the opera script, but was going to sing the song of a different sequence instead. As soon as the leader of the orchestra noticed this, he would beat the wooden block or small drum to send a signal to the other

members of the orchestra, to let them know whatwas going to be done. It was not until the 1920s or even 1930s that fully written opera scripts were produced for the performers and the orchestra.

However, even up to the 1970s not all performers in the opera were provided with a full version of the opera scripts. Only those top performers of the opera were provided. As for the less important performers, they were only provided a copy with those scenes they were involved. It was fortunate that the leader of the orchestra was provided with a full version ofthe opera script. He had to obtain a copy of the full version, otherwise he could not do his job properly.

It was only in the period between 1920s to 1940s that complete printed copies of opera scripts appeared and were sold to the audience. Thus researchers on Yueju could still get hold of some of these scripts for their research. We have a number of these rare books in our library. Now they are very valuable to us. In Hong Kong during the period from 1940s to l960s, some of the Yueju scripts wereincluded on daily newspapers, so that opera lovers could read them word by word when they listenedto the radio to enjoy the opera, just by listening.

10. Traditional Repertoire of a Full Operatic Per formance In the past, when there was a series of performances played by a Yueju troupe, the first performance, which was usually performed in the evening, was the most spectacular and entertaining one, because apart from the normal opera or proper opera, there were other minor operas performed at the same time. These minor operas were calledroutine operas 例戲. There were a number of these routine operas, the most common and popular ones are:

a) Pacification of the white tiger 祭白虎b) Dancing for promotion 跳加官c) Eight immortals celebrating the birthday of the supreme queen 八仙賀壽d) Heavenly Goddess blesses a mortal with a son 天姬送子e) The Jade Emperor ascends the palace 玉皇登殿f) The joint investiture of a prime minister by six kingdoms 六國大封相


There was no need and no time for the performers to play all these routine operas on one evening, so usually they only played at most two or three, depending on conditions. But as a rule, they usually played the first two: Pacification of the white tiger and Dancing for promotion. The reason for this is that the tiger is a very fierce animal, which is regarded as the king of all animals. Since it is the king it is deemed that it can control or manage all other animals. So if human beings can pacify and control the tiger, consequently all other animals will also be controlled. Hence human beings will be safe from all animals as well. This isthe rationale for performing the routine opera Pacification of the white tiger. For all people would like to live peacefully and happily without any fear of misfortune. In the performance, a large piece of pork was given to the tiger to eat, so when the tiger had eaten enough, it would not want to hurt any other creature. All people would then feel relieved. Actually there was a touch of religious flavour inthis performance.

The purpose of performing the second routine opera Dancing for promotion is quite clear and obvious. For the other routine operas, they are all auspicious performances with the ultimate purpose of bringing good luck to the audience.

The last one, The joint investiture of a prime minister by six kingdoms is the most colourful and spectacular one to be watched. It can be said to be one of the most glamorous performances in Yueju. It involves almost one hundred performers. All of them would put on the most beautiful and colourful costumes and at the same time they would demonstrate their special skills of acting.

These routine operas in the past or even today are usually performed for religious festivals or other popular folk festivals, like Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. They are auspicious operas and they are expected to bring good fortune, good health and prosperity to the audience. They are popular and are most welcome by the audience. After the routine operas—only two or at most three have been performed, then comes the proper opera, the opera all the audience arewaiting for. There is one more point I would like to bring out in this section regarding the welcome music, which is often loud and even noisy. It depends how people look at it. The welcome music is usually taken out from some of the routine operas. It gives us a happy or even exciting feeling. It is mainly done with the percussion musical instruments, with the heavy beating of drums, gongs, cymbals and other types of percussion musical instruments. Other types of musical instruments like the trumpets and flutes are also used because they are loud music.

11. Pengmian 棚面 Musicians The group of musicians of the opera in Yueju is called pengmian. The literal meaning of this term is the surface of the shed. In the olden days, Yueju performances were not carried out in theatres as we do nowadays. They were done inside a huge shed, which was built with bamboo sticks in the open air, very often near a temple or monastery, or in open space designed for community activities. Theorchestra or the group of musicians usually sat on the left side of the stage inside the shed, to the left of the audience. In this case, it seemed that they were onthe surface of the shed and could be seen easilyby the audience.

Before the 20th century there were basically seven musicians in the entire orchestra, which included not more than 10 musicalinstruments. They were as follows:

a) 3 pieces of stringed instruments (including 1 piece of two stringed instruments, 1 piece of three stringed instruments and 1 piece of moon-shaped stringed instruments)b) 2 pieces of wind instruments (including 2 flutes, one vertical and one horizontal)c) 4 pieces of percussion instruments (including gongs and cymbals, small drums and woodblock)

5 musicians took care of the stringed and wind instruments and 2 in charge of the percussion instruments, while one musician taking care of the gongs and cymbals and the other taking care of the small drums and woodblock.

There was no conductor for the orchestra as we understand today. But in reality there was a conductor, it was the musician who used to take care of the small drums and woodblock. The Chinese name of the woodblock is muyu 木魚 or buyu 卜魚, meaning wooden fish drum, because originally it was in the shape of a fish with its tail curled up. The musician who played the small drums and woodblock was, and still is, the one who controls the whole orchestra. Not only that, he is also the one who controls the pace of the entire opera, the speed of the singing and the acting of the performers. He is just like the master of the entire opera. The beating of the small drums and woodblock are used to control the measures of the musical tunes, and since an opera is basically a piece of music, so whoever controls the beating of the small drums and woodblock is the one who controls the whole opera. Despite the fact that at the early stage of the development of Yueju, there were only seven musicians playing only 9 or 10 musical instruments, it was basically adequate. We can see that there were stringed instruments, wind instruments and percussion instruments, covering every category of musical instruments and it was basically sufficient for the accompaniment of Yueju opera. With the development of the Yueju operas, more and more musicians were needed and more and more musical instruments were used for performances. From 1930s onwards, different kinds of musical instruments from the West had been introduced, like violin, saxophone, guitar, banjo, piano… all these have been introduced into Yueju operas. The most common Western musicalinstrument used is undoubtedly the violin, whichis as important as the traditional two-stringed instrument. Therefore, starting from the 1930s, the orchestra of Yueju has been divided intotwo components:

a) the Chinese componentb) the Western component, with the violinist as the leader of this component.

But the leader of the whole orchestra is still the head of the Chinese component, the musician who playsthe small drums and woodblock. He is still thedirector of the whole orchestra. Nowadays, there are about 20 musiciansin the orchestra of a full size opera troupe, playingboth traditional Chinese and Western musical


instruments. But there is an inclination that Western musical instruments are more carefully selected. In other words, not too many Western musical instruments are used. Nevertheless, violin is still very popular and the audience can see the appearanceof a violinist in every Yueju troupe. It is because the music produced by the violin is as beautiful as the traditional Chinese two stringed instruments.

12. Costumes and Headdress The costumes in Yueju are mainly based on the styles and designs of the clothing of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). As I have pointed out before Yueju was born in the early 18th century during the Qing dynasty. The Yueju performers, in order to avoid having any clashes with the Manchurian ruling class, did not want their costumes on stage to follow the styles of the Manchurians. Therefore their costumes for performance were designed in the patterns of the preceding dynasty. Costumes in the opera were designed according to the social status, occupations, and characters of the role. As far as the costumes of the male roles are concerned, there are roughly fivebig categories:

a) Mang pao 蟒袍 (literal meaning- python robes) costumes for the emperors, kings, princes, prime ministers and high ranking court officials.

b) Kao fu 靠服 (also called da-kao 大靠) robes for marshals and generals

e) Pi feng 披風 robes for high-class and wealthy characters of the opera

Each of these categories is further sub-divided into a number of costumes. Different styles of hats with varied designs are made to match different types and styles of costumes. The robes and hats can be highly characterised as needed by different roles in the opera. Costumes for female roles in the opera are varied accordingly. There is one thing which I would like to point out is that no matter how poor or how shabby the clothing of the role in the opera is, it always looks good, looks nice and pleasing to the eyes of the theatre-goers, simply because it is not the actual clothing of the people in the street, it is the costume worn by the performers in the opera. The level has been elevated from reality to a kind of art. Art is akind of beauty. If art cannot give us a feeling ofbeauty, it is not art. I firmly believe that. Some costumes are really gorgeously beautiful. The designs are so unusual and socolourful. All sorts of embroidery are used to complement the styles and designs of the costumes. They are even more beautiful than those robes worn by the kings and queens of the olden days. A simple set of good quality costumes would cost a few thousand dollars. That is why some performerswould do the design and the embroidery themselves to save money. The headdress of the female roles are multifarious. For the rich with high social status, the headdress is usually multi-coloured, covering with glittering jewellery on every side. It is really an enjoyment to look at this kind of headdress. Even if the jewellery is not genuine, a headdress like this is absolutely costly. Costumes and headdress form a very important part of the assets of a Yueju performer.They could be very complicated, as each set is made up of a number of parts. It takes time for the performer to put on the costumes and headdress properly. Hence the performer, especially those of the important role, will need an assistant to help them to put on the costumes and headdress, he or she can hardly complete the dress up without any help. In 1930s even up to 1950s, it was a vogue for the performers to wear costumes that were all covered with electric globes of different colours. Theperformers could turn on the lights whenever necessary. When the female performer sat down, all the globes were immediately turned on and whenshe stood up all the globes were turned off. This effect did give a great surprise to the audience. There was also the occasion that when a dancer came out onto the stage to dance, her costume was lit up with colourful globes, just like a fairy coming from heaven. In Yueju performances, performers had every right to choose the design of their costumes as long as the styles were appropriate for the roles

of the opera. One can spend as much money as he could afford on a single official robe if he likes. He just wanted to show to the audience his costumeswere expensive and beautiful. I personally think that it is natural for performing artists, especially those who played the main roles, to be so concerned about their costumes during their performance. This is because it is understandable that the theatre-goers would love to see their idols appearing on stage with beautiful and gorgeous costumes. Frankly speaking, I myself also love to see beautiful, colourful and expensivecostumes in an opera. I hate to see an opera ofwhich most of the important roles were wearing shabby costumes. I think this is quite commonamong the audience.

13. Lianpu 臉譜 (Painted Face) and Beards The literal meaning of lianpu is facial makeup in operas. But here we would like to confine it to a narrower sense. It means painted face, aspecial type of facial makeup for the role of jing 淨or lao sheng 老生 (the aged male role) in Yueju opera, whose social status, personal characters oreven appearances are rather extraordinary, quite different from ordinary people1. There are hundreds of different forms of painted face in Beijing opera, but there are onlyabout 150 forms in Yueju. In other words, the less important forms of painted face have beeneliminated in Yueju, so they are more confinedand simplified. Strictly speaking, the painted face only shows the character and the mind of the role in the opera. It is an illustration of the internal elements of the roles, not the external appearance. Basically, ithas nothing to do with the actual look of the roles.So, by looking at the overall design of the paintedface, the audience will know instantly whether this role is good or bad, noble or wicked, moral or evil. The design of the painted face depends on a number of factors including the patterns, colours and line-drawing, with the second one the most striking. The use of colour has a standard rule to follow. For example, red shows that the role is loyal and righteous, yellow represents a capable and smart role, white reflects craftiness, black depicts attributes of straight forwardness and bluntness, green shows cruelty, blue shows viciousness, purple shows a loyal and careful role, golden and silverly colours represent the supernatural. In fact, there is no need for any explanation, the audience are able to get these sorts of feeling just by looking at the make-up.

Roughly speaking, a painted face can be divided into three sections, the forehead and the two cheeks. On the forehead, we have to pay attention to the two eyebrows and the unusual symbols on it. For the two cheeks, we have to watch out for


c)Guan yi 官衣 robes forordinary officials

d)Zhe zi 褶子 casual robes forcommon folks

the two eye sockets. There are many types of eyebrows and eye-sockets. Each of them has different meaning and gives the audience different feelings.

Regarding patterns of the painted face,the more complicated the pattern, the more complicated the character of the role. It is the same case with line-drawing. For the good or noble character of the role, only two or three colours are used. The two eyebrows and the two eye-sockets are neatly drawn without too many curve lines or crooked lines. The study of the painted face in Chinese opera is therefore interesting and complex. Apart from the jing or aged male role, sometimes the clown or chou in the opera will also have to wear painted face makeup, but it is much more simple than that of the jing role. Usually only a patch of white is painted on the area around thenose to show that this character is bad and wicked. This is also how the term baibige 白鼻哥, thewhite nose guy, in Yueju came from. Beards, including whiskers andmoustache, are closely related to the age, character, appearance and the makeup, especially the paintedface of the roles in the opera. Beards are usuallydesigned in a semi-circular shape and are hungbefore the mouth of the performer with two hookson his ears. Actors are expected to be able tomanipulate their beards to perform beard skills. Allthese techniques are required to match the dancemovements in order to correctly express the feelings of the character. In Yueju, there are as many as 14stylised ways of manipulating the beard. They are tossing, bouncing, moving to and fro, stirring,pinching, smoothing, clasping, holding, rubbing, blowing and shaking, just mention a few. It isindeed fantastic to watch an actor to perform gracefully with his beard. It is, undoubtedly, a great skill of acting and is really a form of art.

14. Makeup The painted face is a special type of facial makeup. Now we come to the general term “makeup” which is referred to the makeup for roles other than the jing role in the opera. I believe that makeup is one of the most important and fascinating parts in performingoperas. To do a good makeup or to do a makeup properly is not easy. Only those very experienced performers can carry out the task perfectly.

15. Stage Designs and Stage Property

a) Stage designs In the early stage of the development of Yueju, the stage design was very simple, because it was, at that time, built in a shed. There was only a backdrop made of some sort of cloth or canvas with very simple drawing as decoration. Then in front of the backdrop, there was a wooden table with two wooden chairs. If they wanted to show the audienceit was a scenery of the city wall they just wrote twobig Chinese characters for city wall 城牆 on a board or even cardboard and put it on top of one of thechairs. It was then supposed to be a scenery of thecity wall, the audience had to use their imagination. Similarly, if people in charge of the stage wanted to illustrate that it was a scenery of a palace, again they would just write two big Chinesecharacters gong dian 宮殿 on a board and place iton the empty chair on the stage showing theaudience that it was a palace. The audience had to visualise that a palace was there. With the development of the Yueju opera, stage design became more and more importantand sophisticated. Hard and solid designs were introduced. It was noted that as early as the 1930s all sorts of hard and solid designs were used as faras possible. In the history of Yueju, 1930s was aperiod of great competition between the twogreat actors, Xue Juexian 薛覺先 (1904-1956)and Ma Shizeng 馬師曾 (1900-1964). Both of them

were regarded as reformists in the history of Yuejuand they had made great contributions to the development of this popular dramatic form. They had high demands for the standard of the stagedesigns of their operas, but some of them were not appropriate, judging from today’s standard. With the development of Yueju, opera troupes began to place more and more emphasis on the presentation of the stage designs in order to attract the audience. In some instances in the 1930s, real objects such as a horse or a motor car were brought to the stage to give a surprise to theaudience. I really think that it had gone too far. I personally think that sometimes too much emphasis

was placed on the stage designs, thus distracting the attention and imagination of the audience, who came primarily to appreciate the singing and acting of the opera artists. The stage designs should just be subsidiary. I personally prefer stage designs to be just appropriate but not ornate or over done, so that audience can fully concentrate on enjoying thesinging and acting of the opera performers.

b) Stage property In the past, or to be more correct, from the beginning of the history of Yueju up to the period of 1920s, all the stage props, especially the costumes, musical instruments, and weapons for martial arts or acrobatic fighting were property belonging to the troupe. They were for the use of all performers in the troupe. Unfortunately after a number of years, these props began to deteriorate and became unsuitable or not good enough for the performers of the opera. So, performers started to acquire their own costumes etc. for personal use, especially in case of the famous performing artists. Then a problem arose. Sometimes, in the opera, the costumes of an ordinary scholar might be more beautiful than those of an emperor, because the one who played the role of the scholar, being a famous artist, could afford to buy more expensive costumes while the one who played the role of the emperor was just a minor performer. Even in 1960s or as late as 1970s I still noticed thisphenomena on the stage. But I am pleased to point out that theabove phenomena has been greatly improved nowadays. One of the reasons is that a director or supervisor system has been introduced, especially for some well-organised and high standard troupes. Attention has been drawn to ensure that allperformers of the opera should be wearing costumes, style and design wise, that are appropriate to theirrole and status in that particular opera. We are delighted to see thatimprovements have been made in the performance of Yueju, although we also regret that a great deal of valuable traditions of this great art form havenot been practised. As a lover of Yueju performance, I sincerely hope that all the traditions can bepreserved and revived.


d This paper is based on the public talk delivered by the author for the Chinese Art Society, Australia on 26 October 2014 Sunday at the Hobart City Council Town Hall.

* The author is former Professor, School of Chinese, the University of Hong Kong, and currently President of

the Chinese Art Society, Australia.h 本文乃根據作者於2014年10月26日(星期日)為澳洲

中國藝術協會於霍巴特市政廳禮堂舉行的公開講座改編而成。

# 作者為前香港大學中文學院正教授。現為澳洲中國藝術協會會長。

1 Ever since I was a small child, I have always been very interested in the philosophy of the “painted face” in opera, especially in Beijing opera which

has a rich culture in “painted face”. In 1971, I completed a lengthy article entitled “The art of painted face in Beijing opera” (in Chinese, published in the Journal of Oriental Studies, Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong, vol.9 No.2,1971) which was well received by the academic circle. A year after the article was published, a professor from the University of Portugal wrote to me asking for my permission to render my article into Portuguese.Beardsbaibige

白鼻哥

Ma Shizeng馬師曾

Xue Juexian薛覺先

ABSTRACTWith the revival in the popularity of Cantonese opera in Hong Kong in the 21st century, the Hong Kong Government, Cantonese opera practitioners, and scholars have exerted great efforts to promote this traditional form of drama to the community,especially to the younger generation. Currently there is an attempt to incorporate the study of classicCantonese opera scripts into the curriculum ofChinese language and literature in secondary schools in Hong Kong. This paper is an analysis of the various issues related to the approach.

進入二十一世紀之後，香港中學中國語文科推行課程改革，除了強調九大元素，包括聆聽、說話、閱讀、寫作、文學、文化、品德、自學和思考等能力，也強調培養學生個性的發展。在這樣的背景下，也隨著政府和業界中人的重視和努力，粵劇作為香港地道，本土色彩濃厚的舞台藝術，其劇本成為學習中國語文和中國文學的重要學習材料。下文簡單介紹在語文改革的課程框架下，粵劇劇本在香港中學語文學習領域教育的展現空間。

隨著對粵劇劇本的文學性的認識和肯定，香港的中學中國語文教育愈來愈重視以粵劇劇本作教材，情況比新世紀初或之前普遍，甚至曾經出現以之作為公開考試的考材。例如2005年的香港中學會考中國文學科，就曾以葉紹德(1929-2009)編撰的《李後主》粵劇劇本的「去國歸降」選段，作為設題依據的材料。不過，審視課程的發展，粵劇劇本能否真正融入語文及文學教育，教學比評估的層次更為應該值得注意和重視。

整體而言，以粵劇劇本作教學材料，主要可以在中國文學科和中國語文科內進行。香港自2009年開始推行的新高中中國文學科，當中設有八個單元可供學校和學生選擇，包括「戲劇文學評賞」，另外教師亦可通過「自擬單元」模式，將粵劇劇本的分析學習引入正常中國文學課程和課堂。另外一科可以進行粵劇劇本教學的自然是中國語文科。中國語文科作為高中學生必修科目，更設有十個學校可自行選擇教授的單元，以筆者觀察，除了可利用自擬單元來進行相關教學，「文化專題探討」和「名著及改編影視作品」兩個教學選修單元，都是十分便利於進行粵劇劇本教學。當然，中國語文和中國文學兩科，課程的中心和教學重點略有不同，以粵劇劇本教學，也會有語文和文學兩大重點的不同偏重。可是，由於有了選修單元和開放教材這些重要的平台，粵劇劇本進入中學課程的學與教部分，就比往時容易多了。另外，除了這兩科外，新高中課程的通識教育科和音樂科，都可以引入校本的編寫和教學重點，同樣是引入粵劇劇本在正規課程的上佳切入點。

無論是在哪一科施教，粵劇劇本的教學，仍然有其本質性的要求。我們當然希望透過研讀優秀的粵劇劇本，增加學生對中國古典戲曲文學的認識；學生能掌握粵劇劇本中運用的文學技巧，自然可以提高賞析、評論文學劇本的能力，培養藝術審美的情趣和習慣。以下稍列出一些筆者以為的基本教學重點，供有興趣的教師參考:

n 認識過去百年，粵劇在香港的基本發展。n 認識粵劇和中國戲曲的傳承關係。n 認識中國傳統戲曲的藝術特點及與中國文學的關係。n 通過研習粵劇劇本，感受、認知和省思中國文化中政治、社會及歷史各方面特色。n 分析及欣賞粵劇劇本中運用的文學藝術技巧和特點。(人物形象、故事結構、語言文辭、藝術手法……)

總結而言，香港中學課程中對中國語文學習領域的改革，是向年青一代推廣粵劇的良好契機。過去，因為由教學課程到考試課程，都絕少觸及粵劇劇本，因此在學校的日常教學，很少

會以之作為教材。現在，隨著教育環境的轉變，再加上粵劇優秀劇本，特別是唐滌生(1917-1959)為仙鳳鳴劇團所創作的數個劇本，廣為文學界及學術界所推崇重視，遂令不少學校和教師願意嘗試擬寫編訂校本教學單元，既教授中國語文和文學，又希望藉此培養學生欣賞粵劇的的興趣和習慣。

當然，前線教學工作，在這方面遇到的困難不少，最明顯的問題是教學經驗不足，數年下來，累積的經驗仍然不算很多。一般大學中文系畢業的教師，在這方面沒有相應的師資訓練，如果要配合演出來教學，這方面的藝術要求，就成為更大的困難。此外，教學材料不足，粵劇劇本的版權，無論是由文字或者影音的部分，都有很多模糊不清的地方，成為制肘。所以，如何可以在未來的日子，讓社會有更大的參與和支持，教育當局投放更多的資源，學校可以在業界和官方的合作下，提供更多的配套資源，一切一切，仍端賴整個社會大環境的配合。


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#8, AUG 2015

香港中國語文課程改革下的粵劇劇本教材潘步釗博士

The Incorporation of Cantonese Opera Scripts into Course Materials for the Teaching of Chinese

Language and Literature in Secondary Schools

in Hong KongDr. Poon Po-chiu *

#

# 作者為香港著名作家及中國古典戲曲研究學者。現為香港裘錦秋中學(元朗)校長。

* The author is a renowned writer and researcher on classical Chinese drama. He is currently the Principal of Ju Ching Chu Secondary School (Yuen Long) in Hong Kong.

A recent journey from Beijing to Hong Kong was my second adventure into China. The first was in 1999 when I travelled from Nepal to Tibet over the Himalayan Mountains to Lhasa. I have been back from Eastern China for a few weeks yet have struggled to find a cohesive theme to write about as I have barely touched the surface of this vast and fascinating country. However a few days ago when sending off my artist statement I found a way into this small ‘dilemma’, but in no means a way out. Several years ago I wrote the following in regards to my work, “Finding inspiration in the mythological stories of metamorphosis, my work traverses between figuration and abstraction. The painting constantly changes between form and formless, between the familiar and the unfamiliar. I strive for a painting that has a sense of the mysterious, organically hovering and dissolving over the surface of the canvas.’’ On reflection I am always looking for contrasts, the differences between transparent and opaque, static and ephemeral, soft and sharp. I think this helps to explain my desire to travel and the choice of less familiar paths. China is fascinating in that it has so many contrasts, one of the most obvious being those between cities and the country villages, ancient and modern life. From Beijing I went to Xian, Shanghai, Hongcun, Xiamen and Hong Kong via remote areasof the Great Wall, the Yellow Mountain otherwise known as Huangshan 黃山, not so remoteconsidering the thousands of Chinese tourists there, Tulou 土樓 Village, Yangshu and the Longji Rice Terraces 龍脊梯田. By the way some of the ‘small’ towns have a greater population than Tasmania…and that the first week of May is a Chinese public holiday, Chinese readers will understand this. The metamorphosis from traditional village life to the sparkling cities such as Shanghai is staggering andso is the way the ancient landscape sits within and around the artifice of contemporary culture. The following are a few of the highlights of my journey. Flying to Beijing was a last minute decision and within three weeks of the idea taking form, I was suddenly standing opposite the Forbidden City after a long flight and arriving at my hotel at2:30 am that morning. Thankfully I had the address written in Chinese, of 798 Art District. With a limited

stay in Beijing I decided to brave the underground to the last stop followed by a taxi, and went to 798 rather than the Forbidden City, hopefully to make it back later in the day to the Forbidden City. That was before I realised how big Beijing is. 798 is a contemporary art zone located in the Dashanzi, Chaoyang district, north east of the city. Formally it was a series of factories, which began as a result of the “Socialist Unification Plan” involving military-industrial cooperation between the Soviet Union and the new People’s Republic of China. However the People’s Liberation Army stillneed to produce electronic components and the Russians advised that they consulted with EastGermany, where Russia imported many of their electronics equipment. The result was a series of Bauhaus-influenced warehouses based on the principle of form follows function, hence largeopen spaces. Factories were built with high, north facing windows giving a cool, constant light,resulting in few shadows, perfect for building electronic components. Ironically these spaces are perfect for art galleries and 798 is now a thriving art district. In 1995 The Central Academy of Fine Arts was looking for larger premises and moved further from the city centre to 798. Since then local and international artists and studios including galleries, designers, high-end tailors, publishers, retail outlet, cafes and restaurants have moved in. One exhibition that intrigued me was ’Three Rams Bringing Happiness and Prosperity,’(三羊開泰) a Chinese contemporary group exhibition with the theme of Year of the Ram,as shown in the photos below.

Since my return I discovered that the Chinese New Year started from the end of yearreligious ceremony in the Shang 商 dynasty (1766-1122 BC), some believe it started even earlier at the time of Emperors Yao 堯 (c.2356-2255 BC) and Shun 舜 (2294-2184 BC). Although a contemporary art exhibition it demonstrated how influential and close to the Chinese psyche the traditional Chinese mythologies remain. The contrast of ancient and contemporary creates a tension within the work in the exhibition. For example looking more closely at the transparent sheep you notice that it is filled with discarded fast food wrappers and rubbish.

From Beijing I travelled to the country via a remote area of the Great Wall of China to Shanghai and onto to Huangshan. A UNESCO world heritage site, the stunning peaks of Huangshan, shaped by Quaternary Glaciation 100 million years ago, are world famous.

Its former name was Yishan 黟山, Mount Yi, and was changed to Huangshan in 747 by Emperor Xuanzong 玄宗 of the Tang dynasty (618-907). It was thought to be in honour of the mythic Huang Di 黃帝 or Yellow Emperor. He was the mythological Ancestor of the Han Chinese who in one legend ascended to Heaven from Huangshan. The first use of the name Huangshan is also associated with the poet Li Bai 李白 (699-762) who was no doubt captivated by the beauty of the mountainous scenery. Besides the granite peaks and pine trees the site is mystical in that the mist and clouds appear to touch the

Hidden Dragon :A few notes from China

Corinne Costello

潛藏的龍 :漫遊中國隨筆

科琳娜

*

#


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#8, AUG 2015

mountain peaks more than 200 days a year. Huangshan has inspired much poetry and art, especially Chinese ink painting. At the Shanghai Museum I found a collection of ink paintings by Wang Yuanqi 王原祈 (1642-1715), also known by his literary name Lutai 麓台, Shishi Daoren 石師道人. He was one of the ‘Six Masters of the Early Qing’1 adept at landscape painting often inspired by Huangshan. Centuries ago when poets and artists were capturing their ideas on paper it is easy to imagine that at Huangshan they were truly at the point of the sublime where man, earth and Heaven meet.

Ten hours after leaving the modern and beautiful city of Shanghai I arrived at Tulou Village in the Fujian countryside.

Home of the Hakka 客家 people a ‘Tulou’ is an earthen building, a communal house, built in a round formation often three or four stories high. This area is famous for tea, of which I added to my ever- expanding collection, eventually arriving home with an extra bag just for tea. It was also, like much of China an amazing place to take photographs. At every turn throughout China red lanterns can be seen but the ones at Tulou Village had been discarded in dark, dusty rooms. Now a remnant of past celebrations, the lanterns suddenly came to life in the photos. (see Lantern photos)

The last two photos I would like to include are of waterlilies at Yangshou and Hongcun which lead me to the final highlight of my trip ending in Hong Kong.

For an afternoon I was very lucky to be the guest of Ms Christine To at the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole 饒宗頤學術館 at the University of Hong Kong. Christine is the assistant curator of art who very kindly showed me around the school galleries and their collection of Professor Jao Tsung-i’s (饒宗頤教授, b.1917) work. Many thanks also to Professor Wong Shiu Hon who has introduced me to Prof. Jao’s work and organised for me to meet Christine and possibly Dr Thomas Tang (鄧偉雄博士). In real life Professor Jao’s work appears remarkably fresh and young in execution and in spirit. For me it is amazingly abstract reaching beyond the edges of the rice paper, rich in colour and movement. Poetic. The lotus flower, the familiar motif of Professor Jao, symbolises purity of heart and mind. It represents a long life, humility, honour and tranquillity. Having never met Professor Jao I can only imagine that the ‘lotus’ does well describe his nature too. Dr. Tang also very kindly took time to talk to me of the nature of ‘great’ art. If I have interpreted this correctly he says that great art displays the essence of the artists’ own interpretation of the subject, a projection from his own mind and subject to his emotions. The artist

may or may not have exemplary technical skills toachieve this but may still be able to evoke great emotion in his work. In conclusion there is really no conclusion. After writing these few notes I am drifting away on lots of tangents and wondering how this fascinating journey will eventually manifest in my own art. However one discovery I made whilst away, that really appealed to my sense of mythic narrative, is that the ancient Chinese believed that they are descendants of the Dragon, legendary creatures symbolizing potent powers. In regards to yin and yang a dragon is yang and complements the yin which in Chinese is the phoenix. So when I returned to my painting studio in Hobart I could see the ‘Hidden Dragon’ in my lastwork, as is shown below.

P.21

* The author is an artist, researcher and traveller. She teaches oil painting to small groups and private students.

She is represented by Colville Gallery (www.colvillegallery. com.au) and the Henry Jones IXL Art Hotel (www.thehenr yjones.com).# 作者是一位畫家、研究者及旅行家。從事教授小

組或個別學生油畫。作品現藏於Colville Gallery (網址 : www.colvillegallery.com.au) 及Henry Jones IXL Art Hotel (網址 : www.thehenryjones.com)。

Hidden Dragon : A few notes from ChinaCorinne Costello

1 The Six Masters were Yun Shouping 惲壽平 (1633-1690), Wu Li 吳歷 (1632-1718), Wang Shimin 王時敏 (1592-1680), Wang Jian 王鑒 (1598-1677), Wang Hui 王翬 (1632-1717) and Wang Yuanqi.

ABSTRACTDespite the fact that the author has not actually learned directly under Master Bao Shaoyou (1892-1985) and Master Liu Bingheng (1915-2003), he still respects them and regards them as his teachers in his art journey. Master Bao was an outstanding artist on flowers and birds. He was also a dedicated art educator. The author has gained considerable nourishment from the vivid painting techniquesof Master Bao who was trained in Japan. Master Liu was a traditional artist and was adept at landscape painting. In comparing to the other teachers, the author considers that his work has not beeninfluenced too greatly by Master Liu, however, he is very grateful to the master’s encouragement and advice in his pursuit for perfection.

我的繪畫老師有好幾位，除了啟蒙老師李鳳公先生（1884-1967）和梁伯譽先生（1903-1979）外，還有偶像老師劉海粟教授（1896-1994）和饒宗頤教授（1917年生），更有鮑少游先生（1892-1985）和劉秉衡先生（1915-2003）。後兩位老師，因我未有正式拜於其門牆執弟子之禮，故充其量只可稱為我的「半個老師」。但是，他們在我的心目中，卻是實實在在的老師了。我覺得稱他們為「老師」，心中是比較舒服些。那麼，所謂「半個老師」的實際情況是怎樣的呢？先說鮑老師。在上世紀五十年代初期，我和三兄兆顯剛剛從李老師和梁老師學習完四年繪畫之後，三兄有機會到鮑老師處學畫，而我卻沒有，但是三兄每次帶回來鮑老師的課徒畫稿，我都臨摹過一兩次，故學到了不少新的技法，而這些技法都是從李老師和梁老師處學不到的。這些技法，尤其是花鳥畫的特別渲染法，對我後來的畫藝幫助不少。可是，自始至終我也沒有機會向鮑老師提過我曾經臨摹他的畫稿一事。每次遇到他，我只是禮貌地稱他「鮑先生」而已。說到劉老師，他是我讀小學時的一位教師，但是因為當時我讀初小，而他教高小，故我還沒有資格做他的學生。他是三兄兆顯的

老師，但由於他知道我隨李老師和梁老師學畫，繪畫的根底不錯，故很多時都鼓勵我甚至指點我努力習畫。後來大家離開那小學後，因三兄之故，彼此更熟落了，變為「忘年交」，成為「半師半友」了。可是，說實話，在繪畫藝術上，無論是技法或風格，我受到劉老師的影響很少，至少很不明顯。其實，劉老師的畫藝很高，可以作為我的老師有餘。不久之前，友人送給我劉老師的兩本畫冊，小心細看和研究之後，覺得自己當時沒有好好地向劉老師學習是我的損失。我這兩位老師，可談的實在不少，尤其是鮑老師，因為他的技法十分豐富，給我的影響實在不少。

鮑老師是繪畫藝術的多面手，不獨精於花鳥畫和人物畫，走獸畫亦很不尋常。此外，山水畫亦佳，很有個人風格。鮑老師早年遊學日本，成績優異，屢獲大獎，二十多歲已被譽為「支那少年畫伯」，蜚聲國際，為時人所重。又因為同時遊學東洋的關係，與嶺南畫派大師高劍父（1879-1951）、高奇峰（1889-1933）和陳樹人（1881-1948）甚稔（實際上，鮑老師和陳樹人是西京美術工藝專校的同學），惺惺相惜，互相交流，在繪畫技法上和風格上都有相似的地方。例如在技法上，他們都很重視渲染和設色；在風格上，大家都力求超越傳統，追求創新。在各種畫類之中，我最欣賞和佩服的是鮑老師的花鳥畫，在設色和渲染方面的功力是很少人及得上的。他畫的孔雀和蒼鷹精神飽滿，栩栩如生；他筆下的牡丹和玫瑰色彩豔麗，令人百看不厭。我尤其欣賞他畫蒼鷹，它們威而不猛，神態自然，比高氏昆仲所畫的更為可愛、耐看。我覺得在畫蒼鷹方面，我多多少少受到鮑老師的影響。我家中還藏有幾幅鮑老師的畫稿，其中一幅「危巖蒼鷹」我視為至寶！這幅畫雖然不是「用心」之作，（因為是課堂之畫稿嘛！）但卻畫得十分生動傳神，真是「氣韻生動」的一個極佳例子！鮑老師不止是位出色畫家，又是一位偉大的美術教育家，他於上世紀二十年代已投身於美術教育，1927年即任廣東省佛山美專及廣州市美專國畫系主任教授。1928年在

香港創辦「麗精美術學院」，提倡美育，至1985年他去世之時，五十多年一直未有停止過開辦，成為香港美術學院中歷史最悠久的一所。鮑老師一生就只是寫畫和教畫。稍有餘力，便作點藝術研究工作，曾著有《中國畫六法論》、《國畫之不即不離說》，《卅年藝苑經驗談》、《中國畫鑒賞法》、《故宮博物院名畫之欣賞》、《鮑少游畫論集》、《石濤與大千》等等，俱為很有見地和參考價值之著作。


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#8, AUG 2015

我的繪畫老師 (四) :鮑少游先生和劉秉衡先生

黃兆漢教授My Teachers in

Chinese Painting (4) :Master Bao Shaoyou and

Master Liu BinghengProf. Wong Shiu Hon *

#

P.23我的繪畫老師(四):鮑少游先生和劉秉衡先生

黃兆漢教授

# 作者為前香港大學中文學院正教授。現為澳洲中國藝術協會會長。

* The author is former Professor, School of Chinese, the University of Hong Kong, and currently President of

the Chinese Art Society, Australia.

於此不能不提的是鮑老師的兩套大型人物畫：「長恨歌詩意圖」和「水滸傳人物」。我曾於上世紀八十年初香港大學馮平山博物館舉辦的「鮑少游畫展」中參觀過其中一部分，其構圖之講究，線條之精美，設色之工巧，造型之生動，表情之逼真，可說是無與倫比的，確是「驚心動魄」之作！至今，記憶猶新。

劉秉衡老師的畫藝，所走的路線跟鮑老師完全兩樣。劉老師是位傳統的畫家——山水畫家，雖然不乏個人面目。他是從元四大家（黃公望（1269-1354）、王蒙（1308-1385）、吳鎮（1280-1354）、倪瓚（1306-1374））入手的，尤以寫王蒙和吳鎮最精。還記得，在上世紀五十年代，有一次到劉老師家中，見到他畫桌前面的牆上掛著四幅畫——寫元四大家的畫，我問他為甚麼特別掛那幾幅畫，他向我解釋說，那幾幅是為學生而畫的，看看他們喜歡那一家的畫，便教他們從那一家入手。實際上，最基本的原因，劉老師要學生從元人入手！當時我最欣賞的是寫吳鎮的那一幅，因為覺得筆精墨妙，至為沉雄渾厚。時至今日，我還依稀記得那幅畫的內容和構圖。但後來，似乎劉老師更鍾情於王蒙，對王蒙的鑽研越來越深，寫王蒙亦越來越精妙了。我相信在二十世紀中寫王蒙的很少人可以跟劉老師相比。元人之外，劉老師又師明末四僧（石濤（1642-約1718）、八大山人（1626-1705）、石谿（1612-1692）、漸江（1610-1664）），尤其是八大山人和石濤，鑽研極深。這

在他晚年的作品中，尤其是那些小品和扇面，表現得最為明顯。讀劉老師的畫，我注意到一點，就是他特別喜歡用濕筆去寫。這或許令到他不常寫或無刻意去寫倪瓚和漸江，甚至往往不願意接近黃公望的一大原因，因為這三家都比較喜歡用渴筆去寫。但劉老師寫王蒙，寫吳鎮、石濤和石谿是極有功力和精妙入骨的。這是性近和情趣使然，非關能否之事。

我也喜愛元四家和明末四僧畫，但是於元四家中，我尤愛黃公望與倪瓚；於明末四僧中，我比較喜歡漸江，可能就是由於這個原因，我受劉老師的影響並不大。這當然不等於說我不喜歡劉老師的畫。劉老師的畫，客觀地說，功深力厚，藝術價值是甚高的。這一點無容置疑，早已成為公論。也許，在未來的歲月，我會更細細研讀劉老師的畫，相信一定可以從中找到一點我需要的營養，去幫助我的畫藝作進一步發展的。撰寫這篇小文章之際，我手捧著劉老師的兩本畫冊，不期然地泛起昔日師徒親切交往的懷念。

5 March 2015Dinner Talk by Richard MulvaneyThe CAS 5 March Dinner Talk by Richard Mulvaney,Director, QVMAG was held successfully. The venue(Me Wah) was packed with participants who enjoyedthe interesting talk, good service and great food! Richard gave a talk on the Chinese Settlement in North East Tasmania and the Guan Di Temple.

14 May 2015Formal Welcome to the New Director of TMAGThe Hon. Vanessa Goodwin MLC, Minister for the Arts,hosted a reception to formally welcome Janet Carding to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery on 14 May Thursday at Premier’s Reception Room.

26 March 2015Talk and Demonstration ofChinese Ink PaintingProf. Wong Shiu Hon gave a talk and demonstration of Chinese ink painting for the Australia China Friendship Society (Tasmanian Branch) on 26 March 2015. Three paintings and one calligraphy were demonstrated.

PATRONProf. Jao Tsung-iUniversity of Hong KongHON. ADVISORSSir Guy GreenProf. C. T. LoUniversity of HawaiiProf. Chan Yiu-namUniversity of Hong KongDr. Thomas TangUniversity of Hong KongDr. Andy Shui Lung FungBNU-HKBU United International College, Zhuhai, China

Mr. Bill BleathmanMr. Richard MulvaneyQueen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery

PRESIDENTProf. Wong Shiu HonVICE-PRESIDENTMr. David Coleman HON. SECRETARYMs. Julie Walters HON. TREASURERMs. Jan EverettLIAISON OFFICERMs. Corinne Costello

NORTHERN REPRESENTATIVEMr. Leo CuiHONG KONG REPRESENTATIVEMs. Christine ToCOMMITTEE MEMBERSDr. Tony BrownMr. Barry HineMs. Yvonne HineMs. Virginia Vaughan WilliamsMrs. Nancy Wong

Chinese Art Society, AustraliaEstablished July 2013 in Hobart, TasmaniaChief EditorProf. Wong Shiu HonEditorial BoardMs. Corinne CostelloMrs. Nancy WongMs. Virginia Vaughan Williams

Newsletter of the Chinese Art Society, Australia

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P.24#8, AUG 2015

Reminiscences ofMemorable Moments

活動重溫

S p e c i a l t h a n k s a r e d u e t o M r. L e o C u i f o r s p o n s o r i n g t h e p r i n t i n g o f t h i s

i s s u e o f t h e N e w s l e t t e r.本期通訊承蒙崔立先生贊助印刷，

謹此致謝。

Richard Mulvaney, and Jennifer Storer

Ella Woods-Joyce, and Prof. Wong

Janet Carding, Director of TMAG, and Prof. Wong

Dr. Tony Brown, Bessy Cui, Leo Cui, Richard Mulvaney, and Prof. Wong

Lucky winner All the prize winners

Sir Guy Green is a strong supporter of CAS

The Hon. Vanessa Goodwin MLC, Minister for the Arts

Prof. Peter Rathjen (centre), VC of the University of Tasmania,Dr. Joy Rathjen, and Prof. Wong

Lord Mayor Alderman Sue Hickey, and Prof. Wong

Richard Mulvaney, and Prof. Wong

The Hon. Vanessa Goodwin,and Prof. Wong

Documents

Exhibition of Jao Tsung-I's Artistic Attainments 學藝融通—饒宗頤百歲