AMOY OPERA FROM FUJIAN
October 17, 2007, 6:21 pm
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Amoy Opera | Tags:
78 rpm,
78rpm,
Amoy Opera,
beijing opera,
cantonese opera,
chinese opera,
erhu,
His Master's Voice,
HMV,
Peking Opera,
teochew
Welcome back, Dear Reader, for another dose of of exceedingly obscure Chinese Opera. This time we have an example of Amoy Opera on the His Master’s Voice label. Amoy (aka Hokkien) is a language/dialect from the Southern Chinese province of Fujian, which neighbors the Guangdong province, the origin of our last posting of Teochew Opera. Amoy is directly across the strait from Taiwan and the language and music are basically the same. Like the Teochew people, the Fujian people emigrated to many parts of Southeast Asia, taking their music and language with them. Forms of this opera style are still popular in the region today.
A bit noisy at first, but it clears up…Enjoy!
>HMV 24-12941
THREE MALE ACTORS PLAYING FEMALE ROLES
It was not uncommon to see men draped in the habiliments of female characters in many forms of Chinese Opera, especially in Peking Opera. This was partly a result of strict social codes that prevented women from stage performance, but also traditions going back hundred’s of years. This started changing at the beginning of the 1900’s and by the 1930’s actresses were commonplace. As in many forms of traditional music around the world at this time, Chinese Opera’s popularity was challenged by new “popular” music, causing the older music to try to adapt. Unlike some other traditional music, Chinese Opera managed to survive.
TEOCHEW OPERA FROM SOUTHERN CHINA
October 9, 2007, 9:52 pm
Filed under:
Teochew Opera | Tags:
78 rpm,
78rpm,
Amoy Opera,
beijing opera,
cantonese opera,
Chinese music,
chinese opera,
erhu,
Peking Opera,
Southeast Asian music,
teochew 
Here’s a beautiful and hypnotic Teochew Opera on the obscure Tiger label. Teochew is a Chinese dialect from the Guangdong region of Southern China. The Teochew music bears more resemblance to Southeast Asian music than other Chinese opera forms, especially the Peking opera (in fact, this was recorded in Thailand according to one of our readers, see comments for further info). This record is a great example of the measured rhythm and clear melody of the Teochew style, with little of the wild percussive effects of the Peking style. During the 18th-20th centuries there was much emigration from Guangdong into Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere in the region and a healthy Teochew Opera scene existed in those places until recently.
>TIGER 1048D
