Revolutionary opera

This article is about the Chinese opera genre. For the North Korean opera genre, see Korean revolutionary opera.

Traditional Chinese樣板戲
Simplified Chinese样板戏
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyinyàngbǎnxì
Wade–Gilesyang4 pan3 hsi4
IPA[jâŋpànɕî]

In People's Republic of China (1949–), revolutionary operas or model operas (Simplified Chinese: yangban xi, 样板戏) were a series of shows planned and engineered during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) by Jiang Qing, the wife of Chairman Mao Zedong.[1] They were considered revolutionary and modern in terms of thematic and musical features when compared with traditional Chinese operas. Many of them were adapted to film.

Originally, eight revolutionary operas (Chinese: Ba Ge Yangban Xi, 八个样板戏) were produced, eighteen by the end of the period. Instead of the "emperors, kings, generals, chancellors, maidens, and beauties" of the traditional Peking opera, which was banned as "feudalistic and bourgeois," they told stories from China's recent revolutionary struggles against foreign and class enemies. They glorified the People's Liberation Army and the bravery of the common people, and showed Mao Zedong and his thought as playing the central role in the victory of communism in China. Although they originated as operas, they soon appeared on LPs, in comic books (lianhuanhua), on posters, postcards, and stamps; on plates, teapots, wash basins, cigarette packages, vases, and calendars. They were performed or played from loudspeakers in schools, factories, and fields by special performing troupes.[2] The Eight Model Operas dominated the stage in all parts of the country during these years, leading to the joke "Eight hundred million people watched eight shows."[3]

  1. ^ Lu, Xing (2004). Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: the impact on Chinese thought, culture, and communication. University of South Carolina Press. pp. 143–150. ISBN 1570035431.
  2. ^ Barbara Mittler, ""Eight Stage Works for 800 Million People": The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in Music — A View from Revolutionary Opera." The Opera Quarterly 26, no. 2 (2010): 377. [1] (accessed April 30, 2013).
  3. ^ Paul Clark. The Chinese Cultural Revolution: A History. (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008). ISBN 9780521875158 p. 2.