Less Is More: Audience Cognition of Comic Simplification in the Characters of Peking Opera

A simplified approach was used to determine if “Less is More” is still a trend in comics’ Peking opera characters. There were 225 website volunteers who took part in the study. Via a questionnaire survey and analysis, this study explored the feasibility of “simplification” in comedy. The results indicate that the proposed “simplifying” approach can be applied to the creation of dramatic characters, but the scale of simplification must be adjusted flexibly to suit different subjects. For audiences, there is not much recognition and sympathy for the works that are simplified in the extreme and the current symbolization. The simplification used in this study is merely the first step in testing the usefulness of simplification as an approach. It is used as a means of understanding the cognition of the audience to accept the simple features of Peking opera characters. In subsequent studies, the proposed “simplified” approach is necessary to adapt and improve with a view to practical application. It also requires an in-depth analysis of the cognitive differences of the different participants according to the cognitive and communication theories of artistic creation.

The Implication of Traditional Chinese Culture in Peking Opera

Beijing Opera, as a national opera, is also a part of Chinese traditional culture, is an important form of traditional Chinese culture. It not only shows the characteristics of Chinese traditional culture, but also contains fine traditional virtues and spiritual thoughts. In order to spread the Chinese culture like Peking Opera from generation to generation and promote its international spread, this paper aims to explore the characteristics and implications of traditional Chinese culture embodied in Peking Opera.

An Unorthodox Voice: The Rise of Female Qinshi, Their Challenges, and Their Pursuits

(English/Chinese)Jinghu is the lead accompaniment instrument in the Peking opera ensemble. Qinshi are the accompanists who play jinghu. Traditionally, jinghu was regarded as a male instrument; female qinshi first appeared in educational institutions subsidised by the People’s Republic of China in the 1950s. Nevertheless, till now, the-all-male jinghu performance history and standards influenced by the virile ethos have deeply influenced contemporary female qinshi’s performances and recognition of their musicality and contributions to jinghu performance. In this article, I explore the rise of female qinshi, their challenges to jinghu performance conventions, and their contributions to contemporary jinghu performance.

A Literary Exploration of Existential Feminism in the Novella The Moon Opera Through the Application of Intertextuality Theory

Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s in the western world, which focused on criticizing the patriarchal institutions or cultural practices throughout the society. Originating several centuries earlier, Chinese opera culture has been ahead of its time in demonstrating the male-dominated society’s oppression against women. As one of the principal founders of second-wave feminism, Simone de Beauvoir’s classical feminist theory in her book, The Second Sex, mainly introduced the sex-gender distinction. In this article, the author aims to reveal how Bi Feiyu, the writer of The Moon Opera, successfully conveyed existential feminist ideas, especially Beauvoir’s famous assertion that "one is not born but becomes a woman", through his careful selection of the art type Qing Yi (Qingyi is the main woman role in Peking Opera and often plays dignified, serious, and decent characters, which are mostly wives or mothers undergoing severe ordeal) and the portrayal of two generations of Qing Yi performers. In the process of analysis, the author not only examined Bi Feiyu’s application of intertextuality theory, but also derived conclusions from other mainstream feminist thoughts such as the feminist theory of the dressed female body and the transactional sex theory.

Comparative analysis of the opera “Turandot” by G. Puccini and the Beijing Opera “Princess Turandot”

Проводится сравнительный анализ оперы Дж. Пуччини «Турандот» и пекинской оперы «Принцесса Турандот», который выстраивается на основе оппозиции Запад-Восток. Целью исследования является изучение специфических особенностей пекинской оперы, осуществляемое в опоре на историко-стилевой и культурологический подходы. В ходе исследования доказывается, что принципиальное несовпадение западного классического образца и пекинской версии истории о китайской принцессе определяется разностью культурных традиций, в опоре на которые формируется менталитет творческой элиты Запада и Востока. Теоретическая новизна обусловлена выявлением культурных отличий, обнаруживаемых в таком синтетическом жанре музыкального искусства, как западная опера и пекинская опера. Практическая значимость состоит в возможности использовать полученные данные в процессе интерпретации и реинтерпретации сказки К. Гоцци не в контексте оперного творчества, но и в рамках мирового художественного наследия, частью которого выступает спектакль «Принцесса Турандот». Поставленный в 1922 году Е. Вахтанговым, он и сегодня остается в репертуаре театра, вызывая восторг у публики. The paper presents a comparative analysis of the operas “Turandot” and “Princess Turandot”, which is built on the basis of the West-East opposition. In one case, we are talking about the creation of G. Puccini, in the other - about the Peking opera. The aim of the research is to study the specific features of the Peking opera, carried out in reliance on the historical, stylistic and culturological approaches. The study proves that the fundamental discrepancy between the Western classical model and the Peking version of the story about the Chinese princess is determined by the difference in cultural traditions, on the basis of which the mentality of the creative elite of the West and the East is formed. The theoretical novelty of the study is due to the identification of cultural differences found in such a synthetic genre of musical art as Western opera and Peking opera. The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility to use the obtained data in the process of interpretation and reinterpretation of C. Gozzi's fairy tale not in the context of operatic creativity, but also within the framework of the world artistic heritage, of which the play “Princess Turandot” is a part. Staged in 1922 by E. Vakhtangov, it remains in the theater's repertoire today, delighting the audience.

The Peking Opera or the Beijing Opera? An International Usage Frequency Analysis Based on the Corpus of Global Web-based English (GLoWbE)

The regional differences in the frequency of synonym use reflect the social cognition of various speech groups. Both Peking opera and Beijing opera refer to an identical Chinese cultural entity, but they differ considerably in international usage frequency in the GLoWbE where disparity can be manifested among 20 English-speaking communities. Beijing opera enjoys a slightly higher frequency than Peking opera in total, and several Asian and African countries even have no relevant data concerning this art. Besides, we explore some potential reasons for interpreting these phenomena.