The Appreciation of Chinese Opera: A Reply to Ching-Hsi Perng

Abstract

This essay is a response to Ching-Hsi Perng's article, At the Crossroads: Peking Opera in Taiwan Today, which appeared in the Fall 1989 issue of Asian Theatre Journal. Much of Perng's attitude toward Peking opera is shared by many critics of the opera. This essay is offered not only as an appraisal of Perng's article; it is further meant to address what I perceive to be a lack of understanding and regard for a fundamental principle of the appreciation of Peking opera. It is common knowledge that there is currently a lull in the popularity of Peking opera in Taiwan. Perng claims that the unpopularity of Peking opera is due to weaknesses in the form itself, and he feels that Peking opera should be reformed in order to make it more popular, even if the resulting theatrical form is no longer Peking opera. Perng lists four major areas in which he believes Peking opera is in need of change. It is not my intention here to address each of Perng's criticisms in detail. Rather, my response focuses on his criticism of Peking opera's music and what he calls its deficient dramatic scripts (p. 131). I will begin by briefly mentioning the other two areas which Perng finds inadequate and raising several questions related to these issues. Perng maintains that the general audience often cannot comprehend the words of the arias or the spoken text. The question of how much of the text the casual listener may or may not understand is very complicated. But why should the incomprehensibility of the language make the enjoyment of Peking opera impossible? It apparently serves as no barrier to the enjoyment of American pop tunes, or to the appreciation of Western opera, both of which are sung in lan-