The Language Features and Cultural Implication of Cantonese Opera Librettos

Abstract

Cantonese Opera is a traditional drama popular in Guangfu area. Its script librettos have beautiful language and profound cultural connotation. The beauty of script language is mainly reflected in the rich and colorful vocabularies, which mainly includes nine categories: emotional words, image words, written words, dialect words, reduplicative words, disyllabic words, reduplicative words, archaic words and idioms. The rich and colorful words embody the harmonious unity of “elegance and vulgarity”, “depth and shallowness”, “emotion and scenery”, “movement and stillness” and “truth and beauty”, with distinctive regional cultural characteristics and rich classical cultural connotation. In order to better inherit and develop Cantonese opera, on the one hand, it is necessary to study its language characteristics based on the script librettos; on the other hand, it is necessary to pay attention to the close relationship between language and culture, and fully tap the traditional artistic essence and cultural connotation behind the language.