Yangbanxi: Their Emergence and Creative Formula

Abstract

Something unprecedented in the history of Chinese opera occurred during the twelve years between 1964 and 1976. Thousands of performance troupes across the country, which had specialized in over 360 types of Chinese operas, all devoted their efforts to modernized operas and yangbanxi Peking opera, or “model opera” (or “revolutionary operas”). Local troupes without access to instruction on authentic Peking opera created and staged their own works modeled on yangbanxi. In an unstoppable wave, Yangbanxi, mainly modernized Peking opera, swept across the country and dominated the stage, and later the screen, while a tremendous number of traditional operas and newly composed period plays and dramas were consigned to the dustbin of history. Yangbanxi did not come into being overnight. A review of its formation reveals that the yangbanxi works created by opera composers had been coopted and distorted by Jiang Qing in her attempts to usurp power from the Party and the government. These formulaic works wreaked havoc on Chinese literature and art.