Bai Xianyong and His Passion for Kunqu Opera

March 11， 2010 marked the inauguration of an ambitious five-year Kunqu Opera project at Peking University. The project is named after Bai Xianyong， a Taiwan writer who has helped usher in a renaissance for the ancient opera on the Chinese mainland since 2004. The project is more than lectures on Kunqu， a 600-year-old Chinese opera genre and world cultural heritage recognized in May 2001.

The project constitutes a platform for the university and the writer working together to promote Kunqu to students in various ways. During the specified five years， the project will hold this selective course for students at Peking University， stage Kunqu Opera Culture Week and representative Kunqu plays， promote digital Kunqu project， set up a celebrity league to further promote Kunqu Opera， and set up and operate a foundation for carrying the tradition forward into future.

The students in the School of Arts at Peking University responded most warmly to the selective course. The school had planned to accept 120 applicants and ended up accepting 80 more. The first lecture on March 11， 2010 by Bai Xianyong attracted more than 300. Some students jokingly dubbed it as “the most coveted course in history”. Another part of the project is to offer a training course so that enthusiasts can learn the performance basics of Kunqu Opera directly from masters. The organizers had planned to accept 30 finalists for an interview. In the end， 80 came to the interview. They were from many other universities.

This warm response can be construed as young people’s appreciation of the school’s offering， their admiration of Bai Xianyong as a devoted promoter of the ancient Chinese opera， and their curiosity about the charm and grace of the precious heritage.

And their warm participation can also be construed as the success of the long-standing efforts made by the governments at all levels， Kunqu artists and Kunqu aficionados such as Bai Xianyong.

Bai Xianyong’s influence on the mainland as a devoted promoter of Kunqu Opera started in 2004 when he produced a youth-version of “Peony Pavilion”， arguably the most famous highlight of Kunqu Opera. Over the past six years， the youth-version has been a colossal success. Bai adapted the script so that it appeals to the young audiences. The new play stars young artists so that their youth adds glamour and poetry to the ancient romance. More than 180 performances have been staged over the past 6 years， made possible by a fund of nearly 20 million yuan， a big part of the donations being from entrepreneurs in Taiwan， Hong Kong， Macao and the USA. They like the Kunqu Opera as defined by Bai Xianyong and like his dedication. The performances were held in best opera houses and first-rate universities across the country. Moreover， it has been staged in America and Europe.

But Bai Xianyong is modest about his contribution. On an occasion， he said， “I am just the front man. Behind me is a great crowd of supporters and enthusiasts. The youth-version “Peony Pavilion” today is the dream that comes true through the passion， compassion， enthusiasm， and cultural dedication of numerous people. I wish to let the world see Kunqu， the very best and very beautiful of China’s art and I hope it will live forever through the efforts of one generation after another. ”

Peking University is not the only higher education institution in China where Kunqu Opera is a selective course for students. Suzhou University situated in Suzhou in southern Jiangsu Province implements another key project to promote the ancient opera. Suzhou is the birthplace of the graceful opera genre.

If the youth-version “Peony Pavilion” in 2004 is the first landmark of Bai’s efforts to revive the Kunqu Opera his way， then “Jade Hairpin” officially launched in the spring of 2010 will be another milestone of the renaissance of the artistic form.

Bai comments， “If Peony Pavilion is an epic， then Jade Hairpin is a concise essay. They best embody Kunqu as a unique stage art.” An innovative producer， Bai wants the costume and the stage sets as simple as possible. He emphasizes an impressionistic and fashionable style for the new play. He wants the whole romance to unfold like an oriental ink painting scroll.

Hua Wenyi and Yue Meiti， two celebrated Kunqu Opera artists on the mainland， now work as art directors of the latest production. Also engaged in the production are a group of celebrated artists from Taiwan. Bai Xianyong wants this production to be a new chapter of the history of Kunqu.

An established man of letters， Bai Xianyong was first known to the mainlanders as an author of many preeminent stories about the suffering of the people who went to Taiwan from the mainland in the late 1940s. Some of his best stories were adapted into films. He is also known to the mainlanders as the son of Bai Chongxi， a high-ranking KMT general. Born in 1937， Bai Xianyong grew up to be an ardent fan of Kunqu. When he was 10 years old， he watched the first act of Peony Pavilion in Shanghai with his father. The graceful art took roots in his soul. In 1978， he returned to Shanghai after a hiatus of 39 years. The first big thing he did in Shanghai was to watch a three-hour long Kunqu Opera play. Then he went to Nanjing， the capital of Jiangsu Province， to watch another version of the same play again.

If what he had watched in Shanghai as a ten-year-old boy kept haunting him for decades， then the plays he watched after his return to the mainland set his passion for the opera on fire. The man of letters decided to take action to revive the ancient stage form.

He chose Taipei as his base， for Taipei has a lot of Kunqu fans. Then he chose Suzhou another place to promote Kunqu， for it was here that the ancient opera took form about 600 years ago.□