Masters on Masterpieces of Chinese Opera

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The Battle between Kunqu Opera VS. Local Opera and Conception beyond ImageZhang FuzhiThe battle between Kunquo pera and local operasDuring the reign of Emperor Qianlong, the emperor would pass Yangzhou on each southern inspection tour. Some of the local tycoons invested a lot of training theatrical troupes to please the emperor, so there were dozens of stages set up on both sides of the Grand Canal as Emperor Qianlong’s dragon boat went by. Both designed troupes for Kunqu Opera and local operas could been found on the stages. Since its elegant lyric and melody, Kunqu was called “Yabu (Ya means elegance in Chinese)” and also regarded as orthodox； while the variegated and miscellaneous local operas were collectively called “Huabu (Hua has the meaning of ‘miscellaneous’ in Chinese)”. There was a local opera in Yangzhou named “Luantan” (literal meaning is ‘random’ in Chinese, now it refers to general term for Chinese opera melodies) which regarded as the antonomasia of “Huabu”, so the saying “Huabu Luantan” emerged. Using “Luantan” referring to “Hua” had already been an implied derogatory saying, however, the battle between Kunqu opera and local operas was much more acrimonious. Not only in Yangzhou, in many major cities especially in Beijing, this battle was always very fierce, which constitutes the famous “battle between Kunqu opera and local operas” in the history of opera.