Introduction
Jinghu (Peking opera fiddle) is a two-string-bowed instrument (see Figure 1), known simply called huqin (lit. “barbarian instrument”) before the 1950s.Footnote 1 Traditionally, a qinshi (jinghu master) was primarily engaged to offer jinghu accompaniment for Peking opera actors. Since the institutionalisation of qinshi’s training in the 1950s following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the State has created two separate occupational paths for qinshi: the teaching position associated with theatre schools and the performance position attached to Peking opera performance troupes.
Figure 1. Jinghu, the lead melodic accompaniment instrument in the Peking opera ensemble (photograph by author, 12 February 2019).
However, in practice, these two institutionally recognised occupational paths have never been completely separated; on the contrary, they have often overlapped. On the one hand, qinshi who keep full-time jobs in Peking opera troupes might accept apprentices. Some prominent qinshi are even frequently invited to teach jinghu at theatre schools during their spare time. On the other hand, even when jinghu teachers are employed at theatre schools, they might still occasionally offer accompaniment for Peking opera actors. Furthermore, it is common to see some jinghu teachers resign from theatre schools and join Peking opera troupes as jinghu accompanists. Likewise, it is not uncommon that some qinshi will resign from Peking opera performance troupes and join theatre schools as jinghu teachers. In light of these crossovers, in contemporary parlance, the term qinshi also includes jinghu teachers who offer jinghu accompaniments for Peking opera actors in their spare time.
Though female performers had appeared throughout the history of Chinese opera, the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) imposed strict controls on female performers.Footnote 2 Female performers were regarded as corrupting Confucian ethics, and they were therefore excluded from public performance on stage (Cheng Reference Cheng1996; Wang Reference Wang2011; Zheng Reference Zheng, Provine, Tokumaru and Witzleben2001). Yet, being influenced by commercialism, at the turn of the twentieth century, an increasing number of actresses reappeared in some stage performances, such as lianhualuo (lotus flowers falling),Footnote 3 bengbengxi (beng-beng show),Footnote 4 and tanhuang (a ballad-singing genre popularised in the east of China) (Cheng Reference Cheng1996; Stock Reference Stock2003). Around the same time, Peking opera actresses appeared in the Shanghai International Settlement (territorial concessions to foreign countries active in Shanghai) where the decrees issued by the Qing rulers were not applicable (Chou Reference Chou1997; Wang Reference Wang2011). However, information related to female qinshi during this period has not been found in archived documentary evidence. Though Peking opera performance spread to other places in the first half of the twentieth century, female Peking opera performers did not supplant the dominant position of male Peking opera performers. Female impersonations rendered by male Peking opera performers were in vogue at the time.
In her discussion of inter-gender relationships associated with musical instruments, Veronica Doubleday states that, “in an all-male performance tradition, an instrument may take on a masculine ethos…. Furthermore, if an instrument has its gendered identity…this may support the claim of people of that gender to play it” (Doubleday Reference Doubleday2008:14). In Peking opera, female qinshi first appeared in socialist theatre schools in the 1950s, after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Even so, due to the influence of the all-male performance history, doubts and questions regarding female qinshi’s musicality and capability to be a qualified qinshi persisted. For example, in 1980, the Beijing Peking Opera Company published an article, “Nüqinshi Sun Baoyuan” (The Female Qinshi, Sun Baoyuan), through its in-house journal Jingju Yishu (The Artistry of Peking Opera). The report wrote:
This qinshi offered a good accompaniment to voice melodies by using sophisticated skills and correctly and comprehensively wrapping the melodiesFootnote 5…. The audience could not help but look towards the accompanist section…thrillingly pleased but surprised to find a female qinshi. “A female?!” …Baoyuan [the female qinshi described in this article] put forward strict requirements for herself. She says, “Why can’t females be qinshi? How long can the artistic life of a female qinshi last? I will create a road for myself!”Footnote 6 (Yan Reference Yan1980:4)
The report shows that till the early 1980s, female qinshi’s presentation on public stages still incited curiosity. Based on my fieldwork conducted from the summer of 2014 to the summer of 2016, I found that even though more females have become qinshi since the 1950s, the opinion still persists in the Peking opera field that males are more suitable players of the jinghu than females.
Though several scholars have studied Peking opera performances from a gender perspective (Goldstein Reference Goldstein2007; Li Reference Li2010; Wang Reference Wang2011), none of their research focused on Peking opera accompanists and Peking opera accompaniment instruments. This essay will elaborate on the gendered meanings constructed in jinghu performances and female qinshi’s challenges to jinghu’s all-male performance history in the post-socialist era (1978–present) of the PRC from a gender perspective. It will also touch on questions of political intervention in Peking opera’s development, women’s studies in China, and the impact of the market economy on traditional performance arts. I will first discuss gendered meanings constructed in jinghu performance history. Then, I will analyse the rise of female qinshi and their challenges to jinghu performance conventions by taking three female qinshi, Zhang Suying (1947–2003), Wang Caiyun (b.1974), and Zhou Youjun (b.1979), as examples. I will argue that while the masculine virility associated with jinghu performance traditions has been upheld as “normal” and “standard,” the inclusion of femininity in female qinshi’s performance has been disparaged. Even though female qinshi have contributed greatly to jinghu performance, their capabilities and efforts in exploring other forms of jinghu performance have nevertheless been devalued. I will also argue that with the reconstruction of gender differentiation in the post-socialist era, the currency of female consciousness has awakened female qinshi to challenge jinghu performance conventions established by male qinshi. During this process, mass media have played a significant role in promoting and empowering female qinshi.
Gendered Meanings Constructed in Jinghu Performance History
As a lead accompaniment instrument, the gendered meanings constructed in jinghu accompaniment are closely associated with Peking opera role types and vocal music. Traditional Peking opera consisted of four main roles: sheng (male roles), dan (female roles), jing (painted face), and chou (clown). Each role type has subcategories based on several factors, such as gender, age, personality, and social status. For example, the sheng role is subcategorised into laosheng (senior men), xiaosheng (young men), and wusheng (martial men); the dan role is subdivided into qingyi (virtuous women), huadan (vivacious maid), daomadan (martial women), and laodan (senior women). In traditional Peking opera vocal music, gendered meanings are enhanced by the division between nanqiang (male melodies) and nüqiang (female melodies). Yet, male melodies do not include the young-man role, and female melodies do not include the senior-woman role. In terms of singing methods, all male roles, except the young-man role, use dasang (un-falsetto voice) while all female roles, except the senior-woman role, use xiaosang (falsetto voice) (Liu Reference Liu1996).
One possible reason why the painted face and clown roles are not included in the categorisation of male and female melodies could be the abundant repertoire for male and female roles in traditional Peking opera singing which the painted-face and clown roles lack by comparison.Footnote 7 As for the distinctive vocal qualities for the young-man and senior-woman roles, studies have noted that it is because of their highly specialised nature. Adophe Clarence Scott describes the young-man role as one that “mingles the vigor of the male roles with the softness of the female parts,” and he illustrates the senior-woman role as one that “possess[es] a vibrant power typifying the dignity and pride as well as the sadness of old age” (Scott Reference Scott2005[1957]:67–74). In her research on the influence of gender and age on Peking opera music, Elizabeth Wichmann states that age rather than gender is the basis for interpreting the singing characteristics of the young-man role and the senior-woman role. “Young sheng characters have not yet entered the state of adult manhood,” so “to convey the strength of potential manhood,” they are sung with female melodies but “contain slightly less melisma” and “frequently uncharacteristically lower pitches” than other female roles. Also, the senior-woman role has “the same intrinsic dignity associated with” the senior-man role; thus, melodies of the senior-woman role are sung in an un-falsetto voice but pitched higher, and they have more melisma than male melodies (Wichmann Reference Wichmann1991:58).
However, the young-man role has several subtypes in Peking opera. Some subtype roles have entered the state of adulthood and are imbued with romantic characteristics, such as lingzi sheng (the young-general role whose hat has two long feathers) and shanzi sheng (the young-scholar role who always has a fan in his hand). An example is the young-general role, Lü Bu, in the play Lü Bu yu Diao Chan (Lü Bu and Diao Chan), a handsome but foolhardy general with a short temper who falls in love with Diao Chan (one of the four beauties of ancient China). Another example is Zhang Sheng, of the young-scholar type, in the Peking opera play Xi Xiang Ji (The Romance of the Western Chamber), who falls in love with a beautiful lady, Cui Yingying. In this way, I differ from Wichmann’s opinion that age rather than gender explains why the young-man role and the senior-woman role have been placed in the intermediate zones between the female melody and the male melody in Peking opera. Rather, I regard sexuality as the key factor to explain this musical phenomenon.
Ethnomusicological studies have affirmed that sexuality has a comprehensive impact on musical activities and performance presentations.Footnote 8 In her study on gender and music, Ellen Koskoff argues that a woman is primarily seen as a sexual partner in many societies and that the loss of sexuality may enable her to gain a musical role that negates her sexuality or imparts to her a higher social status (Koskoff Reference Koskoff2014:37). In traditional Peking opera, sexuality is associated with ornamented melodic lines. For example, compared to the senior-man role, the young-man role is younger and more sexual. Consequently, the melody of the young-man role is more ornamented than that of the senior-man role. The importance of sexuality can explain the singing characteristics of the senior-woman role in Peking opera as well. Because of a loss of sexuality, the senior-woman role uses the un-falsetto voice associated with the male role, which merges femininity of the female role with the hardy strength of age associated with the male role. Her melodic lines are sung in a lower register and are slightly less ornamented than other female roles in traditional Peking opera repertoires. In contrast, other female roles such as the virtuous-woman role and the vivacious-maid role are sung in a more delicate and ornamented way.
In Peking opera, generally, male melodies have a sonorous and solemn voice. In contrast, female melodies have a bright and delicate voice, and they are usually sung in a slower tempo. In addition to the difference in tempo and timbre, under the division of male melodies and female melodies, gender differences are further constructed in terms of register, cadential notes, and ornamentations. For example, in the Peking opera musical system, xipi (generally used to express bright, active, and joyous sentiments) and erhuang (generally used to express darker moods such as sadness, ponderation, and depression) are the two main musical modes; in the erhuang aria, the range of the virtuous-woman role’s melodies is generally pitched a fourth interval higher than that of the senior-man role. Accordingly, the cadential note of the closing line in a couplet for the virtuous-woman role’s melodies usually rests on “sol” while the cadential note of the closing line in a couplet for the senior-man role’s melodies usually rests on “re.”Footnote 9 In the xipi aria, the range of the virtuous-woman role’s melodies is generally a fifth interval higher than that of the senior-man role’s melodies. Thus, the cadential note of the closing line in a couplet for the virtuous-woman role’s melodies generally rests on “sol” while that of the senior man role’s melodies generally rests on “do.”Footnote 10 In both the xipi and erhuang arias, the melodies of the virtuous-woman role employ more ornamentations than the senior-man role’s melodies.
Influenced by the musical differences that shape male melodies and female melodies in Peking opera vocal music, qinshi correspondingly use tempo, ornamentations, register, cadential notes, and performance techniques to delineate gender differentiations in their jinghu accompaniments. Female melodies generally have more ornaments than male melodies have in jinghu accompaniment. Take the aria type siping diao (siping tune) as an example (see Figure 2). On her personal musical score, contemporary qinshi Wang Caiyun uses grey squares to mark the places where ornamentations would occur. Within nine measures, fourteen notes of the female melody are highlighted. In contrast, she only highlights one note within nine measures of the part for the senior-man role.
Figure 2. Wang Caiyun uses grey squares to highlight notes on which ornamentations will be added (Wang Reference Wang2006:11).
In spite of the influence of gendered meanings constructed in Peking opera vocal music, some traditional qinshi tend to pursue a xiangliang (robust) sound. Contemporary qinshi Wang Caiyun ascribes their pursuit of a virile and robust sound to the noisy performance environment where Peking opera performances were staged:
The traditional singing style and accompaniment style of Peking opera were formed in a specific performance environment—a noisy environment. No microphone was available at that time. Audiences watching Peking opera performances in such a noisy environment could hardly hear the actors’ singing unless they sang loudly. The accompaniment part was likewise hard to hear. As a matter of fact, traditional Peking opera actors, no matter which role they played, actually sang in a higher register compared to contemporary Peking opera actors. Audiences tended to give more applause to an actor who could sing louder and higher. It gradually became a traditional aesthetic in Peking opera. (personal interview, Wang Caiyun, Beijing, 13 July Reference Wang2015)
To a certain extent, historian Joshua Goldstein’s research on the teahouse where Peking opera was staged from the mid- to late-nineteenth century corroborates Wang Caiyun’s claim. Goldstein describes the teahouses as dirty and noisy commercial places. While the performance was being staged, vendors walked around and sold snacks and cigarettes. The audiences sat while chatting, eating, drinking, laughing, booing, and vocalising their appreciation of, or dissatisfaction with, the actors (Goldstein Reference Goldstein2007:69–72). In this boisterous performance environment, it is understandable why some traditional qinshi pursued a robust sound when giving their jinghu accompaniments.
However, not all traditional qinshi pursued this virile sound in their accompaniments. Xu Lanyuan (1982–1977), the private qinshi of the famous Peking opera dan role impersonator Mei Lanfang, emphasised that “a good jinghu accompaniment would follow shifts in emotional expressions of the play and make dynamic changes accordingly” (Xu and Tang Reference Xu, Tang and Biao2012[1958]:149). Nevertheless, the pursuit of virile sounds—together with the all-male performance history—has influenced the gendered construction of jinghu performance, which will be further discussed below. Many Peking opera practitioners view male qinshi as having the advantage of playing jinghu with physical strength, unlike females, who are associated with weakness and softness.
The All-Male Performance Traditions, Performance Innovations, and the Rise of Female Qinshi
In 1978, the Chinese government initiated sweeping economic reforms. Even though these reforms greatly boosted the Chinese economy, traditional art forms encountered fierce competition from new entertainment forms such as television, popular music, movies, and online games. As a traditional art form, Peking opera gradually lost its competitive edge in the market and relied on government financial subsidies to survive. To rejuvenate the state-owned Peking opera troupes, the government gradually loosened its ideological control and encouraged them to reform their operational system. Nevertheless, the effect was limited (see Wichmann Reference Wichmann1990). As performances of Peking opera have sharply declined, it is quite common to see Peking opera performers using their spare time to earn extra money through side jobs, such as teaching jinghu or offering jinghu accompaniment in piaofang (clubs for Peking opera aficionados), and collaborate with artists outside the Peking opera field to broaden their performance activities. During this process, several female qinshi have stood out through their innovative performances.
In this section, I will take three female qinshi as examples to analyse the innovative performance styles that female qinshi have brought to the jinghu performance convention. The three women all grew up in Chinese working class families. Their performances and widespread popularity have influenced audiences’ opinions on whether qinshi should only function as an accompanist. Meanwhile, the performance innovations that they have introduced in jinghu performances deviate from jinghu’s male-dominant performance conventions; this departure from tradition has placed them at the centre of a debate in the Peking opera field.
Zhang Suying’s Exploration in Jinghu Solo
Zhang Suying was an active female qinshi during the 1980s and 1990s (see Figure 3). In 1960, she enrolled at the Chinese Theatre School (Zhongguo Xiqu Xuexiao, hereafter CTS), the forerunner of the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts (Zhongguo Xiqu Xueyuan, NACTA), and was assigned to play jinghu based on her academic performance. Based on Li Chaoyang’s memory (Zhang Suying’s husband), Zhang Suying initially refused her assignment as she was influenced by the traditional notion that jinghu was a masculine instrument, and that a female body lacked the physical strength and musicality to play it effectively. Thanks to the support and encouragement from her jinghu teacher and the dean of the music department, she reconsidered and continued to play the jinghu. They told her that in the Communist Chinese society, if males could do it, females could do it as well through “scientific”Footnote 11 training methods (personal interview, Li Chaoying, Beijing, 20 December Reference Li2015).
Figure 3. Zhang Suying performing on the jinghu. Photograph taken in the 1980s, courtesy of Li Chaoyang, 7 January Reference Li2015.
After graduating in 1966, in accordance with the Chinese Community Party’s (CCP) slogan, “Educated youth must go to the countryside to receive re-education from the poor and lower-middle class peasants,” Zhang Suying was sent to work on farms in the suburbs of Beijing. From 1972 to 1989, she taught jinghu at the May 7 Central Arts College (Zhongyang Wuqi Yishu Daxue, hereafter MSCAC), CTS, and NACTA. During this period, she asked her colleagues who had graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music about their instrument training methods and wrote a series of jinghu études (technical studies) by emulating training methods of the erhu (two-string-bowed fiddle)Footnote 12 from the Chinese conservatory training system. From 1989 to 2003, Zhang Suying worked at the China National Peking Opera Company (CNPOC) and offered accompaniments mainly for the eminent Peking opera performer Li Weikang. In recognition of her achievement in jinghu accompaniment, CNPOC conferred on Zhang Suying the National First Level Instrumentalist. Yet, what made her become well-known in and outside of the Peking opera field was her achievement as a jinghu solo performer.
Jinghu is mostly used as the main accompaniment instrument in the Peking opera ensemble. However, during the 1980s, several qinshi started to explore the space of developing jinghu as a solo instrument as well as a lead instrument in the Peking opera ensemble.Footnote 13 Zhang Suying was not the first qinshi to play solo jinghu pieces; however, her collaboration with the composer Wu Hua (1943–2020) significantly contributed to expanding the jinghu’s role from a traditional accompaniment instrument to a modern solo instrument as well. Wu Hua was a composer working at the China Oriental Performance Arts Group (Dongfang Gewutuan) at the time. From 1983 to 1993, he wrote several jinghu instrumental pieces by integrating traditional Peking opera musical materials with Western compositional skills. Among those instrumental pieces were Yumeiren (Beauty Yu), Baishezhuan (The Tale of the White Snake), Jinghua Qiyun (The Charms of Beijing), and Yue Longmen (Leaping through the Dragon’s Gate). Wu Hua stressed that Peking opera music is the mother of jinghu music. In some of these jinghu solo pieces, Wu used traditional Peking opera melodies from qupai (labelled tune)Footnote 14 or classical Peking opera arias; in others, he adopted the form of banqiang ti (the clapper-tune-form),Footnote 15 the typical musical form of vocal music used in Peking opera. Meanwhile, he also required qinshi who played his jinghu instrumental pieces to stray from the traditional concepts of jinghu accompaniment: “They must have a good musical sense, paying attention to intonation and tone colour and playing my pieces musically and delicately. Unfortunately, most of them did not meet my requirements until I met Zhang Suying at dizi (the Chinese bamboo flute) musician Yu Xunfa’s concert” (personal interview, Wu Hua, Beijing, 10 December Reference Wu2014).Footnote 16
Zhang Suying premiered most of the jinghu solo pieces written by Wu Hua before 2003. She respected jinghu performance traditions, but playing jinghu solo pieces required her to re-examine those traditions. In her exploration of jinghu performance arts, Zhang Suying claimed that due to the dominant-submissive relationship between Peking opera singers and the jinghu accompanists, the traditional jinghu accompaniment style was in a cuxiantiao (a rough sketch) style. However, she emphasised that this performance style was not suitable for playing jinghu solo pieces. In 1986, Zhang Suying was invited to attend the performance event Shanghai Qiuji Minzu Yinyue Zhou (Shanghai Autumn National Music Week, where she gave a speech on “Jinghu Yanzou Yishu Gexin Chutan” (A Preliminary Exploration on Innovations in Jinghu Performance Arts):
Jinghu has always been played as an accompanying instrument. No matter who they are, qinshi always try their best to meet the needs of the actors and the developing story. While actors’ renditions are realised through the use of sigongwufa (four skills and five means),Footnote 17 qinshi use five main accompaniment skills (wrapping, following, contrasting, supplementing, and padding) to provide a foil to set off actors’ performances…. Besides, audiences always pay attention to actors but rarely look at accompanists. This dominant-submissive relationship (between actors and accompanists) influences the jinghu accompaniment in Peking opera, making it a rough-sketch style most of the time. Thus, jinghu accompaniments have been constrained in their expressions of emotions and portrayals of exquisite musical images. As long as qinshi wrap the voice melody firmly, catch up with the voice tightly, set off swiftly and smartly, and fill in the vocal blanks smoothly, the jinghu accompaniment is considered acceptable.Footnote 18
When playing jinghu solo pieces, Zhang Suying made several performance innovations, such as abandoning the traditional tuning method of yinyang xian (yin-yang tuning, in an augmented fifth interval) and tuning the jinghu to a perfect fifth, borrowing performance skills from other instruments and adjusting bowings.Footnote 19 Generally, the traditional style of jinghu accompaniment gives audiences an impression of huobao xingge (fiery nature), produced by its high-pitched and blaring sound, combined with the frequent use of short- and-fast-moving bowings. Moreover, traditional qinshi frequently used a “pitch” (yintou) for each bowing in their accompaniments, especially for xipi arias. However, Zhang believed that while playing jinghu solo pieces, jinghu’s fiery nature becomes a shortcoming in shaping various musical roles and cooperating with orchestras. To overcome this problem, she enriched bowings by borrowing rougong (the legato-style bowings) (see Figure 4) from other string instruments such as erhu and connecting notes smoothly without a “pitch” in her bowings (Zhang Reference Zhang1987:56; Wu and Zhang Reference Wu and Zhang2000:14, 120).
Figure 4. Zhang Suying used the performance technique of rougong in measure nine while playing the theme melody of Lady White and Xu Xian’s love, the jinghu suite Baishe Zhuan (The Tale of the White Snake). The musical transcription was adapted based on Wu and Zhang (Reference Wu and Zhang2000).
Zhang Suying pursued a youmei de yinse (lit. “elegant and beautiful tone colour”) approach in jinghu solo performances, which she further described as bright but not strident, thick but not coarse, solid but not dull (Zhang Reference Zhang1987:55). Even though her exploration of solo jinghu music was widely accepted outside of Peking opera circles, practitioners within Peking opera circles held divergent views towards her jinghu solo performance. Some, such as Peking opera composer Liu Jidian (1919–2014), appreciated and approved of her efforts to develop jinghu as a solo instrument. According to Li Chaoyang, as Zhang Suying softened the vigorous and virile ethos in her solo jinghu performance, some criticised her jinghu solo pieces as “fake Peking opera music” and even mocked her jinghu solo performances as mei huqin (lit. beautiful huqin or mellow jinghu)—an interpretation actually laced with gendered meanings of femininity and, hence, inferiority (personal interview, Li Chaoyang, Beijing, 20 December Reference Li2015). It is more interesting to see that even though Zhang Suying pursued a clean and restrained sound in her jinghu solo performances, she nevertheless retained a vigorous bold-style jinghu sound in her jinghu accompaniment. Zhang still opted to abide by traditional accompaniment standards. She explained that,
As an accompaniment instrument, jinghu has to keep its “gangjing” (vigorous) and “huobao” (fiery) sound. Even though I pursue musical expressions in my solo performance, on stage the small Peking opera ensemble has to maintain this vigorous power to ensure that the accompaniment sounds reach every corner of the theatre. However, once it becomes a soloist instrument, the fiery and bold sound is harmful to the construction of musical roles and cooperation with orchestras.Footnote 20
It is also important to point out that Zhang Suying’s adjustments to traditional jinghu performance skills were not unprecedented; similar adjustments had already been made by qinshi playing yangbanxi (model plays)Footnote 21 produced during the Cultural Revolution. In model plays, music was regarded as a significant tool to shape characters’ personalities and express revolutionary themes. Thus, the role of music was promoted to a higher position compared to that in traditional plays. To modernise Peking opera music, composers equipped with Western compositional skillsFootnote 22 integrated traditional Peking opera compositional methods with Western techniques, including functional harmony, Wagnerian leitmotif techniques, polyphony, and counterpoint. These integrations significantly enriched musical techniques in Peking opera.Footnote 23 By merging Western compositional skills with traditional Peking opera music, traditional musical formulas in Peking opera were broken up, resulting in the incorporation of Western musical aesthetics. According to Barbara Mittler, “If one examines the model works closely, it is clear that they can be considered a transcultural music entangled with and relating to the European classical and romantic tradition. It is through the model works that these ‘bourgeois’ traditions were spread throughout China” (Mittler Reference Mittler2010:387–388).
As for qinshi, the impact of Westernised musical aesthetics is far-reaching. Musical innovations affect the applicability of certain traditional accompaniment skills and approaches, such as kaihua yin (the blossom note),Footnote 24 the use of yin-yang tuning, and jingfa, that may be inappropriate for use in the model plays.Footnote 25 Furthermore, musical innovations and the adoption of the mixed orchestra required qinshi to develop new musical capabilities to acculturate to Westernised musical aesthetics. The contemporary qinshi Lin Zongti (b.1947) describes his experience of playing model plays:
Giving accompaniment for model plays was a totally new project for me because I could not use traditional accompaniment approaches. When I was a jinghu student, my teacher never taught me how to deal with this situation. Indeed, the model play brought me a totally new musical concept, from their musical forms, musical texture, and tone colour, to musical content—all were innovative and therefore new to me. (personal interview, Lin Zongti, Beijing, 24 October Reference Zongti2015)
In her efforts to make breakthroughs in playing jinghu, Zhang Suying stated: “I deeply feel that the revitalisation of Peking opera and the reform of Peking opera music must be combined with the theory of modernisation and modernised compositional skills” (Zhang Reference Zhang1987:56). As Wu Hua integrated traditional Peking opera music with Western compositional skills and Western instrumentation in his jinghu solo works, essentially, Zhang Suying’s exploration of modernising Peking opera music was tantamount to accepting the challenges of playing Westernised Peking opera music and cooperating with a Westernised orchestra.
Wang Caiyun’s Consciousness of Gender Differentiation and “Two-Legs-Walking” Strategies
Wang Caiyun received both the bachelor and master’s degrees in jinghu performance from NACTA and has been teaching jinghu at NACTA for over twenty years. Wang Caiyun is the most active qinshi playing solo jinghu pieces since Zhang Suying’s passing and has premiered almost ninety newly composed jinghu solo pieces in the past twenty years. Unlike Zhang Suying, whose performances were associated with traditional Peking opera flavour, Wang Caiyun does not limit herself in such a way; she has delved into various jinghu performance forms, including jinghu and cello, jinghu and violin, jinghu and piano, and jinghu and guzheng (21-string zither). As a contemporary authority playing jinghu solo music, Wang Caiyun also wrote several articles illustrating jinghu solo performance skills (Wang Reference Wang2007a, Reference Wang2007b, Reference Wang2009). She claims that as a new genre, jinghu solo music requires new musicality, different from the traditional musicality of accompaniment for Peking opera performers or playing qupai. While playing jinghu solo pieces, qinshi need to make breakthroughs in traditional jinghu performance skills to enrich instrumental expressions (personal interview, Wang Caiyun, Beijing, 13 July Reference Wang2015).
Like Zhang Suying, Wang Caiyun also pursues a more delicate and intricate jinghu sound, which has been criticised as lacking original jinghu flavour by some Peking opera insiders. In addition, Wang’s performance gestures while playing jinghu have made her controversial. According to traditional practices, qinshi make limited body movements and rarely raise their upper right arm while playing the jinghu. However, in her performance, Wang Caiyun raises her upper right arm frequently, in stark contrast to traditional male qinshi (see Figure 5). She claims that, “I am a female qinshi. Compared to some male qinshi, I am shorter and smaller. Some traditional gestures by male qinshi may look inappropriate for me to follow and imitate (personal interview, Wang Caiyun, Beijing, 22 July Reference Wang2016). As a result, some qinshi (including my jinghu teacher Du Fengyuan) criticised her jinghu performances for not conforming to traditional norms.
Figure 5. Wang Caiyun plays the jinghu solo piece Jinghua qiyun (The Charms of Beijing) in her 2015 concert, sponsored by NACTA, held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, 11 January 2015, in Beijing (photograph courtesy of Wang Caiyun, 10 August 2018).
At this juncture, it is appropriate to examine further and compare Zhang Suying’s and Wang Caiyun’s attitudes towards the all-male tradition of jinghu performance from different historical backgrounds related to their training. Zhang Suying and Wang Caiyun belong to two generations of female qinshi who received institutional training after the establishment of the PRC in 1949, and their views on jinghu accompaniments have been shaped by distinctive social contexts and gender ideologies.
As mentioned earlier, Zhang Suying learned jinghu in the mid-1950s when the Chinese Communist Party empowered women to actively participate in socialist construction projects, receive formal education, and work in factories and on farms. The Party regarded women’s participation in the socialist production as a vital factor of realisation of socialist modernisation and production. Traditional prejudices and official gender discrimination against females also subsided in the public sphere. Mao Zedong (1893–1976)—the first president of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)—stated that “funü nengding banbiantian (women can hold up half of the sky)” (Wang Reference Wang2017). It was in this social context, when Zhang Suying was prepared to give up her jinghu performance, that the dean of the music department encouraged her to stay on course.
Unfortunately, even though the Maoist discourse of equality between men and women empowered Chinese women in the political, educational, economic, and social realms, it did not change the long history of patriarchal structures in Chinese society (Wolf Reference Wolf1985). Indeed, Mao’s gender ideology was a man-centred gender ideology, which meant that the male gender was regarded as the standard to which females were called upon to conform and emulate. Females were expected to be as masculine as males. Moreover, expressions of femininity and sexuality were suppressed (Baranovitch Reference Baranovitch2003; Wang Reference Wang, Hershatter, Honig, Mann and Rofel1998; Wang Reference Wang2017; Yang Reference Yang and Yang1999).Footnote 26
The influence of this gender ideology is palpable in Zhang Suying’s attitude towards the jinghu accompaniment tradition. Even though she implemented many musical innovations while playing jinghu solo music, Zhang still adhered to the virile sound and accepted the male-dominated musicianship as the standard in her jinghu accompaniment. Zhang attempted to display masculine physical strength in her jinghu accompaniments and play as though she was a male qinshi. That is, the musicianship and performance gestures that Zhang Suying adopted in her jinghu accompaniment was the traditional male-centred one. In her article, Zhang mentioned that she practised arduously and tried repeatedly to overcome her perceived limits in physical strength as a female qinshi (Zhang Reference Zhang1987). In a video showcasing Zhang Suying’s jinghu solo performance of the piece Yeshenchen, she conforms to traditional behaviours and seldom raises her upper right arm.Footnote 27
In contrast to Zhang Suying, Wang Caiyun’s opinion regarding the physical strength to be applied in jinghu accompaniments diverges from that of Zhang Suying. As the first person to receive a master’s degree in jinghu performance in 2005, Wang Caiyun points out that as a female qinshi, the performance gestures associated with traditional jinghu performance may be inappropriate for her to follow. Wang explains,
A good musician should be able to play with different performance styles. A female qinshi can play jinghu in a virile and fierce style; likewise, a male qinshi can play it in a restrained and more elaborate style. (personal interview, Wang Caiyun, Beijing, 22 July Reference Wang2016)
In addition, Wang Caiyun suggests that the new social context and performance environment require a new aesthetic in jinghu music:
The times are different. The aesthetics of our generation are different from the traditional ones. Nowadays, performers give performances in modern theatres with advanced acoustic designs, which ensure acoustic effects. Both performers and accompanists use microphones (see Figure 6). The use of microphones in modern theatres has freed contemporary qinshi to pay more attention to tone colours and musical nuances. Also, when contemporary qinshi play jinghu in a modern-style theatre, audiences put forward contemporary expectations for us. Consequently, both Peking opera performers and audiences no longer adore loudness and high pitches only, but pay more attention to tone colour and musical delicacies (ibid.).
Figure 6. The microphones that are prepared for a Peking opera ensemble on the stage of Mei Lanfang da juyuan (Mei Lanfang Grand Theatre) (photograph by author, 23 May 2015).
Traditionally, a qinshi’s fame and income relied primarily on Peking opera actors to whom qinshi offered accompaniment. However, in her struggles to achieve personal success, Wang Caiyun ascribes her popularity within and outside of Peking opera circles to her gender identity as a female and to the mass media. She usually wears a casual black dress when offering jinghu accompaniments for Peking opera singers, yet when playing solo jinghu pieces, she prefers to wear beautiful gowns to present her femininity. Her consciousness of her feminine identity in her jinghu performance occurs within the context of a surge of gender differentiation and the reconstruction of feminine identity under the impact of the market economy—developments that have been ongoing in Chinese society since the 1980s.
Since then, Chinese society has moved on from a gender-erasure era to a new era that emphasises gender differentiation. The masculinity of Chinese women embodied in the image of the “Iron Girl” promoted during the Cultural Revolution, is no longer popular. Instead, there have been intense efforts to “reconstruct gender differentiation and revive sexuality” (Baranovitch Reference Baranovitch2003:108). By the 1990s, several books reflecting self-identity, body-writing, feminine consciousness, and sexuality emerged, particularly in the realm of Chinese literature (Wang Reference Wang, Hershatter, Honig, Mann and Rofel1998; Yang Reference Yang and Yang1999). Wang Caiyun’s female consciousness of her jinghu performances can be understood as continued constructions of femininity in the Peking opera domain at the turning of the twenty-first century.
Each year, Wang received many invitations to give jinghu performances in various contexts: concerts, public events, and TV specials. With the help of mass media, Wang Caiyun successfully promoted her performances and attracted more attention in and outside of the Peking opera field. Wang Caiyun is currently only in her forties, yet by 2015 she had already held three solo jinghu concerts. Her first concert was held in 2003 at Beijing Zhongshan Concert Hall and was broadcast by the channel CCTV 3 (China Central Television Channel 3). Her second concert was held at Ningbo Concert Hall in 2005 and the most recent one was held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing in 2015: this third venue represents the highest rank for performing arts in China. The concert was subsidised by her work unit—NACTA. The president of NACTA included a message on the concert programme: “She is a celebrity who has traditional foundations, virtuosity, and creative spirit in both the Peking opera field and the music field. She is also a talented woman, being a young teacher, a prominent qinshi, and an excellent jinghu yanzoujia (jinghu musician).”Footnote 28
The 2015 concert consisted of six arias extracted from classical Peking opera plays and six solo jinghu pieces. The six Peking opera arias were representative works featuring the four different role types—the senior-man role, the senior-woman role, the virtuous-woman role, and the painted-face role. Yet, Wang only played six solo pieces and two Peking opera arias; she used her concert as a platform to promote her students, having them play the other four Peking opera arias. Moreover, six of the most influential Peking opera celebrities were invited to sing classical arias in her concert. Then, during the solo part, she presented a new piece, Liangqing Xiangyue (Reciprocal Love), composed by Zhang Zhao, a piece that requires the jinghu performer to brush aside the performance influences of Peking opera music. Zhang Zhao absorbed melodies from a Taiwan folksong, “Alishan Girls,” and eulogised the love and peace shared by people who live on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. The composition includes the use of the chromatic scale, three hand-positions, fast bowings, and lunzhi (pizzicato) (see Figure 7).Footnote 29
Figure 7. The use of the performance skill lunzhi in playing the jinghu solo piece Liangqing Xiangyue (Reciprocal Love). Transcribed by Zhang Zhao (courtesy of Zhang Zhao, 26 May 2015).
Though attending high-profile performance events enabled her to earn extra income and build her fame, she chose to remain in the Peking opera field.Footnote 30 In the Peking opera field, she has been criticised for ignoring her proper occupation as a jinghu accompanist by some Peking opera insiders. To deflect the attacks on her solo performance, Wang Caiyun has adopted a “two-legs-walking” strategy, which she describes as performing both as a jinghu accompanist and a jinghu soloist. She says,
Some people criticise me for playing solo pieces, saying that I am incapable of giving accompaniments for performers after I play solo pieces. Well, let’s see on the stage! I will prove that I not only can give accompaniments for traditional plays but can also give accompaniments for modern plays! And I can also play solo jinghu pieces very well. (personal interview, Wang Caiyun, Beijing, 22 July Reference Wang2016)
It is worth pointing out that Wang Caiyun’s recent experience as a qinshi offering accompaniments for high-ranking officials, including the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, has greatly helped Wang boost her personal reputation. Her musical ability, personal connections, and celebrity status have outweighed the difficulties she experienced at the beginning of her career. In effect, compared to other female qinshi, Wang Caiyun has more space to speak out and assert her gender in jinghu performances.
Beautiful Qinshi, Mass Media, and the Female Body
While the market economy has awakened gender consciousness, it has also reactivated some disparaging notions about women which had been suppressed during the Mao era. During the Mao era, women who revealed their femininity in the public sphere would be criticised as “petty bourgeoisie”; in contrast, the consciousness and reconstruction of femininity have been co-opted by commercial influences in the post-socialist era. Consumerism has played a significant role in constructing modern femininity and has put women under the male gaze. As Wang Zheng points out, “the mass media-promoted modern femininity, a mix of traditional female virtues and consumerism, has become a dominant norm that regulates women’s behaviors and restricts women’s choice” (Wang Reference Wang, Hershatter, Honig, Mann and Rofel1998:39). In this section, I will take the female qinshi Zhou Youjun as an example to further discuss how female qinshi’s representations are shaped by mass media and consumerism, and why female qinshi’s body movements in jinghu performances have become so controversial.
Zhou Youjun, a National First Level Instrumentalist, is employed by the China National Peking Opera Company (CNPOC). Zhou Youjun began learning jinghu performance when she was six years old. In 1996, when Zhou Youjun was only sixteen, the prominent Peking opera actress Zhang Huoding selected Zhou as her private qinshi to offer jinghu accompaniment for her. Because being a private qinshi for a famous Peking opera performer has been deemed crucial to attaining widespread recognition of one’s accompaniment skills in the Peking opera field, this opportunity soon enabled Zhou Youjun to be known by a larger Peking opera audience. However, what made Zhou Youjun well-known outside of the Peking opera field is her talent in playing jinghu while singing Peking opera.
Zhou Youjun’s first playing-while-singing performance debuted in 1998 when she was assigned to render a jinghu performance for senior Chinese officials at Zhongnanhai, the headquarter of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council of China in Beijing. According to Zhou Youjun, the reason why she chose to play jinghu while singing was that she felt belittled and ostracised by some conservatory-trained musicians. To fight back and show off her talents, she told a senior official that she could play jinghu while singing Peking opera. She then gave a public performance, playing jinghu while singing the female character Xue Xiangling’s aria from the traditional Peking opera play Suo Lin Nang (The Lucky Purse) (personal interview, Zhou Youjun, Beijing, 26 April Reference Zhou2015). Since it was very rare to see such an innovative performance form, Zhou Youjun’s performance received great praise from senior Chinese officials. After this successful performance, she was invited to attend the 2000 Chinese Spring Festival Gala held by the Beijing TV Station to present her rare talent. That year, she was also invited to present her singing-and-playing talents on the Chinese Lantern Festival Gala, which was broadcast nationwide on CCTV 1 (the primary channel of the China Central Television). Audiences were surprised to see a beautiful female qinshi who could play jinghu while singing Peking opera; Zhou Youjun became a celebrity overnight. Since then, she has received invitations by numerous TV stations and cultural institutions, for various entertainment programmes and performance events, to showcase her unique performance talents. The Ministry of Culture even selected her to attend various performance events outside China.
In her performances, Zhou Youjun likes to sing classical Peking opera arias, and her singing has not been limited to one liupai (school of performance) or one role type in Peking opera. Rather, her singing has drawn from various liupai, covering both male and female roles in traditional and modern plays. In addition, she also sings the hybrid genre jingge (Peking opera-flavoured popular song), attracting younger generations and members of the wider public who are unfamiliar with Peking opera. In any online forum, one spectator wrote, “I used to dislike traditional Chinese opera because it takes half a day to sing one musical phrase. However, after accompanying my grandpa to watch Zhou Youjun’s singing-while-playing performance, I realised that Chinese opera can be so cool. Therefore, I spent a whole day searching for and watching videos related to Zhou Youjun.”Footnote 31 Thus, it is not only the older generation that enjoys her performances; the younger generation also finds her performances fascinating.
As Zhou Youjun was frequently invited to present her musical talents, she soon became a star in her own right. Gradually, some of her performance gigs conflicted with the Peking opera star Zhang Huoding’s performance schedules. Due to Zhou Youjun’s increased reputation both inside and outside of Peking opera circles, Zhang Huoding finally ended her cooperation with Zhou Youjun in 2000. This sudden ending of their partnership caused Zhou Youjun’s career to suffer dramatically. As Zhang Huoding was a major figure in the Chinese National Peking Opera Company, for a period of time, other Peking opera singers avoided working with Zhou Youjun.
In 2005, with her friends’ help, Zhou Youjun’s music video Youyuan Jingmeng (Wandering in the Garden and Walking from a Dream) was broadcast on CCTV 4 (the Chinese international channel). In this video, Zhou Youjun plays several female roles living in different historical times: a Peking opera female-role performer in traditional costume on stage, a gentlewoman sitting in the theatre and watching a traditional Peking opera performance, and a beautiful female qinshi playing jinghu while singing. They are connected by using the film technique of montage. Close-up shots are given to each female role when she is smiling, playing, walking, sitting, and moving (see Figure 8). This video successfully helped Zhou Youjun regain the public’s attention by presenting an innovative Peking opera performance style and emphasising femininity in jinghu performance.
Figure 8. Still from “Jingju Qinshi Zhou Youjun,” broadcast on Chinese International Channel CCTV 4. Zhou Youjun presents her singing and jinghu performance talents in her MTV, Youyuan Jingmen (Wandering in the Garden and Walking from a Dream).
In the market economy, commercialism has remarkably shaped the reconstruction and presentation of femininity. Images of commercialised modern females are created with the “basic elements of traditional feminine virtue, sexy bodies, and consumerism” (Wang Reference Wang, Hershatter, Honig, Mann and Rofel1998:23). The 12 Girls Band is an example of how the modern female image can be used to attain commercial success in the last decade of the twentieth century. The band was organised by Wang Xiaojing, an experienced cultural broker. He wanted to produce a show that presents Chinese instrumental music in both visual and aural terms. “I think people come to shows not only to listen but also to look as well. So I chose some pretty girls, dressed them in fashionable outfits and topped it all off with fantastic stage design and lighting” (Chen Reference Chen2004). The 12 Girls Band was made up of twelve young, beautiful, and fashionable girls who were trained to play traditional Chinese instruments in the Chinese-conservatory system. The music they played was syncretic, combining traditional Chinese instruments, pop beats, and diversified musical elements from around the world. They also created their own innovative performance style—standing up while playing their instruments. Sometimes, the musicians even walked back and forth on stage. This modern performance style emphasises the female image and body presented on stage, which is different from the traditional style—that is, remaining seated on the chair while playing the instrument. Because of their innovations in performance and successful marketing strategies, the 12 Girls Band enjoyed great commercial success and became popular among younger audiences in the 1990s (Yang and Saffle Reference Yang and Saffle2010).
Likewise, the success of Zhou Youjun’s performance success is tightly connected to the popularity of the commercialised modern female image constructed in the market economy; that is, her young and beautiful image, in addition to her innovative performance style presented on mass media, greatly contribute to her popularity. Many viewers have called Zhou Youjun “beautiful qinshi” (meinü qinshi) after watching her performance. In Sino Blog, the biggest blog in mainland China, one netizen comments that,
Zhou Youjun is not the qinshi representing the highest accompaniment level, but she is for sure the most beautiful one. She may not be the favorite qinshi among Peking opera fans, but she is definitely the most popular one among general audiences who are unfamiliar with Peking opera.Footnote 32
Another blogger states that,
People are attracted to Zhou Youjun’s beautiful appearance more than her jinghu performance…. But, after watching Zhou Youjun playing jinghu while singing arias extracted from Wujiapo (The Wu Family Slope), Guifei Zuijiu (The Drunken Imperial Concubine), and Shuangyang Gongzhu (Princess Shuangyang), I am deeply surprised and appreciated her excellent performance skills and singing talents.Footnote 33
Therefore, even though Zhou Youjun’s jinghu accompaniment level is not the best among contemporary qinshi, her physical beauty has helped her become one of the most popular qinshi. It is also interesting to see that even though her singing-and-playing performances have strayed from a qinshi’s conventional role as an accompanist, the China National Peking Opera Company (CNPOC) has not fired her—perhaps in consideration of her widespread popularity. Instead, recently, they have taken her popularity as an innovative way to promote Peking opera and to attract a larger audience.
Like Wang Caiyun before her, Zhou Youjun has been criticised, for not conforming to the professional ethics of virtuous qinshi and playing in a “wild” way. According to professional ethics in Peking opera circles, a virtuous qinshi’s role is to support actors and help them present perfect performances, just as the leaves’ role is to provide a foil for flowers. Nowadays, how to properly communicate using body language is a thorny issue for qinshi, especially for female qinshi. On the one hand, the professional ethics of being a virtuous qinshi require them not to take glory away from Peking opera singers on stage; on the other hand, traditional performance conventions built by male qinshi—limiting the extent of the body’s movements—have been taken for granted as norms for contemporary female qinshi to follow and emulate, requiring them to hide their femininity. Zhou Youjun’s performance gestures, meanwhile, are passionate and energetic. She moves her upper body according to dynamic changes, emotional expressions, and melodic contours––beyond the performance convention. Indeed, in the online Peking Opera Forum, a critic writes:
Zhou Youjun’s performance style deviates from the traditional way. She does not fulfil the professional ethics of being a qinshi. Qinshi’s role is to serve the Peking opera singers. When qinshi play jinghu, they should sit gracefully rather than youtou huangnao (tossing one’s head) and dongdao xiwai (moving torso from left to right). Those movements were taboo in traditional performance troupes because they would not only cause conflicts between qinshi and Peking opera actors but also undermine Peking opera actors’ more important position on stage.Footnote 34
While this criticism towards Zhou Youjun was mainly from the perspective of professional ethics, a male qinshi’s comments about Zhou Youjun’s performance gestures reveal that some Peking opera insiders still agree with the gendered conception that males have an advantage in physical strength when playing jinghu. As he says, “Generally speaking, male qinshi have an advantage in physical strength over female qinshi. If female qinshi want to achieve the same degree of physical strength as male qinshi, it is only possible if they make grander movements than male qinshi.”Footnote 35 But Zhou Youjun strongly disagrees that a lack of strength based on gender differences is responsible for her performance movements. During my interview with her, Zhou Youjun defended her performance gestures, arguing that,
“I did not intentionally add those ‘big’ performance gestures. My body just needs to be in tune with the music when I’m playing jinghu. How can a musician play a musical instrument while their body is rigid? Moreover, the physical strength in playing jinghu varies according to different individual qinshi. Some male qinshi nevertheless play jinghu in a soft way, lacking [physical] strength in their performances.” (personal interview, Zhou Youjun, Beijing, 26 April Reference Zhou2015)
It also might be that Zhou Youjun’s performance gestures have been influenced by a performance trend in which grander performance gestures on stage are preferred. As noted in the discussion of the 12 Girls Band’s performances, since the 1990s the market has increasingly required contemporary musicians not only to pay attention to the musical sounds but also to remain aware of their performance gestures on stage. This requirement has led some Chinese instrumentalists to make exaggerated performance gestures on stage. Yet, not everyone likes this performance trend. The Zhongguo Wenhuabao (Chinese Culture Daily) even published an article to criticise the exaggerated performance gestures presented by some conservatory-trained Chinese musicians (Du Reference Du2019).
Divergent opinions towards Zhou Youjun’s performance gestures and Zhou Youjun’s own reflections on jinghu performance gestures reveal tensions between a female qinshi’s willingness to control the meaning of her body, the influence of performance gestures from other performance art forms in the market, and restrictions that have been imposed on female qinshi because of traditional performance conventions, which are still disparaged in jinghu performances, directly or indirectly.
I would like to further draw upon Suzanne G. Cusick’s research to examine the female body in jinghu performance. In her article “Feminist Theory, Music Theory, and the Mind/Body Problem,” Suzanne G. Cusick suggests that “the practices of performing bodies” are most likely to enact gender metaphors or to “enact the constitution of gender itself” (Cusick Reference Cusick1994:17). Reflecting on the gendered meanings related to contemporary jinghu performances, it is clear that they have largely evolved in response to political intervention before the 1980s and commercialism after the 1980s. During Mao’s era, under the influence of the CCP’s gender policies, female students at socialist theatre schools were empowered to be qinshi. Yet, they continued to follow conventional performance gestures presented by male qinshi as the norm. This situation has been increasingly changing since the 1980s, however. With the reconstruction of gender differences driven by a market economy and commercialism, more female qinshi choose not to conform to the traditional norms built up by male qinshi in their performances. To attract a wider audience and adapt to a changing society, they continue making performance innovations and presenting femininity on stage. Consequently, they are often criticised by some Peking opera insiders as a departure from the performance tradition.
Conclusion
While traditional qinshi pursued a virile jinghu sound, they used melisma, slides, tempo, cadence notes, grace notes, and bowings to distinguish female roles from male roles in their accompaniments. With the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and a new gender ideology promoted by the Chinese Communist Party, female students studying at the socialist theatre schools were encouraged to become qinshi; nevertheless, female qinshi who were trained during the Mao era used traditional performance canons built by male qinshi to gauge their jinghu accompaniments, especially in terms of physical strength, performance gestures, and aesthetics. In the post-socialist era, the reconstruction of gender differentiations and femininity has been shaped by commercialism, and female qinshi’s consciousness of female identity had been awakened. Female qinshi have challenged the traditional performance gestures, the virile jinghu sound, and the masculine ethos related to jinghu performances brought about by the all-male-performance history. Meanwhile, the traditional notion that males have advantages in playing jinghu has reappeared in the public consciousness, especially among Peking opera insiders. Under the influence of this gender bias, female qinshi’s musicianship has been disparaged and undervalued, which has brought about restrictions and obstacles to the female qinshi’s career development.
Actually, it is not surprising to see that although female qinshi have obtained significant achievements in jinghu solo performance and other performance forms, they have still been marginalised in the field of jinghu accompaniment. The masculine ethos associated with jinghu accompaniment has made the repertoire more accessible to male qinshi than female qinshi. While female qinshi’s performances have been devalued in the Peking opera field, they have been welcomed by mainstream audiences unfamiliar with the male-dominated jinghu accompaniment traditions. They are attracted to the female qinshi’s artistry, identity, and femininity presented in mass media, regardless of whether the performers’ gender impacts on the musical performance.
Acknowledgements
This article was modified based on Chapter 4 of my dissertation “Gender, Creativity, and Training: Transformation of Peking Opera Qinshi in Contemporary China,” which received financial support from the Doctoral Fellowship under the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. I thank Prof. Su Zheng and Prof. Jonathan Stock for their helpful comments on my dissertation. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers of this article who provided valuable feedback. Finally, I am very grateful to Lee Tong Soon for his constructive editing of my essay.
Glossary
This is a selected list of the names of Chinese instruments, Peking opera terms, musical terms, technical terminology, Chinese theatrical genres, and Peking opera plays mentioned in the article.
