As far back as 1896, when Taiwan was first made a province, Peking Opera
was already being performed in Taiwan. Following the return of Taiwan to
China in 1945, the Yi-jen Yuan Peking Opera Troupe was formed by Taiwan's
Hakka community, and several Peking Opera troupes from mainland China came
to Taiwan to perform. By 1947, there were already five venues for public
performances of Peking Opera in Taipei, and a large number of troupes had
been established. In 1949, Ku Cheng-ch'iu's (a renowned actor) Ku Chu-t'uan
troupe and Wang Chen-tsu's Chinese Opera Troupe (Chungkuo Chu-t'uan troupe)
both moved to Taiwan from Shanghai. For more than thirty years, partly
thanks to government support, Peking Opera remained extremely popular in
Taiwan, and was the subject of many new developments.
The Peking Opera troupes currently operating in Taiwan include the Ministry of Defense's National Kuokuang Theater Troupe (formed through the amalgamation of the army, navy and air force troupes), the Ministry of Education's National Fu-hsing Dramatic Arts Academy Peking Opera Troupe, as well as several private troupes including the Ya-yin Ensemble, the Contemporary Legend Theatre (CLT), Sheng-lan, New Generation (Hsin-sheng Tai) and Lung T'ao troupes, as well as nearly one hundred school and amateur troupes. Peikuan Opera is also known in Taiwan as Luan-t'an Opera or Wai-chiang Opera. The name Luan-t'an was first used in the mid to late eighteenth century as a general term to describe all forms of local opera related to K'un-ch'u Opera (name of a class of tunes originating in Kunshan in mainland China). The name Peikuan (or literally, 'Northern Instruments') Opera developed naturally in contrast to Nankuan (or literally, 'Southern Instruments') Opera. The name Wai-chiang Opera derived from the Min-hsi Han Opera of the Lungyen, Lunghsi and Sanming regions of Fukien. The main types of singing used in Min-hsi Han Opera were the Hsi-p'i (a popular tune in Peking Opera) and Ehr-huang (also a popular tune in Peking Opera) styles introduced from other parts of China, hence the name Wan-chiang ("foreign") Opera. Peikuan Opera in Taiwan incorporates two main tradition, Fu-lu and Hsi-p'i. Fu-lu is also known as Chiu-lu (or literally, 'Old Road'), and derives from Clapper Opera. Hsi-p'i is also known as Hsin-lu (or literally, 'New Road'), and is a form of P'i-huang (a Peking Opera tune) Opera. The name Fu-lu is a corruption of Ho-luo, and probably originally referred to Honan Clapper Opera, which in turn derived from West Shaanxi Opera, one of the types of opera referred to in the mid to late eighteenth century as Luan-t'an Opera. The course of the evolution of Taiwan's Peikuan Opera was thus probably roughly as follows: Honan Clapper Opera and Hunan's Hsi-p'i and Ehr-huang Opera were introduced into western Fukien, from whence they were introduced into Taiwan. |