Students of Dr Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak from the University of Hawaii perform the Peking Opera play, "Judge Bao and the Case of Qin Xianglian" in Hawaii.

Shanghai Daily news

An American academic helps to educate the world about the complex art of Peking Opera, writes Guo Feifei.

I felt compelled to interview Dr Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak when I discovered she could sing Peking Opera but I wasn't prepared for her depth of knowledge on a subject close to Chinese hearts.

I never expected I would get a lesson about Peking Opera from a professor of Asian Theater from the University of Hawaii - someone who was born in the United States and speaks fluent Chinese.

"By the way, there's one thing I'd like to point out," she says. "It's important to call Peking Opera Jingju when you write or talk about it in English. 'Peking Opera' and 'Chinese Opera' are terms created in the 19th century by European imperialists and I think it's very strange still to use these words in the 21st century."

It's just like the tradition Japanese theater of kabuki, she explains, Jingju should be called by its Chinese name. It is misleading to call it "Peking Opera" because that is a Chinese theater that doesn't exist anywhere else outside China.

Dr Wichmann-Walczak was the first non-Chinese to sing Peking Opera in Chinese mainland after 1949 and one of her teachers was Shen Xiaomei, the youngest disciple of master Mei Lanfang. She came to this country as part of a cultural exchange program after China's liberation.

In 1979, young Wichmann-Walczak travelled to Nanjing, Jiangsu Province to do research on Peking Opera. Kuang Yaming, the then president of the Nanjing University assisted her in this project and introduced her to Shen.

"The reason why I learned Jingju was not because I wanted to perform the opera as a show,'' she says. "I want to translate it into English, teach it and truly understand it."

She spent two years studying in Nanjing and became quite a celebrity during that time. Her pictures were on the covers of many magazines in China and a documentary film was made about her in 1980. There have been several other TV documentaries since then.

"Relations between China and the United States were returning to normal at that time, so my studying Jingju was a wonderful advertisement for inter-cultural exchange," she notes.

Shen then taught her the classic play "Drunken Beauty." The story centers on a famous imperial concubine in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and after Wichmann-Walczak performed it she was given the Chinese nickname - "Yang Guifei," the name of the "Drunken Beauty" which sounds similar with "foreign imperial concubine" in Chinese.

I asked her if a foreigner would have great difficulty learning the performing skills and unique singing, but for Dr Wichmann-Walczak that wasn't so.

"I know that you're expecting me to say yes, but for me it's not particularly difficult," she says, smiling. "Because I was a professional actress and majored in Japanese kabuki, I already knew how to study traditional theaters."

Her work attracts high praise from her former teacher, Shen.

"She was a very diligent student who paid attention to every detail," Shen says. "Her knowledge and understanding of Peking Opera has reached a very high level. What is really special is that she's been actively promoting Peking Opera overseas for many years."

Currently, Wichmann-Walczak is the professor and director of Asian Theater at Department of Theater and Dance at the University of Hawaii.

"My students are taught the same way that Jingju is taught here in China," she says. "The only difference is that they sing it in English."

She does all the translation, which she admits is not easy. The translation should have the same number of syllables as when it is sung in Chinese.

"So you really have to do all the field research in order to be able to do the translation," she adds.

She invites Chinese Peking Opera performers, including Shen, to the university to teach students. Students first learn and perform the art in Chinese. Once they master the melody, the rhythm and basic placement of the voice, they try it in English.

"Most of my students don't speak Chinese, so it would be nonsense for them to perform in Chinese," she points out. "With English lyrics, they obviously have a better understanding of what they are singing."

Shen says she's quite impressed at how fast students learn the ancient Chinese art.

"I had some difficulty in communicating with them at first, but those students really love Jingju and find time to attend individual classes - their progress is amazing," Shen says.

Students from Wichmann-Walczak's classes have been invited to perform in China three times in the last 20 years.

In 2002, they brought the classic play "Judge Bao and the Case of Qin Xianglian" to Nanjing University, much to the delight of the audience.

"Their performance was quite interesting," says Li Zhongcheng, former director from the Shanghai Peking Opera House. "Though there were gaps compared with strict standard, it was still quite good."

Wichmann-Walczak is quite proud of the result.

"My students are living examples how young Western intellectuals value traditional Jingju," she says.

She is now working on a new play with the famous Peking Opera performer Shang Changrong and playwright Cao Lusheng. They are collaborating to adapt Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie" into a Peking Opera play about immigrants to Shanghai in the 1920s.

"I admire her excellent language skills and deep understanding of both Chinese and Western theaters," says Shang. "So I believe she's very qualified and will be a good partner."

The play is expected to be performed in 2006.

"The process of creating new play is vital to the future of Jingju," Dr Wichmann-Walczak says. "My interest is the creation of the new and the relationship between the new and the old."

So what does this expert think of the traditional opera's decline in appeal among young people?

"Well, I think it's just a matter of time," she says. "The challenge facing Jingju is how to keep artist stimulated while waiting for society to rediscover the art. We need foundations, fund raising and government to support it.

"Jingju has become a sophisticated art which caters to a smaller and more sophisticated audience. Expecting it to become a popular art again is unrealistic."

She seems to be more optimistic about the feature of the ancient art than many Chinese. "We should view its future with a global vision, and anyway I don't share the gloom!" she says confidently.