Problems existing in the development of Chinese opera

With the rapid economic development, China has begun to enter an era of large-scale urbanization, and traditional culture has suffered an unprecedented impact.

It is understood that a local opera is dying every day. This cruel reality is indeed worrying.

For most urban audiences, pop culture is naturally popular, and Western songs and dances or dramas may also be seen.

Traditional local opera is already very far away. Something. Many of us don't actually

know that in China's vast rural areas, there are still many local operas that exist, but we have inadvertently

ignored them. This time, we chose Teochew opera, which has a history of hundreds of years and is still active in rural areas, as a case study. Through our on-site interviews and reflections, we tried to get a glimpse of the survival situation of traditional Chinese opera.

p>Different, they all make a living by acting in rural areas. The days when the traveling gods are held in rural areas are the busiest times for Teochew opera troupes

. It can be said that so many Teochew opera troupes rely on the folk custom of wandering gods in rural areas to survive.

Relying on folk customs to make a living is a characteristic that has been passed down from generation to generation in the development history of Teochew opera. Chen Jun, former deputy director of the Chaozhou Municipal Cultural Bureau, is an expert in Chaozhou opera. He told reporters that Chaozhou opera has appeared in Chaoshan area since the early Ming Dynasty and took shape in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. , which coexisted with the "Zhengzi Opera" that sang Mandarin at that time, and was called "Chaodiao". For more than two hundred years in the Qing Dynasty, Teochew opera continued to gain popularity and development, reaching its peak. In the "Chronicles of Chaozhou Prefecture" from different periods of the Qing Dynasty, there are records of the prosperity of Chaozhou's countryside welcoming activities and the prosperous scenes of worshiping and performing performances. In its production and development process

Teochew opera is inextricably linked with folk sacrifices. Until the liberation of the Republic of China, due to the influence of war and current situation, Teochew opera activities were severely affected.

After 1949, the government reformed many old theater troupes into public ownership, established state-owned theater troupes, and the location of performances also

shifted from rural fields to urban theaters. From 1958 to before the "Cultural Revolution" was the heyday of Teochew opera after liberation. Various troupes and art troupes were very active, and compiled and performed many excellent traditional plays, such as "Capturing Sun Fu Alive",

"Old and Young", "Golden Flower Shepherd", "Beheading Han Xin", etc. After the "Cultural Revolution", the long-awaited Teochew opera was briefly enthusiastically sought after by the audience. However, it soon faced serious problems due to the rapid development of various forms of entertainment such as film, television, music, singing and dancing.

Existential crisis. Beginning in 1983, various Teochew opera troupes "sent their operas to the countryside" in order to adapt to the situation and resumed touring rural areas. However, in urban theaters, Teochew opera performances have basically disappeared.

Chen Shukeng's father founded Hanjiang Teochew Opera Troupe under the circumstances at that time, formerly known as Binhai Teochew Opera Troupe. It was one of the first batch of private Teochew opera troupes after the reform and opening up. After Chen Shukeng graduated from the Chaozhou Teochew Opera Student Training Class in 1984, he was assigned to be an actor in the Chaozhou Teochew Opera Troupe. In 1997, he left the city's Chaozhou Opera Troupe and took over his father's Hanjiang Chaozhou Opera Troupe. At present, there are nearly a hundred Chaozhou opera troupes in Chaoshan area. In addition to a dozen state-run troupes in various cities and counties, the rest are private troupes like Hanjiang Chaozhou Opera Troupe.

*2. Still in a state of "charming entertainers"*

We met Chen Shukeng at the place where the troupe stayed. This is a dilapidated courtyard that once served as a primary school building, but now it has long been abandoned. On the beams there is a message saying "Exercise your body and be a successor to the construction of the four modernizations"

Broken slogans, and a wooden sign reading "Class 302" hung at the door of the next room.

There are iron frame beds everywhere in the large and small rooms and the open lobby of the courtyard. The 62 beds for the entire group of 62 people are placed in this dilapidated house in a haphazard manner. They are made of plastic.

Stools and plastic buckets are placed everywhere, but there is a Kung Fu tea set and an electric kettle for boiling water on the coffee table in front of the bed - this is absolutely indispensable in the Chaozhou area.

There are many clotheslines stretched back and forth in the open space in the middle of the lobby, full of clothes. You have to bow your head when passing by. The whole house

The house is quite dilapidated and the walls are peeling off, but there are many electric lights hanging and the light is good. Accommodation is arranged by the village, and the troupe has no choice. Even if the troupe with the best quality and highest financial performance comes, the accommodation conditions are like this. The leader's residence is a long and narrow room similar to a guard's office. In addition to the two beds, there is only a small coffee table that can be used as a dining table. Chen Shukeng

said that the financial strength of their group is quite good. Everyone has iron frame beds to sleep on, and there are many small coffee tables that serve as tables

all of which he is responsible for. It was bought after the troupe leader. Many other troupes couldn't even sleep on iron beds, so they often had to make beds on the floor, or even spread straw on the dirt floor and cover them with mats to sleep on. He told reporters that even if it is a state-owned theater troupe, they have the same living conditions when they come to perform in rural areas.

Teochew opera troupes need to bring all their belongings with them when they perform in various places, because the opera host usually only provides accommodation

and takes care of everything else. Therefore, in addition to costumes, props, scenery and other performance items, the troupe also needs to bring beds, quilts, tables and chairs, stoves, pots and pans and other daily necessities, and even washing machines. Every time a theater troupe goes out to perform, it needs a bus and four or five trucks to move it. The owner provides gas and rice, and the troupe cooks and buys vegetables to prepare meals every day.

The amount of money the host pays for a play is determined by the quality of the troupe's performance. In terms of how much each performance costs, a performance of about five and a half hours per night is considered a performance. Opera, if there is a performance during the day, it will be charged separately. Because the time is short, the theater fee will be slightly less.

Tang Longtong, deputy director of the Chaozhou Chaozhou Opera Troupe, told reporters that the Guangdong Chaozhou Opera Troupe is currently recognized as having the highest artistic level.

The three Chaozhou Opera troupes in the theater each cost about It is 15,000 yuan; Chaozhou Chaozhou Opera Troupe belongs to the upper-middle level of state-owned troupes

, and the performance fee is 0.9 to 10,000 yuan per performance; like Hanjiang Chaozhou Opera Troupe, which is a higher-level private troupe, the opera< /p>

The gold fee is 6,000 yuan per game. The Chaozhou Chaozhou Opera Troupe performs about 250 performances every year, and the Hanjiang Chaozhou Opera Troupe also performs more than 200 performances. However, many private theater troupes with limited levels have low operating fees and few performances, which is similar to semi-employment.

In the spare time state, if there is something to do, then act, and if there is no drama, then leave. Actors have limited income and often have to do side jobs to make ends meet.

Chen Shukeng said that on average, the actors in his troupe earn more than 1,000 yuan a month. In the Chaoshan area, many migrant workers earn only a few hundred yuan a month. Based on this calculation, the income of Teochew opera actors is actually not low.

Moreover, most of the actors in the troupe were born in rural areas, and their families are relatively poor. They don’t really mind living in rural areas without a fixed residence all year round. Therefore, the level of Higher-end theater companies don't have to worry about retaining actors.

But when it came to this, Chen Shukeng was still a little helpless. He said frankly that life now is not much different from the old theater troupe in the old society. Although he was not despised as an "actor" like in the old days, it was still difficult to gain access to society.

Enough respect. Although many folk artists can now be called "artists", for Teochew opera artists, except for a few famous actors, most of them can only be regarded as "artists". "Running around the world".

Regular state-owned Chaozhou Opera Troupe, such as Chaozhou City Chaozhou Opera Troupe, has more than 70 people, relatively large manpower, and relatively clear division of labor

For example, in the leadership, there are people responsible for screenwriting. There are people in charge of directors, people in charge of administration, and people in charge of external relations and public relations

But for a private theater troupe like Hanjiang Chao Opera Troupe, in order to streamline the manpower, it is normal to wear multiple hats

thing.

Like Chen Shukeng, the reporter did a rough calculation and found that he has seven jobs in one person: administration, personnel, finance, external relations, general affairs, actor, and director. From contacting for theater invitations and signing contracts, to the income and expenditure of money, to the placement of the troupe in every place, to every performance, to recruiting new people and rehearsing new plays, Chen Shukeng takes care of everything down to the smallest detail. You have to do it yourself

Do it yourself. During the interview, when he was walking by the side of the stage, he saw that a rope was loose. He immediately stopped and bent over to tie it up. He laughed at himself and said that in the troupe he was both a father and a mother, so although his home was in Chaozhou, he often couldn't go back home for a whole month. When the reporter asked if his wife had a problem with him not being home for such a long time, he said she had a big problem with it, but she had to understand that it was just like this in this business.

Chen Shukeng has a fifteen-year-old son. He hopes that his son will be successful in his studies and go to college, instead of singing in Chaozhou opera like him.

But he repeatedly told reporters that because he loves the Teochew opera industry, no matter how hard the conditions are, he still likes to do it.

He is 44 years old and has been performing in the countryside for 22 years. He still likes this business.

Sometimes, people are so contradictory.

*3. There are also big markets abroad*

Compared with some local operas in the mainland, Teochew opera has a unique advantage, that is, they not only have

The stable market for rural folk activities also has a considerable number of audiences abroad. This is a natural condition for them to survive better.

The Chaoshan area is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese. Chaoshan people can be found all over the world, especially in Hong Kong, China and Southeast Asia.

Chaoshan Association activities are even more frequent. In recent years, Chaoshan people living overseas have begun to invite Teochew opera troupes to perform abroad,

which has brought new plays to the Teochew opera troupes. Chaozhou Chaozhou Opera Troupe has performed in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and other places, and received strong response. The Han Jiang Teochew Opera Troupe received enthusiastic acclaim for its performance in Bangkok, Thailand in 2003. In 2005, it will perform in Hong Kong for a month. Some of these are visiting performances invited by the local government, and some are commercial performances invited by performance companies.

Performing abroad is undoubtedly a good opportunity for the troupe to generate income, and the performance conditions are much better than in rural areas in China

The audience is also more enthusiastic. Overseas Chaoshan people have not heard the local dialect for a long time, but they are deeply interested in Chaozhou music and Chaozhou opera performances. They also bring their children with them to watch the performances to cultivate their feelings for their hometown culture. Usually, theater troupes will rearrange their repertoire for performances abroad to make the plot compact and the performances exquisite, which objectively has a positive effect on the artistic level of Teochew opera. Performing abroad is also very helpful for increasing the influence of a theater troupe. Theater troupes that have gone abroad are considered to have guaranteed quality and are more trustworthy, so performing abroad can be said to gain both fame and fortune. It is said that the number of invitations to Teochew opera troupes is increasing year by year, and it is not limited to Southeast Asia. France, the United States, etc. are also beginning to invite performances. Of course, most of the theater troupes that perform abroad are recognized to have high artistic standards, and it is difficult for many private troupes to have this opportunity.

Abroad, Teochew opera has a certain market, which is unique compared to many other local operas; but in China, Teochew opera, like most opera varieties, faces A serious problem: losing urban markets and losing teenage audiences.

Teochew opera has long been extinct in city theaters because no audience will buy tickets to watch Teochew opera performances in the theater. People

are willing to spend money to watch movies and song and dance performances, but they are not interested in Teochew opera. At most, they just buy a Teochew opera DVD to take home and watch.

Young people, in particular, sneer at Teochew operas, thinking they are trivial. Chaozhou TV

Not long ago, a new "opera channel" was launched, which specializes in playing Teochew opera and Teochew music, and invites experts to explain and comment on it.

There are also interactive programs with the audience. There are many people listening, but most of them are middle-aged and elderly people, so it is difficult to conquer the hearts of teenagers.

Chen Jun, an expert on Teochew opera, believes that the reason is that on the one hand, today’s teenagers like fashionable, fast-paced, and

things with a strong sense of the times. Teochew operas have a slow pace and far away content. life, it is difficult to arouse the excitement of young people; on the other hand, young people lack education in traditional culture and do not know how to appreciate a traditional opera such as Teochew opera.

Because " I can’t understand” so “I don’t want to see”.

Teochew opera workers have thought seriously about how to solve the problem of Teochew opera losing urban markets and losing young people.

Tang Longtong, deputy director of Chaozhou Teochew Opera Troupe and a famous Teochew opera actor, believes that Teochew opera should be reformed to be as close as possible to the aesthetic requirements of modern people in order to win the audience. The specific method is: first of all, in terms of the story of the play< /p>

On the other hand, the story should be adapted to be modern and close to the lives of the audience, and modern dramas should be put on the stage instead of just performing costume dramas; secondly, in terms of performance, actions, The program should gradually be adapted to daily life; thirdly, in terms of lines,

the narration and lyrics should gradually become colloquial and close to the current language. In short, the goal is to gradually reform Teochew opera to bring it closer to the audience, rather than distance it from the audience.

Chen Shukeng believes that in order to provide traditional cultural education to young people, schools should have drama classes, where teachers teach by words

explain what drama is to students so that young people can understand What is meant by watching a play? Only when you understand it can you enjoy watching it

. But whether drama reform or education reform is feasible or effective, it is still unknown.

It will be a long road for Teochew opera to return to the city.

*4. The pros and cons of being rooted in the local area*

Currently, many local operas across the country are on the verge of extinction, but judging from the current situation of Teochew opera activities

< p>Look, not only is this drama not in danger of extinction, it even has some vitality.

According to incomplete statistics, there are currently nearly a hundred Chaozhou opera troupes operating in the Chaoshan area, and new troupes are constantly appearing

. The Chaoshan area, which includes the three prefecture-level cities of Shantou, Chaozhou and Jieyang, is able to support so many theater troupes. The reason is the power of folk customs.

As mentioned before, rural areas in the Chaoshan area hold an event called the Wandering God Competition every year. In Chaozhou dialect, it is commonly known as "Yingda Laoye". It is a community that worships the earth god. Sexual festivals are held in the first and second months of the lunar calendar and are quite grand.

As the god enshrined in the temple, the "big master" assumes the function of the social altar of a certain community and becomes the social god of this community. There are many names for the great masters in various places, mainly miscellaneous gods created and worshiped by the people, such as the King of Three Mountains, the Holy King of Anji, the Holy King of Shuangzhong, the Yuxian Lord, etc. They also include the City God, Guan Ye, Mazu, Antarctic Emperor, Xuantian God, etc.

Gods. "Ying Master" Ying is a Chaozhou dialect word that retains the ancient meanings of "Huihuai" ("Hanshu Yanzhu") and "Zhenyu" ("Wenxuan

Xuzhu"), referring to During the sacrificial process, the earth god visits the Tu'an realm. When a certain community was "Yingda Laoye"

, there were multiple shrines in the community, called "Shenqian" in Chaozhou dialect, with lights and colors and incense, candles and whole pigs.

< p>Fat Goose etc. In front of the altar, performances are usually performed to reward the gods. That is to set up a stage in the open space in front of the altar and perform plays for the gods.

Generally speaking, wealthier villages will invite Teochew opera to perform, while less wealthy villages will invite puppet shows commonly known as

"paper shadow plays". The latter's plays Gold is only about 10% of the former, which is much cheaper. In this way, so many villages in the Chaoshan region provide a large market for Chaozhou opera troupes and paper shadow theater troupes every year. In addition, there are many festivals and folk activities held in October, November and December of the lunar calendar every year, which are also the peak seasons for Teochew opera troupes.

In the summer of June and July, there are fewer folk activities and fewer performances. Most of the time, the money for the opera is raised by each household. There are also cases where a private owner in the village pays for the opera or the village collective pays for it. Then the respected old people in the village (commonly known as the "village boss") are responsible for contacting the theater troupe and arranging performances.

So, when interviewing the heads of various Teochew opera troupes, they all looked very optimistic about the prospects of the Teochew opera market

and were not pessimistic. They all believe that the power of folk custom is very huge, and the activities of this kind of Youshen Tournament will be passed down year after year and will only grow and not die out. As the Youshen Games continue, the Teochew opera market will continue to grow. As long as the economy develops well, the demand for operas in rural areas will only increase, and the space given to Teochew operas will also increase. For villages that have the ability, they all hope to invite theater troupes with higher standards. One reason is that the villagers want to see high-level performances

; When a good troupe comes, the village will be proud and feel more proud than other villages. This also stimulates the troupe to improve its performance level, which is a virtuous circle.

Teochew opera troupes have often formed fixed relationships with many villages, and perform here regularly during the village's Wandering God Competition

on several days every year. The Chaozhou Chaozhou Opera Troupe once performed in a village in Chaoyang for 14 years. If it is performed for several consecutive days, the repertoire cannot be the same for several days; if it is performed for several consecutive years, the repertoire cannot be the same every year, otherwise the audience will not respond. This prompts each theater company to continuously produce new plays. Chen Shukeng said that his troupe has to produce four new plays every year, each of which lasts nearly six hours, so that it can be invited by every village next year. He told reporters that most of the scripts were transplanted from other operas and adapted into Teochew opera scripts, which objectively promoted the development of Teochew opera itself.

But the disadvantages of relying on folk customs for survival are also obvious. Most of the markets for Teochew opera are rural areas, and the needs of the market determine the performance quality and artistic level of Teochew opera. This is the biggest limitation of Teochew opera. Generally speaking, even today, rural audiences still like to watch costume dramas, long palace dramas with joys and sorrows and complete stories, or comedy with gags and light-heartedness. Therefore, most of the performances performed by Teochew opera troupes are the so-called "palace dramas", which are mainly stories about birth and birth, with gags, fights, joys and sorrows, etc. in between.

p>

The festival, the final "happy ending", such as "The Long-lived Uncle", "The Queen Saves the King", "The Prince Returns to the Country", etc., promote

"Be loyal to the king and serve the country", " Traditional thoughts such as "good deeds and evil deeds will be rewarded" and "lovers will eventually get married". In order to adapt to the six-hour performance at night, this kind of story must have a protracted plot and complicated characters. Simple and clear character plots are absolutely unacceptable, let alone Excerpt. Except for costume dramas, Teochew opera troupes almost never perform modern dramas. The reason is that rural audiences don't like to watch them. Therefore, the Teochew opera currently being performed and the newly released plays lack new ideas from the ideological level to the plot arrangement, and the artistic level is relatively limited. The reason is precisely because they are restricted by the market.

Teochew opera troupes can guarantee the market by performing remunerative operas, but they cannot guarantee the audience. There may even be a contradictory relationship between the market and the audience:

The more economically developed and wealthy the In rural areas, the more able they are to hire good theater troupes, but the fewer audiences will go to the theater; the more economically underdeveloped and poor villages are, the more theater audiences will go to the theater. This is because entertainment activities are also developed in economically developed rural areas. Audiences generally do not like such procrastinating and outdated performances. Only in economically backward places do they respond enthusiastically to such performances. . So sometimes there will be a situation like this: a theater troupe is invited, the quality is good, but not many people watch it. As time went by, the owners became less particular about who they invited to perform. They just hired a troupe that was average but cheaper. Anyway, with a tweeter, it sounded lively from a distance, but the effect was not the same

p>

Some even invite a song and dance troupe to perform or show a movie as a reward show, and the audience loves to watch it even more. For Teochew opera troupes, this is also an irreconcilable contradiction in the market of Huishen opera.

In order to meet the market requirements of the God-rewarding Opera, the Chaoshan area even derived such a strange drama variety:

Mute Opera.

When performing this kind of mime, there is no need for a band to play music, but a Teochew opera tape to play directly. The actors wear costumes and gesture and lip-sync on the stage. They only "act" and "beat" without "singing" or "singing". "Nian" is actually no longer a real drama

Drama. This kind of dumb opera troupe only needs 20 to 30 people to perform, which is more than half the number of people than a formal troupe. It is low-cost and has low operating fees. It can even cost more than 1,000 yuan to perform a performance. Of course, the level is quite poor. Most of the actors have not received professional training, and they are uneven and perfunctory. But from a distance, the dumb show is not much different from the real Teochew opera performance.

The sound is even louder and more beautiful, which can fully meet the "decent and lively" requirements of the Huishen Opera, so naturally

p>

There is room for existence.

According to Huang Limin, the head of external relations of the Chaozhou Opera Troupe, there are currently about 60 dumb opera troupes in Chaoshan, most of them from Zhao'an County, Fujian. The activities of the pantomime troupe also had a great impact on Teochew opera troupes, seizing part of the market and lowering the income of Teochew opera.

*5. Vitality comes from a relatively good virtuous cycle*

One of the important reasons why Teochew opera can develop is that it has formed a relatively good virtuous cycle over the years< /p>

Huan: There are provincial Chaozhou theaters, opera schools, and Chaozhou opera troupes in the city, so that new forces can be continuously replenished.

The training of new actors is very important. Teochew opera workers are well aware of this problem, so training new actors

has always been one of the tasks they attach great importance to. In terms of public theater troupes, there are specialized drama schools, such as Shantou Opera

The Shantou Opera School and the Chaozhou Opera School are both technical secondary schools that train Chaozhou opera talents and send them to various public theaters in Chaoshan

< p>group. Private theater troupes also realize the importance of cultivating talents. Chen Shukeng revealed to us that he will organize a Chaozhou opera class by himself, and not only invites actors from the troupe to be teachers, but also invites opera artists from outside. The purpose of teaching is to cultivate high-level reserve forces for

your own troupe. In addition to these schools and study classes, various theater troupes also adopt the traditional "training within the troupe" method, where the master leads the apprentice, and the old actor leads the new actor, so as to improve the quality of the young actors as much as possible

>

Ping. Because of these efforts, there is actually no shortage of newcomers in the Teochew opera industry.

On the other hand, the number of amateur Teochew opera fans is increasing day by day, and new art forms are gradually taking shape.

Many middle-aged and elderly women in the Chaoshan area like to sing Teochew opera, and spontaneously organize themselves into Teochew opera clubs and Teochew opera learning clubs. They usually sing a cappella Teochew opera together

and rehearse solos and choruses. Participate in various performances to entertain yourself. This growing number of music clubs has contributed to the growing maturity of a new art form - Chaoqu. Chaozhou opera singers do not need to wear costumes, do not read lyrics, and only sing certain Chaozhou opera excerpts with musical accompaniment, similar to the way of Cantonese opera singing. This art form not only promotes the traditional Teochew opera art, but is also more operable and participatory than Teochew opera. I believe it will have strong vitality.

Local governments have also gradually paid more and more attention to Teochew opera. Take Chaozhou City as an example. In recent years, the government has not only provided nearly 1 million yuan in financial support to the Chaozhou City Teochew Opera Troupe every year, but also launched a Teochew opera channel and held Teochew opera professional competitions. , amateur competitions and Chaoyin evening parties, etc., to increase the publicity of Teochew opera, and also enhance the public's enthusiasm for Teochew opera.

*What is the future of Teochew opera? *

In the current opera environment across the country, Teochew opera is in a position of “more than enough compared to those below, but insufficient compared to those above”. On the one hand, for most local operas across the country, some are indeed facing great difficulties in their current development, and some are even facing a life-or-death situation. According to statistical data from the national key scientific research project in the art discipline "Survey on the Current Situation of National Opera Troupes", with the huge changes in social lifestyles, traditional opera art has not only gradually withdrawn The urban stage and rural performance markets are also shrinking, and some drama types are disappearing rapidly.

Take Shanxi Province, which has a long history of opera activities, as an example.

In 1983, there were still 49 opera varieties in the province, but currently there are only 28 opera types surviving on the Shanxi opera stage. In the past 21 years, one opera type has died out every year on average.

Among the 21 extinct opera types, there are many opera types with a long history and cultural value, such as those formed in the Song and Jin Dynasties and spread in Shanxi, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, and Shaanxi.

"Sai Opera" was formed in the Song Dynasty and was popular in Shangdang area of ??Shanxi Province

"Team Opera" was popular in southern Shanxi Province and "Gong and Drum Zaju" was formed in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty and was popular in Shanxi and Henan , Hebei, Shandong's "Luo Opera", "Juan Opera", etc. This situation also exists in Shaanxi, Fujian, Hanzhong and other areas where drama activities were originally active. Due to sharp declines in audiences and economic difficulties, many traditional opera troupes have been disbanded, which has led to the opera's survival crisis or even its complete demise. Compared with many local operas that are on the verge of extinction, the situation of Teochew opera is very gratifying. At least it is not in danger of extinction yet, and it will continue to be popular for a long time to come.

It can maintain vitality and vitality for a period of time.

But on the other hand, although there is no big problem for Teochew opera to survive, if it wants to pursue greater development, it

should not be too optimistic. It is understood that although the local government also attaches great importance to the construction of local culture, only a few public theater troupes can receive support. Folk Teochew operas are currently basically in a state of fend for themselves, and most private ones

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The troupe can only let it go. This is incomparable with operas such as Kunqu Opera and Cantonese Opera, which are strongly supported by the government. Take

Cantonese opera as an example. Four Cantonese opera troupes in Guangdong Province and Guangzhou City, Shenzhen Cantonese Opera Troupe, Foshan Cantonese Opera Troupe, etc. all receive strong support from the government

Not only actors are paid according to their grades There is a fixed salary, and there are many theaters that regularly perform Cantonese opera in cities such as Guangzhou. The government provides preferential policies. Audiences can watch Cantonese opera performances at inexpensive ticket prices. There are also "big theaters" >

The event "Students Watch Cantonese Opera for One Yuan Ticket" helps to retain a place for Cantonese opera in the city. In comparison, the living situation of Teochew opera seems much more embarrassing.

In a sense, among the many folk operas in China today, the living conditions of Teochew opera are certain

representative. They are rooted in the countryside and are still active in rural areas. among them, but they inevitably face the reality that the audience base

is shrinking day by day. With the continuous advancement of urbanization, more and more modern entertainment methods are undoubtedly influencing every young person in a subtle way, even those living in rural areas. Therefore, many traditional< /p>

Folk operas will undoubtedly face a huge impact. What is the future of Teochew opera? What will be the fate of many folk operas in the Mainland?

It may be a question that is difficult for anyone to answer.