The newly refurbished Chinese Kunqu Opera Museum in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, is open to the public again and showcases a number of set costumes from the 20th century.

The application and practice of theories of oral history play a crucial role in historical research.

More and more researchers are utilizing oral records to better understand the origins and development of Kunqu Opera. This method not only fills the gaps in studies of Kunqu Opera history but also enriches research content, and is a sign that the studies of Kunqu Opera and traditional Chinese operas have entered into a new paradigm in the 21st century.

The use of oral records is not a new research method, but a tradition modified with newly updated research concepts. In the past, the majority of opera performers and artists were less educated. They taught disciples via oral instructions and rarely left any written materials. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the status of opera performers, including Kunqu Opera performers, has significantly risen. The public then wanted to know much more about opera performers’ experiences and feelings. So between the 1950s and 1960s, a series of records of opera artists’ conversations on art experience were published, which are now defined as oral history. Since the 1980s, more and more oral materials on Kunqu Opera have been gathered. In the 21st century, China initiated an oral research project on Kunqu Opera, which laid a solid foundation for studies of the oral history of Kunqu Opera in the 20th century.      

In the 1950s and 1960s, the study of traditional Chinese operas began a tradition of conducting interviews to summarize the experiences of elderly artists and collect oral records. Since then it has become apparent that the Kunqu Opera circle has yielded more results. This is connected with Kunqu Opera’s artistic traditions and performers’ cultural achievements.

For instance, students of the Suzhou Kunqu Opera School not only study Kunqu Opera but also learn ancient Chinese prose and phonology in order to improve their cultural literacy. This learning experience distinguishes Kunqu Opera performers from others. Most performers are more than Kunqu Opera artists and are also good at lyre, chess, calligraphy and painting. This “jack of all trades” background increases their range of expression, and equips them with the skill needed to vividly convey the elegance of Kunqu Opera.

In order to collect vivid materials of the 20th century Kunqu Opera, a research team from the Chinese National Academy of the Arts consisting of more than 10 members interviewed many artists from the seven major Kunqu Opera troupes and some performers of local opera with Kunqu tunes. They spent two years in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other cities, utilizing video, audio and photographic media to record the interviews. The project included 143 interviewees of all age ranges, ranging from performers to choreographers, composers, teachers, scholars and managers of troupes. The research team then wrote more than 3 million words about the historical development of Kunqu Opera in the 20th century. The project combined field surveys and oral interviews. It made use of existing documents and enriched previous works.          

Oral history can build upon our existing knowledge. Some existing written documents focus on ancient history and literary history of Kunqu Opera. So we should also emphasize the knowledge of literature. In contrast to many other kinds of history, 20th century Kunqu Opera is a living history, and its performance and stage characteristics should be underlined.      

Liu Zhen is a research fellow at Chinese National Academy of Arts.