“Peking Opera: Jingju.” In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Includes many earlier English-language texts that are foundational to the current-day studies of Peking Opera conducted outside the Chinese context. The section “ Jingju” provides selected works on Peking Opera suitable for both preliminary and in-depth research. “ Traditional Chinese Drama (Xiqu 戏曲) Performance Art.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies. The introduction to the music explains the basic tune families, the aria types, and the orchestra of Beijing Opera. The chronological overview describes the historical emergence and transformation of Beijing Opera through the late 18th century to the end of the 20th century. Introduces the history and the music of Beijing Opera. Encompasses a variety of subjects including historical context, musical analysis, artists’ biographies, and social studies, with selected reprints and transcriptions of archival materials. Beijing: Zhongguo xiju chubanshe, 2005.Ī three-volume chronological overview of the development of Peking Opera from c. Wichmann 1994 is a provocative source proposing methodologies for English-speaking scholars to study the subject.īeijingshi yishu yanjiusuo 北京市艺术研究所 and Shanghai yishu yanjiusuo 上海艺术研究所.

Beijingshi yishu yanjiusuo and Shanghai yishu yanjiusuo 2005 contains an authoritative and thorough overview of Peking Opera designed for scholarly reference. Guy’s article in Grove Music Online ( Beijing Opera) and Pian 2002 are very useful sources introducing the musical aspects of Peking Opera. Mackerras and Hai’s article in Oxford Bibliographies Online ( Traditional Chinese Drama (Xiqu 戏曲) Performance Art) offers an informative starting point for musical research.

For an accessible introduction to the subject, see Xu and Chen 2003. Works listed here represent more recent scholarship. Notice that writings after the international standardization of the pinyin system (1979) may adapt the pinyin transliteration, “Beijing Opera.” Meanwhile, the more conventional “Peking Opera” continues to exist in various contexts, as many European languages outside English still refer to the name of city in its traditional transliteration.Ī great number of general studies have been produced in both Chinese and English aimed at a diverse readership. This article selects works and resources that would benefit scholars proficient in the Chinese language who are interested in researching, teaching, and/or publishing in English academic settings. Local Chinese scholarship tends to focus on archival work and theories related to musical practice, while the Western counterpart is predominantly concerned with critical and structural analysis. Scholarship on Peking Opera conducted in Mainland China sometimes diverges in methodology from that conducted abroad due to the different academic and social environments. Contemporary performance and composition of Peking Opera remain innovative while still reviving traditional forms. At the same time in Taiwan, the genre was renamed by the KMT military government as “National Opera ( guoju國劇)” in response to defeat and expulsion by the Communist Party. With the start of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Peking Opera was reinvented as Model Opera ( yangbanxi样板戏). After the establishment of the PRC in 1949, the government implemented drama reform that aimed at bringing Peking Opera into better line with Communist ideology.

During the early 20th century in the Republic of China, Peking Opera thrived as virtuoso artists performed nationwide and toured internationally. As a blend of various Southern Chinese theatrical traditions, Peking Opera inherits and stylizes many representative musical features of Chinese xiqu in its melodies, rhythms, and vocal techniques. Peking Opera ( jingju 京剧), a major genre of classical Chinese theater ( xiqu 戏曲), emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries during the Qing dynasty.

Raban peking opera