User:Jinlingluo/sandbox

Annotated Bibliography for Yueju
Hello again！ I'm working on the Yueju entry now, and here are some specific sources that I am considering using.

Before extending the Wiki entry, I thought about what kind of aspect is lacking right now. The current Yue Opera is a stab article, as its contents still have a lot to develop upon. The history of Yueju does not have much details, and the introductions of Yueju actress only include a list of names. Also, the outstanding and distinctive singing style of Yueju is not mentioned in the entry. Notice that Chinese comprehensive Bibliography of Yueju includes: the history of Yueju's name (why named "Yueju"), history of different types of characters in Yueju performance, evolution history, introduction of different theater companies in different provinces...

Thereof, starting from understanding what the Wiki entry is lacking as well as what a comprehensive encyclopedia of Yueju looks like, I will build on the project in two perspectives: the history of Yueju (Yue Opera), and the performing art of Yueju (Yue Opera).

Based on that, I changed some of my references to talk more about the above two aspects.

The history of Yueju (Yue Opera）
1. Women playing men : Yue opera and social change in twentieth-century Shanghai (Seattle : University of Washington Press, ©2009).

I decide to keep this great source. Women playing men is the most prestigious scholarly publication in America, that focus specifically on the sociology and history of Yueju. The author Jin Jiang is a really popular Chinese opera scholar. She has done years of research on this topic. And she utilizes over 200 sources (including interviews and scholarly journals) to display this history. This will be a fantastic source for me to extend upon the introduction of Yueju.

2.Dubious prosperity: Women and entertainment in wartime Shanghai  by Jin Jiang Find in World Cat Library Catalog

This article specifically describes the history of Yueju evolution from the aspect of sociology. As the first and foremost female-playing opera in China, Yueju has its historical meaning. It's evolution furthermore coordinates with the society and people's value and norms. Thereof this article is crucial for me to extend the illustration.

The art of Yueju (Yue Opera）
 1. The Historical Story of Yueju 越剧史话 by Gao Yilong 高义龙, edited by Yuan Xuefen 袁雪芬 越剧史话在线阅览

Published in 1991, the Historical Story of Yueju preserved lots of precious documents in the past. As Yuan Xuefen, one of the most prestigious Yueju actress, contributed to its editing, the illustration of the performing art of Yueju becomes extremely persuasive and comprehensive, ranging from singing style, characters introduction and its relative history. Hence to develop the staging and performing arts of Yueju, this professional source is definitely indispensable.

 2. Development of training and performativity in Shanghai YueJu by Ma Haili

This article elaborates why such female-performed opera will survive in China. Haili attributes the popularity of Yueju to its strict and unique stage training and Chinese Yin culture. Notice that this perspective is a widely-known and persuasive illustration of Yueju. To better understand why Chinese view Yueju as our second largest opera, we must take a look at this article.


 * I delete the  Fusions: Western Influence Upon Traditional Chinese Theater source, because I find that this article is limited to its connection to Shakespeare. This is not the direction that we shall work on.

Draft Writing for Yueju
4 Steps in Revising this stab article:

1.Original content: more descriptive in terms of features for Yueju. Instead of blending the history of Yueju with its description.

2.Extend on its different developing stages of history in terms of causes, processes, results or impact on society and pivoting themes or events.

3. Extend on the singing style of Yueju, including categories, features, representative features and characters.

4. Deleting the original lists of famous actress. Instead, injecting 2~3 brief introductions of prestigious performers.

Introduction

Yueju is currently the second largest opera form out of over 360 opera genres in China. Originated from Shengzhou, Zhejiang province in 1906, Yueju is well-known for its femininity in terms of its singing, performing and staging styles. Over time, it grew in popularity, now being the most popular form of Chinese opera after the Peking opera. It is highly popular in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Fujian, while its audiences are all over China.

Pre-history
Prior to 1906, Yue Opera was initially a folk entertainment for people in Sheng County (pinyin: shèng xiàn 嵊县). Its singing lyrics are mostly collected from conversations between farmers when they are doing works. People love these lyrics because they are closed to actual lives that people live with. Yet the Second Opium War interfered with the local economy of Jiangnan (pinyin: jīang nán, simplified Chinese 江南) region which include Sheng County. Sheng County once had a hard time of earning livelihood. Farmers and workers started to take singing and improvising lyrics as their secondary jobs to earn more money.

Over years, the accumulation of lyrics build up the fundamental source materials for initial Yue Opera, and the folk music had gradually developed its own regular patterns. Singers also began to add some simple acting and accompanying instruments along with the folk music. This folk art gradually became well-known among Sheng County and neighbor counties.

Born
At the end of the first month of the lunar year Zhēngyuè (zhēng, simplified Chinese: "正月") in 1906, artists all gathered together in Mr. Chen Wanyuan (simplified Chinese: 陈万元)'s house. Although these artists had never performed together before, Mr. Chen and residents encouraged them to cooperate in performance. Fortunately, the result of that show turns out to be a great success, and villages were really delighted to talk about it.

More and more counties gradually invite them to perform. Because the music's tones are really similar to folk song, people named this art "Small Literal Class" (pinyin: Xiao Gē Wén Shū Bān, simplified Chinese:小歌文书班).

Initial Development
As "Small Literal Class" expanded its sizes and popularity, it entered Shanghai theaters. Due to its unique elegant and soft singing style compared with other political and magnificent performances, Yue Opera had its customer markets in Shanghai. It soon changes its name to ShaoXing Literal Opera (Shao Xing Wen Xi 绍兴文戏) in 1916, to better represent its performances as reflecting regional culture. However, both the singing style and Banhu Fiddle (accompaniment) of ShaoXing Literal Opera was too undeveloped and vulgar compared with other delicate operas in Shanghai. It soon lost its prestige and popularity in this big city.

Going back to Sheng County, artists such as Jinshui Wang(simplified Chinese: 金水王) put great efforts in improving their performance and singing style. Noticed that group of artists such as Jinshui absorbed the essence from different operas including Beijing Opera they have seen in Shanghai. During this process, Four Gong Pitch (pinyin: Sì Gōng Qiāng, simplified Chinese: 四工腔) became the remarkable fruit from this revolution. This music pitch is extraordinary because it resolves the unnatural status women have when they play male roles. ShaoXing Literal Opera further developed systematic training of singing style and sound practice. It utilized Erhu Fiddle and other linear fiddle as alternatives to make adjust music transactions.

Female-performed opera
After Jinshui Wang (simplified Chinese: 金水王), a ShaoXing Literal Opera performer, came back to Sheng County, he was deeply impressed by the prosperous and artistic atmosphere in Shanghai. Because of the influence Shanghai have on him, Jinshui saw the business opportunities in founding female-performed opera. In February, 1923, he opened a female-performed opera class and spent huge amount of money in attracting and rewarding women to join.

However, the first female class existed for only six years. Women's social class was humble in that period, and female-performed opera skewed the value government encouraged. After years, these first wave of female-artists all left this career.

Fortunately, the progress these artists achieved were noteworthy. As female-performed opera accumulated its influence, more and more female classes were founded after years. Shaoxing Literal Opera started to have 3-months systematic training period. Noticed that by the beginning of early 1930s, Zhejiang Province had about two hundred female classes as well as two thousands students.

Reasons for the rise of Shaoxing Literal Opera in early 1930s
There are two well-known explanations at that time. One of them is economic incentive. Back in 20th century, Chinese young women only have two options for earning livelihood. They often either send to other wealthy family to be their Tong Yang Xi (Tongyangxi, 童养媳, pinyin: Tong Yang Xi), or to the factories to work. In 1929, the Wall Street Crash has tremendous global influence. Lots of factories in Shanghai got turned down. Thereof, lots of women had no options except attending female-performed opera classes for livelihood.

Another explanation was that Shaoxing Literal Opera accords with female's nature. As young women tend to be more glorious on stage according to Sheng County's newspaper at that time, the tender and gentle features of Shaoxing Literal Art became more outstanding under such highlighting. Furthermore, Four Gong Qiang works more vividly and delicately under women's performances.