On January 7, our school invited Yili Shen, a national first-class performer of Kunqu, to YCIS Pudong campus to have a conversation with students from both YCIS Pudong and YCIS Puxi in the afternoon. She talked about her career of Kunqu.
Kunqu is one of the most ancient genre of dramas. It has been declared a “world intangible heritage” by UNESCO. It was originated from the area of Suzhou and KunShan in the end of Yuan Dynasty. In Ming Dynasty, it spread over China, gradually becoming the most influential genre of drama. Many other Chinese genres of drama was being developed based on Kunqu, so Kunqu is also called “the mother of Chinese drama”.
Yili Shen was graduated from Shanghai Theatre Academy. She has been working for Kunqu for more than 30 years. She shared her experience of performing Kunqu operas with us. She said “For an actor, even if you play one opera for many times, each time is unique because you have different emotions and understanding of the words. The rhythm in your head is then distinctive each time.” Also, unlike modern music, Kunqu uses a different notation, called Gongche notation, which is mainly used in traditional Chinese music and drama.
She performed a section of “Peony Pavilion” called “Dream in the Deserted Garden”. This was also linked to the novel “Dream in the Deserted Garden” in the book called “Taipei Ren” because the author of this book referenced many texts of “Peony Pavilion” in literature part of Chinese A. This actually extended students’ Chinese literature knowledge rather than just the books required in the course, providing more distinctive angles when analysing and reading the novel.
—— Written by Michael Zhou （周天华）, Y13A
