Reinvention of Huju Opera amid COVID-19 pandemic
Known as “the voice of Shanghai,” Huju Opera has endured a tough year and continues to flourish despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
With a history of more than 200 years, the local theatrical art form, featuring tender and graceful melodies, has rolled with the punches, reinvented itself and proved that it is still adept at portraying vivid realistic lives and rich emotions of people today.
“We had to cancel our performances at theaters in the first half of the year due to the coronavirus outbreak,” said Mao Shanyu, director of Shanghai Huju Opera Theater.
“It was a big loss, but it also changed our concepts and the traditional way of production and marketing. As pandemic continues, the crisis gradually turned into new opportunities for us.”
One of the opportunities led to performances being screened onto a cloud theater between March and May — to a wide acclaim.
Mao, lead actress in the well-received Huju Opera film “Thunderstorm,” shared stories of the film’s production with netizens through live broadcasts, narrating the origin of Huju Opera and its affinity with “Thunderstorm,” which is based on playwright Cao Yu’s representative drama in 1933.
In May, young Huju Opera performers and the theater’s band presented excerpts to thousands of online Douyin and Bilibili viewers, offering people an new insight into the art’s distinctive charm.
The pandemic also inspired the theater to create more original works in new forms. Earlier this year, a series of Huju Opera short video dramas were produced and released online, paying tribute to the city’s medical workers fighting the pandemic.
Mao has enjoyed a glittering 40-year acting career. She won the Plum Blossom Prize twice, which is the highest theatrical award in China, was celebrated at the Shanghai Magnolia Stage Performance Awards and China Theater Festival, and was recently honored as the 2020 Shanghai Labor Model.
Although she has portrayed many characters on stage, Mao always believes her next character will be the best.
The veteran performer believes Huju Opera embodies the spirit of Shanghai, which embraces diversity and different cultures.
“Most of our plays are based on real-life stories and events which resonate well with the audience,” said Mao. “In recent years, we have created productions to reflect the city’s ethos and inclusiveness of different cultures. And we plan to bring these powerful, inspiring works to audiences in the Yangtze River Delta region.”
“Daughter of Dunhuang,” created in 2018, tells stories about Shanghai native Fan Jinshi, played by Mao Shanyu from 25 (left) to 80 (center) years old.
The Huju Opera film “Daughter of Dunhuang,” which completed shooting in October and is slated for a July release next year, is one of the biggest projects in the theater’s history.
The film follows Shanghai native Fan Jinshi’s efforts as an archeologist to preserve ancient murals at Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, an important outpost of the Silk Road, in northwest China’s Gansu Province. Fan, the third director of the Dunhuang Research Institute, is known as the “daughter of Dunhuang” and is portrayed by Mao in the movie from the age of 25 to 80 years old.
Mao Shanyu (left) interviews Fan Jinshi in front of Cave 96, also known as the Great Buddha Hall, at Mogao Caves in Dunhuang.
As for the future, the theater will show five classic plays from March 22 to 31 at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China next year.
The plays are “The Top Secret,” “Sister Jiang,” “Looking Back,” “Legend of the Red Lantern” and “Ludang Fire Seeds.”
Mao plays the lead role in “The Top Secret,” which is set in Shanghai in 1931. The play is centered on a group of underground CPC members who manage to protect a secret from their enemies.
The projects will provide a platform to develop and showcase the theater’s up-and-coming young talent.
“They’re hardworking and passionate,” Mao said. “But they still need to expand their social horizon and gain an insight into their own life.
“They should show respect and patience to become successful. Young performers can’t gain overnight fame here, but all their efforts and perseverance will pay off.”
Outside of stage productions the theater will continue to promote Huju Opera among the public and reach to a wider audience. The theater has built a cultural inheritance center at the Bai Mansion at 150 Fenyang Road, where photos and video clips are displayed to reveal the origins and development of the regional opera genre.
An immersive version of “Thunderstorm,” featuring the regional linguistic varieties, is planned at the heritage center, as part of the plan to promote Shanghai culture and dialect.
