The History of Shanghai Monodrama

Before and after the 9th year of the Republic of China (1920), the Shanghai civilized opera artist Wang Nengneng in the hall guest performances, by a person to tell jokes, storytelling, singing Peking Opera, learning dialects, playing a variety of roles, calling themselves one-legged opera. In the 16th year of the Republic of China, Wang was officially licensed as a "one-legged opera" performer. In the same year, Hangzhou Jiang Xiaoxiao came to Shanghai, known as "social comedy". In the following year, Liu Chunshan followed suit and became known as "Trend Comic". Three people for the rise of one-legged theater, unique, later known as the "funny three". In the 18th year of the Republic of China, Shanghai New World Amusement Park invited the then famous five classes (10 people) of one-legged opera artists to hold a weekly "General Assembly Crosstalk" under the name of "Five Fortunes Troupe", which enlarged the influence of one-legged opera. In the 1930s, when one-legged opera was in its heyday, there were more than 100 performers, and they performed in amusement parks, halls and private radio stations, all of which were self-written and self-performed, each showing their own abilities. During the Anti-Japanese War, many one-legged opera performers were engaged in propaganda activities for the war. In 31st year of the Republic of China, Jiang Xiaoxiao initiated the formation of "Xiaoxiao Troupe" which specialized in burlesque. Most of the one-legged opera artists began to perform burlesque as well. From the victory of the war to the early stage of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yao Mushuang and Zhou Bochun appeared as the "New Wave Comic", with a scholarly style, and while inheriting and developing the repertoire of their predecessors, they made up a large number of new pieces, such as "The People Are Really Happy" and so on. Cheng Xiaofei has a different style of "singing", presenting a variety of local operas in his one-legged opera. Yang Huasheng returned to Shanghai from the mainland and performed one-legged operas focusing on the content of the works. At that time, Yao and Zhou, Cheng, Liu (Little Liu Chunshan) and Yu (Xiangming), Yang, Zhang (Woodcutter Nong), Xiaoxiao (Heehee) and Shen (Yiluo) were performing on folk radio stations, and had a large number of listeners. The artists traveled to radio stations, amusement parks, halls, dance halls and restaurants, once again setting off the climax of one-legged opera. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were more than 500 one-legged opera performers. Since then, most of the one-legged opera performers have participated in theater troupes to perform mainly burlesque. The performances of one-legged opera usually appeared in specially organized "one-legged opera special show", or comical broadcasting, or when they went to factories, villages and grass-roots level to perform the whole set or sporadic programs. After the crushing of Jiang Qing's counter-revolutionary group, one-legged opera gained a new life, not only to the screen, but also appeared in the form of "comical sketches", and a number of new one-legged opera performers, such as Wang Rugang and Qian Cheng, emerged. Shanghai one-legged opera actors also went to Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States and other places to perform. The performance of one-legged opera emphasizes talking, learning, doing and singing. These four forms of performance are all for the service of creating jokes, which usually use linguistic exaggerations, misunderstandings, coincidences, comparisons, sophistry, errors, pulling, stealing, harmonization, patchwork, repetition, puns and so on, to form the effect of "gags" (amusing). Sometimes they also make use of small props such as wooden fish and three clever boards, or make symbolic or even exaggerated performances to enhance the effect of the "gag". The traditional repertoire includes "Crying for Master Miaogane Dudu" (a masterpiece by Wang Nengneng), "Burning Tofu Shop" (a masterpiece by Jiang Xiaoxiao and Bao Lele), "One Hundred and Eighty-Eight Generals" (a masterpiece by Liu Chunshan), "Seventy-Two Tenants", "Thirteen People Crossing Mahjong", "Halls Around the World", and "Marriage of the New and Old Methods", and so on. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the newly created and adapted preserved repertoire includes "Learning English", "Mandarin and Dialect", "What Man Marries Dui Yi", "The Head is the Way", "The New Red Bride", "Inviting the Corner Boys", "Complementary Marriage", "Inviting the Babysitter", and "The Student of Sanshou"; and modern dramas such as "Spring Colors in the Garden", "Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction", "Outstanding Answer", and "The Life of the World" are also created. Among them, "Three Hairy Students' Intentions" and "Satisfied or Not" have been made into movies.