Can you introduce me to Kunqu?

Kunqu (original should be "Kun"), is China's ancient opera voice, theater, formerly known as "Kunshan cavity" or simply "Kun cavity", since the Qing Dynasty was called "Kunqu", now also known as "Kun Opera". "Since the Qing Dynasty, it has been called Kunqu, and is now also known as Kun Opera. The accompanying instruments of Kunqu are mainly flutes, supplemented by sheng, xiao, suona, sanxian, pipa, etc. (percussion is available). The performance of Kunqu also has its unique system and style, which is characterized by strong lyricism, delicate movements, and a clever and harmonious combination of singing and dancing figures.

The opera was named by UNESCO on May 18, 2001 as a "masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity". The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage, on May 20, 2006, Kunqu was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

History

The history of the formation of Kunqu can be said to have a long history, which originated in the Kunshan area at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and has a history of more than six hundred years. Since the Song and Yuan dynasties, Chinese opera has been divided into southern and northern styles, and southern opera was sung differently in different places. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Gu Jian and others organized and improved the original cadences of the southern operas popular in the Kunshan area and called them "Kunshan Cadences", which was the prototype of the Kunshan Opera. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Wei Liangfu, an outstanding opera musician, reformed and innovated the sound and singing style of the Kunshan Opera, absorbing the strengths of the southern operas such as Haiyan Opera and Yiyang Opera, giving full play to the long-lasting characteristics of the Kunshan Opera, and absorbing the structural rigor of the northern operas, and utilizing the singing methods of the northern operas, with the accompaniment of flutes, xiao, sheng and pipa, to create the "Shuimo Tune" which is a delicate and elegant tune that combines the strengths of the northern and southern operas into a single tune. The "Shuimo Tune", commonly known as Kunqu, is a delicate and elegant tune that combines the advantages of the northern and southern tunes. Later, Liang Chenyu, a native of Kunshan, inherited Wei Liangfu's achievements and made further research and reforms to the Kunqu. At the end of the Longqing period, he wrote the first Kunqu legend, "The Story of Raccoon". The staging of this saga expanded the influence of the Kunqiang, and the literati and scholars competed to use the Kunqiang to create saga, and more and more people practiced the Kunqiang. As a result, Kun Cavity was known as one of the four major vocal cords of the Ming Dynasty, together with Yuyao Cavity, Haiyan Cavity and Yiyang Cavity. At the end of the Wanli period, due to the extensive performance activities of the Kunqu class, Kunqu was introduced to Beijing and Hunan through Yangzhou, and it became the first of all the cadences, and became the standard singing style of the legendary scripts: "Songs of the four directions must be sung by the Wu Clan". At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Kunqu spread to Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangdong, developing into a national opera. Originally, the singing of Kunqu was based on the Wu language of Suzhou, but after it was introduced to various places, it was combined with the dialects and folk music of different places, resulting in numerous genres, which constituted a rich and colorful family of kunqu and became a representative opera of the whole nation. By the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the development of the Kunqu opera entered its heyday, and since then it has dominated the pear orchard for six or seven hundred years, and has become the oldest surviving form of opera in China and even in the world with a long tradition.

It appeared in the form of clear singing, which finally made the kunqu in the atmosphere of no big gongs and drums can be clear and far-reaching, the melody is more beautiful. At the same time, Wei Liangfu also reformed the accompanying instruments. The original southern opera accompaniment to xiao, pipe as the main instrument, in order to make the Kunqiang singing more infectious, he will flute, pipe, sheng, qin, pipa, strings and other musical instruments gathered in a hall, used to accompany the Kunqiang singing, and achieved success.

The Kunshan cavity began to spread the region, began to be limited to the area of Suzhou, to the Wanli years, it will be extended to the south of the Yangtze River and Qiantang River north of the center of Suzhou, and gradually spread to Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Henan, Hebei, and the Wanli end of the year also flowed into Beijing. In this way, the Kunshan accent became the most influential vocal theater from the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty.

Historical Status

Kunqu (Kunshan accent) got its name from the Kunshan area of Jiangsu Province, which, together with Haiyan accent and Yuyao accent originated from Zhejiang Province and Yiyang accent originated from Jiangxi Province, are known as the four major acoustic styles of the Ming Dynasty, and belongs to the Southern Opera system.

Kunqu is one of the oldest types of traditional Chinese opera, and is also one of the treasures of China's traditional culture and art, especially in the art of opera, which is known as an "orchid" in the Garden of Hundred Flowers. From the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty, it was the most influential vocal theater in opera, and many kinds of operas were developed on the basis of Kun Opera, which has the nickname of "Mother of Chinese Opera". Kun Opera is the genre with the most complete performance system in the history of Chinese opera, with its deep foundation and rich heritage, it is the fruit of the high development of China's national culture and art, and occupies an important position in China's literary history, opera history, music history and dance history.

Artistic Characteristics

As a kind of drama that once had a great influence on the whole country, the Kun Opera has miraculously resurrected itself again after all the hardships and difficulties, which is closely related to its own superb artistic charm, and its artistic achievements are firstly manifested in its music.

The Kun Opera is a beautiful opera, characterized by a lingering, soft and long-lasting sound. In the singing skills focus on the control of the voice, the rhythm of the speed of the staccato speed and the bite of the word spitting sound, the scene accompanied by a complete musical score.

"Water mill cavity". This new cavity laid down the characteristics of the Kun Opera singing, fully embodied in the slow song (i.e., "fine tunes") in the southern song, specifically expressed in slowing down the beat, slowing down the tempo, in order to use the melody in a more decorative cavity, in addition to the usual one board three eyes, one board one eye, and the emergence of a "grant board song "

The most important thing is to be able to use the same voice as the original one, and the most important thing is to be able to use the same voice as the original one.

Comparatively speaking, the sound of the Northern Songs favors the downward spiral, with strong jumps. It uses a seven-tone scale different from the five-tone scale (basically without semitones) used in the southern opera, but in the Kunshan cavity's long-term absorption of the northern opera singing process, the original characteristics of the northern opera were gradually dissolved into the "southern opera" singing style, so in the Kun Opera performance repertoire, the northern opera has a complete set of the use of the northern opera, as well as a single piece of song excerpts, and the "northern and southern combined set". The "North-South Combined Set".

The use of "North-South set" is very distinctive: the general situation is that the Northern Quartet is sung by a character, and the Southern Quartet is sung by several different characters. The use of these north-south songs is based on the plot, so that the music is as perfect as possible to meet the needs of the content of the play.

From the North-South song itself, there are still changes in the "borrowed palace", "offense", "set of songs" and other techniques. The original set of tunes, regardless of the North and South Songs, all belong to a Gong tune of the tune problem, when the song requires a significant change in mood, the same Gong tune within the tune can not be competent, you can borrow the other Gong tune of the appropriate tune. For example, in "Peony Pavilion - Dream", the tunes used successively are [Hillside Goat] (Shang Tune), [Mountain Peach Red] (Yue Tune), [Bao Lao Hui] (Huang Zhong Gong), and [Sheep Hitching Floss] (Yue Tune).

In terms of singing techniques, Kun Opera focuses on voice control, rhythmic speed and pronunciation, and there are "豁", "叠", "擞". "嚯", There is also a distinction between "open", "stack", "brio", "ooh" and other cadences and the character singing of various roles. The music of the board beat, in addition to the southern song "complimentary board" will be four beats of the slow song slowed down by a factor of two, regardless of the north and south of the song, including the usual use of the three-eyed board, one-eyed board, running water board and scattered board. They have many variations in the actual singing, all subject to the mood of the play and the role should be.

The instrumentation of Kun Opera is relatively complete, consisting of wind instruments, string instruments, percussion instruments, and the main instrument is the flute, as well as the sheng, xiao, sanxian, pipa, etc. The instrumentation of the Kun Opera is very simple, and the instrumentation is very simple, and the instrumentation is very simple. Because of the flute as the main accompanying instrument, plus the extensive use of the grant board, the word is divided into the head, the belly, the end of the spitting way, as well as its own by the influence of the Wuzhong folk songs and has a "flow of beautiful and far-reaching" characteristics, so that the music of the Kun Opera to "Wanli charming, a singing three sighs The music of Kun Opera is characterized by "gracefulness, charm, and three sighs in one song", which has made it the most popular opera for centuries. The accompaniment has a lot of blowing music, adapted to different occasions, and later also used by many types of theater.

The music of the Kun Opera belongs to the structure of the song, referred to as the "song". There are more than 1,000 kinds of tunes used in Kun Opera, and the sources of the tunes in the north and south are not only the ancient song and dance music, but also the big tunes and lyric tunes of the Tang and Song dynasties, the singing tunes of the Song dynasty, and the songs of the folk and ethnic minorities, etc. It is based on the southern tunes and also uses the folk tunes and the songs of the ethnic minorities. It is based on the Southern Songs, and uses the Northern Songs as well, and creates with the methods of "violating the tune", "borrowing the palace" and "setting the song", etc. In addition, there are many religious songs. In addition, there are many religious songs.

The performance of Kun Opera has a whole set of rigorous performance forms of "singing and dancing"

The most important characteristic of Kun Opera performance is its strong lyricism, delicate movements, and the combination of singing and dancing in a skillful and harmonious manner. Kun Opera is a comprehensive art in which singing, dancing, mediation, and white various means of performance cooperate with each other. In the long history of the opera, the performance characteristics of singing and dancing have been formed, especially in the performance of each character's body, whose dancing body can be divided into two kinds: a kind of auxiliary gesture when speaking and a dance focusing on the writing of ideas developed by gestures; and a kind of lyrical dance with the lyrics of the singing, which is not only a superb dancing action but also an expression of the character's heart and soul, but also an expression of the character's personality and the character's personality. It is also an effective means to express the character's mind and the meaning of the words.

Kun Opera has absorbed and inherited the traditions of ancient folk dance and court dance, and has accumulated a wealth of experience in the close integration of rap and dance through long-term stage performance practice, and has created a number of dance performances that emphasize depiction to meet the needs of narrative and scenic scenes. It became a storytelling opera with a strong sense of storytelling. Adapted to the needs of the performance field with strong lyricism and movement, many lyrical dance performances were created, which became the main performance means of many single-fold lyrical song and dance dramas. Representative repertoire, such as "Xi Chuan Tu - Luhua Dang", "Jingzhong Ji - Sweeping Qin", "Moon Pavilion - Treading Umbrella", "Treasure Sword Ji - Night Running", "Lianhuan Ji - Asked to explore", "Tiger Bags Bomb - Mountain Pavilion", and so on.

The recitation of Kun Opera is also very distinctive. Since Kun Opera was developed from Wuzhong, its voice is characterized by the Wu Nong soft language. Among them, the clowns also have a kind of local white based on the Wu dialect, such as Su Bai and Yangzhou Bai, etc. This kind of marketplace language around Wuzhong has a strong sense of life, and often uses a quick rhyme, which is extremely characteristic. In addition, the singing of Kun Opera has extremely strict standards for character sound, line and rhythm, and has formed a complete singing theory.

The stage art of Kun Opera includes rich costume styles, elaborate colors and decorations, as well as the use of masks

In addition to inheriting the costume styles of operatic roles since the Yuan and Ming dynasties, some of the costumes of Kun Opera are very similar to those popularly worn by the society at that time. As reflected in the theater, military generals had their own kinds of military uniforms, and civil officials also had different kinds of dresses according to the class hierarchy of the feudal society. The face is used in both the Jing and the Chou lines. Belonging to the raw, Dan's very few characters are also occasionally used, such as the Monkey King (raw), Zhong Wuyan (Dan), the color is basically red, white and black.

The art of Kun Opera, after years of integration and processing, has formed a fairly perfect system, and this system has long occupied a unique position in Chinese opera, so the art of Kun Opera is honored as "the ancestor of all plays", and has a far-reaching impact on the development of the entire opera, and many local operas have absorbed its artistic nourishment to varying degrees, some of which remain. Many local operas have absorbed its art to varying degrees, and some of them are still in the Kun Opera.

Roles

Because early Kun Opera belonged to the Southern Opera system, it inherited the roles of the Southern Opera system, and at the same time absorbed the strengths of the Northern Varieties of Opera, with the basic roles of the seven acts of the Sheng, Dan, Pure, Late, Ugly, Outside, and Sticky, and the early work, "Raccoon Sasha Story," reflected the roles of the Kun Opera during the period of its inception, i.e., in addition to following the seven acts of the Southern Opera, the roles of the Yuan Varieties of Opera, including the small end, small Dan, and the additional small Sheng, were set up. In addition to following the seven lines of the Southern Opera, it also borrowed the Yuan opera's small end, small Dan, and other setups, and added five lines of Xiao Sheng, Xiao Dan, Xiao Mei, Xiao Wai, and Xiao Jing, **** twelve lines.

In the late Ming period, Kun Opera flourished, and the Ming version of the book "Mo Bean Zhai fixed in this saga", the original "stick" dressed as an elderly woman changed to "old Dan", but also absorbed the Yuan Yuan miscellaneous operas of the sub-line method. Other roles are basically the same as in the early days of the Kun Opera. Qing Kangxi, the role of the Kun Opera line is still basically maintain the "twelve roles in the jianghu" system.

In the Qianlong period, the Kun Opera folded the most prevalent, the performing arts have further improved, for the characterization of the role of the character line system, there is a new breakthrough. Yangzhou Boat Record" in the "twelve roles in the jianghu" said, they are: vice end, the old man, Zhengsheng, Lao Wai, big face, two face, three face, called "male role"; Lao Dan, Zheng Dan, small Dan, paste Dan, called "female role"; and also playing the role of "female role"; there are also playing the role of "female role"; and the role of "female role". Role"; and gags a person, called "miscellaneous". Later in the southern Kun Opera evolved into the main roles of Xiao Sheng and Dan Jiao, because of which the two departments are divided into more detailed. Xiao Sheng line is divided into five categories: Da Guan Sheng, Xiao Guan Sheng, Towel Sheng, Shoeskin Sheng (Poor Sheng) and Pheasant Tail Sheng. The Dan line is divided into: Lao Dan, Zheng Dan, Zuodan (who can play boys), Si Dan (assassination Dan), Wu Dan (lady's door Dan) and six Dan (sticker Dan) six categories. But each branch of the Kun Opera has its own category.

The division of roles in Kun Opera has become more and more detailed with the development of the performing arts. Between Jia and Dao, the role of the kun opera line, the original "twelve roles in the jianghu", and later appeared more detailed division of labor, in the "raw, Dan, net, end, ugly" under the five major lines, but also subdivided into twenty small lines, called " The "twenty families".

In the "Sheng" family, it is divided into the official Sheng, the scarf Sheng, the shoe leather Sheng, and the pheasant tail Sheng, which are used to perform different roles and characters. In the line of "Official Sheng", they play adult men who have become officials, and they are divided into big and small Official Shengs due to their different ages and statuses. For example, Tang Mingwang in The Palace of Eternal Youth and Li Bai in Taibai Drunken Writing are all played by large official students; Wang Shipeng in The Tale of the Thorn Hairpin and Pan Yue in The Tale of the Golden Sparrow are all played by small official students. The performance of the official student and the scarf student is different: the scarf student plays a young scholar who is elegant and elegant, and his singing requires a combination of real and fake voice, and the fake voice has a larger component, which is clear and pleasant to the ear; the official student has to be unrestrained and generous in his performance, and the big official student has to be even more rich in grandeur, and his singing is also a combination of real and fake voice, but the real voice is in a higher register than the scarf student with the real voice, and it is beautiful in terms of floodlight.

The Dan line is also subdivided into the old Dan, Zheng Dan, Zuodan, four Dan, five Dan, six Dan. But in practice there is also a sticker Dan, *** for the seven family doors.

Zheng Dan generally play the status of the poorer married women, such as "Pipa" in the Zhao Wu Niang, "Golden Lock" in the sinus, "Cargo" in the Zhang Sangu and so on. Zhengdan focuses on simplicity and generosity in its performance, and in its singing style, the biting words and spouts should have greater strength, and the timbre is bright and broad, and the volume of the voice is also required to be larger. The repertoire of Zhengdan is quite rich, playing all kinds of characters with distinctive characteristics, providing a wide performance space for actors.

In addition, the net line is divided into big face and white face, big face face to red, black two colors, so there are "seven red, eight black, three monks," said; white face mostly play the negative characters, in addition to the eye lines, the whole face is coated with white powder, and is usually divided into the phase of the sable white face, white face, folds, short shirt white face, etc., and white face is sometimes also play the role of a positive character or a good or bad role, sometimes also play the role of a positive or bad role, sometimes also a good or bad role, sometimes also play a good or bad role. They sometimes play positive characters, or roles that do not matter whether they are good or bad, and sometimes they play female roles as well. There is also the white face of the white face line from the precipitation of the scruffy white face, in addition to the face of the white powder, in the corner of the eyes, the nose nest, etc., plus some black lines, so the name. Most of the actors are lower-class characters, and close to the gag-style characters.

The last line is subdivided into the old man, the end, the old foreign. In Kun Opera, there is no distinction between martial arts and literature, such as Lin Chong in "The Sword of the Treasure" and Qin Qiong in "The Pavilion of the Unicorn". The beard worn by the end of the foot is also from black three to white full, and the same as the old man.

The ugly line is divided into vice (also known as "two faces") and ugly two families. The difference is that the face of the vice white block painted over the two sides of the eye, while the ugly only painted to the middle of the eye, the vice often wear pleats, court clothes, robes, while the ugly more wear short clothes.

Kun Opera before the Southern Opera and Yuan Miscellaneous Opera did not have such a line, due to the emergence of the "vice" line, the Kun Opera to the clown line of the scope of the performance, expanding to the upper class of the clothing among the gentry. Most of those who played the role of the unorthodox literati, treacherous ministers, officials, evil litigators, idle gimps and other characters, these roles *** with the same characteristics of treacherous, spiteful and vicious, inconsistent, and performances emphasize the cold side of the side, called the "cold water, two sides".

The clown line because of its facial white more vice for small, also known as the "small flower face", because of its arrangement in the second face, also known as the "three flower face", played by most of the lower social status or funny and cute roles, such as the "family" of Dr. Tea, the "Fisherman's Delight" of Wanjiachun. The clowns of Kun Opera do not differentiate between civil and military. Kun Opera clown feet are not divided into martial arts, and sometimes play martial arts heavy body drama.

The clown line and the two sides of the same, can also play women, such as the "kite error" young gold Zhan Aijuan, the "Thorn Hairpin" in the Zhang Auntie. The clown foot also plays the role of the antagonist, such as Lou Ah Mouse in Fifteen Guan.

There is also a "miscellaneous" line of various mass roles, which refers to mass roles in various dramas without a name, such as car drivers, boatmen, umbrella drivers, magistrates, eunuchs, courtesans, dragon-setters, and so on, and is usually not counted as a family.

Traditional Kun Opera professional class, generally only eighteen actors, commonly known as "eighteen tops of the scarf", only a very small number of large class with twenty-seven actors. Generally speaking, as long as the ten family members are complete, they can perform, and other roles can be replaced by family members close to the actors, the ten basic family members are called "ten court columns", they are: net, official student, towel student, old student, the end, the first Dan, five Dan, six Dan, vice, ugly. Among them, the most decisive in determining the quality of performance are: the four families of Jing, Lao Sheng, Guan Sheng and Zheng Dan.

Each line of the Kun Opera forms its own set of programs and techniques in performance, and these programmed movement languages form a complete and unique performance system of the Kun Opera in terms of portraying the characters' character, expressing the psychological state of the characters, rendering the drama and enhancing the infectious force.

The repertoire of Kunqu

Kunqu has accumulated a large number of repertoires in its long-term performance practice. Among the influential and frequently performed plays are Wang Shizhen's The Tale of the Sounding Phoenix, Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion, The Tale of the Purple Hairpin, The Tale of Handan, and The Tale of Nanke, and Shen Jing's The Tale of the Righteous and the Heroic, etc. Gao Lian's The Jade Hairpin is the most famous play in the Kunqu Opera. Gao Lian's The Jade Hairpin, Li Yu's The Kite Mistake, Zhu Suchen's Fifteen Guan, Kong Shangren's The Peach Blossom Fan, Hong Sheng's The Palace of Eternal Youth, and other famous folding operas, such as The Dream in the Garden, Yang Guan, Three Drunkennesses, The Autumn River, Sifan, and The Broken Bridge.

Endangered Situation

Kunqu was selected as one of the "Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" because it is a classic of China's classical performing arts. However, the splendor and downfall of Kunqu are related to its characteristics. The prosperity of kunqu is in line with the lifestyle and artistic interests of the scholarly men of the time. The cultural cultivation of the scholars injected a unique cultural taste into the Kunqu Opera, and their idle life and the pursuit of the ethereal realm gave the Kunqu Opera the character of a soothing rhythm and a delicate mood, coupled with the scholars' deep-seated feelings of sorrow and sadness towards society and life, made the Kunqu Opera show melancholy and lingering emotions in the music and the singing voice. To the Qing dynasty Qianlong period, the rise of the public class, soothing, melancholy style is obviously incompatible with them, even if the scholarly men also began to pragmatic, kunqu is not favored by the public at the same time, but also lost the position of the scholarly class. As a result, kunqu gradually went into decline. Before the founding of China in 1949, there was not a single professional kunqu troupe in the country, and in the 1950s, a play called "The Fifteen Guan" revived the genre, and six kunqu troupes were established throughout the country. Han Shichang, Bai Yunsheng, Gu Chuan? , Zhu Chuanming, Zhou Chuanying, Yu Zhenfei, Hou Yongkui and other performing artists of the older generation, as well as a group of outstanding actors and actresses trained after liberation, such as Li Shujun, Cai Zhenren, Ji Zhenhua, Zhang Jicheng, Hong Xuefei, Wang Shiyu and others, organized and staged a large number of outstanding plays such as The Peony Pavilion, The Story of the Western Wing, A Thousand Miles to Send the Peking Maiden, A Meeting of a Single Sword and The Peach Blossom Fan. But today, the strict programmed performances, slow rhythm of the plate cadence,

overly elegant lyrics, and old storylines of kunqu have lost their fashionability and most of their entertainment functions, and are far away from the aesthetic needs of contemporary people, thus making it difficult to win the audience, and the performances are getting fewer and fewer, and it is hard to find them in the performance market, forming a vicious circle. 10 years ago, there were about 800 people working on kunqu, which is known as "the most famous opera of all time. Ten years ago, there were about 800 people working in kunqu, known as the "800 strong men", but now there are only 600 left. The six kunqu theater troupes in the country are generally in trouble, and the actors are unable to invest in their training and artistic creation.

Some people advocate that kunqu should be treated as a museum art, which only seeks to preserve it and not to develop it, which is opposed by kunqu practitioners and people with knowledge of the art, and is also contrary to the original purpose of UNESCO's selection of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity - to ensure the survival of these outstanding cultures, not to curb their future development. The Kunqu is not a cultural heritage, but a cultural heritage. However, Kunqu does face a dilemma: the loss of talent has left few people qualified to create it; and the dilemma of revitalizing it is that without major changes, it will not be able to narrow the distance between it and the times; and if major changes are made, it will lose its identity and cease to be Kunqu.

The fact that most of the arts that have been inscribed on the Oral Cultural Heritage of various countries are in a difficult situation and are on the verge of extinction shows that the world is faced with the problem of how to protect the outstanding traditional culture. For the kunqu, to get out of the predicament, by no means overnight, in addition to relying on the kunqu's own artistic strength and kunqu workers dedication and motivation, but also must have the appropriate policy to ensure that the practical and feasible and effective measures. To this end, the Ministry of Culture in June this year convened the National Kunqu Theater Director and the leadership of the location of the troupe meeting to discuss the development of the Kunqu plan, and is developing the "protection and rescue of the Kunqu Ten-Year Plan". Some experts also called for the establishment of the "protection and revitalization of Chinese kunqu art special funds" to increase funding.

Experts believe that the kunqu is now urgent to rescue the existing repertoire and documentation, first of all, to the nation's old and middle-aged artists of the masterpiece of the play audio-visual recording of the precious kunqu literature, performance scripts, scores and pictures to collect and organize. Kunqu performances can make a living from the old plays, the repertoire should be inherited, finishing, such as Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe in the past two years rehearsal of the Peony Pavilion, the original work of Tang Xianzu abridged into the upper, middle and lower three, with modern stage treatment, both to maintain the characteristics of the original work, but also in line with the aesthetics of today, received a very good market results.

The Ministry of Culture plans to set up two training centers for kunqu performers in Beijing and Shanghai in 10 years, to provide performing talents for kunqu troupes across the country. The heads of Kunqu theaters hope to focus on the nation's best teachers and hold workshops for Kunqu actors, playwrights, directors, composers, and administrators at the China Academy of Opera and other institutions.

Because of its characteristics, kunqu is unlikely to be a big hit today, and can not be restored to its former glory, but as a treasure of Chinese culture, as a world heritage site, we have a responsibility to not let her self-extinction!