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THE SOUL OF BEIJING OPERA: THEATRICAL CREATIVITY AND CONTINUITY IN THE CHANGING WORLD. By Ruru Li. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010. xvi + 336 pp. Paper, $25; cloth, $50.
Ruru Li's book shows that since its inception jingju (Beijing/Peking opera) has never been a static artistic form. The book provides readers with extensive primary sources from her personal interviews with a number of leading contemporary jingju actors in both mainland China and Taiwan. By focusing on six representative jingju actors-Cheng Yanqiu, Li Yuru, Ma Yongan, Yan Qinggu, Kuo Hsiao-chuang, and Wu Hsing-kuo-the author offers a detailed examination of jingju's artistic transitions from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. The author pays specific attention to uncovering how each actor experimented with this theatrical genre in order to make the art speak to their contemporary audiences. The interplay between the preservation of jingju's fundamental artistic pursuits and the inspiration of the actors' own creativity forms the driving force in the actors' works.
Born into a distinguished theatre family and trained in jingju acting skills, Li possesses a unique identity as both a theatre historian and a jingju participant. This enables her to articulate the jingju actors' stories from an insider's perspective with the critical observation of a scholar. Most of the six actors whom she examines will be relatively new to English readers, except Wu Hsing-kuo, whose Lear Is Here is a jingju adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, which is also discussed in Alexander Huang's recent work Chinese Shakespeare (2009). For the first time in English, a chapter-length study is devoted to Cheng Yanqiu, one of the most celebrated male-dan performers (a male actor who specializes in female roles) and a rival of Mei Lanfang. Among Li's invaluable contributions in this book are her...