Veteran reinvents classic tale

Like many ancient art forms in China, Peking Opera is struggling to survive in the face of a fading fan base.

It's a fact that even Li Weikang, one of the country's most famous Peking Opera actresses, acknowledges.

However, instead of lamenting about the situation, Li, 68, is pushing the boundaries of the traditional theater and reaching out to audiences, especially among younger generations, with her performances and modern sensibilities.

Along with young performers of the China National Peking Opera Company, Li is preparing for a new show, The Magic Lamp, which will be staged on Nov 28-29 at Mei Lanfang Grand Theater in Beijing.

Li and her husband, Geng Qichang, also a Peking Opera veteran, are the show's artistic directors.

Adapted from the classic Peking Opera piece, Er Tang She Zi, the story is based on the traditional Chinese story of a boy, Chenxiang, whose mother, Sanshengmu, was a goddess and father, Liu Yanchang, a human.

Since his parents' marriage was forbidden, Chen's mother was imprisoned.

To save his mother, Chenxiang manages to find her magic lamp and uses it against the enemy.

Famous Peking Opera masters, Mei Lanfang (1894-1961), Ma Lianliang (1901-66) and Zhou Xinfang (1895-1975) had performed the piece in the 1950s.

The latest rendition of the classic story also sees performances by the older generation of Peking Opera performers.

Li also made some changes.

In one of the scenes, Chenxiang and Qiu'er, the son of Liu and his second wife, Wang Guiying, kill one of their classmates, who is the son of an official.

To protect Chenxiang, Wang decides to take Qiu'er to the official.

In the original version, the mother sings slowly. But Li has quickened the pace of the song because of the mother's anxiety and her dilemma of choosing between the two sons.

Li says: "I like the conflict portrayed through the story, especially the mother's inner struggle when she has to sacrifice her own son.

"Peking Opera has so many great ways to interpret a role, especially in showing complex emotions, which will connect with today's audiences."

According to Zhang Kaihua, the president of the China National Peking Opera Company, The Magic Lamp was remade by the company in 1990, and has since become one of the most popular Peking Opera pieces.

"We invited Li to be the artistic director because of her rich experience and her devotion to researching and reviving the old art form," says Zhang.

Born in Beijing, Li studied dan (female role) performances for the opera at the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts in 1958 and made her debut at age 12. Li has been with the Peking Opera company since 1966 and won the First China Plum Blossom Prize in 1984, the country's top award for dramatic performances on stage.

Her earliest memory of the art form is from the age of 4, when she and her father watched Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang perform in The Drunken Concubine at a Beijing theater.

She has studied with many renowned Peking Opera artists and her singing style integrates the schools of Mei, Cheng and Zhang, while absorbing the highlights of many other local operas.

Li says that Peking Opera was very popular in China when she was young.

When she applied to the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts, there were more than 2,000 people competing and only 60 stood out.

"I miss the days when I studied in that school. With no contemporary entertainment, we just focused on Peking Opera. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know about it," she says.

Li rose to fame at 30 after performing in the Peking Opera piece, Reply to Li Shuyi, which was based on a poem of the same title written by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1957.

Then she performed lead roles in both classic and contemporary Peking Opera works, such as Qin Xianglian and The Dragon and Phoenix in Auspicious Union.

For Li, two of her main interests are watching and performing the opera.

"When I watch Peking Opera shows, I like observing the reaction of the audiences, which help me improve and adjust my own performance," says Li.

"I also believe that the best place to train a Peking Opera actor is the stage."

"I didn't stop performing during the past 50 years because I belong to it," she adds.

Li says that this remake of The Magic Lamp is significant as it ties in with what President Xi Jinping said to artists last year.

He told them to produce work with artistic and moral values as well as shoulder the responsibility to pass on the traditional and classics in art and culture, during a cultural and art seminar last October.

Li also says that some performances now fuse with Peking Opera for the sake of gaining commercial success or simply to seek attention.

"It's not Peking Opera if its core has been lost. The balance between old and new is always an issue that deserves to be carefully handled and we should respect the classics," she says. "Peking Opera stands the test of time with its more than 200 years of history. It passes on the classic works and Chinese traditional art forms. I want to use my experience to keep it fresh and authentic."