Open Collections

Opera Stage in Zong Family Great Peace Village (Zongjia taiping cun xitai 宗家太平村戲台)

From the Ground Up: Buddhism & East Asian Religions (FROGBEAR Project)

The opera stage is located what is now a vacant lot within ‘Long Alley [Hamlet] of Great Peace Village’ (Taiping changxiang 太平長巷), technically part of Zong Family Great Peace Village (Zong jia Taiping cun 宗家太平村). The stage was originally faced to the north by a temple, but this is now long-ago vanished, and the stage is boarded up and semi-derelict. The stage building is not dated but the murals inside should be from the late 19th or early 20th century. The stage space is divided by a proscenium wall into front-stage and back-stage areas. The two flanking front-stage walls, partially painted over with plaster, show opera scenes taking place in fantastic architectural spaces. On the better-preserved west wall, at least four captions are given to the different buildings, reading from bottom to top as follows: ‘The Pavilion of Longevity’ (Changshou ting 長壽亭), ‘The Tower of Long Victory’ (Changsheng lou 長勝樓), ‘Tower Number One’ (Diyi lou 第一樓), and ‘The Pavilion of Gazing in the Four Directions’ (Siwang ting 四望亭). At least the latter title refers to an opera, better known as ‘Green Peony’ (Lü mudan 綠牡丹), depictions of which are found in other stage paintings around Yu County. Along the lintels of the painted towers are nonsensical Western-style alphabetic symbols. The back-stage area contains several graffiti from the early 20th century.

Hebei Sheng (China); Yu Xian (Hebei Sheng, China); 40.002521; 114.907318

chi

North China Mural Survey

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0415726

Non UBC

Graduate

DSpace