Liuzi Operatic Troupe of Shandong
Jul 30-Aug 1, 7.30pm, Hong Kong City Hall
A five-century-old Chinese opera genre widely believed to have vanished after the Cultural Revolution is to be staged in Hong Kong next week. Among the works to be performed by the Liuzi Operatic Troupe of Shandong is the signature play Sun An Presenting Memorials, which was once denounced by officials as a 'poisonous weed'.
According to Chinese opera critic Elbe Lau Kan-yui, the piece was banned shortly after 1966, because it was regarded as a veiled attack on the Communist Party by rebels affiliated with imperialists. 'The Liuzi Operatic Troupe was expelled from Jinan, the capital city of Shandong,' Lau says. 'Its chief playwright and music director were tortured to death.'
Written in 1956, Sun An Presenting Memorial tells the story of an upright mandarin in the Ming dynasty named Sun An who presents three petitions to the emperor daily to condemn the corrupt prime minister Zhang Cong. But his act angers the court and he's sentenced to death. Zhang is finally overthrown when a grand marshal storms the palace, bringing the emperor to his senses.
The play was labelled as a subversive parody by the Red Guards, and it wasn't until after the Cultural Revolution that the troupe was cleared of its crimes, says Lau. But it was shaken to its foundations and many members left. Today, it's the only surviving group of its genre in China, with just 80 members.