Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Stage in the Temple: Ritual Opera in Village Shanxi Volume 78

The Stage in the Temple: Ritual Opera in Village Shanxi Volume 78

Johnson, David

Paperback

Series: China Research Monograph

Chinese HistoryGeneral World HistoryOpera

ISBN10: 1557292019
ISBN13: 9781557292018
Publisher: Institute of East Asian Studies University of
Published: Jul 14 2022
Pages: 206
Weight: 0.63
Height: 0.48 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Villages in China's Shanxi province celebrated the birthdays of local gods with large festivals. The celebrations included solemn rituals performed in the god's temple. They also included grand banquets of food and programs of opera. Temples in the countryside always included stages. The stages faced the statues of the gods in their great hall, who were the real audience, though villagers were also present. Both stage and great hall were in the temple compound, hence the title of the book. The operas were based on stories from Chinese history. Love stories, crime and punishment stories, and farces were not allowed. These ritual operas were called Za Opera in Shanxi and many other regions as well. Za Opera first appeared in capital and countryside in the eleventh century. As other operatic genres appeared in later times, Za Opera became strictly village opera. It was virtually ignored by educated town and city dwellers until recently. Hence it changed little and provides important information about the history of Chinese drama.

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