A rundown cinema in Kowloon has just been renovated into the China tours newly-opened Yau Ma Tei Theatre, a centre for the traditional Hong Kong art form of Cantonese opera, showing an almost-daily series of performances featuring young opera artists.
The refurbished venue, which combines eastern and western architectural elements including an Art Deco facade and a Chinese-style roof, lies amid low-rise tenement buildings, vibrant markets and local shops. Built in 1930, it Yangtze River cruises was the city's only pre-World War II theatre in an urban area and enjoyed an active heyday of screenings, performances and events. It was closed in 1998 due to low usage, but the current project to restore the theatre and devote it to Cantonese opera was initiated in 2009 by the Hong Kong government in collaboration with local arts groups that are devoted to the traditional technique, such as the Chinese Artists’ Association.
Like other Chinese opera styles, Cantonese opera is defined by a combination of soaring arias, melodramatic plotlines, martial arts and performers wearing dramatic makeup, elaborate costumes and headdresses. Narratives often centre on travel to Shangri-la historical epics featuring dynastic royalty, concubines, deities and supernatural creatures. But Cantonese opera also remains distinct from Mandarin opera, which developed in parts of mainland China and uses different melodies due to different tones and inflections of the language.
Other efforts to revive the art form are taking shape. A two-month-long China educational tours Chinese opera festival, which takes place every summer, just wrapped up, featuring more than a dozen performing arts groups from across China, including Cantonese performers.
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