Hong Kong kids love Cantonese opera, even if they don't understand it

The main aim for Stella Ma Man Har, director of Cha Duk Chang, is to use Cantonese opera as a tool to teach children Chinese music and dance. With this goal in mind, Ma is helping to keep Cantonese opera alive. 

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Started in 2002, Cha Duk Chang teaches children in groups ranging from four to 12 years old. Instead of mimicking traditional old stories, which make little sense to the average adult with no background in Chinese history, she writes Cantonese operas for children. “Of course, traditional Cantonese opera doesn’t mean that it’s not good,” she says, “but it might not be suitable for their age.”

Keeping the original rhythm and songs, Ma changes the wordings instead.

She hopes this art will improve their endurance, perseverance and ability to express themselves. Through Cantonese opera, children will develop holistically. 

But she has not taken on an easy task. She thinks the government needs to get behind her efforts to keep Cantonese opera alive. “They’ve given money out, but they haven’t taken another step.” 

In the last few years, the Cantonese Opera Development Fund has helped incorporate Cantonese opera into the new secondary education curriculum. But Ma argues that a suitable Cantonese opera curriculum for primary school is still missing. Many teachers only teach difficult Cantonese opera songs to children who don’t understand the true significance behind the stories. 

“What I fear is the counter-effect of teaching overly difficult pieces which children can’t relate to or interpret,” says Ma.

Interviewing Ma’s students, we found that all of them took Cantonese opera out of interest after watching some of Cha Duk Chang’s performances at school. The once-a-week lessons are three and a half hours long, quite a stretch for four year olds.

A young girl’s pursuit

However, Cantonese opera is not only for locals. Twelve-year-old Jessica Hunter, half British half Chinese, has been learning Cantonese opera for over six years. Her father Chris Hunter tells us that his wife had developed a strong interest in Cantonese opera about 10 years ago. 

Jessica recalls that she hated Cantonese opera when she was young as “everyone spoke Chinese and I wasn’t very good at it.”

But her passion grew once she started learning it with her current teacher Leung Mui Fong, three years ago. 

For Jessica, the most difficult part is singing, because if you sing a wrong note, the audience will notice. It is easier to get away with mistakes in the acting and dancing parts.

Jessica has to thank her mum too, for helping her translate the Cantonese opera songs and the meanings behind them, as Jessica cannot read Chinese.

The main attraction for Jessica lies in the old, grand costumes and glory of being able to perform on stage. Her memories of Cantonese opera are simple. “I used to think of it as dancing on stage, getting money (red pockets) and candy.” 

But now she believes it is more about the story rather than just dancing.

Her teacher, master Leung, has been in the Cantonese opera scene for over 30 years. She says the difference between teaching children and adults is that children cannot understand the scripts easily, hence their movements may be more robotic and lack emotion. 

“In teaching kids, I have to bring up my childhood memories in order to better explain the meanings to them,” Leung says.

Without this input, Leung believes there is a possibility the art form could be lost. “In my age, my parents were watching a lot of performances but as many well-known veteran performers are dying, less and less performances are available.”

She also agrees that there isn’t enough being done to promote Cantonese opera. “It’s a community activity which requires a larger exposure,” she says.

As many families usually encourage their kids to learn something more ‘useful,’ Cantonese opera tends to be neglected, even if the older generations still enjoy it. "Cantonese opera pieces are still favored by the elderly and even if they have been performed 100 times, they are still popular,” Leung says.

What is the society doing to revive Cantonese opera?

Since its setup in 2006, The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Cantonese Opera Education Project has carried out several projects in order to integrate Cantonese opera to secondary and university students.

Initially, the response from schools to participate in activities such as bringing their students to live Cantonese opera performances, or to study Cantonese opera scripts as part of their Chinese curriculum, were lukewarm. 

According to Choi Kai Kwong, project manager for the HKU Cantonese Opera Education Project, there are now 17 participating schools, mainly those that use Chinese as a teaching language, about four times more since its start. 

This year, the government sponsored troupes to conduct workshops at schools in order to expose students to other elements, such as the construction of a Cantonese opera performance stage. Top opera artists who have taught performance or help train teachers include Yuen Siu Fai and Stephen Tin. 

Though there is progress in promoting this traditional art, project leader and assistant professor at HKU’s Faculty of Education, Dr. Dorothy Ng Fung Ping, agrees that the lack of development in local talented scriptwriters could hinder the survival of Cantonese opera.

In April, the HKU Project received the Bronze award for Arts Education by the Hong Kong arts Development Council, which, according to Ng, helped gain the public’s attention and convinced more schools to join.

Upcoming initiatives will incorporate more teachers training in Cantonese opera and conducting research into this art so that HKU can further expand it into their Chinese language courses in the near future.