Details
Drama was extremely popular in China and was closely connected to religious ritual. Travelling theatre groups often toured the countryside. Chinese opera tells its story through mime, song, speech and dance as well as slap stick and acrobatics. Visual splendour is created through make-up costume, and setting. Symbolic gesture and highly formalised music also plays a central role. A system of role types (jiaose) provides a visual and aural formula denoting characters. The opera music incorporates traditional tunes, combined and varied within 'families' recognised by the audience and associated with particular dramatic structures.
There is evidence that Chinese theatrical groups began touring Victoria shortly after large numbers of Chinese began arriving in Australia for the goldrushes. Performances were held in a tent or local hall. From 1858 tour organisers had to apply for licences to stage performances. According to Love these records show that thirty to fifty-strong companies were touring Melbourne and Victoria's goldfields in the early 1860s. Fourteen companies are recorded to have toured in the 1858 to 1869 period. These companies are believed to have been both successful and profitable.
The majority of theatre patrons were Chinese. However newspaper reports suggest that a few Europeans also attended Chinese theatrical performances. As the number of Chinese in the goldfields declined it seems that the number of touring troups also dropped.
Little is known about Chinese theatre groups in Australia after this period. Chinese opera costumes were certainly used in many of the Chinese processions in Sydney, Melbourne and Bendigo. Pprevious residents of Little Bourke Street, Melbourne remember Chinese opera performances were held in the area in the 1930s by local residents.
Sources used to compile this entry: Love, Harold, 'Chinese theatre on the Victorian goldfields, 1858-1870', Australasian Drama Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, 1985, pp. 45-86; Oral histories, Museum of Chinese Australian History collection.
Related Subjects
Published Resources
Books
- Lydon, Jane, Many Inventions: The Chinese in the Rocks 1890-1930, Monash Publications in History, Clayton, 1999. Details
Journal articles
- Love, Harold, 'Chinese theatre on the Victorian goldfields, 1858-1870', Australasian Drama Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, 1985, pp. 45-86. Details
Images
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- Title
- Bai Huah committee of the Chung Wah Society (or Chung Hwa Kung Hwei)
- Type
- Photograph
- Date
- 1920 - 1940
- Place
- Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
- Details
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- Title
- Glenys Chong and Beverley Burnie at the beach.
- Type
- Photograph
- Place
- Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
- Details
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- Title
- Performers (operatic?)
- Type
- Photograph
- Place
- Australia?
- Details
See also
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- Title
- Bland Holt with children, including Joyce May Tock
- Type
- Photograph
- Date
- 1890s - 1900s
- Place
- Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
- Details
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-
- Title
- Cantonese Opera troupe of the Kong Chew Society
- Type
- Photograph
- Details
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-
- Title
- Unidentified performers probably in Kong Chew Cantonese opera troupe
- Type
- Photograph
- Date
- 1940s - 1960s
- Place
- Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
- Details
Created: 11 July 2001, Last modified: 12 June 2009
