The Opera Issue

September/October, 2021

We look at the uncertain fate of hundreds of small-scale regional opera types around China; speak with HIV/AIDS patients living in the shadows; go speed-dating with Shanghai’s elites; and dance with the Tujia ethnic group...at a funeral; and more.

中国戏曲曾遍地开花：数百余剧种承载着各地独特的风土人情、方言声腔和艺术审美。京剧还走上了国际舞台，成了中国的艺术文化名片。然而，近几十年，一些地方剧种面临资金短缺、演员和观众流失等多重困境，有的甚至已失传。政府部门和新老从业者们该如何应对？新时代的传统戏曲又将走向何方？

Cover Story | 封面故事 

Upstaged

传统戏曲：莫让曲音成绝唱

China used to boast hundreds of types of opera, drawing rapt crowds in every region and dialect. Yet government figures say an average of three traditional opera forms have vanished every two years since the 1980s. Top-down conservation efforts have tended to focus on Peking opera to the exclusion of all else, putting the unique costumes, music, stories, and heritage of hundreds of little-known arts at risk of becoming lost forever.

Features | 主题故事 

Silent Epidemic

两名感染者的抗艾之路

Over 36 years since it was diagnosed in China, HIV/AIDS has become easier and more affordable to treat, but discussing the disease remains a social taboo in parts of the country. Two patients speak out about the social stigma and ignorance that force them to live in the shadows.

Field Notes | 乡音

Factory Settings

95后工人的起伏人生

Millennials and Gen Z are now joining China’s factories, but the menial jobs no longer appeal to youngsters who want to follow their dreams. A millennial former Foxconn worker describes lessons he learned on and off the assembly line.

Swipe High

精英相亲，爱情缺席？

What is it like to go speed-dating among top-earning and well-educated singles who have everything...except love? A writer moonlights as an employee of a “high end” matchmaking service in Shanghai, and discovers the price on love in China’s competitive urban dating scene.

Kaleidoscope | 镜像中国 

The Changing Face of Yingge Dance

英歌：广东普宁民间传统舞蹈

Yingge dance in Puning, Guangdong province, is just one of hundreds of small-scale regional folk arts trying to stay afloat in modern China. It was once performed by the whole village, but today’s Yingge dancers are farmers who sing stories of heroes in their spare time. The skilled hands of makeup artists transform ordinary villagers into outlaws and spirits, who continue to entertain the countryside as they have for centuries.

Dragon’s Digest | 三味书屋 

June 23, 2016

短篇小说《2016年6月23日》 

You see them everywhere—seniors crowding onto buses, chatting in the park, pottering around in their gardens. Inspired by real-life retirees in her village, writer Gu Xiang presents a touching short story that looks at the humanity behind the idiosyncrasies of elderly Chinese.

Gallery | 水墨丹青

Children of the Corn

艺术家潘德海的玉米人

Known for his monochromatic “Corn” motif and his cute yet unnerving “Fatties,” Yunnan-based painter Pan Dehai finds meaning in distorted views of the past and present. He speaks to TWOC about coming-of-age with the ’85 New Wave movement and the reception to his satiric political works.

Group Think | 群观

Saddle Up

河北坝上的牛仔梦

Bashang, the nearest grassland to Beijing, has enraptured horse-lovers throughout history from Qing emperors to trail-riders today. Amateur equestrians gather in this countryside every weekend to escape the urban grind, connect with horses, and experience the thrill of the ride.

On the Road | 在路上 

Dancing for the Dead

土家族独特丧葬文化

Like other minority ethnic groups, the Tujia of south-central China are seeing huge changes to their traditions. But a chance stop in the Chongqing highlands brings one writer to an all-night funeral showing that for today’s Tujia, some things never change—least of all family, hospitality, and dancing.

Bookmark | 好书有笺 

The Poet on Earth

诗人余秀华的多面人生

In 2014, Yu Xiuhua shot to infamy with “Crossing Half of China to Fuck You,” a poem in her new translated anthology Moonlight Rests on My Left Palm. Putting raw subjects into delicate but unadorned prose, the anthology shows the poet beyond the labels of “female” and “disabled.” 

Zoetrope | 视听空间

The Tremors of Trauma

《两个星球》：伤痛的轮回

For his latest documentary After the Rain, filmmaker Fan Jian deliberately set out to make a work that does not translate across cultures, displaying the ambiguous morality of bereaved families seeking to have another child after losing their only offspring in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake.

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