| dc.description.abstract | Jiangnan was a place with prosperous business towns, and a wealthy of elites and cultures in late Ming Dynasty. After converting the expectation from ruling the country efficiently and taking good care of the people into cultural and leisure activities, literati precipitated the development of modern drama. Accompanied by the rescinded bans and the booming economy in towns, dramas have become popular which nobles and royalties appreciated in palaces; literati and prestigious people relished in residences; the masses and prostitutes enjoyed in teahouses or bawdy-houses. This study is mainly exploring the family troupes owned by literati and prestigious people.
Southern dramas which were popular during Chia Ching in Ming Dynasty include Yiyang opera, Haiyan opera, Kunshan opera etc. Plenty of family troupes competed to perform with Kunshanqiang owing to the amelioration of Kunshanqiang(崑山腔) with agreeable and fluent tune making by Wei Liang-Fu and the successful performance on the stage held by Liang Chen-Yu. Besides, literati and prestigious people usually wrote for the stage with Chuanji which were divided into Wujiang group and Linjiang group. Meanwhile, the most famous dramatists involved Chen Jing and Tang Xian-Zu who were followed by sequential literati.
Family troupes mainly spread to Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yingtian, Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou. Most of the actors of family troupes originated from Suzhou because it was the cradle of Kun opera which was the most popular opera among family troupes. Other actors were from the presentation between the owners of family troupes or the marrying with the courtesans. Actors in their adolescence entered the family troupes often confronted the situation of disbandment due to the downfallen statuses of their owners and the coming of Qing Dynasty. With these factors, the actresses were forced to look for their own way to survive, so some of them executed in professional drama troupes while others chose to be a nun in solitude or got married.
The stages where family troupes were held were commonly in the pavilion in the residences of the troupe owners. Some owners even built their own boats with delicate decoration for the purpose of appreciating the dramas. Moreover, restricted by the measurement of the stage, the topics of the drama usually focused on romance or the celebration of someone’s birthday rather than on action. There were also innovations in properties and arrangement of stage.
There were ambiguous relationship between the owners and the actors such as owners loved actors who were only children or teenagers. Furthermore, actresses with attractive appearance often became the concubines of the owners. At that time, family troupes were undoubtedly not only special organization of drama and but also played crucial part in passing down the culture of drama. | en_US |