Film Premiere Brings Colorful Yue Opera to New Generation of Fans

NYU Shanghai hosted the world premiere of He Wenxiu, a film adaptation of one of the classics of Yue Opera, a school of traditional Chinese opera. The film’s star, actress Zhou Liping, joined more than 200 people from the greater Shanghai community, including NYU Shanghai students, press, and local Yue Opera fans for the screening on October 11. 

“Yue opera already has 100 years of history, but it needs a new generation to appreciate it, pass it on to future generations, and expand it,” NYU Shanghai Chancellor Yu Lizhong told the audience before the screening, noting that NYU Shanghai was the perfect place to launch the film. “As an international university, we hope that through multicultural integration, our students can better understand Chinese culture, especially Shanghai’s local culture.”

Chen Nuo '22 performs a Yue Opera duet onstage with the film's star, Zhou Liping

Zhou Liping stars in the title role as He Wenxiu, a fictional male scholar from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Having an actress play a male role is typical in Yue Opera, which hails from the Shaoxing region of Zhejiang Province and enjoys massive popularity in the Shanghai area. In fact, Yue Opera is unique among the many genres of traditional Chinese opera for its use of all-female casts. 

The film’s debut at NYU Shanghai coincided with the centennial of the birth of one of Yue Opera’s biggest stars, Zhejiang native Yin Guifang, who is widely known as the “Emperor of Yue Opera.” Yin was renowned for her portrayal of male (sheng) roles, helping to bring the genre to the height of its popularity in 1930s and 1940s Shanghai. She also trained a large portion of the genre’s next generation of performers, including Zhou’s own teacher, Yin Guifang. 

The richly colored and immersive film version of He Wenxiu explicitly aimed to carry on Yin’s legacy by updating traditional Yue Opera forms to speak to new audiences, said director Shan Yinsheng. 

“The arias of the Yue opera He Wenxiu have a deep fan base among Yue opera enthusiasts, and they have been widely circulated, so we wanted to create an artwork that breathed some new life into them,” Shan said. 

Zhou also felt driven by a similar mission to renew the traditions of her craft. “Chinese opera’s ability to enrich itself over time is part of what made me volunteer so enthusiastically to shoot this film,” she said. 

“I believe that while new Yue Opera films can evoke a kind of nostalgia among older fans, at the same time they can also present Yue Opera’s magic and depth of character to young people.”
In addition to remarks from the film’s star and director, the premiere also featured a duet performance by Zhou and NYU Shanghai student Chen Nuo ’22 of Shanghai. Chen, who has studied and enjoyed Yue Opera since childhood, said she was thrilled to have the opportunity to introduce the traditions of the art form to her peers. 

“Yue Opera has nourished so many generations of Chinese people, so to be able to perform a Yue opera piece with Zhou Liping – and to do it on my own university’s stage – is a huge honor and an amazing opportunity,” said Chen. “This is yet another chance to experience the unique multicultural blend at NYU Shanghai. It makes anything seem possible.”

Star Zhou Liping poses with her Yue Opera teacher, Yin Xiaofang, who herself trained under “Emperor of Yue Opera” Yin Guifang.

Leaders of the Shanghai International Cultural Exchange Association also attended the premiere, as did the leadership of Hangzhou Jun Hao Cultural Media Company, which produced the film.