| Like all other great cities, the essence of Peking can not be described
in words. It is something accumulated in the faded red walls, the crisp
carmel coating of candied fruit sold in the winter, the cadenced drawl
of the street vendor, who always have an opinion on everything. And perhaps,
you can find an echo of old Peking in the four stories of Peking Reijin
Jou.
 The word
'reijin' means a beautiful person. But in this case it has a narrower meaning.
Reijin refers to the men who played the parts of women in Peking Opera.
Much like Rome's castrati, they were often bought as young boys from poor
families, they were trained from youth to play the role of woman. Peking,
where the tradition banned women on stage, was famed through out the country
for the beauty and talent of its male singers, who became the center piece
of every opera house in Peking.
The dance of the phoenix:
1930's, Peking. A city in flux, chaotic, unnerving and exciting at the
same time. An old family find that changes, all unknowing, had creeped
into its ground. It started simply enough. The youngest son, in the way
of young boys, dreams of joining the Opera. Not surprising, as most young
boys did, at one time or the other. They could hardly avoided the temptation,
when Peking had a theater at almost every block, and boasted the most beautiful
sets and finest singers in the country. Like all responsible pateriarch,
the grandfather banned the boy from going to operas. And perhaps in time
he would have set aside his dream... except that he ran away to the dressing
room of Yang Roushen, who could make his dream come true.
 Sorrow:
Yang had been a dutiful son. He had studied in the West, yet he married
the wife his family chose for him, gave up his writing, and went to work
in the family business. But Yang Roushen's performance made him remember,
and he found himself backstage, looking for Roushen, thanking him for what
he did for his younger brother, and amused at his own boldness, and he
would ask Roushen to be his friend. Dreams, held in check, often become
obsessions. He remembered the time of starvation, and now he gorged himself.
When he was young, he had written an opera, and when he burned all the
rest, this one he never burned. Now he put himself to finishing the opera
for Roushen, working through the night until he collapsed one day in the
theater.
She had been a dutiful wife. She know that she was uneducated, unlike
the daughter of the family she married into. She know she was old-fasioned.
So she told herself that she was content, in spite of her husband's coolness.
Until she found her husband's association with the opera singer, who easily
won laughters and smiles that Yang never gave her. And what would Yang
chose?
 Flowering:
A young girl was told, by her parents, that she is to be married. It was
not unexpected. And perhaps she was expecting it as well. But it was an
age where girls were given more freedom. She went to school, and she went
to theatres with her friends, and like many young girls, she idolized Yang
Roushen. But she never expected that she would meet him one day, under
embrassing circumstance.
Snow:
Roushen did not have a rough apprenticeship. Perhaps that was why he could
still be kind and compassionate, and people told each other, Roushen is
a good master to work for. Even the most brillant star will set one day,
and Yang Roushen, at the apex of his career, know this as well. He had
already found a young boy, who in a few years will surpass himself. That
was the way of the stage, Roushen encourage the boy to perform with him.
It was better to have him be the follower of Roushen than his rival. But
the boy's life was not so easy as Roushen's had been. His cloth was stained
with blood from the beating. At first Roushen did not recognize that boy's
master, then he realized who it was, one of his classmates, one whom all
had predicted would be his superior. And Roushen remembered why. |
