Research

BOUND FEET-

No one knows were the tradition of binding feet originated but ppl say that it might have been during the Tang dynasty.
-It started with royalty. Its origins may be perceived as a means of enforcing the imperial male's exclusive sexual access to his female consorts, ensuring their chastity and fidelity. Since the emperor's life was thought to have moral and political significance, information was protected and the physical freedom of the imperial and palace women was restricted. The court's custom of keeping women hidden was echoed in urban society at large, setting standards of behavior that reduced women to a state of near-total domestic seclusion. In those urban centers, such standards were widely observed by women who aspired to elite status.
- This trend set buy the royal family was followed by people from the upper classes as they strived to be considered 'high class'. It is like what a fashion trend is today. IMPORTANT FOR THE PLAY
- Within the areas and classes in which footbinding was widely accepted, a girl of marriageable age with natural feet had only limited prospects for making a "good" marriage, one which reflected well on her family's ability to raise her properly.[18] Having a daughter with bound feet conferred many potential benefits both on the girl and her family, transforming the biological disadvantage of being born female into a distinct social advantage by increasing her opportunities for making a lucrative marriage. Mothers impressed upon their daughters that the mark of a woman's attraction resided more in her character as revealed in the bind of her feet than in the face or body which nature had given her. Her selection in marriage was the responsibility of her prospective mother-in-law, whose criterion for a good daughter-in-law was the discipline that the bound foot represented, thus a daughter learned that she carried the reputations of both her natal family and the family into which she married in the bind of her feet.[19]

The stepmother could want to emphasize this point in her speech, that she had raised her daughter all her life, bound her feet and taught her what must be done and what is needed to marry well. In comparison, perhaps Cinderella's feet were bound before her father died, but after his passing, when she worked as a maid, her feet were left to grow. Thus, this might be one of the factors that forced the prince to not be able to marry her and the reason the stepsisters feet could not fit the shoe. It was too SMALL.Reason Cinderella was forced to not bind her feet- Even without the promise of hope for upward mobility which a good marriage provided, women bound their feet to signify their claim on the dignity accorded those who embodied refinement and a "sense of class".

DV has been chnaged from nature vs nurture to Self vs society.

- STEPSISTER- The stepsister is NOT evil. She has been influenced by her mother who has also been infkluenced by society so basically in both their cases SOCIETY WINS! So what does society proclaim that the stepsis follows. Its the fantasy of marrying a Prince and that being the goal in life of the women in society in those days. She does not hate or despise Cinbderella and so does not treat her cruely. But at the same time she does envy her. She is an overall likable character, kind and demure. However, the audience may percieve her as shallow.

- STEPMOTHER- for the step mum, she is driven by societies high opinion of royalty and the rich. She believes that if one wants to be great, or something in life, one has to aim towards being rich, famous and respected. And thus she years to be the to be empress mother.

-CINDERELLA- As for Cinderella, she is still the bubbly, vivacious character, but in a way she knows her place. She requests her stepmum iof she can wear the shoe, not just demand that she wants to and continues to do so. She is someone who unline the stepsis and thus unlike society belivees and longs for true love, whatever form it may come in. In the end, society and her share the prize, as she does get married to her true love, the prince even though its just as a concubine. Society still wins though, as She cannot become the Empress because of her bound feet and queer status.

-PRINCE- In the end, like cinderella, he shares the prize with society. He does find true love and then proceeds to get married to her, but only as a concubine because of societies customs and rules.

-FAIRYGODFATHER- He is not funny or bubbly. An easly irritable man, who is impatient BUT at the same time has a soft spot for people in trouble, the oppressed and the weak. However, even to these vistims, he does not show his kind side.


BEIJING OPERA

- Beijing opera was born when the "Four Great Anhui Troupes" came to Beijing in 1790. Beijing opera was originally staged for the court and came into the public later.
- It was not a new art form in itself, but because it evolved so late, it was actually a combination of various historical art and Opera forms.
- But new elements were also added. It wasn’t as singing based, there was more acrobatics introduced and the roles of characters was also changed, makeup was different for the sake of the audience, high pitch singing was stopped and the plays were kept shorter.
- It is mainly based on stories told of China's history and has become increasingly contemporary dealing with issues in society.
- Due to a decrease in audience numbers as well as restraints from the government, the art form has been revised continually. These reforms, which include improving performance quality, adapting new performance elements, and performing new and original plays.
- They usually have three kinds of speech
i) Monologues, Duologues and short prose usually added in for humour.
ii) Quotations of famous Chinese proverbs and teachings.
iii) conventionalized stage speech- introductory speeches given by characters.
-The oldest and most generally used system is to sort plays into civil and martial types. Civil plays focus on the relationships between characters, and feature personal, domestic, and romantic situations. The element of singing is frequently used to express emotion in this type of play. Martial plays feature a greater emphasis on action and combat skill. The two types of play also feature different arrays of performers.
- Nowadays to attract more crowds, Beijing Opera has been adapting Shakespeare scripts and plays into its traditional forms.


Justification of use of Opera.

We changed our idea once again and decided to use Chinese Opera as a mode to tell our fairytale story. We decided that we would keep to the same classic story, but just change the mode of presentation to Chinese Opera. But this in itself was a crazy hard task!

Chinese customs easiest to see conventions between society and self.

1) We decided to keep the structure of Opera as far as costume and makeup were concerned. Also, we tried to base the characters in Cinderella as close to the Chinese stereotypes as possible, thus making it easier to match the costume and make up.
2) Chinese Opera in itself is a HUGE genre, so we decided to narrow it down to something that was more recent and famous so that our audience might be able to make some connection to the characters, be it through costume or makeup. Beijing or Peking Opera was decided on as it is one of the latest tradition of Opera and is recognized world wide. We felt that this modern version of Opera would be better to use as it does incorporate certain elements that have come about with modernization. The makeup for example is now thicker than it was before as now the indoor performance theatres have stage lights, and do not depend on natural lighting.
3) After talking to people in the Opera industry and also reading up, we found out that the singing in Opera was what made it so special. However, we decided that we would have to let go of the singing as it was a second barrier or double alienation for the audience, something that we did not want. They would not be used to seeing youths on stage dressed in Opera costumes and singing in English. This would only cause them to laugh, and thus hinder their ability and concentration on the play as a whole. Also, we felt that if singing were to be added, it would seem like a satire and a mockery of Chinese Opera, something that we are definitely not trying or want to do. Furthermore, after doing some research we found a play which was a Chinese adaptation of Shakespeare’s 'Taming of the shrew'. In this Opera performance, there was more dialogue than sound, and the whole play was at a much faster pace in order to accommodate the modern audience in 2001. Thus, using this as our example, we decided to incorporate faster dialogue in our production.
4) The story line in Chinese Opera is very straight forward. However, in order to appeal and to capture the audiences attention as well as enable them to be able to connect with the piece, we have decided to modernize it. The aspects that we are changing is the characters themselves. We have decided to make the step sister a person who has been greatly influenced by the American culture, and thus tries to be 'ang moh'. The Godfather in contrast is a Chinese man, with the typical accent, trying his best to fit in and move with the time, but failing to do so.
5) As far as movement is concerned, we will be trying to stay as close to Chinese Opera as possible. We have done research on it, watched videos on it and are going to attend a workshop soon to work out what movement differentiates each character from one another and how one must go about acting Opera.
6) The reason we are using the story of Cinderella is because it has a very fairy tale, unrealistic element to it, something dreamy. That is what we are trying to achieve here. Opera is not something that you see in everyday life, the actions are exaggerated to a certain extent for emphasis and many of the movements are not seen in real life today either. Why Cinderella one might ask, aren’t Operas about politics and state affairs? Well yes, they did have a certain amount of politics in it, but as China began to be influenced by modernization, the joint family unit broke down, leading to may smaller family units and in some cases just the couples. Thus, this change brought about a change in the Opera culture as well, after all the Opera was catered to the people's tastes and preferences and also changed with the times. Thus in the 20th and 21st century, Opera began to show plays that revolved around love and how it overcomes all things in the end.

Origin of Opera

-Chinese Opera has a history that dates back 4,000 years ago.
-It is believed that the Chinese people were involved in ritual dancing and singing to please or entertain spirits during their religious rites.
-During the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD 220), story-telling was blended with dance to produce an elementary form of musical drama. Thus, the lessons on friendship, love, hatred, treachery and loyalty in folktales were played out on the Chinese Opera stage, where performers share these traditional folktales through speech, songs, dance, elaborate costume and colourful make-up.
-These stories were performed on stage as part of the ceremonies and celebrations in the imperial courts. Opera singing and acting further developed during the Zhou Dynasty. Religious festivals were held where priests and soothsayers chanted and performed mimes to convey their beliefs to worshippers.
-During the Tang Dynasty (618 ? 907), the Emperor Taizong established an opera school with the poetic name Liyuan (Pear Garden). From that time on, performers of Chinese opera were referred to as 'disciples of the pear garden'.
-Since the Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368) Chinese opera has been encouraged by court officials and emperors and has become a traditional art form.
-During the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), Chinese opera became fashionable among ordinary people. Performances were watched in tearooms, restaurants, and even around makeshift stages.

Origins of Peking Opera

-In 1790, theater companies from all over China arrived in Beijing, to perform for the Qing Emperor Qianlong's birthday. Here begins the history of the various opera forms as we know them today in China...

Four theater companies from Anhui arrived in Beijing, and their fresh styles of music and theater electrified the capital and eventually came to replace the Kunqu Opera style that had been pre-eminent in the capital for the past two hundred years. Characteristics from other forms of opera, such as Hopeh, Wuhan, and Shansi, were incorporated into the Anhui style. After a while this form of opera became known as Ching Hsi, or 'Capital Play.' Ching Hsi is what we know today as Peking Opera. Because of its long history, Peking Opera encompasses a wide variety of drama, and a wide variety of styles of acting. It emphasizes historical and military plays and can be quite patriotic, and so quite popular.