Wing Chun Kuen and the Red Junk Opera
Rene Ritchie, November 30th, 2007
Yueju (Yuet gak, Cantonese opera) companies of the mid-19th century were broadly divided into waijiang ban (ngoi keung ban, outside the province companies) and bendi ban (bun dei ban, local companies). The former encompassed those groups funded by the gentry and used at official functions. The latter, wandering companies like the Hongchuan Xiban (Hung Suen Hei Ban, Red Junk Opera Company).
Origins of the Red Junk
The Red Junk name derived from the performers living year-round on heavily (even garishly) decorated boats. Designed by Yuan Tishi in Jiangxi in 1530, these boats spread across China to become the staple of the wandering troupes. Some twenty vessals strong at their peek, the Red Junk Opera Company traveled the rivers of Guangdong (Kwangtung), through towns such as Zhaoqing (Siuhing), Foshan (Futsan), and Guangzhou (Kwangchow, Canton), performing popular drama for the common villagers and townsfolk.
Chinese Opera in general is said to have begun in the Tang dynasty (618-907), during the reign of Ming Huang (712-755), when he founded the first troop, Li Yuan, (Lik Yuen, Pear Garden), who performed for him in the imperial palace in Wuhan. From there, the Disciples of the Pear Garden (as they came to be known), evolved and spread until, by the Song dynasty (1179-1278), the nan xi (nam hei, southern opera), was performed in the theaters of Hangzhou, then southern capitol.
With the Mongol invasion and the formation of the Yuan dynasty (1278-1368), the vast Southern emigration took Southern Opera fully into Guangdong province. The time of the Yuan dynasty was one of considerable growth for the opera, leading to works such as the Purple Hairpin and Rejuvenation of the Red Plum Flower, and specialized roles like sheng (sang, male), deng, (tan, female — played by male peformers), jing (jing, painted face), chou (chow, clown), etc. The opera continued to develop through the 14th century influence of Chuanqi (Marvelous Tales), the 16th century influence of Kunqu from Jiansu Province, the 17th century move away from common clothing to specialty costumes. While treasured for the entertainment they provided, actors during the Qing were held only the lowest of social status, the same as beggars, butchers, and other people of the mean. And in spite of the success of the Red Junk Company, it was a difficult life.
The “Great Teacher”
The next great development occurred during the 1730s with the arrival of Zhang Wu (Cheung Ng). Also known as Zhang Xin (Cheung Hin), he hailed from Hubei and worked as a singer in Beijing. Highly accomplished in opera, excellent in both music and drama, Zhang was also said to be unsurpassed in martial skill, especially the techniques of “Shaolin” (Siu Lam, Young Forest, though it is not clear whether this was Henan Shaolin Temple boxing system proper, or the so-called Shaolin-School which included many related and unrelated “external” arts).
Due to his performances, which expressed anti-Qing sentiments, Zhang was forced to flee the capitol. He settled in Foshan where he became known as Tan Shou Wu (Tan Sao Ng). There are several explanations given as to the origins of this nickname. One account held his tan (dispersing) arm was peerless throughout the martial arts world. A second account related he suffered from minor tan (polio, paralysis) in his left arm. A final account maintained that when he first arrived in Foshan, he survived by singing songs near the opera docks and holding out his tan (spread out) hand for money (perhaps while he became familiar with the local dialect).
The Precious Jade Flower Union
Eventually, Zhang took on a number of Red Junk performers as disciples, and founded the Qianghua Huiguan (King Fa Wui Goon, Precious Jade Flower Union) Hall, in some accounts referred to as the Honghua Huiguan (Hung Fa Wui Goon, Red Flower Union), at Dajiwei (Dai Gei Mei), where he taught the traditional Jianghu Shiba Ben (Gong Wu Sup Baat Bun, Eighteen Plays of River & Lake). Later generations would regard him as the “great teacher” and zu shi (jo si, founder) of the modern Cantonese opera.
The next important leader of the Precious Jade Flower Union was A-Hua. A-Hua was a life-long sheng, magnificent in voice, appearance, and acting. For the first few decades of the 19th century, he alone was chosen, year after year, by the various troupes that comprised the union to perform the ceremonies and to care for the image of Huaguang (Wah Gong), the Opera God.
Following A-Hua, in the mid-19th century, was Li Wenmao (Lee Man-Mao) of Heshan, who played the opera role of er huamin (yee fa min, second painted face).
It is during the time of Li Wenmao that the earliest verifiable practitioners of yongchunquan (wing chun kuen) can be found aboard the Red Junk:
- Wong Wah-Bo (Huang Huabao), sometimes said to have been a native of Gulao, Heshan, is generally considered the senior of the troupe. He played the Mo Sang, (Wusheng, Male Martial Lead), and was particularly skilled in the roles of General Kwan and the Monkey King, and in the use of the kwun (gun, pole).
- Leung Yee-Tai (Liang Erdi) played the Mo Deng (Wudan, ‘Female’ Martial Lead).
- Dai Fa Min Kam (Dahuamian Jin, Painted Face Kam), also known as San Kam (Xin Jin, New Kam), and sometimes said to have properly been Lok Kam (Luo Jin) of Jinju, Sanshui, played the Mo Ging (Wujing, Martial Painted Face), or sometimes the villainous Chow (Chou, Clown).
- Yik Kam (Yijin, Wing Gold) played the Ching Deng (Qingdan, Proper ‘Female’), a virtuous leading role.
- Lai Fook-Shun (Li Fushun), also known as Siu Fook (Xiao Fu, Young Fook), played the Siu Sang (Xiaosheng, Young Male), the beardless scholar-lover.
- Cho Shun (Cao Shun), known as Dai Ngan Shun (Dayan Shun, Cross-eyed Shun), a native of Panyu, played the Siu Mo (Xiaowu, Little Martial). A former Choy Lee Fut boxer, he became a disciple of Yik Kam.
- And others, including mentions of Leung Lan-Kwai (Liang Langui), Go Lo Chung (Gaolao Zheng, Tall Chung), Fa Jee Ming (Huazi Ming, Flower Mark Ming), Fa Min Biu, (Huamian Biao, Flower Face Biu), Lo Man-Gung (Lu Wengong), etc.
Fall of the Precious Jade Flower Union
The Precious Jade Flower Union prospered until 1855, when Liangguang (Guangdong and Guangxi) Governor-General, Ye Mingchen (Yip Ming-Chan) branded the Precious Jade Flower Union members extortionists and threats to public morality. Their actors were slaughtered, their hall and theaters were burned down, and performances of Cantonese Opera were outlawed. (Please see: History of the Red Junk Rebels)
Those actors that survived moved to other provinces, joined outside province, Beijing, or other, still legal, companies, became street performers plagued by market police and poverty, or hid in the towns and villages along their former routes.
Birth of the Eight Harmonies Union
The ban lasted until Juilin, who had taken over from Ye Mingchen as Governor-General, invited some actors to his Yamen in 1868 to give performances on the occaision of his mother’s birthday. Among the performers were a wusheng named Guang Tianqing (Kwong Tien-Ching), popularly known as Xinhua, and a Dan named He, popularly known as Koubichang. Juilin’s mother developed a special affection to He, due to his resemblance to her late daughter. Xinhua asked He to use this affection to help re-establish the Cantonese opera. Eventually, Jiulin petitioned the court, and by 1871 the ban was relaxed enough for Xinhua to establish a new association named Bahe Huiguan (Baat Hop Wui Goon, Eight Harmonies Union) in the Jiqing guild headquarters in Guangzhou. Some joined the new union and returned to the opera, others retired fully.
The Opera in Modern Times
In the early 20th century, eager to restore their heritage, some of the Cantonese Opera performers took instruction in the Gulao (Koo Lo) branch of the art, which derived from their ancestors, Huang Huabao and Liang Erdi’s student, Liang Zan’s (Leung Jan) final few years of teaching in his native village following his retirement from his apothecary shop on Foshan’s Kuaizi Street. Perhaps due to its san shi (san sik, separate form) nature, as opposed to the taolu (to lo, sets) of the other prominent branches, the wing chun kuen mixed with the baihequan (bak hok kuen, white crane boxing), Keijiaquan (Hakka boxing), and other methods extent among the performers, leading to a distinct branch known as Hung Suen wing chun kuen.
Among the performers who learned Hung Suen wing chun kuen was Yang Fu (Yeung Fook). Born in 1919, he joined the opera in 1928, and became a highly skilled wusheng who specialized in the role of the Monkey King. In 1939, he performed with the opera in San Francisco and was able to settle in the United States.
One of Yang’s fellow performers at the time was Lee Hoi-Chuen, whose son, Bruce Jun-Fan, was born during the visit. Impressed with the wing chun kuen he’d seen in the opera, when he later settled in Hong Kong, he sent his son to learn under Ye Wen (Yip Man), student of Liang Zan’s Foshan student Chen Huashun (Chan Wah-Shun). Bruce Lee, later known as “The Little Dragon” would go on to become an international superstar and bring wing chun kuen, and Chinese martial arts in general, with him to the world stage.
Other opera and wing chun kuen connections persisted into the mid-late 20th century as well, with famed performers such as Shao Xiao Ji (Siu Siu Gai) studying the art under Cen Neng (Sum Nung) of Guangzhou, descendant of performers Huanghua Bao and Dahuamian Jin through Huo Baoquan (Fok Bo-Chuen) and Feng Shaoqing (Fung Siu-Ching), and Ruan Qishan (Yuen Kay-San).
With Robert Chu and Hendrik Santo
References: Origins of the Tiandihui
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