CHAIRS! Fun stuff: I've seen a Beijing Opera adaptation of Hamlet (Yeah, that Hamlet), which is actually not bad, and BOY I was marveled by the chair usage! The first scene in that adaptation is the graveyard scene where Hamlet and Horatio rode (walking dances with whip in hand) through the graveyard to see the ghost of the old king. There were four chairs on stage and they were standing with their back towards the audience, and we immediately realized the chairs are tombstones now! (Bonus point, the four stagehands were dressed up as black and white ghost officials from the Underworld.) Several scenes later Ophelia died and one chair was brought on stage, lying sideways, with its back turned towards the audience. The chair is now a coffin, and everybody understood. You got to appreciate all the tradition and creativity (well it's a new play with many foreign element so you got to be a bit creative) that goes into this art.
You should do a separate episode on the zaju and chuan-qi types of plays in China. I feel that China deserves at least two episodes since its literary and theater traditions are just as deep and complex as those of Japan and India. Just my two cents here.
Great work, informative! Some mistakes: 1. Wu priests had nothing to do with Daoism - at least supernatural practitioners were not called Wu in Daoism. Wu and Xi (巫觋, female and male noun, respectively, kind of like witches and warlocks) were prominent before Qin Dynasty, but declined significantly in Han Dynasty. Daoism priest are called Daoshi (道士). What you did is like calling a Christian priest a Shaman. 2. The Peony Pavilion was written in Ming Dynasty, not Yuan. It was written in 1598, while the Yuan capitol was taken in 1368. So basically Tang Xianzu wrote The Peony Pavilion around the time of Shakespeare, while Yuan Dynasty ended around the time of Chaucer.
The Chalk Circle or The Circle of Chalk was a great play. About jealousy, detective work, and justice being served. It is a simple play, but conveys a great story.
Very exact. The only matter you didn't mention is all Chinese operas form a large family. Chuanqi is the grandfather, kunqu the first son, Jingju(beijing opera) second son, local operas and so on. You can perform a half beijing opera, half kunqu or Bangzi(Hebei province) opera.
I went to one on my trip to Beijing 2 days ago. It was really amazing, from the moment that I was seated infront with bunch of other people around a table sharing tea and snacks to the breathtaking acrobatics, dance and singing with music was just.. well breathtaking.
would have liked it if the entire history of chinese performance was covered in maybe 2 episodes instead of 1. i felt like by the time the video got to beijing opera proper, time was up.
I don't see how they could've been eating pumpkin seeds in 1000CE as we have no records of New World foods in the Old World anywhere near that early. Perhaps it's a mistranslation? I've read that some in the Far East eat musk melon seeds similar to how we eat squash seeds.
I'm sure this has already been asked before but I'm curious if you'll cover Japanese rakugo? All speaking of "invisible" stage hands, I think the stage hands in Japanese plays wearing all black including a veil across their face is basically what started ninja wearing black in TV, etc. :)
ok, ok... starts from 8:21 the information is messed up. Whoever gives you this information clearly knows nothing about Peking Opera. You'd better find a better reference( or ask any Chinese) if you want to make it straight. For example, at 8:28, Guan Gong(关公) is a character, who may be the only important HongSheng(红生) character. The fourth one Zhao Kuangyin(赵匡胤) is another famous Hongsheng character.
PeterLiuIsBeast that’s largely a misconception, due to film adaptations in the 1970s in Hong Kong that turned it from a serious work of literature to, as you said soft core porn.
It dates back to the very first World History series. It was something of a running theme/gag that the Mongols were an exception to a lot the trends that occur across multiple times and places. And every time the Mongols being an exception to those trends came up, they played that clip.
Nope, even Hanyu Pinyin uses J pronounced like English, eg. 及 ji. Z is another story as both Z and ZH don't sound like English Z; Z is more like English TS but airless, and ZH "curls tongue" in addition to that.
I think it may also depend on dialect, I've seen that x could be both an sh or just an s. Xin could be shin or sin, afaik. I've also heard of zh being a vocalized sh, as in the word azure.
This is a really interesting and informative video!, However, I'm sorry to say- the pronunciation of the Chinese words is always pretty off, even not counting the tones. I know it can be hard to learn stuff like that on short notice but there are lots of other youtube videos that can help with that if you're interested
I think his pronunciation got better (i.e., closer to the original languages or modern descendants thereof) in this and the last episode. His pronunciation of "zaju" is often odd, but in a way that only makes sense if he's trying to match the Mandarin or some other Chinese pronunciation rather than just going off the spelling, and there are also some other common Anglicizations, particularly in the less important words, but not as many as if he just didn't know. Maybe he read some comment cringing at his Japanese and decided to pay more attention to pronunciation.
While there is good information, the host doesn't even seemed to have tried to pronounce any Chinese words correctly. Coming from Australia where ABC and SBS news presenters provide decent approximations, this seems to be lacking effort in comparison.
As others have pointed out, the pronunciation of Chinese words is atrocious and inconsistent. The visuals are also poorly researched. The painting at 1:00 does not represent the beginnings of Chinese drama; all those big hats with the red tops are strictly Qing dynasty (1644-1911). At 2:47, the character drinking tea is an emperor; his headdress features a sort of beaded curtain of jewels. An emperor wouldn't normally be slumming with the plebes in a teahouse. Among other mistakes, The Orphan of Zhao has been adapted into other genres and was the first Chinese play translated into a European language, but it is no longer performed as zaju. All of the music to zaju plays has been lost. It sounds crazy when Chinese music from earlier dynasties is still around, at least in the form of Japanese gagaku, but I've been asking. The experts are unanimous: zaju music is all gone. Somehow, it's completely unrelated to music from the succeeding dynasty (Ming) that has the same tune title.
I really detest the use of BCE/CE especially sice there's nothing comon about it, outside of historically Christian cultures. One could say it is common because of the prevelence of western civ, but isn't that a bit ethnocentric? The birth of Christ though is a point in time. You can take it as nothing other than that, if you wish. It's just like saying BBY and ABY in Star wars. So in the hopes of being PC we're using a less precise term which then results in more ethnocentric implications.
Frank Lordi it's common because, for better or worse, it's what the whole world uses now. Sure the video could give dates in traditional dating "Seventh year of Emperor Qianlong", but no one would understand when that is without a common era translation. The dating scheme has outgrown its Christian roots.
Also, it's _more_ precise terminology because Jesus Christ was born several years BCE. We found that out later but didn't bother to change the calendar because it had already become too, tadaa!, _common_ :D . It's become really common _even outside_ historically Christian cultures. Except for local/regional things, as soon as you get international, people use the Gregorian calendar.
The first point is just being nitpicky. Your second point is true insofar as it goes; however, it does not dig deep enough. Why is the date used as a starting point? Not for some random reason but to mark the birth of the Lord. Trying to whitewash or sidestep that seems intellectually dishonest, again in the name of political correctness. Seems like naming 1066 "The british Reference Year" if you didnt want to offend anyone by using the ords Norman or Conquest, doesn't it?
No, the first point is not being nitpicky. It's the reason why "common era" is more precise than "after the birth of Christ". Yes, historically, the assumed date of Christ's birth was the reference point. It isn't any more, though. The reference date for today is just what people earlier assumed and has become common practice over time. It's not calling 1066 "the British reference year" but, let's say, 1061. Because the Norman Conquest _did_ happen in 1066 - different from what's happening with Jesus' birth. I'm not saying that BC/AD is wrong or something. I usually use it myself. But I find the reasoning behind "really detesting" the BCE/CE terminology very flawed. "It was chosen because Jesus was born" - except, as I said, it's not when Jesus was born. After that, it usually comes down to more or less vague ranting about "political correctness" and "I'm offended because people try not to offend other people!"
How is theatre so triggering to communist?! It's theatre! Ugh and then they make stupid propaganda plays like the girls with white hair. Ugh! I'm glad that they still perform the more traditional plays though.
The richman and his mother maltreat her. So she fled into mountin and ate wild leaves and fruits and no salt was available for a whole year. Without salt her hair became white. And one day her real fiance came back as a red army soldier with other soldiers, and led a revolutionary change into the remote area. She married him and became the first woman changing from slave into citizen in that area. Although the culture revolution is wrong, the 7 new Beijing operas written in that time are the best of modern Beijing oprera
Not to be that person but please put Chinese names, etc. into google translate and repeat them a few times after the native speaker before recording - there's no Emperor "Shuanzang" in Chinese history. If you want to educate people on China, then this is an important step.
CHAIRS!
Fun stuff: I've seen a Beijing Opera adaptation of Hamlet (Yeah, that Hamlet), which is actually not bad, and BOY I was marveled by the chair usage! The first scene in that adaptation is the graveyard scene where Hamlet and Horatio rode (walking dances with whip in hand) through the graveyard to see the ghost of the old king. There were four chairs on stage and they were standing with their back towards the audience, and we immediately realized the chairs are tombstones now! (Bonus point, the four stagehands were dressed up as black and white ghost officials from the Underworld.)
Several scenes later Ophelia died and one chair was brought on stage, lying sideways, with its back turned towards the audience. The chair is now a coffin, and everybody understood. You got to appreciate all the tradition and creativity (well it's a new play with many foreign element so you got to be a bit creative) that goes into this art.
That sounds really cool
You should do a separate episode on the zaju and chuan-qi types of plays in China. I feel that China deserves at least two episodes since its literary and theater traditions are just as deep and complex as those of Japan and India. Just my two cents here.
Great work, informative!
Some mistakes:
1. Wu priests had nothing to do with Daoism - at least supernatural practitioners were not called Wu in Daoism. Wu and Xi (巫觋, female and male noun, respectively, kind of like witches and warlocks) were prominent before Qin Dynasty, but declined significantly in Han Dynasty. Daoism priest are called Daoshi (道士). What you did is like calling a Christian priest a Shaman.
2. The Peony Pavilion was written in Ming Dynasty, not Yuan. It was written in 1598, while the Yuan capitol was taken in 1368. So basically Tang Xianzu wrote The Peony Pavilion around the time of Shakespeare, while Yuan Dynasty ended around the time of Chaucer.
I legit straightened up in my seat in anticipation when I heard "invading hordes".
The Chalk Circle or The Circle of Chalk was a great play. About jealousy, detective work, and justice being served. It is a simple play, but conveys a great story.
Nice to see the return of the Mongols are the exception meme
Very exact. The only matter you didn't mention is all Chinese operas form a large family. Chuanqi is the grandfather, kunqu the first son, Jingju(beijing opera) second son, local operas and so on. You can perform a half beijing opera, half kunqu or Bangzi(Hebei province) opera.
I learned jingju hair and makeup during my undergrad from experts and things like this remind me how lucky and rare that opportunity was.
Beautiful. I love how different cultures have different variation of the same thing.
ikr
Now I understand where western theatre learned to use tables and chairs in different configurations to represent locations. Thanks!
Surprised by the informative presentation of Chinese drama, but definitely feel Kunqu deserves some introduction here.
Beijing Opera for me is the best example of theatre. Makeup, music, dances, oh MY!
I always "like" during the introduction. It's a reflex at this point.
I knew the Mongoltage was coming, but it was still great to see when it finally appeared! :D
😊yeah
Farewell my concubine is one of my favorite movies. :-)
Powerful film.
Finally. Someone points it out.
omg yes! it breaks my heart every time i see it!
I went to one on my trip to Beijing 2 days ago. It was really amazing, from the moment that I was seated infront with bunch of other people around a table sharing tea and snacks to the breathtaking acrobatics, dance and singing with music was just.. well breathtaking.
3:18 wow... i felt that burn beyond the screen...
would have liked it if the entire history of chinese performance was covered in maybe 2 episodes instead of 1. i felt like by the time the video got to beijing opera proper, time was up.
Yous a demon is the best quote ever
oh the chinese pronunciation here is killing me
"You's a demon". That killed me.
3:33 Ah, that's refreshing.
I don't see how they could've been eating pumpkin seeds in 1000CE as we have no records of New World foods in the Old World anywhere near that early. Perhaps it's a mistranslation? I've read that some in the Far East eat musk melon seeds similar to how we eat squash seeds.
mistranslation
Impossible. He is describing a theatre of 20th century. In 1000, when common people watched opera, they ate chestnuts or any other fruits.
Keep it up my guy
This freaking video bro. "You is a demon" 😂😂😂
lol
Will never get enough of this😊💞👏👍
Last episode: mustaches are evil.
This episode: mustaches are good.
How do I keep this straight!? Do I shave, or not!?
Shave half of it.
wrong explaination. Mustaches means matured old man.
Thank you, China for having female actors and having them not being outlawed from performing!
Great lesson!
Nope, Mike's nickname wold be "Hoping Hair", "The Bold One" (got it?), "Baldyr" (Baldr + Baldy) or "Ginger Skullet".
I'm joking but I love you...
Educational!
I was hoping to get a mention of my boy, Xiang Yu.
Sorry you didn't mention Sichuan Opera 川劇 Chuānjù :( They have mask changing and fire breathing. :)
is that the bian lian thing?
OMG Sichuan Opera is my favorite out of all of Chinese Theater!
Wait for it......
Wonderful!
2:10 not Sui Yang Di of SUI dynasty but Tang Xuan Zong of TANG dynasty did this.
3:33 always a pleasure to see the mongoltage
Yay Beijing Opera!!!!
I'm sure this has already been asked before but I'm curious if you'll cover Japanese rakugo?
All speaking of "invisible" stage hands, I think the stage hands in Japanese plays wearing all black including a veil across their face is basically what started ninja wearing black in TV, etc. :)
ok, ok... starts from 8:21 the information is messed up. Whoever gives you this information clearly knows nothing about Peking Opera. You'd better find a better reference( or ask any Chinese) if you want to make it straight.
For example, at 8:28, Guan Gong(关公) is a character, who may be the only important HongSheng(红生) character. The fourth one Zhao Kuangyin(赵匡胤) is another famous Hongsheng character.
hey crash course, why don't you make a music series? I'd love to watch the entire part, especially if Adam Neely's on there
I translate several into English. very difficult.
great video!: from a sinophile:)
Just can't Stop Slamming us Jellicles, Can You.
This stuff is like overwhelmingly crazy, I thought I got a taste of something with the Renaissance color schemes, but I did not.
Not on the playlist yet
wow thank you for this!! very helpful
good
Wizards.. yes!
I want to find it 🥰♥️💛🤞🥂
4:47 西厢记 Romance of West Chamber was straight up a soft core porn no?
PeterLiuIsBeast that’s largely a misconception, due to film adaptations in the 1970s in Hong Kong that turned it from a serious work of literature to, as you said soft core porn.
Were they really eating pumpkin seeds in 600CE? Pumpkin is native to North America and I don't think had made it's way to China by that point.
Dani McKenzie Mistranslation, melon seeds were eaten then and now.
Impossible. He is describing a theatre of 20th century. In 1000, when common people watched opera, they ate chestnuts or any other fruits.
I have the max the skull wears at home lol
How did the Mongols clip became a thing?
It dates back to the very first World History series. It was something of a running theme/gag that the Mongols were an exception to a lot the trends that occur across multiple times and places. And every time the Mongols being an exception to those trends came up, they played that clip.
What is with westerners and being unable to pronounce the letter J when it comes to Chinese names and words? IT'S AN ENGLISH J.
Chinese J is pronounced more like English Z. Chinese ZH is pronounced like English J.
Nope, even Hanyu Pinyin uses J pronounced like English, eg. 及 ji.
Z is another story as both Z and ZH don't sound like English Z; Z is more like English TS but airless, and ZH "curls tongue" in addition to that.
El Bandito wrong. Zh is a z with a curled tongue.
I think it may also depend on dialect, I've seen that x could be both an sh or just an s. Xin could be shin or sin, afaik.
I've also heard of zh being a vocalized sh, as in the word azure.
_J_ is pronounced weird in english. Not only that, but _e_ is pronounced like _i_ , _i_ is pronounced like _ay_ , and that's only the begining.
This is a really interesting and informative video!, However, I'm sorry to say- the pronunciation of the Chinese words is always pretty off, even not counting the tones. I know it can be hard to learn stuff like that on short notice but there are lots of other youtube videos that can help with that if you're interested
I wonder - is this series gonna also cover puppet theater?
Mike, is ZaJu, not Zhaju. The pronunciation is off. Still, I learned plenty from you today. Thanks a lot
I think his pronunciation got better (i.e., closer to the original languages or modern descendants thereof) in this and the last episode. His pronunciation of "zaju" is often odd, but in a way that only makes sense if he's trying to match the Mandarin or some other Chinese pronunciation rather than just going off the spelling, and there are also some other common Anglicizations, particularly in the less important words, but not as many as if he just didn't know. Maybe he read some comment cringing at his Japanese and decided to pay more attention to pronunciation.
ah yes, the famous mongols are the exception
His name is mycrod nena? Interesting name...
extra like button for mongol-tage.
Wu as in Wu Wei?
The Chinese has too many same pronunciations.
Cultural Revolution wasn't about communist, it was about... culture.
And Mao's shenanigans against his "rivals and enemies", of course.
Where does Cantonese opera fit in all of this?
It Cantonese opera, his nickname would be Gweilo.
Garmen lin
Or Guang Hau Lo
No links for some example plays/videos. Only theory, no experience.
While there is good information, the host doesn't even seemed to have tried to pronounce any Chinese words correctly. Coming from Australia where ABC and SBS news presenters provide decent approximations, this seems to be lacking effort in comparison.
The host is a hottie! Woof!
沉迷京剧无法自拔ww
"Caucasian Chalk Circle" clever.
Great stuff 😊 bro and yeah the shity government needs a great overhaul for sure 😬 way to stupid 😕
As others have pointed out, the pronunciation of Chinese words is atrocious and inconsistent. The visuals are also poorly researched. The painting at 1:00 does not represent the beginnings of Chinese drama; all those big hats with the red tops are strictly Qing dynasty (1644-1911). At 2:47, the character drinking tea is an emperor; his headdress features a sort of beaded curtain of jewels. An emperor wouldn't normally be slumming with the plebes in a teahouse. Among other mistakes, The Orphan of Zhao has been adapted into other genres and was the first Chinese play translated into a European language, but it is no longer performed as zaju. All of the music to zaju plays has been lost. It sounds crazy when Chinese music from earlier dynasties is still around, at least in the form of Japanese gagaku, but I've been asking. The experts are unanimous: zaju music is all gone. Somehow, it's completely unrelated to music from the succeeding dynasty (Ming) that has the same tune title.
4th...
5th
I really detest the use of BCE/CE especially sice there's nothing comon about it, outside of historically Christian cultures. One could say it is common because of the prevelence of western civ, but isn't that a bit ethnocentric? The birth of Christ though is a point in time. You can take it as nothing other than that, if you wish. It's just like saying BBY and ABY in Star wars. So in the hopes of being PC we're using a less precise term which then results in more ethnocentric implications.
Frank Lordi it's common because, for better or worse, it's what the whole world uses now. Sure the video could give dates in traditional dating "Seventh year of Emperor Qianlong", but no one would understand when that is without a common era translation. The dating scheme has outgrown its Christian roots.
Also, it's _more_ precise terminology because Jesus Christ was born several years BCE. We found that out later but didn't bother to change the calendar because it had already become too, tadaa!, _common_ :D .
It's become really common _even outside_ historically Christian cultures. Except for local/regional things, as soon as you get international, people use the Gregorian calendar.
The first point is just being nitpicky. Your second point is true insofar as it goes; however, it does not dig deep enough. Why is the date used as a starting point? Not for some random reason but to mark the birth of the Lord. Trying to whitewash or sidestep that seems intellectually dishonest, again in the name of political correctness. Seems like naming 1066 "The british Reference Year" if you didnt want to offend anyone by using the ords Norman or Conquest, doesn't it?
No, the first point is not being nitpicky. It's the reason why "common era" is more precise than "after the birth of Christ".
Yes, historically, the assumed date of Christ's birth was the reference point. It isn't any more, though. The reference date for today is just what people earlier assumed and has become common practice over time.
It's not calling 1066 "the British reference year" but, let's say, 1061. Because the Norman Conquest _did_ happen in 1066 - different from what's happening with Jesus' birth.
I'm not saying that BC/AD is wrong or something. I usually use it myself. But I find the reasoning behind "really detesting" the BCE/CE terminology very flawed. "It was chosen because Jesus was born" - except, as I said, it's not when Jesus was born. After that, it usually comes down to more or less vague ranting about "political correctness" and "I'm offended because people try not to offend other people!"
Agreed.
I am an agnostic and even I refuse to insult anyone's intelligence by not using B.C. & A.D.
THIRD
FIRST
first
How is theatre so triggering to communist?! It's theatre! Ugh and then they make stupid propaganda plays like the girls with white hair. Ugh! I'm glad that they still perform the more traditional plays though.
The richman and his mother maltreat her. So she fled into mountin and ate wild leaves and fruits and no salt was available for a whole year. Without salt her hair became white. And one day her real fiance came back as a red army soldier with other soldiers, and led a revolutionary change into the remote area. She married him and became the first woman changing from slave into citizen in that area. Although the culture revolution is wrong, the 7 new Beijing operas written in that time are the best of modern Beijing oprera
Not to be that person but please put Chinese names, etc. into google translate and repeat them a few times after the native speaker before recording - there's no Emperor "Shuanzang" in Chinese history. If you want to educate people on China, then this is an important step.
Yup..this stuff is still as boring as I remembered.
Mike, is ZaJu, not Zhaju. The pronunciation is off. Still, I learned plenty from you today. Thanks a lot