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Guo Xueli sings Beijing Opera and beats her drum
Guo Xueli and her husband are both passionate about Beijing Opera. The couple is trying to revive this traditional art on their own.
"After 30 years, your career is finished." Guo Xueli listened to the voice of paternal reason. This 57 year old Beijing native decided to abandon her beloved Beijing Opera for a management post in a local bus company. A more stable job she practiced without conviction for 17 years, but the call of music and song has always been stronger.
The eldest of four children, Guo Xueli has been rocked since childhood by her father's gong and drum beat. Her introduction to Beijing Opera was complemented by a famous master of the time, and by her uncle, a professional singer. A talented percussionist, Guo Xueli was sent to re-education camp in north-eastern China for 10 years, and put her talents into practice in an Army artistic troupe during the Cultural Revolution.
It's a period she remembers well. "Before the Cultural Revolution, musicians and actors could interpret what they wanted. The men could sing female roles. All this was banned, and afterwards, we were forced to sing and play the great classics until 1976."
Drum on her knees, and a little to the back of the actors on stage, Guo Xueli never thought of switching to singing until she meet her teacher in Beijing. "He found me intelligent and thought that I had a good voice." She went through hours of preparation, gesture and singing exercises in Beihai Park. She would go after work, but also on Sundays with other fans of this traditional art, on Tuesdays in the district committees, etc... Now, Guo Xueli really enjoys her role as a young coquette (Qing Yi). Especially since it's been eight years since she retired.
Professional Singer
Passion does not mean sacrifices for this artist and her husband He Liansheng, an employee in a medical company and also an amateur opera singer. A glance at their modest home in the north-east Beijing reveals the couple's frugality. Still, there are the few Beijing Opera accessories that Guo Xueli displays with pride. "According to the moods of my character, I change the flowers. If I am happy, I will wear a red flower in my hair and a white one if I'm sad," she says, displaying her metal box. "The movement of the sleeves can also express a feeling, just like the voice" she says.
Xueli Guo only treasures are a pair of old-fashioned high heel shoes, a pair of embroidered trousers, a few plastic hair clips, and two small red and white boxes of oil make-up. Chuckling, she urges her husband to get his long carefully wrapped in plastic false beards from the next room. "I played a prominent, fair and just citizen (Bao Gong). Depending on the color of my beard, I can interpret a young or old man," he says.
To play other characters, the couple has no choice but to rent the costumes. Several hundred yuan is needed to procure dresses, makeup, head dresses and fake silk hair. Due to lack of resources, both of them and their accomplices practice every Sunday most often dressed in city clothes at the Cultural Center of the Xicheng District. They also propose drumming demonstrations in universities and schools. You can hear the bitterness in her voice when she explains that despite the Chinese government's decision to introduce compulsory courses in Beijing Opera, "It's too late. Now young people are not interested in this art. We loved to sing opera since we were kids. They prefer to sing in karaoke clubs."
But at the mention of her best memory since starting, her face lights up. "I had to undergo a serious operation. Twelve days later, someone asked me to sing while I was very close to death. I performed. It was a very hard. At the end of my performance, people came to see me and ask if I was a professional singer. I was 37 years old," she says, still thinking about the warning of his father.
Practical Information:
Cultural Center of Xicheng District (西城区文化中心):西城区西直门内大街147号. Tel: 010-62267527
You can watch Guo Xueli and her troupe rehearsing every Sunday from 1:30PM to about 5:30PM.
Text: Aurélie Palancher
Photos: Wang Zhuo
April 2008
