Kun Opera is the most refined and literary form of Chinese opera with a six hundred year history. This opera is known as the mother of a hundred Chinese operas.
Kun Opera ushered in the second Golden Era of Chinese drama and almost vanished when it was suppressed during Mao’s Cultural Revolution.
a scene from The Peony Pavilion, a classical Kun Opera
When Kun Opera was dying in China during Mao’s rule, it was still being performed in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong. Prior to the Cultural Revolution, there were over 500 classical Kun Operas. Today there are about 100 that have survived.
Kun Opera is known for the tenderness of the actor’s voices, delicate hand gestures, dramatic facial expressions, beautifully abstract movements, gorgeous costumes and stage design.
The Peach Blossom Fan is considered to be a landmark in this form of Chinese opera.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the lusty love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.
Finalist in Fiction & Literature – Historical Fiction
The National “Best Books 2010” Awards
Honorable Mentions in General Fiction
2012 San Francisco Book Festival
2012 New York Book Festival
2012 London Book Festival
2009 Los Angeles Book Festival
2009 Hollywood Book Festival
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