RCTCO and CRSE jointly organise sharing session to promote Cantonese opera to teachers and students
Eminent playwright Ms Yuen-mei (sixth from left) presents Excellent Performance Certificates to teachers. The award is designed to encourage and acknowledge enthusiastic and creative music teachers in their efforts to provide the next generation with high-quality cultural education about Cantonese opera. Professor Leung Bo-wah (fifth from left), Director of the RCTCO and a professor at the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts, is standing next to Ms Yuen.
Cantonese opera artists Ms Cheng Nga-kei and Mr Lam Tin-yau sing Story of Mu-lan at the session.
The Hong Kong Young Talent Cantonese Opera Troupe performs excerpts from Dragon and Phoenix Contend for Commandership and The Chase of a Runaway Husband at the session.
The Hong Kong Young Talent Cantonese Opera Troupe performs excerpts from Dragon and Phoenix Contend for Commandership and The Chase of a Runaway Husband at the session.
On 6 February at the Xiqu Centre at the West Kowloon Cultural District, the Research Centre for Transmission of Cantonese Opera (RCTCO) under FLASS, and the Centre for Religious and Spirituality Education (CRSE) jointly organised a sharing session entitled “Learning Cantonese Opera and Development of Cultural and Life Education”, a project supported by the Quality Education Fund (QEF). The event attracted around 500 participants, including professionals from the fields of Cantonese opera, education and cultural development; teachers and students from primary and secondary schools; and the general public.
As a performance art characterised by elaborate costumes and face painting that is popular among Cantonese-speaking communities, Cantonese opera is on Unesco's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In 2003, the Education Bureau included Cantonese opera in the Music Curriculum Guide for primary and secondary schools, and has subsequently organised many Cantonese opera workshops for interested music teachers. Since then, primary and secondary school music teachers have been encouraged to teach about Cantonese opera during their music lessons. However, music teachers have encountered many difficulties in teaching Cantonese opera, as most of the training they have received is focused on Western music.
The QEF project aims to help primary and secondary school music teachers develop their Cantonese operatic singing skills and relevant knowledge in order to equip them to teach Cantonese opera in music classes. The project, which runs between January 2022 and July 2023, offers 40 classes (three hours each) for music teachers from 19 local schools. After attending 20 classes, teachers are required to apply what they have learnt to their daily teaching, while the research team observes their classes for advisory and research purposes. In addition, elements of life education have been added to enrich students’ learning experiences.
During the sharing session, Professor Leung Bo-wah, Director of the RCTCO and a professor at the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts; Mr Lui Mo-dok, tutor of life education; and the participating teachers shared their experiences in learning Cantonese opera from the classes and their goals for teaching Cantonese opera in the future.
The event featured the stage debut of nine teachers who participated in the QEF project. They performed famous Cantonese opera repertoires from A Comedy of Errors in the Flower Fields and Fragrant Sacrifice. RCTCO also invited Cantonese opera artists Mr Lam Tin-yau and Ms Cheng Nga-kei to sing a piece called Story of Mu-lan, and the Hong Kong Young Talent Cantonese Opera Troupe to perform two excerpts; one from Bridal Chamber, from Dragon and Phoenix Contend for Commandership, and the other from The Chase of a Runaway Husband.
The eighteen-month project will be completed in July this year. Project organisers will put the classroom teachings, related lesson plans and activities together into a video as one of the project’s outputs. A book about the experiences and achievements of participating teachers and students will also be compiled. In addition to being uploaded to the websites of the RCTCO and the CRSE, these outputs will also be shared with all primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong and other related institutions including public libraries. The project aims to provide teachers with materials they can use for teaching Cantonese opera, and help them gain confidence in doing so. Ultimately, the project will help the promotion of Cantonese opera education in Hong Kong.
