Study On Weng Ouhong’s Peking Opera Writing

With rich experience and large numbers of works, Weng Ouhong is one of the important writers in the history of the Chinese opera creation. Many of his works are considered as the classics, like The Lucky Purse. The secret of his success in writing creation is combination of absorbing the essence of the traditional classical opera literature and bringing his talents into full play. The first chapter is mainly an overview of Weng Ouhong’s writing experience. In this chapter, the author divides his experience into three stages. The first part is nearly 10 years starting from the establishment of Chinese Traditional Opera College. After the closure of the school to 1949, the birth of People’s Republic of China is his second stage of creation. Then when he finished his last work, it is the third one. The second chapter is the summary of Weng’s skills in drama writing through the study of his works. His key features can be summed up as follows:About the structure, it has a clear main plot and smartly deals with the details; with the clever arrangement of story, the operas are eyes-catching. Talking about the diction, his works are appealing to people from different classes. The dialogue of the characters is perfectly suitable to the roles. The combination of rhetorical flourishes and simplified daily talks helps to control the rhythm of the plots. Also the style is mixed with traditions and animation. Refer to the technique of choices of materials, he has a broaden vision and always looks for new and creative topics. The third part is insights aroused from his opera creation. The discussion is organized through the influence of situation, the interaction of writer, director and actors and the attitude towards the relations between traditions and innovations of traditional opera, which hopefully will be benefial to the current practice of script creation.