Di Nü Hua
| Di Nü Hua | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 帝女花 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Dì Nǚ Huā |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | Dai3 Neoi5 Faa1 |
Di Nü Hua is a Chinese fictional story about Princess Changping of Ming Dynasty and her husband/lover Zhou Shixian. First (original) version was a Kunqu script written in Qing Dynasty while the second version was a first Cantonese opera from early 1900s later found in Japan and Shanghai. Little information is available from this early 1900s version. The contemporary popular version, not meant to be historically accurate, comes from the second Cantonese opera script.
They meet and get engaged, with the blessing of parents. Her father, the emperor, is overthrown by revolutionists. She hides as a nun in a monastery but meets Zhou again. Being found by the new regime, she follows Zhou's plan to commit suicide eventually. Zhou formulates a plan to make sure the late emperor, her father, properly buried while her little brother released to safety. Zhou alone returns to negotiate with the new regime using the bargaining power vested in him by a written request from her. Once the new regime makes good on these promises, the couple return to her former home for a wedding ceremony. They take poison at wedding night in the palace garden where they are introduced to each other as potential marriage candidate on day one.
Based on the Kunqu version and other publications, Playwright Tang Ti-sheng adaptation of this into a Cantonese opera script debuted in the Lee Theatre on 7 June 1957. Actresses Yam Kim Fai and Bak Sheut Sin were the original cast of leading roles and they played these roles last in 1970.
October 2007, Yuen Siu Fai, as the Princess's father in 2006/7 performances in Hong Kong and Macau (40 total) schooled one academic on radio. October 2007 talk show, retrospective in nature, on radio is available online (in Cantonese). Translation: This title has become this popular today is mostly by word of mouth since the mid-1960s being staged at Kai De Amusement Park Cantonese Opera Theatre and the performances of Chor Fung Ming throughout 1970s and 1980s in newly developed satellite cities and towns were very well received. The role of male lead is extremely heavy by design and demonstrates the ‘masculine’ traits of Yam style (eg. Chinese: 走鑼邊花). The more organic actors/actresses in this role would find it more emotionally demanding. It was non-stop and exhausting after intermission.
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