Eight model plays

In China revolutionary opera refers to the model operas (Chinese: 樣板戲; Chinese: 样板戏; pinyin: yàngbǎnxì) planned and engineered during the Cultural Revolution by Jiang Qing, the wife of Chairman Mao Zedong. They were considered revolutionary and modern in terms of thematic and musical features when compared with traditional operas. Many of them were adapted to film.

Originally, eight revolutionary operas were produced, eighteen by the end of the period. Instead of the "emperors, kings, generals, chancellors, maidens, and beauties" (diwang jiangxiang yahuan xiaojie) of the traditional Peking opera, which was banned as "feudalistic and bourgeois," they told stories from China's recent revolutionary struggles against foreign and class enemies. They glorified the People's Liberation Army and the bravery of the common people, and showed Mao Zedong and his thought as playing the central role in the victory of socialism in China. Although they originated as operas, they soon appeared on LPs, in comic books, on posters, postcards, and stamps; on plates, teapots, wash basins, cigarette packages, vases, and calendars. They were performed or blasted from loudspeakers in schools, factories, and fields by special performing troupes. The Eight Model Operas dominated the stage in all parts of the country during these years, leading to the joke "Eight hundred million people watched eight shows." (Bayi ren kan bage xi).

Jiang Qing was the chief advocate and engineer of the transformation from traditional operas to revolutionary ones, and chose the Beijing opera as her "laboratory experimentation" for accomplishing this radical change in theater art. The traditional Beijing opera was revolutionized in both form and content. Eight yangbanxi, or model plays, were produced in the first three years of the Cultural Revolution. They consisted of five modern operas:

two ballets:

and one symphony:

the last one being, more precisely, a cantata.

After 1969 several other model operas were produced, including Azalea Mountain, Battle in the Plains, and Bay of Panshi, following the original model in content and form. However it was the original eight plays that were most commonly performed.

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