Chinese Name: 王慶芳
Birth Name: Jiang Qing-fang (江慶芳)
Born: 1939
Did You Know?
Wang Qing-fang has dedicated his life to traditional theater, accumulating a wealth of performance experience, not only in Luantan and Hakka operas, but also in Taiwanese and Peking opera. Wang is skilled in playing a variety of traditional archetypes, including winning the Jing (淨，"painted face") Award in several Hakka opera competitions. In 2014, the Ministry of Culture listed Luantan opera as one of the Important Traditional Performing Arts, and in 2020, Wang was registered as a Preserver of the Important Traditional Performing Art of Luantan Opera, becoming one of Taiwan's "living national treasures."
Both of Wang Qing-fang’s biological parents performed in the theater. When he was three years old, they gave him up to his adoptive parents, which is when his family name was changed from Jiang to Wang. At the age of seven, he joined the Qingguichun (慶桂春) Troupe, becoming a child performer. His adoptive father believed that he could learn to read and write at the same time as he was part of the troupe, and so he was not sent to school for formal education. When he first entered the troupe, he learned the basic skills of singing, acting, weaponry, and martial arts, with a particular focus on the chou (丑), or "clown," role. His teacher was demanding, having him up and out of bed at five in the morning practicing.
At the age of fourteen, Wang Qing-fang switched to playing young sheng (生), or "male," roles, getting exposed to a wider variety of shows and gradually developing his storytelling skills. In traditional opera, storytelling is a basic skill worth practicing for aspiring playwrights, as instead of using a script, these "storytellers" arrange the roles and narrate the outline of the scenes before the performance, and then the actors improvise the scenes on the spot to flesh out the performance. To be able to produce a large number of new plays quickly, a storyteller has to be able to break down the story into a plot in a short period of time, no matter whether the subject matter is martial arts fiction, social affairs, or any of a variety of other diverse topics.
Luantan opera is a branch of Beiguan theater, drawing its origins from the Chinese opera culture of the Qing Dynasty, later spreading to Taiwanese society, undergoing a process of localization, and becoming one of Taiwan's traditional local opera forms. The subject matter of Luantan opera is broad, including historical performances, tales of heroism, and folk legends. The form used "court Mandarin" in performances until audiences complained that they couldn’t understand it well, so some groups switched to a more vernacular form of speech. As times and society changed, traditional Taiwanese opera rose in popularity, with professional troupes occasionally putting on shows in that form to meet audience tastes. It was during this time that Wang also made the effort to respond to audience expectations, adapting Luantan opera into vernacular Taiwanese and performing them as improvised Taiwanese opera.
In 1957, Wang Qing-fang joined the Laoxinxing (老新興) Troupe, which also performs a repertoire of Luantan, Taiwanese opera, and Hakka "tea picking" opera that draws from adaptations, narratives, and improvised performances. Improvised performances are a particularly common form in Hakka tea picking opera, using storytelling methods with no pre-written scripts and no rehearsals, with the actors improvising their parts, while still developing the plot according to the story outline given to them and relying on their own acting experience to help guide them. In the process of putting on such plays, Wang tried to borrow from other theater groups' plays and even incorporate some film scenes, which helped him develop his ability to adapt new plays with skill and flexibility.
In 1971, he joined the Yongchang Opera Troupe (永昌歌劇團) and was influenced by the troupe's owner, Tseng Hsien-chi (曾先枝), who was known as a "national treasure of Hakka opera." The following year, he joined the troupe Xin Rongfeng (新榮鳳), where he learned Peking opera from a Peking opera singer and switched to performing that form. Later, in 1995, he joined the Rom Shing Hakka Opera Troupe (榮興客家採茶歌劇團). With more than half a century of experience, he has excelled in all aspects of Chinese opera, from chou (clown), to young and old males (小生，xiaosheng and 老生，laosheng), and even painted face jing, as well as in storytelling and rehearsing. He has dedicated himself to the teaching of Hakka opera all his life, and in 2018 and 2020, was registered by the Miaoli County Government and the Ministry of Culture respectively as a Preserver of the Traditional Performing Art of Luantan Opera. For Wang, passing on the customs and skills of Luantan opera has been a lifelong mission.