About: 《Six Records Of A Floating Life》
Canglang Pavilion Kunqu Opera《Six Records Of A Floating Life》creates a precedent of immersive opera performance in China. Kunqu Opera is combined with Canglang Pavilion, the oldest garden in Suzhou. It is made with high standard and exquisite music. It perfectly reproduces the enjoyment of listening to Kunqu Opera in the gardens of Jiangnan aristocratic families. It is a bright pearl in the night tourism project of the Grand Canal cultural belt. Version 3.0 of the 2020 performance season, in addition to watching Kunqu《Six Records Of A Floating Life》in Canglang Pavilion, you can also experience the immersive ancient style market “Floating Life Collection” before the performance, enjoy the rich performance content of guqin, guzheng, classical dance, Suzhou Pingtan, etc. you can dream and feel like you are crossing through, so as to enjoy the “prosperity of Suzhou”.
Introduction to the play
《Six Records Of A Floating Life》is an autobiographical prose written by Shen Fu, a Suzhou scholar in the Qing Dynasty in the 13th year of Jiaqing (1808). The protagonist Shen Fu recalled that he was born in a scholar’s home near Canglang Pavilion in the south of Suzhou city. He first met his Aunt Chen Yun and then married her. After marriage, the husband and wife raised eyebrows and loved each other very much. They did not fall in love with the secular world. They were good at making fun of hardships. When Yun Niang died of illness and wandered away from home, they wrote《Six Records Of A Floating Life》comforts the couple’s thoughts of separation between life and death.
The garden version of 《Six Records Of A Floating Life》of Kunqu opera was performed in Canglang Pavilion, one of the oldest gardens in Suzhou, where the story took place. In a novel immersive way, Kunqu opera art combined with the garden landscape of Canglang Pavilion, condensed the simple landscape of Suzhou city life, which was composed of poetry, painting, streets, flowing water, lotus root and stone bridge. The couple’s deep feelings of Humanistic Love, common interests and mutual dependence on firewood and rice were expressed well.
Synopsis
Long revered in Chinese literature, Six Records of a Floating Life is a collection of notes and recollections by Shen Fu (1763–1825), a hitherto unknown government clerk from Suzhou. Although the fourth section was written in 1808 (the final two were never found), it was not published until 1877 when the manuscript was discovered on a second-hand bookstall by a member of the local literary elite.
Shen remembers his first meeting with his cousin Chen Yun and their subsequent betrothal and life together in a marriage of equality and mutual love. As a couple, they had refined taste yet were unconcerned with wealth, finding pleasures in life without great means. When Yun passed away after prolonged illness, Shen left home and continued his career as a private secretary traveling far from home.
The book was popularised for its depiction of a married couple whose loving relationship stood out from the patriarchal norms of the time. It now offers us a rare glimpse into private life during the late Qing dynasty. An English translation of the book was published by Lin Yutang in 1936. A version of Lin’s translation retranslated into modern vernacular Chinese reached number four on the best-seller list in China in 2017.
This newly-written kunju libretto is inspired by Shen’s writings. Set in the Canglang Pavilion, the garden next to where Shen and his wife Chen Yun lived, it combines immersive performance with a true story. The audience is invited back in time into the book itself and led around the garden for an evening of song, sentiment and scenery, celebrating Shen and Yun’s pursuit of an exquisite life in difficult circumstances.
Kun opera
Kun opera is form of sung theatre popularised in and around Suzhou based on a national musical standard known as Kun opera, which was developed in the 16th century from the folk melodies of Kunshan. Onstage, ornate singing is matched with a finesse of movement performed in synchrony with the rhythms of song and the stage percussion. Accompanied by bamboo flute (dizi), singers carefully articulate the tonal characteristics of each Chinese word within an overarching melody. In 2001, Kun opera was proclaimed a masterpiece of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO.
Performance version
Outline of 《Six Records Of A Floating Life》
The full version is divided into five parts with a pair of immortals as the introduction to reproduce Shen Fu and Yun Niang’s love life.
A Bowl of Spring
In order to jog the memory of their chosen writer, the two immortals lead Shen Fu into a dream world with his beloved wife Chen Yun. This moment took place in the innocence of youth, Shen Fu was given the bowl of peach-blossom rice-porridge that Chen Yun had concealed for herself. It would be remembered as their moment of betrothal; their “betrothal porridge”. Ladies and gentlemen, you were once filled with the passion of youth, and you may even have developed innocent affections as a child. For you this scene is the most touching. A dream of youth… How beautiful!
Summer Lanterns
A parade of lanterns for the Dragon Boat Festival! In those days it was improper for a woman to attend, but spirited Yun dresses herself as a man to enjoy the scene together with her husband. Those of you who inhabit serious worlds yet crave frivolity will enjoy this scene. A cure for ennui… What joy!
An Autumn Excursion
O to admire the flowers in bloom outside the city walls, but at such distance how would it do to toast the flowers with only a cold dinner? Resourceful Yun employs a vendor’s “camel stove”, distinctive of the Suzhou streets, that they can enjoy warm food and wine in the open country amid the blossom. Those who struggle to secure half a day of rest from work will enjoy this scene. A mind at ease…. What peace!
Winter Blizzard
The storm of life pounds crisis onto hardship. Embroidering sutras to fend off starvation, Yun turns seriously ill. Shen Fu must brave the stormy night to beg for debts to be returned. In their hardship, they worry for one another. On his return, Yun has already left this world. Having to recall this episode, Shen sends the two immortals back on their clouds. Those of you who are heartfelt, who mourn, or who have been hurt, will be moved by this scene. Worries pale in comparison… Life together is precious!
Spring Again
“A crisp breeze and bright moon should be priceless.
Waters-near and mountains-far all have feeling.”
The past is behind, but this man bears its scars. The image of Shen Fu and Chen Yun strolling through this very moonlit garden all those years ago is a symbol of true love in this world. Thus do we re-enact it. “Under this same moon, who knows how many other couples share the same love as you and I.” And spring becomes again…
Full version of the performance service
- Check in at 19 o’clock and lead to Yiyu hall for storage.
- From 19:00 to 19:30, you can go to Canglang Pavilion street to visit Fushengji, or enjoy Guqin / Guzheng / classical dance / Suzhou Pingtan performance in Keyuan, or have a tea break in Yiyu Hall of Keyuan.
- At 19:30, enjoyed Suzhou Pinghua “floating life like a dream, Suzhou City” in Yiyu hall.
- After the guided tour, the performance starts at 19:40.
- The performance time of this edition is 70 minutes.
- The performance ends at 21:00 and the actors take a curtain call and take a group photo.
- Enjoy the song “Qingshan”
- Go back to Yiyu hall, take things and hand gifts.
About the stage version
In early July 2019, Kunqu Opera 《Six Records Of A Floating Life》 was selected into the “focus on China” project of the Chinese culture and tourism department to represent China in Paris for the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France and the Avignon Drama Festival. The stage version was premiered in Paris.
Creation and achievement
At the end of 2017, Dr. Xiao Yan created a “drama plus” performance project for Suzhou Canglang Pavilion, namely “Six Records Of A Floating Life” project;
In 2018, Kunqu Opera《Six Records Of A Floating Life》garden version project was officially launched. In August, it was performed in a immersion way at Canglang Pavilion, where the story took place. The garden edition of six chapters of a Floating Life combines Canglang Pavilion, a world cultural heritage, with Kunqu Opera, an intangible cultural heritage. In addition, it works with a number of well-known cultural scholars and folklore experts on relevant contents. It seeks to re create, re process and re improve the art on the premise of respecting the original work, to seek truth, interest and elegance, and to reproduce and highlight the rich historical and cultural heritage of Gusu ancient city in the new play .
Since its premiere on Qixi (August 17), 2018, it has performed 160 times in less than 16 months (August November 18, April November 19), setting a record for new domestic opera performances. Affected by the epidemic in 2020, it will be performed in May, but the popularity of performances continues. Under the guidance of leaders at all levels, “six chapters of Floating Life” is regarded as a “business name card” of Suzhou’s cultural innovation and cultural tourism projects. The garden version of Kunqu Opera performed in Canglang Pavilion has become a comprehensive and high-end presentation platform for Suzhou’s material and intangible cultural heritage. It has become a nationwide sample project in the three aspects of “night tour economy”, “cultural tourism integration” and “intangible cultural heritage innovation”, and has won major awards from the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, the cultural tourism department, the State Administration of cultural relics, the central network information office, the Publicity Department of the provincial Party committee, the Cultural Tourism Department of the provincial Party committee, and Suzhou The leaders’ support and encouragement and positive comments from all walks of life.
Social commentary
With the combination of elegance and vulgarity and the combination of form and spirit, “the end of the play” moves it’s not just the end of the day and also not just a garden tour or a dream, it’s not clear whether it’s in the garden or people in the play.
——Xinhua News Agency
Garden in Kunqu Opera《Six Records Of A Floating Life》and immersion performance, each of these elements has a large number of fans. These diversified selling points are superimposed by artistic techniques, which is an aesthetic experience of spreading Chinese culture.
——Xinhuanet
In the melting moonlight, Kunqu Opera, which is full of humanistic implications, has become an excellent model for Suzhou to build a cultural and creative industry.
——Hong Kong business daily
《Six Records Of A Floating Life》is like a simple and beautiful dream, everyone seems to be embedded in a dream.
——Beijing Evening News
Here, I recommend a special play. In Canglang Pavilion, where Shen Fu and his wife yunniang lived more than 200 years ago, a garden version of Kunqu Opera six chapters of floating life will be staged at night. Canglang Pavilion is a world cultural heritage, and Kunqu Opera is a world cultural heritage of lung transplantation. The two heritages are perfectly combined here. The original scene of Canglang Pavilion can restore a love story that can sing and cry, and realize the fashion expression of immersion opera. “Not only in China, but also in the world.”.
——LAN Shaomin in 2020 Suzhou Tourism Promotion Conference