File:Gleanings from fifty years in China (1910) (14803638503).jpg

Identifier: gleaningsfromfif00litt (find matches)
Title: Gleanings from fifty years in China
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Little, Archibald John, 1838-1908 Little, Archibald, Mrs., d. 1926
Subjects: China China -- Description and travel
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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t and get-upare indistinguishable from real women. A table coveredwith an embroidered cloth may represent a throne, orwith plain red cloth a magistrates yamen. The dressing-room is a half-open gallery running alongthe side of the courtyard behind the stage, where the actorschange their dresses and alter their make-up with wonder-ful celerity. Their wardrobes, carried about from placeto place in heavy iron-bound chests, are often of greatvalue, and some of the most beautiful embroideries broughtto Europe for sale are discarded actors dresses. As inmost things, Chinese actors, who with barbers are the soledegraded caste in China, their children being inadmissibleto the official examinations, have a euphemistic synonym,and in literary language are known as the Children ofthe Pear-garden, so named from a school of acting foundedby the great patron of actors, the Emperor Shiian-tsungof the Tang dynasty (720 a.d.), who invited troupes ofactors to study in his pear orchard. This Emperor also
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cq t^ 2 to ^ < 5 U 1 THE CHINESE DRAMA 221 supervised the performances of the ladies of the hareem,and is said to have composed many new airs to the oper-ettas then in vogue, which airs are known to this dayas the perfumes of the Li-chi, the celebrated luscious fruitof South China. He is said to have established a bureaufor theatricals and music, and took much the sameinterest in the stage as the great Napoleon did in theComedie Francaise, without neglecting other work. It isnoteworthy that this same Emperor founded the renownedHanlin college, the Academy of China. Women in China enjoyed great freedom in ancienttimes, as is shown by the Book of Odes, the oldest extantChinese work. And since women have been forbidden onthe stage their social position appears to have muchdeclined. A Chinese theatrical company is rigorouslydivided into fixed parts as in Europe, each actor havinghis technical name, such as Pere Noble, Jeune premier,Premier comique. Second comique, Jeune Premiere, anda

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