Ms. Wang Kit Ching- Cantonese Opera Actress
December 2015

In 2009, Cantonese Opera was inscribed on the Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Do you hope your future performances or productions will be true to traditional Cantonese opera, or do you want to create something new?

Traditional Cantonese opera isn’t really the direction that I want to develop per se, because this is something that I already do every day. Instead, I am interested in seeing how to achieve a balance between traditional and more modern interpretations of Cantonese Opera. In striking a balance, will we be prioritizing the tension and emotional levels of Cantonese opera, or will we put traditional opera skills at the forefront? This is a question that can’t be discussed with just a few words. But speaking for myself and my studio, I hope that each performance can attract new audiences. The reality is that the regular audience is an aging demographic, so how can we attract new and younger people? Since graduating from acting school six or seven years ago, I think I’ve been to no less than four to five hundred different venues to promote Cantonese Opera. We used to joke that there’s no middle school student that hasn’t seen me and my fellow actors...if they haven’t seen us, then that school probably doesn’t have any connection with the real world! Each time that we perform at a different school, we hope to change the way that students look at Cantonese Opera. We want them to see us “older brothers and sisters” as a group of normal young people, but who happen to be passionate about Cantonese opera. We do our best to introduce Cantonese Opera in an interesting manner. What we really hope for is the day that these students will actually take the initiative and be willing to pay for a ticket and tell their mom, “I won’t be coming home for dinner tonight, because I’ll be going to watch Cantonese Opera!” When the studio put on the production of Song Jiang Kills Po Xi, some of the audience invited their friends to watch, and after, their response was, “Cantonese Opera is actually quite interesting, and it’s not outdated and hard to understand as we thought it would be!”


Based on your observations, what is the usual makeup of the audience members who attend Cantonese operas?

They are usually retired members of society past the age of 70. They don’t interact much with us but I know who they are based on who goes to the box office to purchase tickets. The audience members that interact with us on Facebook and come backstage are usually in their 40s-60s. Sometimes I also get little kids who come up to me and say, “Ms. Ching Ching, I really like watching your shows!” Even though our current audience does consist of different age groups, I want to see more who are in their teens or 20s. I do not expect them to all of a sudden develop a passion for Cantonese Opera, but it would be nice if they would consider watching a show with their friends when free. For example, my older sisters will from time to time bring their friends to watch Cantonese Opera. They aren’t what you would call the biggest fans of opera, but they have friends who even though have no prior connections to Cantonese Opera, are still quite happy to go watch a show when invited.