Meeting at the Window

Introduction

The Meeting in the Study scene of a Ming chuanqi, one of the three gems of Teochew opera

Meeting at the Window is a classic excerpt of Teochew opera, the Meeting in the Study scene of the Ming chuanqi Gao Wenju and the Pearl. The poor Luoyang scholar Gao Wenju is helped by the squire Wang and marries his daughter Wang Jinzhen, but after coming first in the examinations he is forced to marry into the house of the minister Wen Ge. Wang Jinzhen travels far to find him, and with the help of an old servant of the Wen household she goes to his study at night to sweep the window, where husband and wife meet again. The national heritage listing for Teochew opera names it with The Matriarch Yang Argues the Ten Memorials and The Hairpin Quarrel as the three gems of the form, and cites it as a model of telling a story through song and dance. In the 1950s Yao Xuanqiu played Wang Jinzhen and Weng Luanjin played Gao Wenju, and when the troupe performed in Beijing in 1957 Mei Lanfang watched twice, adjusted Yao's movements and wrote an inscription for the play. In 2026 Yu Qiongying and Lin Chufa revived it at the Mei Lanfang Grand Theatre in Beijing as part of a national festival of classic excerpts.