Hongniang

Introduction

From The Romance of the Western Chamber: Chang Xiangyu's Hongniang, sung with eastern Henan tunes, made her famous

Hongniang is a Yu opera play drawn from The Romance of the Western Chamber by the Yuan playwright Wang Shifu, telling how the maid Hongniang brings together the scholar Zhang and Cui Yingying, and its interrogation scene is a signature piece of the Chang school. The China Intangible Cultural Heritage site lists it among the traditional Yu opera plays that have held the stage for generations. Chang Xiangyu was trained in the deep and stern western Henan style, but when she played Hongniang she felt the comic maid needed a light, lively voice, so she borrowed from the eastern Henan style and won fame in Kaifeng with it. Xinhua reports that the traditional plays Chang and her husband Chen Xianzhang adapted, including the interrogation scene, became lasting works of the Chang school, and the overseas edition of the People's Daily says Chen wrote all of the school's scripts. Hongniang's boldness and quick wit in that scene still delight audiences today.

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