But later on I thought I should not use my standard to interpret an exotic art. 'When I first watched Jingju in Beijing, I was not used to it. She is obviously excited about its future. We should have American Jingju, French Jingju,' Wichmann-Walczak said. 'Jingju should become the art of the world. When Wichmann-Walczak talks about Peking Opera, she insists on using the Chinese word Jingju. As long as people can understand the language, the charm of the art itself will prevail,' said director Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak, the most knowledgeable local expert on Peking Opera in Hawaii, who, with Hui-Mei Chang of China, translated 'Women Generals' for its English-language debut. 'It's like showing Shakespeare play and Italian opera in China. Peking Opera can enthral audiences what it needs is simply a localized adaptation for people foreign to Chinese culture and language.

When told that many Chinese youth describe Peking Opera music as an ear-splitting combo of loud clanging of the gong, sharp rattle of the flat drum, and piercing sound of the Beijing violin, Ham shrugged, saying: 'Well, I do think the music helps set the tone of the play and motivate the audience.' I became attached to it ever since the first clicking beat of the wooden castanet reverberated across the theater,' Ham told me excitedly during the intermission. She knew a little about Peking Opera and had come without very high expectations. Monica Ham, a UH major in Asian Theater, was one of these happy clappers. The audience was mostly Americans and I had no idea how these local, mostly first-time Peking Opera viewers had figured out that the Chinese word for bravo was 'Hao.' But I could tell from their applause-reddened hands that they had fallen in love with this Chinese performing arts form. Instead, I was sitting in the Kennedy Theater, campus playhouse of the University of Hawaii (UH), watching the English premiere of the highly-rated 'Women Generals of the Yang Family' staged by students of the UH theater department. This, however, was not a scene from Beijing's Liyuan Theater, which offers foreign tourists a fiesta of Peking Opera. The audience applauded lustily as they jumped out of their seats. They were saluting a Peking Opera performer who had just finished a marvelous 'qiangbei,' a movement in which he twirled himself around, threw himself on the ground and rolled on the stage. 'Hao! Hao! Hao!' shouted the audience, to express their appreciation.

Liyuan theater peking opera beijing