“WHAT’S MOST IMPRESSIVE is that their physicality isn’t diminished at all, but in fact stands out as their strongest weapon,” Ling Tang exclaimed. “It’s like an intense 45-minute action movie right in front of you!”
You might have thought that the Artistic Director of George Town Festival (GTF) 2024 was referring to circus acrobats, or some high-wire act—but Ling was talking about Peking Opera, or jīng jù (京劇).
Last September, she had seen a few performances staged by GuoGuang Opera Company, Taiwan’s only national jīng jù troupe, and immediately became enthusiastic about bringing them to Malaysia. Having attended the talk and demo given by GuoGuang at the Penang Youth Centre, it was easy now for me to understand her enthusiasm.
