Google is great.
Though when it comes to Chinese opera, searching without Chinese characters is doomed. Especially applies to videos, since the best stuff is “hidden” on Chinese sites, except a few great channels on You Tube.
There are many online tools to handle the language barrier issue. I tried loads of them, and finally picked the best ones. Also compiled a list of basic search terms related to Chinese opera (all in simplified characters, as far as I noticed Google doesn’t make a difference between simplified and traditional), and a list of links to great video and audio resources.
I’ll keep this post updated, hope it will be useful.
Useful tools
- Hanzi to Pinyin Online - Copy-paste Chinese characters and get them Romanized in a whim
- Xiaoma Cidian - The best Chinese-English dictionary, easy to identify characters, text annotation function (Simplified only!)
- YellowBridge - Character dictionary, animated stroke order function, word and character details, etymology, both in Traditional and Simplified
- Traditional-Simplified Converter - Quickly converts traditional characters to simplified and versa vice
- Text to Speech - Copy-paste Chinese characters, click Say it! and listen to the pronounciation
Main 5 branches of Chinese opera
- 京剧 jingju - Beijing Opera
- 越剧 yueju – Shaoxing Opera
- 黄梅戏 huangmeixi – Huangmei Opera
- 评剧 pingju – Pingju
- 豫剧 yuju – Henan Opera
Most popular local operas
(There are around 360, impossible to list all. )
- 昆曲 kunqu – Kun Opera
- 粤剧 yueju – Cantonese Opera
- 河北梆子 hebei bangzi – Hebei Opera
- 川剧 chuanju – Sichuan Opera
- 晋剧 jinju – Shanxi Opera
- 蒲剧 puju - Puzhou Opera
- 秦腔 qinqiang – Qinqiang (local opera of northwest Shaanxi)
- 汉剧 hanju – Hanju (local opera of Hubei)
- 湘剧 xiangju – Hunan Opera
- 祁剧 qiju - Qiyang Opera (local opera of Qiyang, Hunan)
- 潮剧 chaoju – Teochew Opera
- 闽剧 minju – Fuzhou Opera
- 莆仙戏 puxianxi – Puxian Opera (local opera of Putian, Fujian)
- 吕剧 lüju – Lüju (local opera of Eastern Shandong)
- 沪剧 huju – Shanghai Opera
- 庐剧 luju – Luju (local opera of East-central Anhui)
- 花鼓戏 huaguxi – Huaguxi (popular along Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Guangdong)
- 徽剧 huiju – Anhui Opera
- 绍剧 shaoju – Shaoju (popular along Zhejiang, Ningbo, Shanghai)
- 锡剧 xiju – Wuxi Opera
General terms
- 戏曲 - Chinese opera
- 演唱会 – vocal concert
- 剧情 – storyline, plot
- 剧本 – script for play, screenplay
- 唱词 – lyrics
- 曲谱 – musical scores
- 选段 – excerpt
- 剧照 – stage photo
- 剧目 – theater piece
- 电视连续剧 – TV series
- 高清 – HD
- 全剧 – full-length play
- 音配像 – old records lip-synched by new artists
- 下载 – download
Links to video sites
CCTV11
CNTV’s channel dedicated to Chinese Opera
- “Theater in the Air” – full length operas (mostly Beijing opera)
- “Ancient China Grand Stage” – colorful program with many local opera genres
- “Xiqu Caifeng” – news about upcoming productions, portrait films about Chinese Opera artists (You might spot your favorites from time to time.)
- “Classic Recapture” – best of the best clips, old and new
jingju.net
After picking what you want always click the green button to download the RAR files.
- APE audio files - collection of hundreds of Beijing opera songs by well-known performers
- Sound recordings of full operas
- Jingju videos
xikao.com
- Archive sound recordings - hundreds of full Beijing operas with great masters, in WMA format
- Archive Kunqu sound recordings
- Old Beijing Opera Records - grouped by role type