1. Research Purpose

(1) To understand the development history and artistic characteristics of Bangzi Opera.

(2) Learn about the development and promotion of the Chinese Opera Academy.

(3) To understand the dilemma of traditional opera and seek innovation and transformation.

(4) To understand the general public’s thoughts and feelings about traditional opera.

2. Research Method

• (1) Literature investigation: To collect the data and pictures on the development history and performance characteristics of Bangzi Opera.
• (2) Personal interviews: To interview with National Taiwan College of Performing Arts on the inheritance and talent cultivation of traditional opera.
• (3) Visit and learning: To observe and appreciate the artistic beauty of Bangzi Opera’s features such as performance movements, costumes, makeup, musical instruments, facial makeup, and props.
• (4) Questionnaire survey: To investigate the general public’s opinions and level of understanding of traditional opera.

3. Research Motives

Traditional opera was the only leisure and entertainment for Taiwanese people in early days

Taiwanese traditional opera began to flourish in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Going to tea houses, theaters, and temple squares to watch plays was the only leisure and entertainment for Taiwanese people in early days. Traditional opera also played an important role in the performing arts at that time. In traditional Taiwanese society, whenever there were local temple fairs, festivals, God honoring, vow redeeming, praying for blessings and other activities, opera performances would be arranged on stage. Traditional opera performances became an important leisure and entertainment in general public’s lives, and watching opera became a collective life memory for everyone.

The influence of popular culture has led to the decline of traditional opera

Traditional opera in the past was equivalent to the current popular culture. There were no so-called mass media, online videos, TV, movies, broadcasts, etc. at that time, so everyone's main leisure and entertainment was watching opera. Owing to the growing popularity of emerging pop culture, as well as the emergence of television, movies, and 3C technology, the number of people who watch operas is gradually declining. People began to watch TV at home, watch online videos, and go to movie theaters, which were the main factors affecting traditional opera. With the change of time, the younger generation has gradually become unfamiliar with or lost interest in traditional opera. Such changes have resulted in fewer and fewer people watching operas. Fewer people are willing to pass down operas, which has also caused traditional operas to gradually lose opportunities for stage performances.

Insistence on inheritance only to preserve the beauty of traditional culture

With the diversification of leisure and entertainment, people nowadays have more leisure and entertainment options to choose from. As a result, it is natural that traditional opera cannot be as popular as it used to be. Its living space is getting smaller and smaller, which limits its development space, leading to problems in the inheritance of opera art. Fewer and fewer people are willing to engage in the traditional opera industry. Therefore, traditional opera began to face a crisis of survival, and many opera performers or art groups began to become aware of a sense of crisis. Since then, they have continued to innovate and attempt to repackage and refine traditional opera to conform to modern popular performances and styles that interest the audiences. The performing arts need to be passed down, and thus the government established the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, which is the only school in Taiwan that specializes in cultivating opera talents. The students in this specific school, from elementary school to university, receive professional basic training, which enables them to perform brilliantly on the stage in the future. Hopefully, the beauty of traditional opera can be passed down forever.

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