Exiled China star returns to sing dad’s work

Now, Li is returning from Taiwan, his home for 18 years, to perform the works of his father, who died of a stroke in 1975.

“I felt only fear and pain in my heart,” wrote Bao-chun in an article on the Web site of Taipei theater Novel Hall.

As the top Peking Opera star of his generation, Shao-chun became a target in the 10-year campaign to purge the nation of old customs and beliefs. The young Li was sent to work in farms and act in propaganda shows where feudal symbols such as kings and generals were replaced with glorified workers and soldiers.

Bao-chun, now 58, will return to Beijing in September with his troupe, Taipei Li-yuan Peking Opera Theater, one of the local and overseas groups invited by China’s National Center for the Performing Arts to perform during the summer as part of the nation’s celebrations for the Olympics. While Li has performed in his birthplace several times since 2001, this is the first time he will present his father’s works in the new national theater.

Performing in the egg-shaped, glass-and-titanium building next to Tiananmen Square may help reinforce his father’s contribution to a 2-century-old art form. Taipei Li-yuan is one of the few groups performing in Beijing from Taiwan, an island that China considers a breakaway province.

Drunken emperor

As a tribute to his father, Li will present “The Old Bar Hit” on Sept. 5, part of Shao-chun’s repertoire, about a first-century emperor whose drunkenness cost him his mostloyal men. Like his father, Li will play the emperor, a role that requires martial arts and a tenor’s voice.

Li left China in 1985 to join relatives in Los Angeles, and ran an ice-cream shop for a living, he said in an interview at his Novel Hall office in Taipei. He would watch shows on Broadway and in experimental theaters.

In 1990, Taiwan’s government funded the National Theater and invited him to Taipei to perform in a Peking Opera. He has since been directing and acting in Peking Opera productions backed by Taiwan Cement Corp. and Taipei-based Chinatrust Financial Holding Co.

Li is blending Western theater techniques he learned in the U.S. with his art. Peking Opera uses few props and scenery on stage: a couple of chairs and a table may represent a mountain. In “Bar,” Li will use visual effects, a colorful background and a tighter script, Li said.

Chinese ‘Hamlet’

The mixing of east and west is another family trait. His father had wanted to adapt Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and “Othello” into Peking Operas.

Unlike most Chinese opera artists, who specialize in one or two types of roles, Li can play scholar, warrior, thug or king.

“His versatility makes him special,” said Tracy Chung, a Peking Opera professor at National Taiwan College of Performing Arts. “It’s like excelling in jazz, ballet and tap dance.”

Li said he longs to see Beijing again and perform for his fans, even though he won’t move back permanently. He declined to elaborate on his experiences during the Cultural Revolution.

“My base is in Taipei; I am a citizen with the right to vote,” he said. “Here, I feel at ease.”

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