Chinese Opera
~{>g~}
There are many styles of Chinese opera which are frequently classified by location. For example, several of the major operas are:
Beijing (Peking) Opera, Cantonese (Yue) Opera, Sichuan, Longjiang, Hebei, Shaoxing, Anhui, Huangmei, Jiangxi Opera. Stylistic operas include Yue, not to be confused with the Cantonese opera of the same name, Qin, Jin and Ping just to name a few.
There are many famous opera stories. One of the most famous of Chinese operas is The Monkey King, based on the renowned story Journey to the West (Sái Yáuh Gei)
Jackie
Chan was a student at the Chinese Opera Research Institute in Hong Kong a
training program for Peking Opera. He enrolled at the age of seven and signed
a contract for ten years the longest term they had. As Jackie has mentioned,
this contract basically said that if they killed you in the process, it was
OK. Jackie was one of the favored ones in that he was one of the Seven Little
Fortunes, which was a performing troupe that consisted of more than seven,
but only seven appeared at one time. Among the seven were a number of those
who later became well known in the Hong Kong film industry, including Yuen
Wah (
~{T*;*~}), Cory Yuen Kwai
( ~{T*?{~}), and Jackie's two closest "brothers" from those days, big brother
(dai gò 
~{4s8g~} ) Sammo Hung (Hung
Kam Bo 
~{:i=p1&~}), known at school as Yuen Long (dragon), and little
brother Yuen Biao (
~{T*1k~}).
You might have noticed that many of the names have a"Yuen" in them. This is because the headmaster's name was Yu Jim-yeun, so his pupils were given the name "Yuen" to identify them as those who trained at this school. Jackie's name was Yuen Lau, but he used Sammo's name, along with his own last name for some of his early film work. Look for him listed as Chan Yuen Long.
back to Characters Page
Gà