
I am a doctoral candidate majoring in musicology. The first time I experienced Chinese opera was when I lived with my grandparents as a child. One of my grandfather’s hobbies is listening to Cantonese opera on the radio. Those musical moments were refreshing to my ears, which had been exposed to Western classical music in piano lessons and to Cantonese and Japanese popular songs on television. I did not develop a full appreciation for Peking opera until I took a course on Chinese opera at the University of Hong Kong, where I obtained my bachelor and master degrees in music. The Shanghai Peking Opera Immersion Program allowed me to venture, beyond critical appreciation, into the realm of performance. The top-notch Peking opera actors were patient instructors and entertaining raconteurs; I learned not only the art of operatic singing and bodily coordination, but also how it is related to Chinese history and culture.