www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

chinadaily.com.cn
left corner left corner
China Daily Website

Two of a kind

Updated: 2013-02-01 10:17
By Raymond Zhou ( China Daily)
Two of a kind

Liu Xiaoqing, a legendary actress in China's showbiz, plays the lead role of Sai Jinhua in The Beauty. Wang Xin / For China Daily

A historical legend comes alive onstage when portrayed by a screen legend with an equally colorful story.

Once in a while, the parallel between actor and role is so uncanny that a new dimension is created not so much through acting, but through the fusion of two giant personalities.

To fully enjoy The Beauty (Fenghua Juedai), one needs to know the actress who plays the lead role and compare her with the historical character she incarnates onstage.

The play is about Sai Jinhua, who was born in 1870 or 1864 and died in 1936. She was the best-known courtesan during the turn of the century and during the first few decades of the 20th century when China transformed itself from an imperial dynasty to a chaotic republic.

Two of a kind

Tang Wei covers ELLE magazine

Sai was a young harlot in Suzhou when a retired official with the title "Zhuangyuan", meaning top rank imperial scholar, selected her to be his concubine. When he was sent as an emissary to Germany, Russia, Austria and the Netherlands, Sai went along as his wife, exposing herself to a life that - to most in China - is out-of-this-world exotic.

After they returned to China, the husband died and Sai resisted the idea that she would live out the rest of her life as a self-cocooned widow. Instead, in an effort to pick up where she left off before her marriage, Sai opened a "book residence" in Shanghai, a euphemism for a high-end brothel.

But as she explains in the play, her girls do not sell their bodies. They provide companionship for tea parties and other social functions. Of course, should something intimate happen between a girl and her client, it's their business, says Sai to a hypocritical prince who persistently tries to shut her down.

The prince used to be a student of Sai's husband. A brothel hopper, he sees Sai's business as tarnishing his former teacher's reputation. So, he forced it into closure. But Sai, forever ingenious, reopened it in Beijing, and even groomed a coterie of palace insiders as her clientele.

Two of a kind

Liu Xiaoqing performs on stage

When Western troops occupied Beijing in 1900, the royal officials fled, leaving civilians to fend for themselves. To forestall pillaging by the invaders, Sai offered to talk to General Alfred Graf von Waldersee, the Allied Supreme Commander in China.

While in Germany as an ambassador's wife, Sai had been a guest of Waldersee. She had also mastered some German. Using her diplomatic skills and her feminine bewitchery, Sai was able to beguile Waldersee and convince him to treat the people better.

The playwright is aware that this crucial detail cannot be corroborated. People might have blown up the significance of Sai's deeds simply out of frustration with the corrupt Qing (1644-1911) government. So, the play employs a couple of tabloid reporters who retell the story through their wildly exaggerated prism.

Sai is not portrayed in the play as a national hero per se, but comes off as a decent, independent, strong-willed woman who, unlike the powers-that-be, has a sense of right and wrong. And what a seductress!

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

8.03K
 
 
...
...
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 日韩欧美国产视频 | 亚洲国产精品一区二区首页 | 九九视频精品在线 | 欧美成人性色大片在线观看 | 日韩欧美中文字幕在线观看 | 久爱午夜精品免费视频 | 亚洲精品视频在线看 | 美女张开双腿让男人桶 | a毛片视频免费观看影院 | 普通话对白国产情侣自啪 | 色综合九九 | heyzo国产亚洲高清 | 美国一级毛片片免费 | 在线日韩中文字幕 | 亚洲第一页在线 | 国产精品久久久久久久人热 | 成人午夜看片 | 色黄啪啪18周岁以下禁止观看 | 色黄在线 | 青青青青爽视频在线播放 | 国产精品欧美一区二区在线看 | 欧美色欧| 成人欧美一区在线视频在线观看 | 欧美成人午夜免费完成 | 精品一区二区三区亚洲 | 特级a做爰全过程片 | 看一级特黄a大片日本片 | 色一情| 久久亚洲高清观看 | 欧美成人福利 | 国产手机在线小视频免费观看 | 日韩美女免费线视频 | 国产在线观看一区 | 欧美亚洲中日韩中文字幕在线 | 国产成人久久一区二区三区 | 亚洲综合久久久久久888 | 欧美色成人综合 | 亚洲最大网址 | 日本爽快片100色毛片 | 国产91精品高清一区二区三区 | 国产精品免费综合一区视频 |