An opera performer knits in her room before a nightly show at a riverside village in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. Photo: IC

Floating on a river that runs through the so-called "water town," an old, shabby boat is berthed in the dusk. Through the small windows in the boat a woman wearing heavy makeup can be seen arranging her headgear. Before the nightly show on the riverbank, the opera performer has just a little time to rest.

The boat is home to an opera troupe that performs shexi, a traditional local opera, in the towns and villages of Zhejiang Province. Shexi has been performed for centuries in the region as a ways to worship the god of the land and pray for a good harvest.

The 20-plus members of the troupe, aged 30 to 50 years old, come from all over the country but most are from Zhejiang. They live on the boat all year long, which easily takes them to the region's villages that are connected by a web of rivers and water canals. Some occupy a single room on the boat while others share rooms.

Performing shexi has never been an easy job. Festive periods are the busiest times of year, when the troupe performs without taking any days off. A performer who has been in this occupation for 30 years said that in their early years of performing they sometimes got by with the help of villagers, but now shexi is losing its audiences. Not many opera troupes survive and the growing apathy towards traditional opera among young people, who mostly prefer films and online entertainment, is contributing to this decline.

The performers are trying to absorb modern dancing, pop music and some acrobatic moves into their performance in order to attract fresh audiences. However, they found that even people of the older generation are not coming to the river to hear shexi as much as they once did.

Global Times

Artists perform onstage. Photo: IC

 

A performer applies makeup backstage. Photo: IC

Folk opera artists cook for themselves. Photo: IC

The dance troupe's boat is berthed at the side of the river. Photo: IC