Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: From "Laughing Foreigners" to... About the history of Chinese opera record production, the most detailed accounts in recent years have been Mr. Luo Liangsheng's "History of Opera Record Production" and Mr. Wu Xiaoru's "Supplement to Mr. Luo Liangsheng's Posthumous Work
Records first entered China with the phonograph, mostly Western music and song records, many issued by Victor (transliterated as "Wuke duo") and Columbia companies. These two record companies were American enterprises, and after entering China, they were primarily sold in foreign trading companies and musical instrument shops, with limited sales volume. The reason was that the Chinese had little knowledge of Western music and little interest in it. When I was young, I once listened to a record called "Laughing Foreigners." It had one line of English followed by a burst of laughter from many people. It is likely that most people under 70 today have never heard it, but the record was very famous in China. The name "Laughing Foreigners" was given by the Chinese because it made no sense, so they simply called it "Laughing Foreigners." In the second act of Mr. Lao She's play "Teahouse," this record was used as background music, which also matched the era. Wang Lifa's reform of the "Lao Yutai" in the early years of the Republic of China was precisely the time when "Laughing Foreigners" became popular in the capital.
The predecessor of Chinese records was wax cylinder recording. When played on a phonograph, several rubber tubes needed to be connected, and listeners had to plug them into their ears to hear the sound. In Beijing's Dong'an Market and Longfu Temple, and in Shanghai's Chenghuang Temple, there were such phonograph stalls. For a few coins, one could listen to a segment, a bit like watching a traveling puppet show for the ears. During the wax cylinder era, merchants began to notice the market effect of wax cylinders. Since the mid-19th century, Peking Opera had reached its peak, so wax cylinders were used to record famous performers. Tan Xinpei and Wang Guifan from the "Later Three Great Troupes" had recorded wax cylinders. It is said that Sun Juxian (known as "Lao Xiangqin" in Tianjin) never recorded on cylinders or wax cylinders. The Sun Juxian wax cylinders popular in the market were mostly fakes, with many falsely using his name, actually recorded by others. Chinese records set their history at one hundred years, marking the milestone as Sun Juxian's recording in 1904. There has been much debate over whether Sun Juxian ever recorded on cylinders. One theory suggests that she did record, while another claims that Feng Er recorded in her place. Regardless of the truth, records recorded under Sun Juxian's name have indeed existed for a hundred years. According to Luo Liangsheng, he had heard two wax cylinders recorded by Wang Guifan at Tongren Tang Lejia, which had been preserved for over twenty years and still sounded excellent.
The transition from wax cylinders to needle records (stylus records) was an important technological revolution by the American Columbia Company, expanding the audience for audio media. Since the advent of needle records, the Chinese record market has flourished, and the range of recordings has also become broader. In addition to Peking Opera, which dominated the market, other genres such as regional opera, quyi, songs, Cantonese music, Jiangnan silk and bamboo music, and Western music were all recorded.