Welcome to the Nine Dragon Spot, a blog in English devoted to Chinese opera for neophytes, aficionados, and those, like me, who fall somewhere in between.

Like any good opera blog, this one will highlight news from the Chinese opera world, review performances in the US and in Asia, profile singers and alert readers to upcoming events.   This will also be a site for reflections on the state of Chinese opera, its performance, and its preservation.   The blog will cover not only Beijing opera (Peking opera) but also some of the dozens of regional opera styles found throughout the mainland and Taiwan: Kun opera, Sichuan opera, Qinqiang, Shaoxing opera, Cantonese opera, Shanghainese opera, Fujian opera, Taiwanese gezaixi opera, Chinese shadow puppet opera, and lots more.

Since Chinese opera in its breadth and depth is not well known outside China, there will also be many posts devoted to The Stories of The Great Chinese Operas, The Lives of the Great Singers, Famous Scenes from Chinese Opera, and lots of discussion on the basics of the art.    I will translate and subtitle most of the videos posted here so that non-speakers of Chinese will get more out of the performances.

Why blog about Chinese opera in English?    For one thing, it’s good stuff.   Those who love Western opera, theater or film can find things to enjoy in it.

For another, it’s important for the art of Chinese opera that it broaden its fan base.    As with audiences in the U.S. or Europe for classical music, the audiences for Chinese opera have, on average, been getting older.  In recent decades, the classical music world has benefited enormously from the growth of new audiences and performers in East Asia.  Similarly,  Chinese opera can counter the effects of generational attrition by growing its audiences internationally.

Readers in mainland China can visit this blog’s long-lost twin brother at: http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/2754813404

The proprietor of Nine Dragon Spot (i.e. me) lives in San Francisco.

E-mail: ninedragonspot@aol.com

欢迎你来到＂九龙口＂博客！。我们这边讨论每一个类色中国戏曲； 昆曲， 京剧， 秦腔， 粤剧， 越剧， 歌仔戏， 闽剧， 川剧什么的。 我把每一个视频架了英文字幕。