YPT Era vs Cantonese Opera Tradition

Are "tradition" and "innovation" contradictory? This question has been a hot debate topic across time and space.

Some people think that in order to preserve the "tradition", we should "follow the original" and inherit the past to the greatest possible extent. Any "innovation" could be viewed as destroying and overturning the "tradition".

However, the team of YPT (Yam Pak Tong) shows us that "tradition" and "innovation" can actually go hand in hand together. Xianfengming's success tells us that innovation requires adventure, responsibility and vision, and it does not happen overnight.

At the beginning of 1956, "The Peony Pavilion", which was transformed from Kunqu Opera and extremely elegant, was first launched. YIP Siu-tak said that there were only a few rows of audience for each performance at that time, and the box office was a complete failure.  However, in the face of such a situation, YPT still insisted on the belief and confidence in leading the audience.  In 1957, they finally got the breakthrough after the release of "Butterfly Shadow and Red Pear" and ended up a great success.

A series of plays performed by Xianfengming on Lee Theatre have become classics nowadays.  "The Peony Pavilion", of which the first performance "failed", has become one of the four famous plays in Hong Kong. YAM Kim-fai’s and PAK Suet-sin’s strict adherence to the traditional Cantonese opera performance skills, together with TONG Tik-sang’s brilliant brushwork in writing classic scripts that are both "traditional" and "innovative", have demonstrated that within the ‘traditional’ convention, there is still unlimited potential of ‘innovation’.

Decades have passed, the "innovation" of those days has become today’s "tradition", and the classics of YTP are still classics today. Between "tradition" and "innovation", what are we waiting for today?

Several generations have passed. Can we think about the future ahead and continue to "innovate" under the inspiration of our predecessors’ “innovation”, which has become a "tradition" already?  Confining to "tradition" while rejecting "innovation", is that the crisis we are facing today?


Floral Princess 65th Anniversary
a series of 9 events
Floral Princess | Professional Edition
ArenA | Write on, as THE tribute to YAM-PAK-TONG
Floral Princess | Theatre Student Edition
Floral Princess | Theatrical Concert Student Edition
Floral Princess | Recital Student Edition
Call Loud Yeah! | Black Box Theatre Festival
Seoi-bo-long Video Festival
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