Red Boat Opera Company

The Red Boat Opera Company (Chinese: 紅船) was a group of traveling Cantonese opera singers who toured China in the late 1800s and early 1900s.^[1]

Cantonese opera was popularized in the 18^th century, primarily by the Red Boat Troupes who traveled the Pearl River Delta during the late Qing dynasty until World War 2. The Red Boats carried performers throughout the Guangzhou region and served as sleeping quarters and training grounds for the legendary kung fu style of Wing Chun. It is said that the actors originally used a purple cave boat as a theater boat, and later added sails to paint dragon scales and chrysanthemums on the hull. In this pattern, the bow is painted red, so it is called the red boat. They were used to carry members of theatrical troupes and theater boxes, and also served as places for boarding and lodging of theatrical troupe members. Such troupes are called Red Boat troupes.

Some of the earliest practitioners of Cantonese opera were members of the Red Boat Troupes in Guangzhou, China. These performers traveled down the Pearl River Delta to put on shows in small towns in villages around central China. This art form was later threatened by tensions in East Asia during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The politics surrounding this war was a major influence on the economic, political, and social structure of the Red Boat Troupes.

The term “Cantonese Opera” was not coined until 1925, and prior to that distinction, Cantonese Opera was simply called Red Boat Opera, and the performers called workers of hung sun, or red boat.^[2] The contemporary form of Cantonese opera was brought to the Guangzhou region by Master Zhang Wu, a talented performer with anti-dynastic beliefs who fled to Foshan, considered to be the home of Cantonese opera, to avoid oppression by the Qing emperor. Through their characters, Cantonese Opera performers were able to voice their dissatisfaction with the social injustices under the Qing regime. Performers in the Red Boat Troupes often became targets of persecution because they were instrumental in leading insurgencies against the dynasty. One such performer was Lee Man Mau, who led troupes to fight Qing soldiers, dressed in opera costumes, using Wing Chun Kung Fu learned from their opera training. Lee and his followers were imprisoned, and opera was banned from 1855 to 1871.^[2] By 1880, the Red Boat Troupe numbers had risen significantly, and in 1911, members of the troupes were instrumental in bringing down the Qing dynasty. With the establishment of the Republic, the Red Boat Troupes flourished, entering into a golden age.

Red Boat troupes had been an important platform for Wing Chun to build on in Guangdong, and some of the most famous Red Boat Performers such as Leung Lan Kui, Leung Yee Tei, and Wong Wah-Bo were all grand masters of Guangdong Wing Chun^[3][4]