Page "The Peony Pavilion" Paragraph 16

Recent adaptations of The Peony Pavilion and allusions in popular music have revived interest in Kunqu, an art form that had been in danger of disappearing into obscurity.

In 2001, UNESCO proclaimed Kunqu as a " Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity ," yet the secrets of that heritage were kept by only a few aging masters in even fewer schools and institutions.

Bai Xianyong's adaptation of The Peony Pavilion that premiered in 2004 helped rejuvenate the tradition.

Bai, a Chinese scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his colleagues-scholars and performers, some brought back from retirement-spent five months editing Tang's script.

Working out of the Jiangsu Suzhou Kunqu Theater, the group condensed and adapted the original fifty-five scenes to twenty-seven scenes, and twenty hours of performance time to nine.

Bai, who had chosen The Peony Pavilion because of its universal message of love, hoped that his rendition would attract youth to Kunqu.

In fact, in its tour of China's top universities, the show was marketed as the Youth Edition of Peony Pavilion.

( The production also toured in Taipei, Hong Kong, Macau, seven cities in mainland China, and the Zellerbach Theater in Berkeley, California.

) According to Bai, the goal of this youth-oriented production was to " give new life to the art form, cultivate a new generation of Kunqu aficionados, and offer respect to playwright Tang and all the master artists that came before.

" His production of The Peony Pavilion was his way of doing so.

Bai Xianyong / Hsien-yung Pai ( 白先勇 ) has also used The Peony Pavilion as inspiration for a short story and a television script.