Fruity footwork
- Source: Global Times
- [20:18 March 03 2011]
- Comments
Performers of The Golden Lotus will be provocative but meaningful.
By Jiang Yuxia
The Golden Lotus, or Jin Ping Mei, sometimes also known as The Plum in the Golden Vase, is believed to be the first full-length Chinese novel to depict explicit scenes of sexual intercourse. The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) tale was long banned in China before its literary values were recognized. Today, though it has yet to enter into the official canon occupied by China's current Four Great Classical Novels, it is nevertheless accepted as a masterpiece of vernacular storytelling.
Tiptoeing around taboo
Now choreographer Wang Yuanyuan has employed expressive footwork and body language to turn this once-notorious story into a ballet, offering a female perspective on the tale of sexual politics in a powerful household within larger-than-life depiction of a corrupted society.
Commissioned for the 2011 Hong Kong Arts Festival, The Golden Lotus premiers on March 25, and ventures into taboo topics of money, sex and power while examining the various social figures from the point view of protagonist Pan Jinlian ("Jinlian" literally means "golden lotus").
Originally ascribed to the pseudonymous Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng (The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling), the erotic epic follows the fortunes of Ximen Qing, a powerful local merchant during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1157) whose household is a realm occupied by six wives and concubines.
Ximen is a corrupt and avaricious protagonist, as liable to betray locals as he is to bribe officials. His wives, Pan, Li Ping'er and Pang Chunmei come from diverse backgrounds, but share a dominating lust for love, sex and material goods. With their twisted personalities, they each try in vain to fight against each other, and a patriarchal, amoral society.
"When people talk about The Golden Lotus, they talk about sex accordingly. Although it is given considerable attention in the book, [it] is more than that," Wang, director of the Beijing Dance Theater, told the Global Times.
