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As a major form of entertainment business, a troupe has to reinforce a set of management rules, probably through trial and error, accumulation and empirical experiments, to maintain harmony among its members and keep the theatre in good conditions. But having to perform day after day and year after year in temporary structures, which could be situated in an isolated area miles away from local residences, and having to spend so much time travelling from village to village, it is understandable that troupe members might easily incline towards religion and in this way "dress" their empirical rules.
Functionally, the taboo of restricting the activities of the troupe employees in the vicinity of the "new stage" will help to ensure the health and safety of the employees as the firecrackers and joss sticks, and the burning of the mock money, form a kind of fumigation process which cleans the air and scares away snakes and other harmful rodents which might infest a plot of uncultivated land. The practice of writing an "open mouth" also serves to remind the employees of the importance of singing and speaking well in their performances.
It has long been the traditional aesthetics of Cantonese opera that a performance is evaluated first in its sing (sound), then in the sik (appearance) and last in its ngae (art and technique). The taboos related to the opening and shutting of mouths also reflect this consciousness of the primary importance of "oral activities".
As fire has been and still is a major threat to the temporary theatres, Cantonese operatic employees worship the deity Wa Gwong (literally "bright and brilliant"), who is also the deity of fire, as the profession's major patron deity. Undoubtedly, paying respect to this deity reminds the troupe members of their major threat.
Similarly, the reasons for placing joss sticks at the edge of the front stage are twofold. Firstly, the action itself arouses the actor's awareness of the danger of falling down. Secondly, the lit joss sticks placed there serve as a marker for the stage edge, so as to facilitate the actor's keeping away from it.
The practical functions of the taboos and religious practices which have been adopted by Cantonese opera employees might well suggest that such taboos and practices were originally products of repeated empirical trials, which have gradually been accumulated in
178
As a major form of entertainment business, a troupe has to reinforce a set of management rules, probably through trial and error, accumulation and empirical experiments, to maintain harmony among its members and keep the theatre in good conditions. But having to perform day after day and year after year in temporary structures, which could be situated in an isolated area miles away from local residences, and having to spend so much time travelling from village to village, it is understandable that troupe members might easily incline towards religion and in this way "dress" their empirical rules.
Functionally, the taboo of restricting the activities of the troupe employees in the vicinity of the "new stage" will help to ensure the health and safety of the employees as the firecrackers and joss sticks, and the burning of the mock money, form a kind of fumigation process which cleans the air and scares away snakes and other harmful rodents which might infest a plot of uncultivated land. The practice. of writing an "open mouth" also serves to remind the employees of the importance of singing and speaking well in their performances.
It has long been the traditional aesthetics of Cantonese opera that a performance is evaluated first in its sing (sound), then in the sik É (appearance) and last in its ngae (art and technique). The taboos related to the opening and shutting of mouths also reflect this consciousness of the primary importance of “oral activities'.
As fire has been and still is a major threat to the temporary theatres, Cantonese operatic employees worship the deity Wa Gwong
(literally bright and brilliant"), who is also the deity of fire, as the profession's major patron deity. Undoubtedly, paying respect to this deity reminds the troupe members of their major threat.
Similarly, the reasons for placing joss sticks at the edge of the frontstage are twofold. Firstly, the action itself arouses the actor's awareness of the danger of falling down. Secondly, the lit joss sticks placed there serve as a marker for the stage edge, so as to facilitate the actor's keeping away from it.
The practical functions of the taboos and religious practices which have been adopted by Cantonese opera employees might well suggest that such taboos and practices were originally products of repeated empirical trials, which have gradually been accumulated in
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