A Tale of Two Opera Houses

Cantonese opera first came to San Francisco in 1852, performed on almost empty stages by all male actors. But in the 1870s, there were multiple opera houses in heated competition that even led to at least one riot between the Chinese Royal and New Chinese Theater, shown here.

After winning an important new court ruling in 1921, Chinese opera performers were again able to tour in the US. 1925’s newly built Great China Theater was politically and artistically affiliated with the new Chinese Republic, or Kuomintang, and the May’s Photo Studio.

The Great China did not have wrap-around balconies as it regularly doubled as a theater for a new form of entertainment that was gaining traction: movies.  Its opera productions’ innovative set designs and original stories based on current events also drew inspiration from film.

The Great China Theater’s Kuomintang political-affiliation is made clear in photographs of its performances that venerate Chinese Republican heroes like Sun Yat Sen and Soong Ching Ling. Its debt to Hollywood is suggested by dramatic and novel sets used in the opera productions.

This scene depicts a 1911 dramatic confrontation between Republican revolutionaries including Huang Xing and Lin Jueming, and Qing Dynasty Viceroy Zhang Mingqi. Actors in these new, improvised productions sometimes wore nametags to help the audience keep track of the storyline.

May’s Studio photographed performers at multiple theaters, but primarily at the Great China.  Wooden boards were placed on top of the theater seats to support the bulky camera and explosive flash powder provided the lighting that captured the performers' dramatic costumes.

Programs, reviews, and handbills featuring May’s Studio photos like this for the Great China were printed by the Young China newspaper.  Handbills were widely distributed every afternoon to promote evening performances that often changed daily, sometimes even largely improvised.

The Young China was one of several Chinese language newspapers published in Chinatown during the 1920s, and it was affiliated with the Republican Kuomintang party.  May’s Studio, Great China Theater and the Young China newspaper represented a Republican team. 

Wong Hok-Sing was first a noted opera performer – but in the 1930s, he became a film actor, screen writer and director of many Cantonese language films in both San Francisco and Hong Kong.  Later in his career he even had a cameo role in Orson Wells’ 1947 Lady from Shanghai.

Sometimes billed as the “best-known” female Chinese opera performer, Kwan Ying Lin (關影憐) appeared on stages throughout the US, making her a household name in many Chinese American communities. Her voice was said to be so electrifying that it could cause a lightbulb to explode.

Cantonese opera star Tzu Hou Hai left San Francisco in 1910 after a scandal involving his homosexuality, but returned in the early 1920s. The inscription on this photograph reading 子喉海玉照 “Pretty Portrait of Tzu Hou Hai” incorporates an adjective typically associated with women. 

Musicologist Nancy Rao writes that exalted women opera stars like Tsu Yu Hua (left) who ran a company of all female performers, Chat Sing Mui (middle) who performed as Mulan, and another performer (right) billed as “Colorful Flying Phoenix” - reshaped the community's identity.

One manifestation of the influence of Chinese opera was in Chinatown fashion, and stage and street styles mutually influenced one another. Stars sometimes appeared on stage in high heels, and residents permed their hair and wore sequined dresses that matched the performers'.