the Chinese Opera Troupe - Bangkok
The Sai Yong Hong Opera Troupe
Chinese Opera is one of the oldest performance art forms in the world, dating back to the seventh-century Tang Dynasty. There are about 20 Chinese opera troupes in Thailand.
Bangkok's Yaowarat district is a multi-generational Chinese-Thai demographic, steeped in tradition from the motherland. The Sai Yong Hong troupe, one of the best-known in Thailand, performs for 9 months throughout the year, but most heavily toward the new year period and vegetarian festival time. They take 3 months off during the heaviest part of the rainy season (June-August) to rest & learn new performances to add to their repertoire. The troupe is hired by various Chinese-Buddhist temples around the city to bring good fortune to their temple via appeasement of the spirits that protect their their individual soi (side street) area. Performances are free to view as they troupe is paid 20,000 THB per night by the local commissioning shrine/temple. The performance scripts are primarily based on Chinese folk stories, but some are adaptations of Indian movies. They offer a different play each night at a the given location, with performances delivered in Teochew, a dialect originating in Southern China.
The 'opera' is actually more like a play, with ornate and colorful costumes and multiple backdrops for different settings. Most of the audience is elderly, as the opera is very old-school & doesn't appeal well to younger generations, as they prefer air-conditioned indoor cinemas to outdoor alleys; Chinese is spoken less and less in local households, and the last generation of Thai-Chinese Yaowarat residents are aging rapidly. There were once over 100 actors who performed to large crowds, but the troupe is now down to a few dozen performers, the majority of whom are Thai with a few from China. Sadly, the opera is a dying art form, but a beautiful spectacle to witness (the basic story can be followed even if you don't understand the language).
We were lucky enough to be invited to a table of an opera super-fan (and super-auntie) that follows the troupe, she informed us of every aspect of the performance & some inside info of the troupe itself.
From Slavery to Management…
The man in the first & last pictures is Mr. Thatchai Obtong, the manager of the Sai Yong Hong opera company, arguably most well-known Chinese Opera performance troupe in Bangkok.
He was born to a Chinese Buddhist mother from a wealthy family & a Malay Muslim father from a more humble background. His father was a fisherman who worked on one of her mother's family's fishing boats in Chumphon in southern Thailand. His mother's family did not approve of his father, being from what they saw as a lower caste. Tensions rose, and they eventually cast her out of the family & Thatchai's father lost his job as a fisherman. His mother went into a depression & turned to alcohol, gambling, and other vices. He said she was angry all of the time.
When Thatchai was 7 years old in the early 1970's, his mother sold him to another opera company for 5000 baht. His mom actually got paid only 4500 baht as the slave-broker (which was apparently an actual profession at that time) took a 500 baht commission for the ‘transaction’. From there, he worked his way up the line as a performer, working in Thailand, China, Malaysia and Singapore, eventually becoming manager of his current company, Sai Yong Hong. He doesn't have any formal education, but he is an intelligent guy who knows his business well.
Before his mother left him, the last thing she said to him was to be good to others & good fortune will come to you. This karma-based mindset is one that he has tried to follow all of his life, and it seems to be paying off as he has become very successful in his trade. The last time he saw his mother was in Bangkok around 30 years ago. His father still lives in the south of Thailand.
Now at age 52 year, Mr. Thatchai has been married to another opera performer for 30 years (his wife, pictured) who was also sold for 3000 baht to another opera company when she was a child. They have 4 children, 2 sons & 2 daughters, and both daughters also work as performers in the troupe. Mr. Thatchai can be found each night running the show from a makeshift backstage area of the given Chinese temple that has commissioned his group for a few nights. However, on the evenings when they are short-staffed, he happily dawns one of the ornate costumes & fills the needed performance role. His preference is to play the villain character, which he finds to be a lot of fun, likely because it is the polar opposite of his real life persona.
Read MoreChinese Opera is one of the oldest performance art forms in the world, dating back to the seventh-century Tang Dynasty. There are about 20 Chinese opera troupes in Thailand.
Bangkok's Yaowarat district is a multi-generational Chinese-Thai demographic, steeped in tradition from the motherland. The Sai Yong Hong troupe, one of the best-known in Thailand, performs for 9 months throughout the year, but most heavily toward the new year period and vegetarian festival time. They take 3 months off during the heaviest part of the rainy season (June-August) to rest & learn new performances to add to their repertoire. The troupe is hired by various Chinese-Buddhist temples around the city to bring good fortune to their temple via appeasement of the spirits that protect their their individual soi (side street) area. Performances are free to view as they troupe is paid 20,000 THB per night by the local commissioning shrine/temple. The performance scripts are primarily based on Chinese folk stories, but some are adaptations of Indian movies. They offer a different play each night at a the given location, with performances delivered in Teochew, a dialect originating in Southern China.
The 'opera' is actually more like a play, with ornate and colorful costumes and multiple backdrops for different settings. Most of the audience is elderly, as the opera is very old-school & doesn't appeal well to younger generations, as they prefer air-conditioned indoor cinemas to outdoor alleys; Chinese is spoken less and less in local households, and the last generation of Thai-Chinese Yaowarat residents are aging rapidly. There were once over 100 actors who performed to large crowds, but the troupe is now down to a few dozen performers, the majority of whom are Thai with a few from China. Sadly, the opera is a dying art form, but a beautiful spectacle to witness (the basic story can be followed even if you don't understand the language).
We were lucky enough to be invited to a table of an opera super-fan (and super-auntie) that follows the troupe, she informed us of every aspect of the performance & some inside info of the troupe itself.
From Slavery to Management…
The man in the first & last pictures is Mr. Thatchai Obtong, the manager of the Sai Yong Hong opera company, arguably most well-known Chinese Opera performance troupe in Bangkok.
He was born to a Chinese Buddhist mother from a wealthy family & a Malay Muslim father from a more humble background. His father was a fisherman who worked on one of her mother's family's fishing boats in Chumphon in southern Thailand. His mother's family did not approve of his father, being from what they saw as a lower caste. Tensions rose, and they eventually cast her out of the family & Thatchai's father lost his job as a fisherman. His mother went into a depression & turned to alcohol, gambling, and other vices. He said she was angry all of the time.
When Thatchai was 7 years old in the early 1970's, his mother sold him to another opera company for 5000 baht. His mom actually got paid only 4500 baht as the slave-broker (which was apparently an actual profession at that time) took a 500 baht commission for the ‘transaction’. From there, he worked his way up the line as a performer, working in Thailand, China, Malaysia and Singapore, eventually becoming manager of his current company, Sai Yong Hong. He doesn't have any formal education, but he is an intelligent guy who knows his business well.
Before his mother left him, the last thing she said to him was to be good to others & good fortune will come to you. This karma-based mindset is one that he has tried to follow all of his life, and it seems to be paying off as he has become very successful in his trade. The last time he saw his mother was in Bangkok around 30 years ago. His father still lives in the south of Thailand.
Now at age 52 year, Mr. Thatchai has been married to another opera performer for 30 years (his wife, pictured) who was also sold for 3000 baht to another opera company when she was a child. They have 4 children, 2 sons & 2 daughters, and both daughters also work as performers in the troupe. Mr. Thatchai can be found each night running the show from a makeshift backstage area of the given Chinese temple that has commissioned his group for a few nights. However, on the evenings when they are short-staffed, he happily dawns one of the ornate costumes & fills the needed performance role. His preference is to play the villain character, which he finds to be a lot of fun, likely because it is the polar opposite of his real life persona.
