When a favourite is about to appear before a Chinese audience, even the occasional visitor knows that the extraordinary is about to take place. The many short plays riven from 7 to 10.30 or even 11 p.m. have served to sharpen one's desire to see and hear the actor. The hanging of embroidered curtains of the richest colours, the use of strong light from above and below the stage, and the bringing fon of scores of flower baskets are diminuendo, the actor, still in his early twenties, hss. established style of his own, which is deignated as the Ch'éng School. - Recently there have been unworthy imitators, who have attempted: to win fame in Shanghai. by claiming they sang inthe true "Ch'éng. style, The actress Hsin (New) Yen-chin hid only the. faintest: suggestion in her Voice of the golden Ch'éng quality; fand the actor, Ch'éng Vu-ching, who recently sang in the Kung Wa-while supposed tobe a Ch'tng exponent, has more in common with the Wang: School,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.