The analysis of work We Meet Here for Cantonese Opera

We Meet Here for Cantonese Opera is the project title of the final work of my visual ethnographic research. The project aimed to discover the relationship of members in the local Hong Kong Cantonese opera group and my mother's articulation to the Cantonese Opera Club. My research project make use of video cameras to do visual documentation of the club. The final product is a DVD showing the ethnographic videos that I have collected. It is not the same as the ethnographic film making of the anthropologists make use of cameras to be their research tool and the out come is a traditional ethnographic documentary film. Video clips is not only from the documentation of the Cantonese opera club weekly meeting, but also interviews and found footage about the Cantonese opera itself. In the work, I have categorized the video clips into different categories. The categorization system is according to the nature of the clip. For example, interviews are categorized into a single category. Other clips are according to the system that divided the events of the Cantonese opera into three big types, the learning, practicing and the show. The content of interviews come across the events in the observational video clips. I make it an archive mode of presenting the video clips and make things as open as I can. It is not a structured ethnographic video but have a strong sense of archive, things are categorized and have a system of linkages. The nonstructural system of presentation of videos make the work more open for the audience to go through the materials. There are also description about the clips in my work. I treat it as the narration of the history narrative of Cantonese opera club. As I am shooting and make documentation of the Cantonese opera club, I am a history maker of the history of Cantonese opera club in 2007, Hong Kong. I want to make a historical documentation and produce knowledge through being in the club. Therefore, I borrowed the approach of the museums. Museums always make use of the text to describe about the objects and thing displayed in the exhibition hall. The approach of museums is to make the object and things as material evidence to backup the narrative.

In my work, there is also narrative about the Cantonese opera club, but the video clips is not only act as the evidence. The video clips in my work played a role to construct the narrative rather than to backup. The video clips are not passive but have interaction with the narrative. Because the nature of video clips itself is a kind of narratives, those clips documents the actions of people and events. The clips also provided visual materials for us to analyze and discover more. Because of the optical unconscious, likely every time we can discover new things in the clips. So, it is not for the closure of discussion on Cantonese opera club but to open the discussion about it. Therefore, the narrative of the work aimed to open the discussion but not to give final conclusion.

When I was working on the work, I have a strong feeling that I am making the history for the Cantonese opera club. Things come to my mind is that I can just make a ethnographic video and construct a complete narrative for it. I think that I am just exploiting the subject. The final outcome will be I am the first one to make video about the Cantonese opera club. Through the event, none of the subjects will be empowered and their voice still will not be heard through a closed conclusion documentary. I have a strong feeling that I have a mission to make the work be a space for the Cantonese opera club to present itself even it is through my representation. This kind of feeling comes from my prediction on Cantonese opera club according to my findings. I think the development of Cantonese opera club will be decline about 15 years later. Because most of the members of Cantonese opera club are middle aged and elderlies, after 15 years later, they passed away and the middle aged generation 15 years later are not listeners of Cantonese opera. Finally, Cantonese opera club will not have new members anymore. So, I need to make things detailed and systematic for people to dig inside. Therefore archive, I think, is more useful for the people who would like to study Cantonese opera club later.

In the research, I discovered the relationship of the members in the Cantonese opera club. Through the interview of my mom and her friends, the relationship between the members(students) in the club are close. They share their experience with each other and make friends with each other. In the video clips of the meeting time, we can see that they are sharing their daily life experience with each other and also, they share fruit and snacks during the meeting. They respect each other because they are partners in the opera singing. In the interview, they show their concern about their partners' feeling. They would not like to sing badly, because they need to pay for the musicians. The teacher of the Cantonese opera club is the organizer of the club. The teacher organize the meeting and conduct classes. She earns money from teaching and organizing the club. She is full time working for the club. The musicians in the club are not as close as other members in the club. Musicians are just employed to play music for the practice section. They do not have much communication with other members because they need to work through out the meeting. Sometime, they talk with other members of the club during their break.

I conducted a long interview with my mother, but the clips I put in the final work are just the part that she talks about her experience of joining the club. Because of she didn't want to show the clips of she talks about the reason of joining the Cantonese opera club, I decided not to show in the final product. Therefore the part of her articulation to Cantonese opera club cannot accomplish well. But, we can still know more about her from the framing. I decided to conduct the interview at home and the framing shows the sitting home and the kitchen of our family. The details can tell our home is in a small apartment. Both the sitting room and kitchen are small and haven't much space. Our family is also traditional with Chinese style worship place for our ancestors. The interview is a self narration mode of interview. I raised a question to let her express to herself and see what I can get from it. The result shows that she really like to sing Cantonese opera and when she talk about the process, she thanks other members in the club many times. She have good relationship with others in the club. Her interview is also useful for the study of the relationships between different members and contributors of the club.

The work We Meet Here for Cantonese Opera I leave the audience to interpret the materials and make their own analysis on Cantonese opera club. I finally accomplish the work with a open ended discussion on the material. Although the part that I would like to find out the articulation of my mom cannot be accomplish, my mom's interview can be also a good material to discover that member's background, the experience to join the club and the relationship between the members. I made the form mat to be an archive, is to make the project an endless project. Cantonese opera club have a lot of things that we can discover, through the shooting and collecting of field footage or found footage, the layers of content will be more rich, therefore, I take the decision to make it an archive of footage rather than a structured ethnographic film.