英文摘要
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In the 1960s, due to the rise of new entertainments in Singapore and Malaysia, commercial performances of Chinese opera suffered a rapid decline. In the 1980s, with strong economic growth and social transformation in Malaysia, many genres of theater disappeared one after another. Only gezaixi opera managed to pull through. With its highly flexible "scenario drama" mechanism and the hotbed of temple fair performances, a number of local professional troupes persevered. A few troupes employed unique management strategies under stringent circumstances and succeeded in opening up new venues of Chinese temple fair theater. Sió Kî-lîn is one of the notable exemples. It has been administered by the famous playwright/director Liu Huchen and his wife, the famous leading male role Xiao Jinzhi. Its predecessor is the Xin Kî-lîn Fujian theater troupe of Singapore, which migrated to Malaysia in the mid-1960s. The gist of Xin Kî-lîn's theatrical art, its business practices and corporation layout in its prime laid a solid foundation for its expansion in Malaysia and its distinctive performing style. In the late 1980s, Xin Kî-lîn changed its name to Sió Kî-lîn. Subsequently it returned to Singapore in 1991 and became a theatrical troupe with licenses registered in both countries. Liu Huchen and his wife excelled in repertoire innovation and performance. The key to their success lies in their adaptability to changing times and their "three bases, three theater trunks" operation mode that turns their weakness into strength. Sió Kî-lîn's tour itinerary of the late last century outlined a most representative Chinese cultural map. While they launch appealing plays with successfully management strategy, they also imbue new significance into this highly "inclusive" and "incidental" theater genre of gezaixi. The new style they fashioned has been internalized to become important elements of Malaysian gezaixi arts.
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