Factor-Based Quantitative Comparison Analysis of the Inheritance of Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Case Study of Kunqu Opera between Chinese Mainland and Taiwan

In 1940s, the Kuomintang (KMT) retreated to Taiwan, along with a lot of amateur artists accomplished in singing and dancing of Kunqu Opera. Due to unlike and separate social environments, Kunqu Opera developed into two different ways in Taiwan and Chinese mainland since then. In contrast with Taiwan’s choice to maintain the tradition of Kunqu Opera, especially that of 1930s as much as possible, Chinese mainland turns to modernize this art to cater to social trends. This paper analyses two versions of the same scene “Broken Bridge” (断桥) from Taiwan and Chinese mainland in spoken language, melody, literary form of lyrics, dance, stage set and costumes to try to find the factors that are not changed, which can be understood as the core factors with inherited cultural values of the intangible cultural heritage. Based on these core factors, the effective protection is possible. This research shows that although Kunqu Opera in Chinese mainland is gradually changing, particularly turning realistic as opposed to the one keeping impressionistic in Taiwan, there are some factors almost untransformed: the melody (kunqiang), literary form of lyrics (qupai style), costumes evolving from the dress of Ming dynasty. An effective protection method of Kunqu Opera should put emphasis on these factors.


Introduction
As a constantly changing heritage, the intangible cultural heritage is always considered as lack of authenticity, however, the changing is always based on several rules, which means even though other factors are changing, the core factors are remained as inherited cultural values all the time. And protection measures based on these core factors will be effective. However, partly because of difficulties to record intangible cultural heritage and the insufficiency of records, discussions about it from heritage angle are deficient in former researches. In this paper, China's intangible cultural heritage Kunqu Opera is taken as an example, Chinese mainland's modern style and Taiwan's classical style, which have the same roots but evolve towards divergent directions as a result of isolation and recommunication of the two areas, will be compared in spoken language, melody, literary form of lyrics, dance, stage set and costumes to find out core factors that are not changed even in different social environments till now. Factor-based quantitative comparison analysis will be applied to judge the core factors of this art. Specifically, the opera factors in two different versions of the same scene "Broken Bridge" (断桥) from Chinese mainland and Taiwan will be compared.
Because of its prominent position in China's opera history, adequate analysis and effective protection of Kunqu Opera are advantageous not only to itself but also to other Chinese operas.
During the theatre reform campaign from 1949 (the year the People's Republic of China was established) to 1963, Kunqu Opera was altered a lot to function as a propaganda tool. The proclamation in 2001 was an important turning point, since then, the opera has been increasingly collecting attention from all over the world. What's more, Chinese government also established several policies to protect this art, among them was the National Operational Plan for the Program of Rescuing, Protecting and Supporting Kunqu Opera (国家昆曲艺术抢救、保护和扶持工 程实施方案) declared in 2005, a policy to protect the art countrywide for the first time. Nevertheless, the protection policy in Chinese mainland is focusing on the creating of new works, rather than rescuing traditional ones tending to extinction (Qian, 2001), or recovering the opera's tradition that has been losing particularly since 1940s.
Contrary to Chinese mainland, Taiwan has been trying to retain Kunqu Opera's tradition of 1930s since 1940s. Although Kunqu Opera once existed in Taiwan not later than 18th century (Hung, 2000), related activities disappeared in 19th century (Chang, 2004). In 1940s, the arrival of amateur artists revived the opera. Owing to the martial law declared by Kuomintang-led government, Taiwan was isolated from Chinese mainland between 1949 and 1987, since then, Kunqu Opera developed in two dissimilar ways. Taught and affected by these amateur artists immigrated from Chinese mainland, students cherish the art's style of 1930s as well, which helps to create an atmosphere to retain and recover the tradition of this intangible cultural heritage as much as possible. Amid plenty of relevant groups now, Shuimo Kun Opera Troupe (水磨曲集昆剧团) is a typical one which was set up in 1987 as the first Kunqu Opera Troupe since 1940s in Taiwan. To compare Shuimo Kun Opera Troupe's performing style with the troupes from Chinese mainland can find the differences of Kunqu Opera evolving in divergent social environments, and to find the similarities as core factors of transmitted cultural values. In this research, the scene "Broken Bridge" (断桥) is chosen as an example.
Since intangible cultural heritage is a kind of living heritage, changing is inevitable. However, there are some rules within it which should be cherished as cultural values of the heritage. Obeying these rules can guarantee healthy development of living heritages, and their long-term existence. However, the rules are still under discussion at this time, which directly hinders the understanding of severity of Kunqu Opera's transmission problems, and the construction of a scientific protection system for this art. What's more, as Kunqu Opera is the most exquisite and complicated opera in China, its protection system can provide a model for other ones.
By taking advantage of the findings of this research as a base, a system can be constructed to assess present situation of Kunqu Opera accurately to each play; the system can also help to measure and record the changes happening to the heritage. Thus effective protection policy can be expected.

Literature Review
The majority of the research about Kunqu Opera usually focuses on its history, literature and music. Studies of how to protect this art mostly set their sights on the relationships between Kunqu Opera and a variety of stakeholders, on the methods to permeate the recondite art to the public, and its connection to culture industries.
A research conducted by Wu (2009) analysed the popularity among the public of new versions of two traditional Kunqu Opera works, pointed out that the moderate innovation was essential for this heritage in music, stage set, costumes and so on to keep up with the times, and emphasized the importance of loyalty to established scripts. Cheng (2016) claims the spirit within Kunqu Opera as its authenticity should be maintained during its evolution, however, the social environment nowadays can not breed wonderful scripts, and some performing traditions have long been ignored, therefore, the inheritance and modern interpretation of traditional scenes of Kunqu Opera are enough.
A research undertaken by Qian (2011) analysed merits and flaws to Kunqu Opera when more political and economic elements intervened nowadays in its transmission, concluded that to nurture new audience's appreciation ability was a method reliable in the long run. Bao (2017) investigated Kunqu Opera courses as a part of general education in colleges over the last few years, and emphasized the significance of diversity of related teachers, furthermore, the practice of knowledge and skills learned in class. Tao (2016) revealed advantages and disadvantages of the application of digital media technologies, especially data visualization technologies applied on stage and social media technologies applied in the popularity of Kunqu Opera, admitted excessive utilization of these technologies on stage distracted audiences from performing, which also lowered Kunqu Opera's position to a kind of ornament, but approved the achievements in promoting access to this art. Xu and Huo (2019) analyse tourists' comments of Kunqu Opera tourism products on the website of Ctrip, ach.ccsenet.org Asian Culture and History Vol. 12, No. 2;2020 China's largest online travel agency, find a big gap between related products and tourists' needs and advise reorganization of Kunqu Opera's current tourism resources.
The desire of these researches is to push the integration of Kunqu Opera into modern society, but the specific parts with cultural values of this art as a heritage remains unclear, which will be discussed in this paper.

Literature Study
Literature study was made from books, journal and so on to supplement the information about Kunqu Opera in Chinese mainland and Taiwan, particularly the different social environments then. Studies about each factor of Kunqu Opera are also helpful to deepen the understanding of this art. As spoken language, melody, literary form of lyrics and dance are deemed as the key factors of this heritage, and stage set and costumes are easy to reflect the trends of times, information about these factors were collected more. Especially, Xie (2015) analysed several versions of Chinese mainland's Kunqu Opera scenes, which belong to different historical periods, on performance, literature, music and so on, and claimed that it was a constantly growing art and still far from perfection. Zhou (2019) compared differences between Chinese mainland's Hunan and Suzhou's Kunqu Opera on contents, singing, performance and so on, emphasized the attractive characteristics of Hunan's Kunqu Opera. However the core factors with cultural values of Kunqu Opera remain unclear.
These researches mainly employed qualitative comparison analysis method, so that the accuracy of differences is not sure. For an intangible cultural heritage, changing is inevitable. Nevertheless, if the changing obeys some rules to a large degree, in other words, not far from these rules, then these rules can be seen as the core factors of this heritage. Particularly, the comparison of the same intangible cultural heritage developing in different social environments can distinguish the core factors more clearly.
In consideration of the weakness of qualitative comparison analysis, in this research, factor-based quantitative comparison analysis will be applied to judge the core factors of Kunqu Opera. This is an empirical research method, which extracts some observable key factors from an object, and compares the accuracy of the factors' differences between the changed objects with divergent backgrounds via statistical techniques. Through the analysis, the degree of changing can be distinguished, so that the slightly changed factors can be deemed as core factors.

Site Survey
Field work were conducted three times in total in Chinese mainland and Taiwan

Data Analysis
Kunqu Opera's six factors of spoken language, melody, literary form of lyrics, dance, stage set and costumes will be analysed separately. The scene "Broken Bridge" of Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe (上海昆剧团) from Chinese mainland is chosen as a subject to compare with the one of Shuimo Kun Opera Troupe from Taiwan. Because Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe's version of "Broken Bridge" is a typical example reflecting the influence of social ideology especially in 1950s. It is a version adjusted during joint performance of artists Mei Lanfang (梅兰芳) and Yu Zhenfei (俞振飞) from 1930s to 1950s. The fundamental changes happened after the establishment of the People's Republic of China (1949), as a result to cater to social ideology such as anti-feudalism then. As Yu Zhenfei was the first head of Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, the troupe was taught with the changed performance which we can see until now. In contrast with Shanghai's version, Taiwan's version, which shows respect for 1930s' style, was less influenced by social ideology, just as the performance we can see in Shuimo Kun Opera Troupe's version. So the differences between the two versions are distinct. What's more, related information is complete comparatively.

Introduction of Zhezi Xi (折子戏) and the Scene "Broken Bridge"
In the middle of Qing dynasty, competing with other operas, especially Peking opera, Kunqu Opera artists selected some popular scenes from the whole scripts to attract audience. As being performed frequently, these scenes, known as Zhezi Xi (折子戏), became masterpieces perfect in singing, dancing, and speaking (Wu, 2011, p. 123). Among them is the scene "Broken Bridge", which is from the script Leifeng Pagoda (雷峰塔), also known as the Legend of the White Snake, telling a love story between a white snake spirit Bai Suzhen (白素贞) and an ordinary person Xu Xian (许仙).
Speaking of the version from Chinese mainland in this research, the video record of Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe's performance in 1980 was selected, which is a widely accepted version by audience then as a masterpiece adapted by leading artists Mei Lanfang (梅兰芳) and Yu Zhenfei (俞振飞). And it was performed as a part to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Yu Zhenfei's art life, so it can reflect the changed style well.
When it comes to the version from Taiwan, since the members of Shuimo Kun Opera Troupe inherit the style learned from those amateur artists who immigrated to Taiwan  What's more, Taiwan and Chinese mainland were isolated from each other in 1980, so it is possible to see two patterns of the same scene existing in two dissimilar social environments.

Background and Original Storyline of the Scene "Broken Bridge"
After the white snake spirit Bai Suzhen (白素贞) and ordinary person Xu Xian (许仙) get married, a Buddhist monk Fahai (法海) from Jinshan Temple (金山寺) intends to kill Bai Suzhen, so he lures Xu Xian to Jinshan Temple as a part of his plan. In order to take Xu Xian home, Bai Suzhen and her younger sister Xiaoqing (小青), a green snake spirit, rush to Jinshan Temple and fight with Fahai, but fail and escape to the Broken Bridge over West Lake (西湖).
In Taiwan's version, after Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing leave the stage, Xu Xian and Fahai appear together on the stage. This time, Fahai sends Xu Xian to a city called Linan (临安). After telling Xu Xian how to deal with Bai Suzhen the next, Fahai leaves. When Bai Suzhen meets Xu Xian, she reproaches him while expresses love for him. After a while, they make it up and leave together.
In order to facilitate the analysis, the scene, which is more than 30 minutes, is divided into four sections according to the storyline and characters on the stage.
Section 1: the debut of Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing.
Section 2: the debut of Xu Xian.
Section 4: the meeting of Bai Suzhen, Xiaoqing and Xu Xian.

Spoken Language
As Kunqu Opera was born in Suzhou (苏州) area, a reformed Suzhou dialect was used as its spoken language at the very beginning, and Taiwan's artists have been keeping this tradition till now. In Chinese mainland, Kunqu Opera has spread almost over the whole area. Although the original spoken language can be heard in the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theatre (江苏省苏州昆剧院), Kunqu Opera Theatre of Jiangsu Province (江苏省昆剧院) and Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe sometimes, since troupes of other cities want to adjust this art to indigenous audiences' tastes, the original spoken language is changed. For example, the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre (北 方昆曲剧院), a troupe located in Beijing, chooses a spoken language similar to that in Peking opera; the Kunqu Opera Troupe of Hunan Province (湖南省昆剧团) reformed its spoken language based on Chenzhou (郴州) dialect.
As the spoken language of Kunqu Opera varies across Chinese mainland, it is not the core factor of Kunqu Opera. Note. The scene is divided into four sections according to the storyline and characters on the stage. In the comparison of musical notes between the two versions, change (increase or decrease) of music rest is neglected.
In section 2, the version of Chinese mainland has one more bar than Taiwan's version, since the bar is the repetition of the one immediately before, in this research the bar is neglected. Note. "Similar Bars" means more than 50% (not including 50%) of rhythms between the two versions are the same. According to Table 1, proportions of bars sharing the same main musical notes in whole four sections are more than 70%, the same as rhythms in the entire four sections showed in Table 2, therefore, the melody kunqiang of scene "Broken Bridge" is judged as unchanged. As this factor is not changed over time in different social environments, kunqiang is one core factor of Kunqu Opera. Note. "G" means the rhyme geng (庚); "Z" means the rhyme zhen (真); "Y" means the rhyme yao (爻); "J" means the rhyme jie (皆). The judgements of rhymes are based on Hongwu Rhymes (洪武正韵).  The literary form of lyrics of Kunqu Opera is deemed as qupai style (曲牌体). A style embodied in a number of sets of rules which stipulate the number of lines and words in them, as well as rhymes, tone patterns (level and oblique tones 平仄) and so on. In the scene "Broken Bridge", the number of lines is not changed. Speaking of the number of words in each line, four lines were changed by adding a word in them respectively, since the added words are in the places allowing adding, these lines are deemed as according with the rules of qupai style, so that their changes are not discussed in this research further. The analysis focuses on rhymes and tone patterns of lines ach.ccsenet.org Asian Culture and History Vol. 12, No. 2;2020 with changed contents and unchanged number of words. If majority of rhymes and tone patterns are not changed, the qupai style is judged as unchanged. Table 4 shows that even though some contents are changed in a few lines, the rhymes are not changed. Furthermore, as can be seen in Table 5, despite line 1 and line 5, the majority (12/14, namely 86%) of the changed lines are basically sharing the same tone patterns. Therefore, the lyrics' literary form, known as qupai style, of the scene "Broken Bridge" is judged as unchanged. As this factor remained over time in divergent social environments, qupai style is one core factor of Kunqu Opera.

Dance
As masterpieces, Zhezi Xi has been performed and polished repeatedly, so the dance in each scene is fixed comparatively and considered as an important factor. However, in order to cater to social ideology in Chinese mainland, especially after 1949, some adjustments were made. For example, as Fahai (法海) was deemed as a symbol of feudalism, his appearance was cancelled in section 2, as well as the dancing of this part (Yu & Wang & Xu, 1985, p. 103). In this research, the comparison of the dance in two versions of the scene "Broken Bridge" will be conducted, in order to judge if this factor was changed largely over time.
Actor's lines comprise singing and speaking, they are considered to have close connection with dancing. Artists are always dancing while singing or speaking. However, speaking is not regulated strictly, improvisation is acceptable, as well as the dancing connected with it. So in this research, the dance relating to speaking is not discussed. What's more, 18 lines with changed lyrics are not discussed, neither.
Assessment includes three levels based on changes' degrees. The change of moving routes or performers' relative location is defined as the largest difference, because dance will also change simultaneously and obviously. The apparent change of dance with the same moving routes and performers' relative location is defined as the middle level. The slight or no change of dance is defined as identical dance.
Sectional Similarity 15% 36% 54% 31% Note. "Same 0" means moving routes or performers' relative location is obviously changed. "Same 0.5" means although moving routes and performers' relative location are the same, dance is obviously different. "Same 1" means moving routes or artists' relative location is the same, and the dance is the same or only slightly different. Sectional Similarity = the sum of "same" of each section / the number of lines of each section Translation of lyrics in  Table 6 shows that only section 3 keeps major dance as a sharing part between the two versions, however, the sectional similarity is just over 50%. The other three sections hold sectional similarity numbers below 40%. Since the majority of dance in the scene "Broken Bridge" is different between the two versions, dance is judged as a changed factor. Therefore, dance is not the core factor of Kunqu Opera. Since the late Qing dynasty , performer-centred system in Chinese traditional opera was already formed. Each stage set serves the needs of performers, which means helping to channel audiences' attention into artists' performance, rather than eclipsing it. Thus the stage set, no matter stage backgrounds or stage equipment, was made as simple as possible (Zhou, 2016, p. 54). Speaking of stage backgrounds, one piece of one-colour curtain was often applied. When it comes to stage equipment, in the ordinary way, one table and two chairs was always given the preference. The meanings of tables and chairs on stage are not limited, they can also be the symbols of a mountain, a bridge, a stone and so on (Ding, 2014, p. 21). Artists' performance helps to stimulate audiences' imagination of the atmosphere on stage. In other words, Chinese traditional opera is impressionistic. In Taiwan's version, this tradition is preserved loyally (Figure 1). In Chinese mainland's version, stage background was changed to express the environment of the scene "Broken Bridge" (Figure 2). A version later from the same troupe even changed the chair to a piece of stone-like equipment (Figure 3). This trend can date back to the theatre reform (戏曲改革 1949-1963), during which, opera was used as a tool of propaganda, and was injected with a lot of western theories and practices, such as realism and director-centred system (Sun, 2017). Pushing audience to understand a play's motif became more important than stimulating their aesthetic imagination. A conclusion can be made that stage set of Kunqu Opera is a changeable factor, and it is changing from impressionism to realism in Chinese mainland.

Costumes
Chinese traditional opera's costumes originated in Ming dynasty (Zhou, 2016, p. 40). As it evolves, especially in order to blur the sense of specific dynasty, some changes happened. For example, sleeves became longer and attached with long white extensions to the cuffs, which are called water sleeves (水袖); boots bottom became thicker; armour became a special coat called kaoshen (靠身) and so on (Sun, 1991). Comparing costumes between Chinese mainland and Taiwan (Figure 1, 2 and 3), despite some slight changes in details and colours, the style of costumes is not changed. In other words, the style based on Ming dynasty is kept as a core factor in costumes of Kunqu Opera.

Conclusion
Although some factors of intangible cultural heritage are changing all the time, the evolution of this heritage is based on some core factors. In order to conduct effective protection of intangible cultural heritage, the grasp of core factors is essential. However, due to difficulties to record this heritage and inadequacy of related records, among other reasons, researches about inherited cultural values of the ever-changing heritage are not enough. In this research, Kunqu Opera was taken as an example, factor-based quantitative comparison analysis was applied to make the art's core factors clear. Specifically, the comparison of a Kunqu Opera's traditional masterpiece "Broken Bridge" was conducted between Taiwan's Shuimo Kun Opera Troupe and Chinese mainland's Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe in spoken language, melody, literary form of lyrics, dance, stage set and costumes. Taiwan's Kunqu Opera, which symbolizes a style of 1930s, and Chinese mainland's Kunqu Opera, whose style is changing unceasingly, share the same roots but evolve towards divergent directions as a result of isolation and recommunication of the two areas.
Through comparative analysis of the two styles of the scene "Broken Bridge", the melody kunqiang and the literary form of lyrics, known as qupai style, are not changed over time even in different social environments. In conclusion, kunqiang and qupai style are probably the core factors of Kunqu Opera. Specifically, more than 70% bars sharing the same main musical notes and rhythms in the scene's whole four sections between the two versions. It means that the melody kunqiang is not changed. What's more, all of the 14 lines with changed contents but unchanged number of words between the two versions are sharing the same rhymes. 12 out of these lines (about 86%) basically sharing the same tone patterns. It means that the lyrics' literary form, namely qupai style, is not changed.
Moreover, according to the comparison of stage set in different versions of the scene "Broken Bridge" from different historical periods, the impressionistic and less designed stage set is gradually developing into realityimitated style in Chinese mainland. It means that realism as a trend in Kunqu Opera is developing continuously in Chinese mainland.
Speaking of the opera's costumes, based on the comparison of three different versions of the scene "Broken Bridge" from different historical periods, the general image, a style based on Ming dynasty, is remained, however, details are changing all the time, as well as the colours.
In view of the conclusion, effective protection of Kunqu Opera should lay stress on kunqiang and qupai style. Considered that Kunqu Opera is a kind of comprehensive art, every factor within it is connected with one another intricately, viewing this art as an organic whole with cores is important. In other words, systemic protection with key points is vital for Kunqu Opera's sustainable existing.
In this research, only one scene was analysed to reach the above conclusions. In order to make these conclusions more persuasive, analysis on a large-scale basis is necessary in the future.