The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) is planning to mount a $2 million programme to promote Cantonese opera in primary and secondary schools and help music teachers to enhance their knowledge of this traditional Chinese art.

The project, supported by HK$2,660,600 from the Quality Education Fund (QEF), will comprise a three-year Partnership Project on Teaching and Learning of Cantonese Opera in Primary and Secondary Schools. About 20 schools, 60 teachers and 2,400 students will participate in the project each year. At the same time, around ten Cantonese opera artists will collaborate with the music teachers to conduct lessons in Cantonese opera.

The music teachers will attend 6 pre-lesson workshops to learn basic knowledge and singing skills while the Cantonese opera artists will attend briefing on classroom teaching skills. A Cantonese opera artist will collaborate with the teachers in an 8-week class teaching module. The project aims to enhance the teachers’ knowledge and confidence in teaching Cantonese opera through a collaborative approach with artists.

     
Cantonese Opera

The project team will construct a series of Cantonese opera teaching materials and curriculum, so that the music teachers can continue to teach the traditional Chinese art in their schools.

At a press briefing on 30 September 2009, the Project’s Principal Investigator and Convener Dr Leung Bo-wah, Associate Professor, Department of Cultural and Creative Arts at HKIEd, explained the details of the project.

“Teaching and learning Cantonese opera has become a major new initiative in schools because it is a regional Chinese art form that serves as a good platform for learning Chinese culture. Since 2003, the Education Bureau has been promoting to include the genre in the school music curriculum. But including Chinese genres in the school music curriculum was difficult because there was limited appropriate curriculum or teaching materials, and also a shortage of qualified Cantonese opera music teachers,” said Dr Leung.

“This three-year project is an extension to last year's pilot scheme, which showed that this first ever partnership was an appropriate and effective approach to teaching the ethnic genre and provided useful interactions between the teachers and the artists in the regular music lessons,” he said.

“The mutual support between the teacher and the artist is seen as a positive reinforcement in motivating students to learn. The music teacher is capable in classroom management and pedagogy and the artist can focus on performance practices through demonstration and provision of in-depth subject knowledge on the genre,” Dr Leung added.

HKIEd joins force with the Chinese Artists Association of Hong Kong to promote Cantonese Opera in schools. The Project’s Principal Investigator and Convener Dr Leung Bo-wah (front left) and the Consultant of the Project Mr Yuen Siu-fai (front middle) explain the project details at the press conference.

Fourteen music teachers from two primary schools, two music teachers from two secondary schools, and 696 students were invited to join the pilot project carried out last year. The analysis showed that further professional development of teachers was needed to increase their subject knowledge and level of commitment to teaching the artistic discipline.

Mr Yuen Siu-fai, the Vice President of the Chinese Artists Association of Hong Kong and the Consultant of the Project, said, “The Association is committed to promoting the development of Cantonese opera in Hong Kong. We hope that through the support of artists to the project, the Cantonese opera will become a major component in the school music curriculum.”

The project will include a study of the effectiveness of the new way of teaching Cantonese opera and possible assessment methods. Sharing sessions will also be held each year to promote the project results to all primary and secondary schools.