Poetess' use of verse to battle adversity

Commenting on the reactions to his work, he says: "It's common to see, when we put on a new show, that some members of the audience are thrilled, shaking their heads to the music, while others block their ears and leave the theater. But we never stop trying out new ideas."

Both the shows combine performance techniques from Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera to portray different roles.

And Li also gets his longtime collaborator, composer Chung Yiu-Kwong, to work on the two shows.

Chung, who was born in Hong Kong and moved to Taiwan in 1991, is known for his orchestral and stage works, which fuse Western musical styles with Eastern sounds.

Speaking about his work, Chung says: "I was trained as a classical musician. And after 20 years of working with Li Baochun, I know he is not afraid of trying new sounds for his shows. As long as the music serves the role well, he will go for it.

"Our fans are often curious about our band arrangements since they sound different from a traditional Peking Opera band."

As for Li, his relationship with Peking Opera has been an uneven one despite his pedigree.

Li, who is the son of the late Peking Opera master Li Shaochun (1911-75), was born in Beijing, and studied lao sheng, elderly male roles, and wu sheng, male martial arts roles, for Peking Opera at the Beijing Theater Arts School from the age of 10.

After graduating in 1969, he worked at the China Peking Opera Theater, now the China National Peking Opera Company, before moving to the United States with his family in the late 1980s.

There, he almost quit acting, and opened an ice-cream shop. Peking Opera, like many other old art forms in China, is struggling to survive in the modern age.

But he says the art form is in his DNA. And every year, he travels around the world to watch various shows, ranging from contemporary dance to rock concerts, which remind him of returning to what he does best: Peking Opera.

Now, after founding his Peking Opera troupe in 1987 with the help of the Taipei-based C.F. Koo Foundation, Li Baochun has produced nearly 50 original Peking Opera works, which have been staged about 200 times.

The foundation was set up by the late diplomat Koo Chen-fu, also known as C.F. Koo, to promote cross-Straits exchanges and Peking Opera in Taiwan.

Li's works are based on traditional Peking Opera, and see new elements and techniques added. Examples of his work include Yun Luo Mountain, a reworked version of a classic Peking Opera work, in which Li Baochun's father performed; and The Jester, a Peking Opera version of Giuseppe Verdi's classical opera, Rigoletto.

For now, things are looking a bit better for Peking Opera.

About a decade ago, the Taipei Li-yuan Peking Opera Theater started touring the Chinese mainland; and Li Baochun now invites Peking Opera masters to perform in Taiwan and coach actors and actresses there.