The Ming & Sallie Wong Collection
The Wong’s scrapbook records the historic 1982 North American Tour of the Guangdong Yue Opera.
Devoted fans and supporters of Chinese Opera, Ming and Sallie Wong meticulously kept their programs and photos from the Guangdong Yue Opera’s 1982 North American Tour, presented by the Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco. Their scrapbook records detailed information about the performances, and provides a record of the tour, vividly illustrated by autographed photos of the troupe of artists who traveled from China to perform for appreciated audiences in the United States.
Guangdong Yue Opera is one of the traditional Chinese opera genres. It is mainly popular in Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, Macau, and other Cantonese-speaking areas, as well as in overseas Chinese communities. In 2009, Yue Opera was listed as “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) due to its unique singing style, performance forms, and rich repertoire.
“The Guangdong Yue troupe, which is appearing here for the first time on a tour of both Canada and the United States, makes less of an effort to reach Caucasian audiences – indeed, the cast lists and synopses in English are unfortunately skimpy. The reason for the difference is simple. The Guangdong Yue troupe comes from Canton, in southern China, the homeland of most Americans of Chinese descent. It thus plays in the actual dialect of American Chinese, and satisfies their nostalgia for the old country, in a way that the Peking company could not.
More information about the life of Sallie Tom Wong (1923 – 1987) and Ming K. Wong (1926 – ) can be found HERE Watch video of Ming K Wong’s Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony on the Chinese Historical Society’s Chinese American GI Project website.
