Chinese Shadow Theatre, History, Popular Religion, and Women Warriors (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Chinese Shadow Theatre, History, Popular Religion, and Women Warriors Colin Mackerras (bio) Fan Pen Li Chen . Chinese Shadow Theatre, History, Popular Religion, and Women Warriors. Montréal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007. xii, 343 pp. Cloth $75.00, ISBN 978-0-7735-3197-0. Although there is a substantial and growing literature on Chinese theatre, there is so far very little indeed in English on some allied performing arts forms, including shadow theatre. Fan Pen Li Chen classifies shadow theatre as a subdivision of puppet theatre (p. 62) and acknowledges it as "basically a minor form of performing art" (p. 12). But it is still quite important enough in the overall scheme of the Chinese arts to warrant a detailed study. As it happens, there is a good deal in common between the traditions of theatre as performed by human actors and shadow theatre. The music of the regional theatrical styles tends to be consistent by region, whether played as part of dramas or shadow plays. There is much in common also in the stories and in the characterization. And since shadow theatre and most of the rural styles of regional theatre are popular rather than elitist art, the audiences and performers also have much in common. In terms of translation and definition, Chen uses the English word "opera" to refer the Chinese term xiqu, which includes all those performing arts forms with singing, dialogue, impersonation of a character by an actor, and a story. She uses the term "drama" as a more general term that includes puppetry, acrobatics, song and dance, variety shows, dramatic rituals, and of course xiqu (p. 62). Actually, much of the recent English-language scholarly literature on the Chinese performing arts avoids the term "opera" because it evokes European opera, which is very different in many ways from xiqu. However, Chen has the right to offer a specific definition, as long as she adheres to it consistently. As far as I can see, she has done that admirably. Chen has done us a great service through this major and highly original analysis of shadow theatre. The main content of the book is to analyze the history of the Chinese shadow theatre; to take up two particular themes, religion and women warriors; and to translate several particular plays that illustrate the themes. The book covers virtually all Chinese history, but with the main focus on the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). The documentation, based on field research and extensive printed material, is excellent. Almost all of it is in Chinese or English. The first of the two main themes is that shadow theatre is tightly related to Chinese popular religion, with one of the most important functions of the shadow theatre being to accompany religious rituals. Chen even suggests that the linkage with religion may have been one of the reasons why shadow theatre became so important an art form in the first place: "I would like to suggest that, like the human actor operas that came to be appropriated for the celebration of religious [End Page 209] festivals and private celebratory occasions, shadow theatre was similarly appropriated to serve spiritual functions" (p. 70). I find her reference to the "human actor operas" and their prior role in religion very interesting. In terms of importance, there is little doubt that "human actor operas" outweighed shadow theatre. However, shadow theatre was probably slightly earlier in origin. Although performance and some kind of shadow acting exist from very ancient times, the earliest records of "real shadow shows" (p. 33) do not come until the mid-Northern Song, that is, about the eleventh century. As for the earliest fully fledged drama, that dates from the first half of the twelfth century. The author argues that previous scholars have, in general, not given enough attention to the role of religion, even to the extent of negating it. This is largely because the major urban xiqu styles, such as jingju (sometimes translated Peking Opera), are, indeed, secular in their social functions and content, a factor that leads Chen to excuse both Chinese and Western specialists for overlooking the importance of religion (p. 27). Another very important reason, however, is...