Establishment of “Drama” Orientation: Transition of the Research Paradigm of Chinese Dramas in the 1920s and 1930s by Yifan Zhang

Abstract

Reviewed by: Establishment of “Drama” Orientation: Transition of the Research Paradigm of Chinese Dramas in the 1920s and 1930s by Yifan Zhang Weiyu Li ESTABLISHMENT OF “DRAMA” ORIENTATION: TRANSITION OF THE RESEARCH PARADIGM OF CHINESE DRAMAS IN THE 1920s AND 1930s. By Yifan Zhang. Milton: Routledge, 2019. 232pp. $128.00. Through his compelling use of drama as a lens, Yifan Zhang’s Establishment of “Drama” Orientation: Transition of the Research Paradigm of Chinese Dramas in the 1920s and 1930s (hereafter Establishment) captures the cultural collision and exchange between China and the West as well as Chinese intellectuals’ visions of national essence and identity during one of the most significant periods in modern Chinese history: the 1920s and 1930s. Framed within this pivotal period, Zhang argues that the procedure of exploring the new concept of “national drama” and practicing it went hand-in-hand with China’s project of intense nation building. Moreover, he examines how this project necessarily promoted a certain understanding of culture to the Chinese in the modern context, and the cultural and psychological roots of Chinese pursuit of national drama, as a deeply inherent part of China’s nation building. To provide an in-depth reading of the evolution and development of the academic history of Chinese national dramas, Zhang further narrows his focus to the span of years between 1925 and 1937. Standing at this transitional moment between the iconic May Fourth period (1915–1925) and the eight-year War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945), Zhang takes the National Drama movement in 1925 as a starting point from which to tackle three questions: what is “national drama”? What is the interaction between Chinese dramatic art and criticism during the journey of exploring and defining Chinese national drama? And how does this complex interaction of writers, performers, critics, and audiences promote the development of various dramatic theories, criticism, and performance arts? Contextualizing these questions with a historical approach from a cross-cultural perspective, Zhang successfully answers the questions by tracing not [End Page 587] only the emergence and influence of the Chinese National Drama Movement but also the shift of Chinese national drama studies from literature orientation to drama orientation. Furthermore, instead of mainly focusing on Chinese intellectuals’ debate about “old” and “new” cultures or the failure of the Chinese National Drama Movement during this critical time, however, the author gives more importance to how this movement promoted the construction and development of modern performance art theories and the discipline of opera and drama studies in early modern China. This book provides valuable, original, and inspiring sources on the Chinese pursuit of national drama, culture, as well as identity. It is a must-read work for educator and students in Chinese theatre studies, modern Chinese studies, and (post)colonial studies. As Yifan Zhang states in his Introduction, Chinese intellectuals’ views of what “national drama” would be and how to achieve it were not homogeneous. In Chapter 1, Zhang systematically traces the emergence and uses of the word “drama” in Chinese, and points out that this word includes various performance forms: it could either refer to xiqu, huaju, or wenmingxi. From this very ambiguity contained in the word “drama,” then Zhang shows the reader the complex cultural tensions and exchanges between China and West, old and new, traditionalism and modernism in the field of drama, and provides a sounder basis for understanding how these interactions promoted and impacted the National Drama Movement in 1925. With this promising premise, in Chapter 2, Zhang delivers an insightful view of the evolution and historical role of “national drama” from 1925 to 1937. He introduces the story of the “National Drama Movement” initiated by Yu Shangyuan in 1925 and the academic evaluation of this movement, and analyzes how the term “national drama” that was newly created in “National Drama Movement” gradually evolved to be the representation of Chinese traditional opera. Furthermore, he argues that the discovery of “national drama” provided the Chinese with both theoretical and body languages to not only discuss the notions of the national essence and cultural heritage that first entered Chinese discourse in the late Qing period but also to rehearse and stage national identity in the...