Traditional Chinese Theatre Research Articles

The Montage Concept in the Play Roar, China! (The Meyerhold State Theatre, 1926) and in Traditional Chinese Theatre

Created based on real events, the Meyerhold State Theatre play Roar, China! was of a political nature, corresponding to Meyerhold's interest in one of the areas of theatrical politics of the 1920s, associated with the genre of political review. The political nature of the play is reflected in the stage presentation of two opposing forces and two socio-political systems behind them. The expression of the contradiction between the people and the opposing sides became an important political task of the play. To achieve it, the director of Roar, China! used the montage principle in the theatre. Such a principle of montage also exists in traditional Chinese theatre; however, on stage, it appears in the form of conventionality.

Theatre as Memory Site: Cultural Activities, Imaginaries, and Theatrical Things of a Regional Xiqu Theatre in Contemporary China

Abstract: This paper explores how the theatre of a Chinese regional opera, as a memory site and an actor, enunciates stories, theatrical experiences, and imaginaries of xiqu (traditional Chinese theatre) communities. The material presences of theatres ensure the continuities of cultural activities of xiqu traditions in Chinese society today. The institutionalized opera activities that emerged in the 1950s national xiqu reform campaign have molded the Chinese xiqu theatres toward an “enduring site” for constantly revamping regional cultures into the rubrics of national culture coherently. However, to the regional xiqu communities, a particular theatrical form, such as lüju (Shandong opera), intertwines with stories and embodied meanings in their quotidian practices. Drawing on the ethnographic observations of the Lüju Baihua Theatre, this article illustrates that Chinese xiqu theatres traffic the shared past, multi-generational memories, and regional stories that are communicable to the community members who resonate with them. It problematizes the perception of Chinese opera theatres as “static or disembodied sites” by unfolding how theatre as cultural activity constantly facilitates embodied knowledge to carve the contours of the group identity and imaginaries of the xiqu communities in contemporary China .

From Temple to Theatre: The Making of Commercial Grassroots Performance Spaces in Republican China

Abstract: This article analyzes the transformation of xiqu (traditional Chinese theatre) performance space in Republican China (1912–1949), focusing on the performances in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. It investigates the institutional and habitus differences compared to larger urban areas, and changes in admission rules, particularly the implementation of ticketed admission, which transformed temples into commercial theatres. Disputes over ticketed admission, involving local officials, residents, and Japanese, emerged due to the new admission rules, which differentiated between audience and non-audience members and regulated entry into the performance space. This monetization strategy contributed to the reorganization of the local entertainment market and was followed by the conversion of temples into commercial theatres during the 1930s. This article argues that an alternative “modernization” process and spatial politics rooted in the aspiration to build a modern state was nurtured by cultural interactions but also emerged from the local context, which profoundly influenced the local spatial understanding and local society. This process was closely linked to, yet distinct from, colonial modernization. The development of cities modernized by colonization had become one of the main driving forces behind the development of the cities within their radius .

The Influence of the Bertolt Brecht System on Traditional Chinese Theater

Introduction. The article is devoted to the phenomenon of modern Chinese theater and aims to explore the ways of its evolution – from imitation of European avant-garde forms of theatrical art to the formation of an original artistic language. An important goal is also to identify the factors that have determined the unique aesthetic and meaningful characteristics of modern Chinese theater.Methodology and sources. As a result of the application of the comparative analysis method, the article compares the theatrical concepts of Ibsen, Stanislavsky and Brecht, which influenced the image of modern Chinese theater.Result and discussion. The special role of the European theatrical avant-garde is shown, namely, the concept of Brecht's dialectical drama, which became widespread in China at the end of the XX century. Over a twenty-year period (from 1959 to 1979), three so-called «Brecht booms» took place in China, radically transforming Chinese traditional theater. However, despite the high popularity of Brecht's ideas, the Chinese Theater did not turn into a literal translator of the European avant-garde, but formed its own artistic style based on traditional structures of audience perception. The key role in this process was played by the national cultural context – socio-political and mental – which determined the specific forms of adaptation of the cultural meanings of the European theater. The history of Chinese avant-garde theater lasts for more than forty years and began in the early 1980s. After experiencing a period of direct borrowing, Chinese theatrical figures came to rethink the European heritage in the context of their own culture. As a result, it was the middle path of Chinese theater development that turned out to be the most productive – a path that absorbed the outstanding artistic ideas of Stanislavsky and Brecht, the modern Western avant-garde, but also without rejecting traditional artistic principles. This is how Chinese theatrical culture has developed with its own unique style.Conclusion. The 20th century became the era of the interchange of Eastern and Western theatrical traditions, which largely shaped the world cultural landscape, in which the interaction of Brecht's theory and traditional Chinese culture forms a special topos.

Exploring the Foothold of Kunqu in Modern Society Through a Comparative Study of Different Versions of The Peony Pavilion

After the publication of the youth version of The Peony Pavilion in 2004, Kunqu, a classical Chinese theatre, experienced a significant resurgence in both popularity and esteem. This renewal instigated a stronger emphasis on inventive and contemporary adaptations of the traditional repertoire. As culture evolves and advances, there is no doubt that classical theatre must also adapt to keep up with the times. The primary aim of this essay is to examine a contemporary phenomenon through a research methodology that compares and contrasts traditional and modern theatre styles. Specifically, this research focuses on the modern rendition of The Peony Pavilion, a renowned Kunqu opera that illustrates how traditional Chinese theatre can be adjusted to modern contexts while preserving its allure and importance. Additionally, this research project investigates the qualities and mechanisms of modernization in classical Chinese theatre. By concentrating on The Peony Pavilion, this study seeks to disclose how Kunqu integrates and embraces change while retaining its fundamental aspects. As a result, the research aids in crafting efficient techniques for modifying classical art forms to contemporary settings, guaranteeing that these traditional art forms remain significant and appealing over time. This will meet the increasing demand for contemporary performances while ensuring the longevity and preservation of classical arts in the ever-evolving 21st century.

The Living Inheritance and Moving Progress of Contemporary Cantonese Opera from the Perspective of Communication

Between July 3 and July 28, 2023, Television Broadcasts Limited released the Hong Kong drama Unchained Medley, which used a small village in the countryside and Cantonese Opera as the backdrop for the drama. It tells a tragic and touching story of human-ghost love between pop musician Ivan Zhang and the female ghost Wan Lau Fong (Cantonese transliteration is used). Artistic elements in Unchained Medley - Cantonese Opera is an ancient form of traditional Chinese theater, a local performing art that employs Cantonese as the language of performance, singing, acting, reciting and traditional folk music, along with distinctive stage costumes and abstract forms. When reviewing Chinese and English papers published between 2019 and 2023, research on the analysis of Cantonese opera primarily focused on the transformation of performance forms and the creation of Cantonese opera repertoire content. However, there needs to be more in living inheritance with Cantonese Opera. This paper utilizes James W. Careys The Ritual View of Communication as a theoretical framework. The article mainly adopts methods such as literature review, case studies, and comparative analysis to elucidate the significance and complex dilemmas surrounding the vibrant communications of Cantonese opera in the post-COVID world. It then consolidates and summarizes research experiences related to the protection and universal transmission of Cantonese opera in every aspect, laying the foundation for the in-depth development of Cantonese opera research.

The Application and Innovation of the Stylized Performance of Traditional Chinese Theater in the Animated Film New Sanchakou

Abstract In Chinese animated films, the stylized performance of traditional Chinese theater allows for greater expression and creativity, due to 3D digital technology and 8K display technology. This paper takes the animated film New Sanchakou (The Crossroads Inn, 1951), adapted from the traditional Duanda Wusheng (短打武生: martial arts performers equipped with short clothes and short-handle weapons) drama Sanchakou in Peking opera (Jingju) as an example, to explore the application and innovation of stylized performance. In the digital era, Chinese animated films innovate based on past achievements and utilize new technologies to both construct an aesthetic system with Chinese characteristics and to further display the unique charm of traditional Chinese aesthetic thought. By exploring new forms of animation’s performance creation, New Sanchakou meets the new challenge of Chinese animated film nationalization in the new era of China.

Chinese Adaptations of Brecht: Appropriation and Intertextuality by Wei Zhang

Reviewed by: Chinese Adaptations of Brecht: Appropriation and Intertextuality by Wei Zhang Wei Feng CHINESE ADAPTATIONS OF BRECHT: APPROPRIATION AND INTERTEXTUALITY. By Wei Zhang. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. 200 pp. Hardcover, $81.00. Chinese Adaptations of Brecht is the first monograph in the English-speaking world that addresses the reception of Bertolt Brecht’s plays in mainland China from the end of the Cultural Revolution to the present day. It locates itself in the academic discourse of reciprocal correlation between Brecht and China, such as Renata Berg-Pan’s Bertolt Brecht and China (1979), Antony Tatlow’s The Mask of Evil: Brecht’s Response to the Poetry, Theatre and Thought of China and Japan (1977) and Brecht and East Asian Theatre (1982, co-edited with Tak-wai Wong), Lu Wei’s Cong bianzheng dao zonghe: Bulaixite yu Zhongguo xinshiqi xiju (From the Dialectic to the Syncretic: Brecht and Chinese Theatre in the New Era 2007), as well as individual essays and book chapters. Also for the first time, this book places Brecht along with the cluster of English works in the field of East-West comparative studies that deal with the reception history of Euro-American playwrights in China. Different from the majority of these works that either address Brecht’s reception of Chinese culture, or Chinese reception of Brecht’s works and thoughts, this book mainly focuses on specific renditions of Brecht’s plays. Given the absence of an English monograph on Brecht and China written by a Chinese scholar, Zhang’s addition of a Chinese perspective is of great value. Situated against the shifting political and cultural background of the post-Mao era, this book addresses Brecht’s work as inspiration for Chinese theatre practitioners in their search for modernity, and the [End Page 207] reevaluation of recent and remote historical, cultural, and political legacies. Scholars and students interested in international circulation of Brecht, intercultural theatre, or Sino-Western theatrical cross-currents will find this book a crucial read. The author structures her book around how Brecht’s concepts of Verfremdungseffekt and political theatre interact with Chinese philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics. The book comprises seven chapters, including an introduction and conclusion. The introductory chapter surveys the major connections between Brecht and China. Chapter Two examines director Chen Yong’s reinterpretation of Life of Galileo (1979, co-directed with Huang Zuolin), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1985), and The Threepenny Opera (1998). These works, according to Zhang, joined the mainstream of socio-historical and cultural life in China from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. Zhang ingeniously chooses a less renowned female director and concentrates on her unique directorial perspective to Brecht’s female characters in those plays. Chapter Three examines to two xiqu productions of The Good Person of Szechwan adapted into chuanju (2002) and yueju (2013). This chapter contextualizes the two xiqu versions within the artistic agenda of modernizing traditional Chinese theatre. The author’s choice of cases is very thoughtful. Chuanju is an apt representative of xiqu modernization, not only because it took the lead in the nation to reform and reinvigorate itself shortly after the Cultural Revolution, but also because Wei Minglun, the adaptor of this production, is a pioneering dramatist in the cause of xiqu modernization. The yueju version is equally illuminating. On the one hand, because of its comparatively short history, yueju embraced artistic innovation, which makes it a fashionable genre; on the other hand, the production under discussion was performed by Zhejiang Xiaobaihua Yueju Company, a performance group dedicated to crossing artistic boundaries. Both productions, in their innovative and controversial form, displayed artistic vitality and courage otherwise restrained in more “orthodox” xiqu genres. Chapter Four considers two chuanju productions (1992 and 2011) of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, which was originally inspired by the fourteenth-century Chinese play The Chalk Circle. It investigates how the two adaptations address present-day social problems through Brecht’s political theatre as well as their attempt to Sinicize Brecht through chuanju. Chapter Five features an intertextual comparison of Brecht’s Turandot and Wei Minglun’s chuanju piece Chinese Princess Dulanduo. Although Wei’s work is not a direct adaptation of Brecht’s play, it resonates both narratively...

Intercultural Aesthetics in Traditional Chinese Theatre: From 1978 to the Present by Wei Feng, and: Transnational Chinese Theatres: Intercultural Performance Networks in East Asia by Rossella Ferrari

Intercultural Aesthetics in Traditional Chinese Theatre: From 1978 to the Present by Wei Feng, and: Transnational Chinese Theatres: Intercultural Performance Networks in East Asia by Rossella Ferrari

Study of Chinese Shadow Mapping Classification with the Application of Deep Learning Algorithms.

Shadow puppetry is a traditional Chinese fascinating theatre act performed by large group of artists. An artist generally uses sticks, transparent cloth screen, and flat puppets behind an illuminated background to create illusion of moving pictures during the act. These acts showcase the culture, heritage, social belief, and customs of Chinese and are a popular form of entertainment especially to youths. The modern method of digital shadow puppetry has gained a tremendous interest in the diversifying entertainment industry. Proper identification and classification of shadow puppetry is a tedious process, demanding significant research studies attention to solve the real-world vision-based problem. The proposed research studies focus on the design of artificial intelligence-based modified Grey Wolf Optimized Classifier (mGWOC) for the digital shadow puppetry problem. Data augmentation process is performed in the initial stage of the work to increase the size of the dataset used for training and testing. Secondly, to derive feature vectors from shadow puppet images, Alex Net-a deep neural network model as a part of feature extraction is adopted. Finally, Extreme Learning Classifier (ELC) is applied to allocate proper class labels. The experimental results of the proposed mGWOC reports betterment over the ResNet model, DenseNet model, and grey wolf optimization algorithm in terms of precision, recall, F-score, and kappa statistical performance measure reporting average accuracy as 0.951.

Whither Theatricality? Toward Traditional Chinese Drama and Theater (Xiqu 戲曲) as World Theater

Abstract The essay provides a brief review of how certain approaches to theatricality evolved in response to particular theatrical archives or repertoires in non-Chinese contexts. It then considers a number of recent studies of Chinese drama and theater in light of the following issues: the nature of theatrical language, the emergence and uses of fictionality, and the reconstruction of performance aesthetics. In focusing on these particular areas, the essay seeks to show how such research can contribute toward countering entrenched characterizations of xiqu as “non-drama,” “spectacle,” or “pure heritage.” The final section of the article proposes some future avenues of inquiry in order to deepen the dialogue between Sinology and theater studies while providing tools for sustaining the practice of xiqu and fostering broader appreciation of traditional Chinese theater in Anglophone, Chinese-speaking, and other contexts.

Antiquity to Modernity: Mei Lanfang’s Preparatory and Presentational Strategies for his American and Soviet Visits

The Chinese actor Mei Lanfang and his retinue prepared several documents for his visits to the USA in 1930 and the USSR in 1935. Using these primary sources, this article explores the reasons why Mei presented traditional Chinese theatre differently in each context. One reason was winning popularity among specifically targeted audiences, as indicated by the carefully selected programmes, explanatory discourses, and illustrations from promotional materials. Through a comparative examination, this article argues that, for the American tour, Mei made traditional Chinese theatre an emblem of ancient Chinese art, while, for the Soviet tour, he endorsed the Soviet Union’s social and artistic enterprises, labelling traditional Chinese theatre a modern art. Both images, one static and the other dynamic, were authentic representations of the multifaceted contemporary Chinese theatre as it underwent modernization. Wei Feng received his PhD in Theatre Studies from Trinity College Dublin and teaches in the School of Foreign Languages and Literature at Shandong University. He is the author of Intercultural Aesthetics in Traditional Chinese Theatre: From 1978 to the Present (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). Ye Pi (corresponding author) teaches in the School of Foreign Languages and Literature at Shandong University, specializing in Russian literature.

Эпический театр: культурные и культурологические параллели

The purpose of the article is to identify cultural and cultural parallels between the Yakut storytelling of the Olonkho and the theatrical cultures of the East and West. The work compares the cultural features of B. Brecht’s «epic theater», traditional Chinese theater and Yakut storytelling, which belong to different eras and cultures. Based on this analysis, the idea is put forward that Yakut storytelling can be considered as a model of epic theater, since it is inherent in the signs of the indicated theatrical system. This creates a new perspective in its study as a phenomenon of culture and allows to show the importance of Olonkho in the search for new communicative models in the form of theatrical art.

The dilemma and reflection of Chinese theatre arts education in universities

At present, the education of Traditional Chinese theatre arts in universities is lacking in both “software” and “hardware”, which is in the dilemma of being marginalized by teaching. There are many common problems in the bottleneck and causes of many kinds of theatre arts in the development of universities education, such as the shortage of teachers, the lack of interest of students, the weakness of scientific research, the poor environment of Traditional Chinese Theatre arts and so on. In view of the above problems, it is suggested to adopt multi-channel strategies to cultivate students’ interest, improve the supporting Traditional Chinese Theatre arts curriculum, and optimize the traditional Chinese Theatre arts environment, so as to change the current dilemma of Traditional Chinese Theatre arts in universities.

Maggie Greene, Resisting Spirits: Drama Reform and Cultural Transformation in the People’s Republic of China. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2019. xvi, 260 pp. DOI: 10.3998/mpub.9969070. Paperback $24.95, ISBN 978-0-472-05430-5.

Maggie Greene, Resisting Spirits: Drama Reform and Cultural Transformation in the People’s Republic of China. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, . xvi,  pp. DOI: ./mpub.. Paperback $., ISBN ----. This short history book about a spooky subject takes first its readers to a dark corner of the history of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: How did a kunqu 昆曲 “ghost play” (guixi 鬼戏) by a veteran communist writer named Meng Chao 孟超 became one of the earliest targets of what will be known later as the “Gang of four,” even before the attacks on the plays of the far more famous intellectuals Wu Han and Tian Han? If one of the merits of this study is to shed a new light on the attacks on culture that constituted the premises of the great turmoil of the late ’s—but the author had already publicized this historical “scoop” in an article from  —it is not the main point that this book-length study wants to make. This book has the wider ambition to retrace the resilience of an apparently forbidden topic in the early PRC, the “superstitious and feudal” ghost’s theme. The public appearance of this topic on the stage of the contemporary traditional Chinese theater (xiqu 戏曲) and, more in general, its enduring presence as a subject of heated debates is also explored. Let us first recall the play at the center of the book: the story of Li Huiniang 李慧娘, first appearing in the early Ming Qu You’s 瞿佑 collections in literary Chinese Jiandeng xinhua 剪灯新话, became well known to the Chinese public through the chuanqi 传奇 play “the Prunus pavilion” Hongmei ge 红梅阁. It tells how Huiniang, a concubine of the evil southern Song minister Jia Sidao 贾似道, is slain by her jealous and violent master for having looked tenderly at a young literati near Hangzhou’s West Lake. However, as Jia Sidao prepares to also harm the would-be lover of the late concubine, her ghost appears, chases the assassin away, and scares and humiliates the evil minister. Before coming to the story of Li Huiniang itself, Greene first analyses what happened after the initial chilling ban on a group of twenty-six “superstitious plays,” most of them ghost plays, in the early ’s. Greene shows how the ban initiated a time of confusion. Troops and local authorities were quite puzzled about what was allowed, while intellectual circles began to deploy a salvaging strategy of some of the traditional supernatural themes by drawing a Review©  by University of Hawai‘i Press distinction between permissible “mythological” plays and damnable “superstitious” or “fearsome” works. The second chapter begins with the attempt by a playwright with an impeccable proletarian pedigree, Ma Jianling 马健翎, to produce a “politically correct” version of the story. In his  qinqiang 秦腔 play “Wandering West Lake,” You Xihu 游西湖, Ma does not present a ghost, but still uses the ghost element by staging a ghost-like character, making Huiniang pose as a ghost without being dead. To the author’s surprise, this attempt at a “ghostless ghost play” (which may be found in other genres of the same period, for example in some Hong Kong leftwing movies ) was greeted with harsh criticism in the higher intellectual circles of the PRC by several authors who, while voicing critiques on esthetic grounds against Ma’s play, expressed opinions that amounted to justifications of keeping “real” ghost on the Chinese traditional opera stage. The  relaxing of the initial ban on ghost plays encouraged troops to resume performances. Ma later reintroduced the ghost in the play, without receiving much more understanding from his critics. Chapter  takes the reader right to the middle of the complexity of the Hundred flowers’ time. It compares two contemporary productions, the anthology of classical tales “Stories not to be afraid about ghosts” (Bu pa gui de gushi 不怕 鬼的故事) and the rewriting in  in the kunqu opera form of the Prunus pavilion story by Meng Chao under the title “Li Huiniang.” While the first book, ordered by Chairman Mao himself, gave a new voice to ancient ghost stories by playing on a rhetoric associating ghosts with old and new class enemies (a rhetoric which won’t be forgotten during the Cultural Revolution), Meng Chao created with his “Li...

A Couple of Soles: A Comic Play from Seventeenth-Century China

A Couple of Soles: A Comic Play from Seventeenth-Century China

Reframing nothingness in the kunju adaptation of Eugène Ionesco’s The Chairs

AbstractPractitioners of xiqu (traditional Chinese theater) have long appropriated Western plays and theatrical ideas to modernize Chinese tradition for new theatricalities. Primarily, plays driven by plot and characterization have been selected to highlight themes germane to Enlightenment modernity. Yet recently, there have been a few intercultural attempts to adapt the so‐called Absurdist drama with xiqu, in a deliberate deviation from metanarratives that have characterized modern Chinese theater for nearly a century, to reflect better the existential conditions of contemporary individuals. By investigating the actors’ reframing of nothingness in Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe’s adaptation of Eugène Ionesco’s The Chairs, this article argues that Ionesco’s original absence‐presence dynamic has been displaced and transformed in the Chinese context; his concern with frightening nothingness is replaced by kunju’s philosophical reflection on emptiness, which aims at a positive negativity. This adaptation also suggests a new path for Western modernist plays to communicate with classical Chinese culture.

The Characteristics of the Traditional Chinese Theather Jing Ju

The title of the paper is “Characters in Jing Ju Traditional Chinese Theatre”. In This paper, the writer wants to analyze the characters from Jing Ju Traditional theatre. This paper talks about the method of the analysis which is used by the writer is descriptive comparative method. And the theory which is used in comparing and analyzed the characters and the meanings of the analysis, the writer show and describes the character which exists in Jing Ju theatre, the meaning of the mask colors from each theatre.

Translating Culture-Bound Elements: A Case Study of Traditional Chinese Theatre in the Socio-Cultural Context of Hong Kong

This study explores the controversy surrounding the translation of the name of a new cultural infrastructure in Hong Kong, specifically related to the cultural heritage of traditional Chinese theatre. The first performing arts landmark in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District was named the Xiqu Centre; the term xiqu is a Hanyu pinyin representing traditional Chinese theatre. Though this translation issue has been intensely debated for over a decade, it remains unexplored in the research. With reference to Venuti’s translation strategies of foreignization and domestication, this study examines the Hong Kong public’s views on the translation of the name of this cultural landmark and the underlying drivers of their perceptions. It uses internet-based surveys, semi-structured interviews with the public, and interviews with experts as data sources. The results revealed that factors of (1) aesthetics and artistry, (2) cultural identity, and (3) publicity and internationalization have contributed to public perception. This study’s findings shed new light on how translation interacts with cultural, social, and political factors by examining how Hong Kong’s unique historical relationship with China and the West has played a role in this translation issue. The findings have significant implications for the translation of culture-bound elements and the transmission of cultural heritage in Hong Kong and worldwide.

Intercultural Aesthetics in Traditional Chinese Theatre: From 1978 to the Present. By Wei Feng. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. Pp. xv + 277. £59.99/$84.99 Hb.

Intercultural Aesthetics in Traditional Chinese Theatre: From 1978 to the Present. By Wei Feng. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. Pp. xv + 277. £59.99/$84.99 Hb.