The Adaptation of Silang Tanmu
Cultural Censorship, Performance Governance, and Negotiation in Cold War Taiwan
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21611706 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Siyue Liu (0009-0001-6588-5458, University of Wollongong, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-17 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Asian Studies Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1035-7823 • E-ISSN: 1467-8403 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10357823.2026.2680669 |
| OpenAlex | W7165491021 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
This article examines two state-sanctioned adaptations of the Peking opera Silang Tanmu (四郎探母, Fourth Son visits His Mother) in Taiwan to illuminate the interaction of political ideology, grassroots pressure, and cultural governance under Kuomintang (KMT, Nationalist) rule. After retreating to Taiwan in 1949, the KMT promoted Peking opera as an instrument of cultural orthodoxy and a means of politically mobilising waishengren (mainlander) soldiers and civilians. However, Silang Tanmu became politically contentious when some critics argued that its narrative did not embody anti-communist values. This coincided with the harshest phase of martial-law authoritarianism and led to the first official adaptation in the 1950s. Produced under intense political repression, this version left no meaningful space for artistic agency and was ultimately rejected by performers and audiences. By the 1970s, however, Taiwan’s gradual political opening provided space for cultural workers and audiences to exercise greater agency in shaping the opera’s form and messaging, resulting in a second, more accepted adaptation that preserved the original structure while modestly aligning itself with state ideology. The contested revisions of Silang Tanmu thus reveal both the limits of top-down cultural control and the historically contingent negotiations among state, society, and cultural producers in Taiwan
Adaptation (eye) · Cold war · Negotiation · Perspective (graphical) · Work (physics) · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Cinema and Media Studies · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |