The Great Traditional/Modern Divide of Regional Chinese Theatrical Genres in the 1950s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4553264 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Siyuan Liu (0000-0002-0255-8847, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 70 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 153-172 |
| Publication date | 2018-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Theatre Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0192-2882 • E-ISSN: 1086-332X |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/tj.2018.0025 |
| OpenAlex | W2842869108 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
Arguably the most consequential case of modern reconstruction of Asia performance is China's reform campaign against traditional theatre—collectively known as xiqu (song drama)—in the 1950s that aimed at the wholesale reform of xiqu practitioners, repertoire, and organization. This essay focuses on two cases from the 1950s that exemplify the xiqu reform's hybrid and purifying strategies, respectively. First, it examines the case of the neological ganju (Jiangxi opera) in the southern Jiangxi Province, an antiquarian reconstruction of one of the oldest xiqu musical systems, called yiyangqiang (Yiyang tunes). Next, the essay focuses on the purification of three folk-oriented xiqu genres that matured in China's two largest semi-colonial cities, Shanghai and Tianjin, in the early twentieth century. The campaign essentially cleansed their foundational repertoire from the Republican era, leaving them to rely predominantly upon newly created or adapted plays. Through these cases studies the essay seeks to examine China-specific examples of the theatrical modernity process in Asia, drawing on similar patterns of the European modernity process, while simultaneously complicating such patterns with the social, ideological, cultural, and theatrical specificities from the early years of the People's Republic of China
Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Archaeology · Art · China · Colonialism · Drama · Ideology · Literature · Modernity · Musical · Political science · Repertoire · Social science · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law · Philippine History and Culture
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |