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Whether in China or outside of it, xiqu (Chinese opera) observers and practitioners often make the claim that xiqu audiences are elderly and vanishing, and that there is no substantial national market for xiqu productions in present-day China. For these reasons, both innovation and reform are thought to be required to rejuvenate audiences. Based on audience questionnaires from a 2013 national tour of the Fujian Province Liyuan Experimental Theatre (FPLET), the data provided in this essay suggest that a considerable national xiqu audience market exists in major cities, and it is composed largely of young women. Furthermore, it finds that there is no correlation between age and desire for stage reform, and that audiences generally exhibit actor-centered viewing habits. Based on these findings, the authors suggest that the influential conjectures that innovation attracts youthful audiences do not, in this case, hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the stories of young women who have engaged in more than one sexual relationship during a specific time period while living in Shanghai. Through in-depth interviews from May 2004 to July 2007 with fourteen young women selected from a sample of 40 interviewees in Shanghai, this study analyzes women's desires in terms of their engagement with the ideas of "true love" and "lifestyle." The "intimate troubles" they experienced in handling their multiple relationships are also examined as a way of understanding their sexual strategies and agency. While these women try to use their sexual choices as a way of reorienting their life goals and repositioning themselves in society, their perceptions of sex, self, love, marriage and lifestyle are transformed. Sex is not simply being used instrumentally, but rather as a practice that creates meaning and shapes life goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]