1. Cultural Anxiety and the Reconstruction of the Xiqu Tradition through Mei Lanfang's Overseas Performances, 1919-1930
- Author
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Guo, Chao
- Subjects
Sex role ,College teachers ,Anxiety ,Arts, visual and performing - Abstract
This article argues that discourses about 'the tradition of xiqu ' were developed through xiqu (traditional Chinese theatre) professionals' cumulative cultural predicament when they were forced to confront Western modernity during the early twentieth century, especially from the mid-1910s onwards, because a group of Westernized Chinese scholars radically criticized xiqu as an incarnation of the moribund 'old' China. Their hostility to xiqu stimulated an anxiety about and eagerness for self-justification among xiqu professionals. Mei Lanfang's overseas performances thus provided a perspective to glimpse xiqu professionals ' discursive construction on 'the tradition of xiqu, ' particularly how they defined jingju in different contexts. While during Mei's 1919 journey to Japan, jingju was portrayed as a hybrid of Eastern and Western artistic elements, during his 1930 performance in the United States, jingju 's capacity to convey the eternal value of Chinese tradition was central to the Mei troupe's publicity. This article analyzes the variegated discourses from different parties during Mei Lanfang's overseas performances in a diachronic pattern, and argues that the discourses about 'the tradition of xiqu ' were not transcendental, but were progressively constructed through the disputes over value during the early twentieth century, partially as a result of xiqu professionals ' endeavor to reconstruct legitimacy for the somewhat 'besieged' traditional art form. Chao Guo received his Ph.D. degree at the University of Otago, New Zealand and is currently an Assistant Professor of Chinese at the Zhuhai Campus of Sun Yat-sen University. Chao's Ph.D. dissertation, entitled 'Shifting Gender Roles: Male Dan in Chinese Theatre,' examines gender hierarchy and power relations in Chinese society through the lens of male dan (male players of female roles in xiqu). Other recent work has been published in Asian Studies Review and The Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia., Jingju (Beijing/Peking Opera) is often described as 'total theatre,' a 'place of intersection of all the arts.' With the conventions utilized in its performance, it 'transcends a resemblance to life [...]
- Published
- 2020