Download or read book Contemporary Chinese Theatre written by Roger Howard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chinese theatre underwent a great experiment under the cultural revolution. Using the reformed Beijing operas as models, the whole range of theatre arts, from straight plays to acrobatics and from ballet to ballads saw a profound transformation. Alongside the professional theatre, an upsurge of workers’ and peasants’ amateur theatre stimulated new developments. This book, first published in 1978, sketches the historical background to these changes and offers a factual survey of the main forms and characteristics of Chinese theatre at the time. It traces the rise of the new drama since 1949 and explores the political principles underlying the reforms. It examines the new amateur theatre and describes typical plays and operas staged in China.
Download or read book Chinese Theatre written by Jin Fu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-09 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chinese opera has a history of over 800 years. However, since the early twentieth century, following increased contact with the West, drama without music has also become popular in China. The development and prosperity of modern drama has created a new landscape for Chinese theater, which, as a whole, has become more diverse.
Download or read book The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama written by Xiaomei Chen and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This condensed anthology reproduces close to a dozen plays from Xiaomei ChenÕs well-received original collection, along with her critical introduction to the historical, cultural, and aesthetic evolution of twentieth-century Chinese spoken drama. Comprising representative works from the PeopleÕs Republic of China, the collection encapsulates the revolutionary rethinking of Chinese theater and performance that began in the late Qing dynasty and vividly portrays the uncertainty and anxiety brought on by modernism, socialism, political conflict, and war. Chosen works from 1919 to 1990 also highlight the formation of Chinese national and gender identities during a period of tremendous social, cultural, and political change and the genesis of contemporary attitudes toward the West. PRC theater tracks the rise of communism in China, juxtaposing ideals of Chinese socialism against the sacrifices made for a new society. Post-Mao drama addresses the nationÕs socialist legacy, its attempt to reexamine its cultural roots, and postsocialist reflections on critical issues such as nation, class, gender, and collective memories. An essential, portable guide for easy reference and classroom use, this abridgement provides a concise yet well-rounded survey of China's theatricality and representation of political life. This work has not only established a canon of modern Chinese drama but also made it available for the first time in English in a single volume.
Download or read book Theater and Society written by Haiping Yan and published by M.E. Sharpe. This book was released on 1998 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chinese spoken drama flourished in the 1980s when it generated a series of national controversies. In important respects, this was the golden age of drama in the People's Republic, as the stage became a most effective arena for exploring long suppressed cultural and political issues, constituting an indispensable dimension of the reform that has been altering the landscape of contemporary Chinese culture and society. The plays in this volume are among the most influential and controversial, having engendered intense cultural debate and political confrontations. They include the only complete English language translation of Bus Stop by Nobel Prize-winning author Gao Xingjian. The film script was chosen from among the most acclaimed contemporary Chinese films for its high significance in the history of Chinese film and its international influence in the cinematic world. For general readers with diverse cultural and artistic interests, this anthology introduces a new world of performing culture that enriches, delights, and challenges. For students and scholars of modern Chinese culture and society, it provides insights into China's profound social, political, and cultural transformation. For students and scholars in theatre and film studies who are increasingly interested in dramatic creations beyond the boundaries of the European tradition, it offers much needed materials for broadening cultural horizons. Yan Haiping, who holds advanced degrees in theater arts from Cornell University, was awarded the First Prize for Excellence in Drama 1980-81 by the Society of Chinese Dramatists and the Ministry of Culture of the PRC for her ten-act historical play Li Shimin, Prince of Qin. contents Plays: WM, by Wang Peigong, playscript revised for performance by Wang Gui, translated by Thomas Moran; Pan Jinlian:The History of a Fallen Woman, by Wei Minglun, translated by Dave Williams with Xiaoxia Williams; Shanshuping Chronicles, by Chen Zidu, Yang Jian, Zhu Xiaoping, translated by Rong Cai; The Bus Stop by Gao Xingjian, translated by Kimberly Besio. Film: ld Well, by Zheng Yi, directed by Wu Tianming, translated by Shiaoling Yu.
Download or read book Staging China written by LI Ruru and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insightful analysis of more than a dozen Chinese stage productions, Staging China illustrates how Chinese society is reflected by and even constructed through theatre. Scholars from around the globe explore wide-ranging topics including recent approaches to classical theatre, propaganda theatre, and the challenges of independent theatres.
Download or read book Chinese Theories of Theater and Performance from Confucius to the Present written by Faye Chunfang Fei and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first English-language anthology that traces the centuries-long evolution of Chinese thought on theater and performance
Download or read book The Chinese Theatre in Modern Times from 1840 to the Present Day written by Colin Mackerras and published by Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press. This book was released on 1975 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rethinking Chinese Socialist Theaters of Reform written by Xiaomei Chen and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2021-03-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The profound political, economic, and social changes in China in the second half of the twentieth century have produced a wealth of scholarship; less studied however is how cultural events, and theater reforms in particular, contributed to the dynamic landscape of contemporary Chinese society. Rethinking Chinese Socialist Theaters of Reform fills this gap by investigating the theories and practice of socialist theater and their effects on a diverse range of genres, including Western-style spoken drama, Chinese folk opera, dance drama, Shanghai opera, Beijing opera, and rural theater. Focusing on the 1950s and ’60s, when theater art occupied a prominent political and cultural role in Maoist China, this book examines the efforts to remake theater in a socialist image. It explores the unique dynamics between official discourse, local politics, performance practice, and audience reception that emerged under the pressures of highly politicized cultural reform as well as the off-stage, lived impact of rapid policy change on individuals and troupes obscured by the public record. This multidisciplinary collection by leading scholars covers a wide range of perspectives, geographical locations, specific research methods, genres of performance, and individual knowledge and experience. The richly diverse approach leads readers through a nuanced and complex cultural landscape as it contributes significantly to our understanding of a crucial period in the development of modern Chinese theater and performance.
Download or read book Pop Goes the Avant garde written by Rossella Ferrari and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pop Goes the Avant-Garde: Experimental Theatre in Contemporary China is the first comprehensive review of the history and development of avant-garde drama and theater in the People's Republic of China since 1976. Drawing on a range of critical perspectives in the fields of comparative literature, theater, performance, and culture studies, the book explores key artistic movements and phenomena that have emerged in China's major cultural centers in the last several decades. It surveys the work of China's most influential dramatists, directors and performance groups, with a special focus on Beijing-based playwright, director and filmmaker Meng Jinghui--the former enfant terrible of Beijing theater, who is now one of Asia's foremost theater personalities. Through an extensive critique of theories of modernism and the avant-garde, the author reassesses the meanings, functions and socio-historical significance of this work in non-Western contexts by proposing a new theoretical construct--the pop avant-garde--and exploring new ways to understand and conceptualize aesthetic practices beyond Euro-American cultures and critical discourses.
Download or read book Acting the Right Part written by Xiaomei Chen and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2002-01-31 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acting the Right Part is a cultural history of huaju (modern Chinese drama) from 1966 to 1996. Xiaomei Chen situates her study both in the context of Chinese literary and cultural history and in the context of comparative drama and theater, cultural studies, and critical issues relevant to national theater worldwide. Following a discussion of the marginality of modern Chinese drama in relation to other genres, periods, and cultures, early chapters focus on the dynamic relationship between theater and revolution. Chosen during the Cultural Revolution as the exclusive artistic vehicle to promote proletariat art, "model theater" raises important questions about the complex relationships between women, memory, nation/state, revolution, and visual culture. Throughout this study, Chen argues that dramatic norms inform both theatrical performance and everyday political behavior in contemporary China.
Download or read book The Poetics of Difference and Displacement written by Min Tian and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intercultural theater is a prominent phenomena of twentieth-century international theater. This books views intercultural theatre as a process of displacement and re-placement of various cultural and theatrical forces, a process which the author describes as 'the poetics of displacement'.
Download or read book Transforming Tradition written by Siyuan Liu and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2021-07-21 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the history and lingering effects of governmental reform of Chinese theater, post-1949
Download or read book The Avant Garde and the Popular in Modern China written by Liang Luo and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a new perspective on the Chinese avant-garde through the figure of artist and activist Tian Han
Download or read book The Performing Arts in Contemporary China written by Colin Mackerras and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The overthrow of the ‘gang of four’ in 1976 had profound effects in all areas of Chinese society, and probably nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the performing arts. Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong’s widow, was strongly interested in the performing arts and exercised great influence over them. Professor Mackerras describes this influence and the effects its removal had on the arts in the years after Mao’s death, as well as in the years following the Cultural Revolution. This book, first published in 1981, deals not only with opera, the spoken play, music and dance but also with cinema, describing how in all these cases the Chinese have adapted traditional art forms for political, social and propagandist purposes, both domestic and international. It charts the transformations that have taken place in all the multiple aspects of the performing arts and sets them against the development of Chinese society as a whole. It also looks at the role of the actor and performer in society, including their training, social status and livelihood.
Download or read book Chinatown Opera Theater in North America written by Nancy Yunhwa Rao and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2017-01-11 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chinatown opera house provided Chinese immigrants with an essential source of entertainment during the pre “World War II era. But its stories of loyalty, obligation, passion, and duty also attracted diverse patrons into Chinese American communities Drawing on a wealth of new Chinese- and English-language research, Nancy Yunhwa Rao tells the story of iconic theater companies and the networks and migrations that made Chinese opera a part of North American cultures. Rao unmasks a backstage world of performers, performance, and repertoire and sets readers in the spellbound audiences beyond the footlights. But she also braids a captivating and complex history from elements outside the opera house walls: the impact of government immigration policy; how a theater influenced a Chinatown's sense of cultural self; the dissemination of Chinese opera music via recording and print materials; and the role of Chinese American business in sustaining theatrical institutions. The result is a work that strips the veneer of exoticism from Chinese opera, placing it firmly within the bounds of American music and a profoundly American experience.
Download or read book Chinese Traditional Theatre and Male Dan written by Guo Chao and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-01-31 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines male dan, a male actor who performs female roles in Chinese theatre. Through the rise, fall and tenuous survival of male dan in Chinese history, Guo Chao reflects the transformations in the social zeitgeist in China, especially the politics of gender and sexuality. The breadth of this study reflects a diversified set of sources, ranging from classical to contemporary texts (texts of jingju plays, memoirs, collections of notation books) and other commentaries and critical evaluations of dan actors (in both English and Chinese languages) to video and audio materials, films and personal interviews. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of East Asian/Chinese studies across the fields of theatre, history, culture and literature.
Download or read book Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance written by Hongwei Bao and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-08-19 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this ground-breaking study, Hongwei Bao analyses queer theatre and performance in contemporary China. This book documents various forms of queer performance – including music, film, theatre, and political activism – in the first two decades of the twenty first century. In doing so, Bao argues for the importance of performance for queer identity and community formation. This trailblazing work uses queer performance as an analytical lens to challenge heteronormative modes of social relations and hegemonic narratives of historiography. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of theatre and performance studies, gender and sexuality studies and Asian studies.
