This dissertation considers how the party-state of the People’s Republic of China has been mobilizing various forms of interpellation in an attempt to sustain a continuous imagination of a particular community defined on the terms of a shared “Chinese” national identity. As well, the research considers how these forms of interpellation have been challenged by a range of complex diasporic viewer responses. Taking media productions of the Mainland China television industry as my point of reference, I have studied in detail, multiple productions of the widely popular, complex program, the Spring Festival Gala (SFG) produced by China Central Television. Though not without its contradictions, this show has employed various interpellative strategies, persistently and continuously hailing viewers into the subject position of loyal members of an enduring “Chinese Nationality.” However, interpellation is one thing, subjectification within it is another. To better grapple with the cultural citizenship of transnationalized Chinese, this dissertation also considers observations regarding the receptions of the SFG by diasporic “Chinese subjects” who now live in Canada. While their continuous imagining of the “Chinese Nationality” helps to better understand the complex mechanisms which contribute to the retaining power of interpellation, their

Chinese Television as a Medium of National Interpellation: Diasporic Responses to the CCTV Production of the Spring Festival Gala

Once upon a time, Beijing/Peking “Opera” was a thriving, popular art. But for most of the 20th century—both before and after the victory of Communism in 1949—it was an endangered species. Today, however, the Shanghai Jingju Company is one of the few to successfully increase its audiences, approach eco-nomic independence, and practice bold artistic innovation.

"Reform" at the Shanghai Jingju Company and Its Impact on Creative Authority and Repertory

Abstract This study is about—and beyond—the unprecedented revival of cross-gender performance in theatre, especially the male-to-female cross-gender performance in jingju (Beijing Opera), known as nandan. Through years long preinvestigations of the scene, archival work of its history, and case studies of individuals, this project examines the specificity and universality of the (in)coherences between sense of gender, sexuality, gender identities, gender mannerisms, transgressive desires and cross-gender performance behind the advocate of “historical authenticity” and “the return to the social and cultural norm.” Over twenty informants have contributed to the research with their narratives and observations in the scene.

https://summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/15673/etd9031_HBao.pdf

Sexual Artifice Through “Transgression”: The Revival of Cross-Gender Performance in Jingju

Commemorating the centenary of the spoken drama's introduction into China in 1907, the essay takes up several major themes in Chinese theatre over the last hundred years, such as its political and social implications and the tension between foreign and indigenous influences. The essay argues that drama in China during these years can be viewed largely as a microcosm of history, with politics having more impact on drama than the other way around. It also argues that change outweighs continuity, with foreign influences being stronger than indigenous and becoming more so, despite the persistence of nationalism. This article is the text of the Asian Theatre Journal Lecture , given in New Orleans on 27 July 2007 as part of the Association for Asian Performance Conference, itself part of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference.

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Tradition, Change, and Continuity in Chinese Theatre in the Last Hundred Years: In Commemoration of the Spoken Drama Centenary

Dama Orchestra in Malaysia has transformed through the implant of theatrical elements as exemplified by Butterfly Lovers—The Musical staged in 2006. This concert orchestra of the Chinese diaspora has grown into a musical theatre production company with regular full-house audiences for a series of productions of between ten and twenty shows a year. As composers and music arrangers working with the production team, the authors are participant observers of the work. This paper elucidates how the group responds to local demands, popular culture, and the tide of globalization to develop a modern Malaysian Chinese musical for Kuala Lumpur’s contemporary multiracial stage.

Innovation for Survival?: Dama Orchestra's Butterfly Lovers—The Musical on a Contemporary Multiracial Malaysian Stage

Before examining the current balance of tradition and innovation in Beijing opera performance, as well as some of the reasons for that balance, a brief review of certain major traditional characteristics of the form seems called for. In terms of both Chinese and international theatrical history, Beijing opera is not an old form. Its genesis did not occur until the end of the 18th century, and it did not emerge as a fully independent, influential theatre form until the mid-I9th century-at about the same time that realism began to replace romanticism and neoclassicism in Europe. Throughout most of its history, performers-rather than playwrights, composers, directors, or performance theorists-have functioned as the aesthetic, creative, and performative center of Beijing opera.1 The majority of Beijing opera plays have simple, easily understood, and well-known plots which were anonymously created or adapted, often by the performers themselves, from novels, popular stories, and earlier "literary" plays. Focused neither on script nor plot, these plays feature the mental and emotional lives of characters. They reveal the "miracle of moments," and do so in several complexly layered "languages" which are presented simultaneously. One of these languages is Mandarin Chinese, performed as much for its aesthetic values as for its denotative meaning. Other languages include the pihuang musical language of song and orchestral accompaniment, the language of percussive patterns (luogu dian), and the language of conventional stylized movement-all of which are capable of expressing dense and specific affective meaning. The characters themselves are each representative of a particular role category (hangdang), and therefore "typed" in terms of sex, general age, level of dignity, and size of expression (i.e., painted face characters [jing or hualian] are "larger than life," and the vocal and physical techniques used in their presentation are therefore larger-involve greater volume, broader timbre, and more expansive movements-than those used for other male role categories). But individual characters are by no means stereotypical in terms of their values, personality traits, and reactions to the circumstances in which they are placed. Indeed, the same character in essentially the same situation may be

Elizabeth Wichmann

Papers

Tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Beijing Opera Performance