A Retrospection of Xiqu Overseas Performances from a Transcultural Perspective
SUN Mei
Abstract:
Various types of local Chinese traditional theater (xiqu) as theatrical performances have always been an indispensable part of Chinese peoples’ daily lives. As more and more Chinese people go abroad, Chinese traditional theater has been brought to territories beyond China. It has been known that the earliest overseas Chinese theatrical performances can be dated back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Since the eighteenth century, there have been theatrical performances of adaptations of Chinese plays in western languages. However, these performances, mostly based on the synopses of the original plays, were not performed in traditional Chinese theatrical forms. Instead, they were performed in contemporary European theatrical conventions. Overseas dissemination of Chinese xiqu and its transcultural performances is a gradual and complicated process during which it inevitably has encountered challenges arising from various aspects including language, aria, stylized performance routine/ or stylization of performance, and audiences of different cultural backgrounds, which has resulted in unprecedented transformations in its native country and new visages. This paper reviews different transformations of Chinese theater in heterogeneous cultures and historical developments of its overseas performances.
Keywords: Chinese xiqu, performance, Mei Lanfang, theater translation, transcultural studies
In traditional Chinese society, xiqu (literally “theater of song” traditional Chinese theater) as theatrical performances (rather than mere texts) had multiple functions such as entertainment, education, and sacrificial ritual. It was an indispensable part of Chinese life that enraptured all of society, from the royal family and the nobles, down to the lowest classes. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as Chinese people went overseas, xiqu was brought to extraterritorial areas. Meanwhile, along with the expansion of Western civilization to the world, some Chinese plays, for multiple purposes, had been translated into different languages and adapted and put on stages in the Western world. It is because of this that some cultural diffusion occurred and impacted Western theater performances. The present paper will review some representative cases of cross-cultural
performances of Chinese theater in history.
Early Overseas Performances of Fujian and Guangdong Xiqu
Overseas performances of Chinese xiqu, as far as we know, date back as early as to the Wanli period in the Ming Dynasty (1573-1620) when xiqu artists from Fujian had already performed in Ryukyu and were loved by the royal family and officials there. “Theatrical performances in Ryukyu were usually by artists mostly from Fujian and …Plays like 'Jiang Shi', 'Wang Xiang' ,'Jing Chai (Golden Hairpin)' were often performed, and local people constantly marveled at Chinese peoples’ chastity and filial piety in these plays.” (Cited from Yao Lyu's Lu Shu (Dew Book), Volume 9 Wind ). [1]
According to the research of the European sinologist Piet van der Loon, from 1589 to 1791 Chinese immigrants had been performing southern Fujian operas in Manila, Java, Jakarta, and other international cities.[2] It had also been recorded that during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1662-1723), touring opera troupes from Fujian and Guangdong had been invited to the imperial palace in Thailand to perform for the French ambassador sent to Thailand by King Louis XIV.[3] In fact, not long after Fujian xiqu made its arrival in Southeast Asia, Guangdong xiqu followed in its footsteps. Although these opera performances happened outside China, they fall under the category of Oriental cultural sphere, being activities of overseas Chinese people.
Chinese Xiqu in Japan in the Edo Period
During the Edo period (1603-1867), also known as the Tokugawa period, Japan was ruled under the Japanese military government of the Tokugawa shogunate, which enacted an isolationist foreign policy referred to as Sakoku. Nagasaki was then the only port of entry for foreign trade. Many Chinese people who came to do business there also brought Chinese theater along with them. At times of festivals and at the turnings of seasons, Chinese people would stage performances to thank and reward the gods for their blessings, and among various customs from Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces (Eight mins, Two yues,Three jiangs),
[1] The Editorial Board of Chinese Opera Chronicles: Fujian Volume. Chinese Opera Chronicles: Fujian Volume, Beijing: China ISBN Center, 1993, p.8.
[2] Piet van der Loon. The Classical Theatre and Art Song of South Fukien: a study of three Ming anthologies, Taipei: SMC Publishing INC. 1992, pp. 25-32.
[3] The Editorial Board of Chinese Opera Chronicles: Fujian Volume. Chinese Opera Chronicles: Fujian Volume, Beijing: China ISBN Center, 1993, p.10; The Editorial Board of Chinese Opera Chronicles: Guangdong Volume. Chinese Opera Chronicles: Guangdong Volume. Beijing: China ISBN Center, 1993, p.8.
Southern Fujian culture (or “Minnan” culture) was the most prominent.[4] The Japanese were curiously impressed by those performances, yet few of them had any general idea of what Chinese theater was.[5] Theater forms that were performed in Japan at that time include Kunquopera, Gaoqiang, Bangzi, and Pihuang.
There was also an influx of Chinese drama texts into Japan in the Edo period.[6] Japanese scholars learning the Chinese language and studying Chinese Confucian classics had a liking for Chinese novels and plays.[7] The dramas they read were Yuan zaju (variety play, a type of drama popular in the Yuan Dynasty), and chuanqi (legend). As far as it has been known, three chuanqi plays were translated into Japanese at the time, Shuihu zhuan (The Water Margin: Outlaws of the Marsh), a full translation; Shenzhong lou (The Mirage Tower), a translation of excerpts; and Pipa Ji (Tale of the Pipa), an unfinished translation.[8] Shenzhong lou (The Mirage Tower) was transformed into kabuki, with many omissions of lyrics.[9] Translations of the other two plays drew on the form of Japanese jōruri.[10] It is unknown whether these translated plays had ever been performed on stage. Chinese theater in Japan is very different from its translations, adaptations, and performances in Europe which will be discussed in the following sections.
Yuan Zaju in the 18th and 19th Centuries in Europe: Translations and Performances Based on Adaptations
Western missionaries came into contact with Chinese vernacular literature, Yuanzaju when learning the Chinese language. In 1735, a French Jesuit missionary and sinologist Joseph Prémare translated Ji Junxiang’s Zhaoshi gu’er (The Orphan of the Zhao) into French. His rendition was not a translation in the strict sense as he omitted all aria lyrics and rhymed speech verses. Based on his work, adaptations in other languages including French, English, Italian, and German came into being, including Voltaire’s L'Orphelin de la Chine (The Orphan of China).[11] These versions retained only the plots of the original play and were performed in European dramatic conventions prevalent at the time rather than in the Chinese xiqu forms. The European audience, despite their enthusiasm toward Chinese culture which came from a remote Oriental country, and their strong interest in the exotic flavor of the play, could not fully understand, not to mention to begin to appreciate the true artistry of Chinese theater. Even Voltaire was no exception. Though he thought very highly of the ethics motifs of the Chinese play,
[4] Lin Hejun: “Overseas Dissemination and Performance of Chinese Opera: A Preliminary Exploration of the Performing Arts and Related Documentary Records at the Tang Pavilion in Nagasaki, Japan.” Chengdu Chinese Literature Journal, No. 49 (June 2015), p.118.
[5] ibid. p.123.
[6] Huang, Shizhong: “The Reception of Chinese Opera in Japan's Edo Period.” Literary Heritage, No. 2, 2009, pp.56-63.
[7] Huang, Shizhong: “The Reception of Chinese Opera in Japan's Edo Period.” Literary Heritage, No. 2, 2009, pp.56-63.
[8] Yumi Okazaki: “Study of Chinese Opera in the Edo Period in Japan: The Japanese Translations of Shuihu Ji (Water Margin), Shenzhong lou (The Mirage) and Pipa Ji (The Story of Pipa) ", New Theory of Chinese Drama History, Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2016, p.306.
[9] ibid. pp.312-314.
[10] ibid. pp.314-321.
[11] Leonard Cabell Pronko. Theater East and West: Perspectives toward a Total Theater, Berkeley University of California Press. 1967. pp.35-38.
he commented very unfavorably on the artistic forms of Chinese theater:
Zhaoshi gu'er (The Orphan of China) can only be compared to the English and Spanish Tragedies of the seventeenth century, which are enjoyed even now beyond the Pyrenees, and beyond the sea. The action of the Chinese piece lasts twenty-five years, as in the monstrous dramas of Shakespeare and Lopez de Vega, which they named Tragedies: it is a heap of incredible events.[12]
Evidently, in the eyes of the 18th century Europeans who strictly abided by the Three Unities of classical drama, the free flow of temporal and spatial settings in Chinese theater appeared strange.[13]
In the first half of the 19th century, other Yuan zaju plays were translated and introduced to Europe, including Lao sheng’er (An Heir in His old Age) by Wu Hanchen, Hangong Qiu (Autumn in Han Palace) by Ma Zhiyuan, and Huilan Ji (The Chalk Circle) by Li Xingdao, among others.[14] Huilan Ji (The Chalk Circle) was translated into French and German in turn. The German translation kept only the main plots of the original play but with considerable extension and rewriting. Later it caught the attention of the theatrical circle, and a stage performance was produced at the beginning of the 20th century.[15] It’s possible that Bertol Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, its main plot “pulling the boy from the chalk circle” (Scene five: The Chalk Circle), might have been influenced by this German translation. Translations and adaptations of The Chalk Circle went through processes very similar to that of The Orphan of the Zhao mentioned above. First, it was loosely translated. After that it was performed on stage in European dramatic conventions. This happened inevitably in early cross-cultural performances as more focus was given to the story plots and not to the original dramatic conventions. It’s noteworthy that there was a similar scenario in the Chinese context. Early performances of Shakespeare plays were based on plots from adapted stories of Shakespeare plays (i.e., narrative texts) in
[12] ibid.p.37.
[13] Since the first half of the 20th century, academic discourses in Chinese have started to be appear on translations and dissemination of classical Chinese dramas such as Zhaoshi gu'er (The Orphan of the Zhao) in the 18th century Europe, for example, articles by Chen Shouyi, Fan Cunzhong, and the like. Meng, Weigen: A History of Chinese Drama Translation. Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2017, pp.22, 25.
[14] Leonard Cabell Pronko. Theater East and West: Perspectives toward a Total Theater, Berkeley University of California Press. 1967. pp.38-39.
[15] Du, Wenwei. Chinese Themes and Chinese Theater on Broadway. Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore Co., Ltd. 2002, pp.98-99.
place of translations of the original texts.[16]
Another case of Chinese theater transformation in its extraterritorial performances is Hehanshan (The Untied Shirt) by Zhang Guobin. In the first half of the 19th century, Hehanshan was first translated into French by the French sinologist Antoine Bazin. Unlike Joseph Prémare who freely translated the original play text, Bazin produced a translation very faithful to the original. However, his version didn’t attract any attention at that time. Only after this translation melded with parts of Kanqian nu (A Slave to Money), a satirical comedy by Zheng Tingyu, did the play surprisingly become an instant success on the stage.[17]
Performances of Guangdong Xiqu in the 19th Century in North America
Around the latter half of the 19th century, Guangdong xiqu came along with Chinese overseas laborers to North America. In 1852, the Hong Fook Tong Chinese Dramatic Company (Hongfu Tang), a Cantonese opera company performed at the Grand Theater in San Francisco in the U.S.[18] In 1860 a touring Chinese opera troupe on their way to Paris to perform for Napoleon III stopped for a show in San Francisco. Their performance evoked an enthusiastic response from local Chinese laborers. There were many Chinese laborers who came to the American West during the Gold Rush.[19] In the latter half of the 19th century some Cantonese Opera Troupes also arrived in New York for performances.[20] In the 1890s there had been performances of Cantonese Opera (or yueju) in Vancouver, Canada[21]. However, being activities within the circle of Chinese immigrants, these exterritorial xiqu performances did not bring about any real exchanges between Chinese theater and Western theater, though occasionally there were Western faces among audiences and some reviews on the performances in the local newspapers.[22]
[16] Cao, Shujun and Sun, Fuliang, Shakespeare on the Chinese Stage. Harbin: Harbin Press, 1989, p.71.
[17] Lo, Shih-Lung. The Marvelous Undershirt of the Chinese Miser: From the French Translation of the Yuan play Hehanshan to the Adaptations and Performances of Kanqian Nu. Compilation & Translation Review. Mar. 2017, Vol. 10, Issue 1, p.4.
[18] Nancy Yunhwa Rao. Chinatown Opera Theater in North America, Urbana:University of Illinois Press, 2017, p.8.
[19] Kenneth Macgowan and William Melnitz. The Living Stage: A History of the World Theater，New York: Prentice Hall, 1955, p.292.
[20] Nancy Yunhwa Rao. Chinatown Opera Theater in North America, Urbana:University of Illinois Press, 2017, p.267.
[21] ibid. p.6.
[22] Similar to the dissemination of southeastern China xiqu to Southeastern Asia and North America (even to Latin America), Hebei bangzi and Peking Opera of northern China spread to Far East in Russia and Korea Peninsular with Chinese immigrants and their performances of these xiqu forms also belonged to the circle of overseas Chinese people. For details, see The Editorial Board of Chinese Opera Chronicles: Heilongjiang Volume, Chinese Opera Chronicles: Heilongjiang Volume, Beijing: China ISBN Center, 1994.p.8, p.11, p.69.
Mei Lanfang’s Visit to the U.S. and the Former USSR in the 20th Century
It is since Mei Lanfang’s performances in the U.S. and the former USSR that transcultural performances of Chinese xiqu started to have real influences on Western theater.[23] It’s important to note that these were not Mei Lanfang’s first overseas performances. Previously, he toured twice in Japan in 1919 and 1924, both successful. For example, the 1919 visit received full coverage, and enjoyed enthusiastic reviews and commentaries, in almost all prominent newspapers in Japan including Miyako Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, and Tokyo Daily News (now Daily News and Tokyo Asahi Shimbun).[24] However, Mei’s Japan visits did not impress the world or leave an imprint in theatrical history, not so much as his visits to the U.S. and the USSR. Although obviously commercial and political reasons[25] could be attributed to the latter success, to diagnose the contrast between these visits, we need to take much more into account in the latter case. Mei’s performances in Japan, though extraterritorial, happened in the circle of East Asian civilizations. The Japan visits, despite the enormous success, intrinsically belonged to a long tradition of Sino-Japan cultural communication, therefore, unlike the latter case, they were not real encounters between utterly heterogeneous cultures.
In the winter of 1929, Mei Lanfang led the Mei Opera Troupe to the U.S.[26] At that time there were very few books and articles written in English introducing Chinese theater. Even those few often contained misinformation or mistakes. With little knowledge of Chinese artistic concepts and value standards, and sometimes influenced by Eurocentrism or colonialism, Western people often had arbitrary views on Chinese theater. Further, very few Americans had ever been exposed
[23] It’s a historical tradition for the former Soviet Union to see its own theater culture as part of the Western theatrical tradition. The topic to be discussed in this section therefore is not from a perspective of Geopolitics.
[24] Toshiko Yoshida, (translated by Naoko Hosoi). Report on Mei Lanfang's 1919 and 1924 Performances in Japan-Commemorating the 90th Anniversary of Mr. Mei's Birth, The Art of Opera, No. 1, 1987, p.81-84. About Mei’s two successful tours in Japan, also see Miko Nakaman (translated by Guo Yanping and edited by Ping Lin Xuanhe). Theatre Arts. No. 2, 2015, p.54-56.
[25] For example, in 1919 when Mei Langfang was visiting Japan, patriotic Chinese students in Beijing were protesting against Paris Peace Conference because it transferred the German concessions to Japan. despite of the fact that China was a winning country of World War I. Chinese students in Tokyo held demonstration parade in response to Beijing students and some of them upon hearing news about Mei’s visit wrote letters to Mei requesting him not to come to Japan. For details see Toshiko Yoshida, (translated by Naoko Hosoi) Report on Mei Lanfang's 1919 and 1924 Performances in Japan-Commemorating the 90th Anniversary of Mr. Mei's Birth, The Art of Opera, No. 1, 1987, p.81.
[26] Qi, Rushan. Mei Lanfang's Travels to the United States. Changsha: Yuelu Publishing House Co., Ltd., p.11, p.184.
to highlights of Chinese theater and fewer still had seen the best of it. They mistakenly believed that the Cantonese opera they saw in Chinatown was all that there was to the Chinese theater.[27]
Mei Lanfang's visit to the United States was a great success. Mei Lanfang toured many major cities and was warmly and grandly welcomed by various social circles. Pomona College and the University of Southern California both conferred honorary Doctorates of Letter on him.[28] After watching his performance, Stark Young, an important American drama critic and dramatist, published a long monograph in Theater Arts Monthly, highly appraising Mei’s performing art, and made an insightful comparison between Chinese theater, Greek classical dramas, and British dramas in Shakespeare’s era.[29]
Mei Lanfang's trip to the United States brought him international fame. Had it not been for this American trip, Mei might not have had the opportunity to visit the Soviet Union in 1935. Mei’s performance in the Soviet Union, with his superb performing artistry, provided a precious opportunity for many world-class dramatists at that time to observe Chinese theater directly. Mei’s original intention may have been to show the charm and values of the performing Chinese art to the Western world. As such, he may not have anticipated that some dramatists in the West were amazed to find the tools for their anti-realism movement. At that time, they were struggling for new ways of theater art. Mei’s original intention may have been to show the charm and values of the performing Chinese art to the Western world. As such, he may not have anticipated that some dramatists in the West were struggling against realism, in a search for new ways for the art of theater, were amazed to find in this ancient Asian art, abundant resources and exemplifications for their new theories of drama and artistic practice, all the tools for their Anti-realism movement.
An example of the above can be seen in Vsevolod Meyerhold’s struggles against Soviet realist theater at that time. Mei Lanfang’s performances greatly inspired and encouraged him. When directing The Queen of Spades for Leningrad Opera House, he successfully borrowed from the Chinese theater the techniques of “virtuality” the flexible handling of stage space.[30] Another example was Brecht who was in Mosco in exile from the Nazi regime. He attended Mei’s performance and got inspiration from it. In the same year, Brecht wrote his article “On the Alienation Effect of Chinese Opera Performing Arts” and proposed the famous concept, “alienation effect” (also translated as “Distancing effect"
[27] ibid., p.127.
[28] ibid., pp.86-122. p.185.
[29] For details, see Young, Stark, translated by Mei Shaowu. Mei Lanfang, The Study of Opera, Vol. 11, (Beijing: Culture and Art Press, 1984), pp.240-255.
[30] Tong Daoming. Theatrical schools, Virtuality and Others, Beijing: China Theater Press, 1983, p.96.
“Estrangement effect" or “Defamiliarization effect”) [31] which is the cornerstone of his Epic Theatre theory. Brecht’s theories and practices opened up new horizons to contemporary dramaturges and revolutionized concepts of Western classical theater, exerting profound influences on Post-World War II theater in the West and even the world theater.
Performing Chinese Xiqu in English
In 1934, Hsiung Shih-I (also S. I. Hsiung or Xiong Shiyi) adapted the Peking Opera Hongzong liema (the Red-Maned Stallion) into the play Lady Precious Stream. The play was staged in London in the same year and was also performed on Broadway in New York the following year, which was also a success. One of the important reasons for the success of the play is that the translator made appropriate choices in adapting the original story according to the value orientation of Western audiences. For example, he deleted the plot of marriage between Xue Pinggui, the hero and his second wife Princess Daizhan, and highlighted the love between the hero and his first wife, the heroine, Wang Baochuan.[32] In its Broadway production, all characters but one were played by Americans with the only one Chinese person cast as a storyteller or an “honorable commentator”; its stage retained mostly the original features of traditional Peking Opera, such as an empty stage, horse whips, and other props. [33]
In 1961 and 1967, The Institute for Advanced Studies in Theater Arts staged Scott's Butterfly Dream. Scott, a British Professor teaching in the U.S., employed gestures and stylized movements of Chinese xiqu in his production. For that purpose, he even invited Hong Kong-based Peking Opera artists Hu Yongfang and Hu Hongyan to coach his American and Canadian cast. The production of The Butterfly Lady retained conventional elements of Chinese theater, namely, traditional stage, headdress, masks, props, costumes, makeup, and was appended with luogujing (notation for drum and gong music, concussion music of xiqu).[34] This author argues that Scott’s production was the first transcultural performance of Chinese xiqu in a Western language which largely retained
[31] Leonard Cabell Pronko. Theater East and West: Perspectives toward a Total Theater, Berkeley University of California Press. 1967, p56; Also see Edwin Wilson and Alvin Golefarb, Living Theater: An Introduction to Theatre History, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983, p.391; Also see Kenneth Rea. “Eastern theatre, its influence on the West”, in The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. Ed. Colin Chambers. London: Continuum, 2002, p.235.
[32] Similarly, Broadway musical Lute Song, which was adapted from The Tale of Pipa, also emphasized Lady Zhao’s steadfast love to her husband Cai Bojie while weakening the theme of filial piety. For details, see Du, Wenwei. Chinese Themes and Chinese Theater on Broadway. Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore Co., Ltd. 2002, pp.84-94.
[33] ibid., pp.167-169.
[34] ibid., pp.170-171.
its Oriental artistic features with only one imperfection, his omission of the arias of the original play.[35]
Stage performances of Chinese theater must include four basic elements, namely, singing, acting, reciting, and acrobatic fighting. Among them, singing is the most important. However, it is extremely difficult to sing the translated lyrics as English and Chinese are very different. Chinese is mainly a monosyllabic language, and except for the two nasal consonants “n” and “ng” its rhymes end with vowels. English is usually polysyllabic, and its rhymes end with consonants. Therefore, after the Chinese lyrics are translated into English, the syllables of the new lyrics are not the same as those in the Chinese source texts. It is then reasonable to conclude that the translated lyrics will not match the original melody and can no longer be sung in the original singing style. Therefore, in 1972, when Yang Shipeng translated and directed the Peking Opera Wulong yuan (Oolong Courtyard) at the University of Hawaii, all the dialogues in his production were based on authentic and colloquial English familiar to the audience but the lyrics are still sung in Chinese. Yang Shipeng used Romanization, a way of phoneticizing the original lyrics, allowing actors who did not understand Chinese to imitate the pronunciation of Chinese in their singing.[36] This is somewhat similar to the way the Chinese artists sing Western operas in Italian, French, or German.
It is Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak who completely solved the problem of singing Peking Opera in English. With her impeccable command of English and familiarity with Peking Opera music, she translated the Chinese lyrics into exquisite English and her translations rhyme just like poetry that matched well the original music. Since 1984, Wei Lishain has successively translated and directed a series of Peking Opera works, assisted by Chinese Peking Opera artists: Feng Huanchao (The Phoenix Returns to Its Nest, Yutang chun (or Jade Hall of Spring/Jade Hall Spring), Shajia bang, Silang tanmu (Silang Visits His Mother), Qin xianglian, Yangmeng nujiang (Women Generals of the Yang Family), Baishe zhuan (The White Snake), and so on. These are traditional classic plays, new dramas in traditional costumes, and modern plays. Owing to her work, Peking Opera performed in English based on translations faithful to the original works finally appeared on the Western stage (in the same way that Chinese artists in the past had repeatedly reproduced Western plays in Chinese faithful to the originals). The actors who participated in these English Peking Opera performances were students from the Theater and Dance department of UH, adding another dimension of significance to Walczak’s job of translating and directing. These Western students, and more and more after them who have been trained in the system of Chinese theater, started to infuse the Chinese artistic spirit and devices of expression into their own theatrical practices after their graduation.
It is worth mentioning that in the 1960s, an artist named
[35] Xiong, Xianguan. Transformation of Crossing the Boundary: A Case Study of English Translation and Performance of Chinese Opera, Guangyi: Lingual, Literary and Cultural translation, No. 9, 2013, p.128.
[36] ibid., p.129.
Hu Guixin performed Cantonese opera Luo shen (The Goddess of River Luo) and Baishe zhuan (the Legend of the White Snake) in English in Singapore where ethnic Chinese people comprise the main population and English is the dominant language.[37]
Overseas Xiqu Performances after 1949
Due to the Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the U.S., the People’s Republic China was isolated by the Western world since its founding in 1949. However, even during this long period of isolation, there had been performances by Chinese visiting theater troupes in the West. Among them, the most influential was the Chinese Art Troupe for the Second International Drama Festival in Paris in 1955. Among the performances, Peking operas Sancha kou (The Crossway/ The Crossroads) and Qiu jiang (Autumn River) performed by Zhang Yunxi and Zhang Chunhua, became a source of interest for their French peers. Jean Genet, a prominent French poet, playwright, and novelist, tried some devices of expression of Chinese theater in his new plays, The Blacks and The Balcony after watching the performances.[38] As for the period since the 1980s after the implementation of the “open and reform” policy of mainland China, there were numerous xiqu performances by various types of Chinese visiting troupes.
Since the 1980s, many Chinese people have gone to the West for study, work, or for immigration, and among them are xiqu artists and other theatrical workers. They presented Chinese xiqu in new appearances to local audiences and to the Western world. Take for example, “Qi Shufang Peking Opera Troupe” in New York — the troupe was invited to perform in many arts festivals, toured around the United States, and enjoyed wide acclaim. It also performed and presented lectures at many universities, high schools, primary schools, and local theater houses.
At the end of the 1990s, another impressive event of Chinese xiqu performance was the full-length production of Peony Pavilion, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng. In 1998, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, the Paris Autumn Festival in France, and the Sidney Music and Arts Festival jointly produced the full-length Mudan ting (the Peony Pavilion).[39] The production made its first appearance in Lincoln Center for Performing Arts. It then toured around the world. In 2003 the production made its Asian debut in Singapore. The reasons that cultural institutions like the Lincoln Center were willing to invest in the production of this ancient classic Chinese drama should be the elevated international status of China and its increased cultural influence in the international arena as a result of many years’ efforts of opening-up and reform. It would be inconceivable for anyone in any historical period
[37] Hu guixin, narrator. The Tumbler on the Red Carpet. Ou, Rubo, Huang, Wenying, editors. Singapore. The Youth Book. Co. 2013, pp.37-38.
[38] Leonard Cabell Pronko. Theater East and West: Perspectives toward a Total Theater, Berkeley University of California Press. 1967, pp.63-67.
[39] “The Complete ‘Peony Pavilion’ Performance Manual.
” Singapore, 6-16 February 2003, p.1.
before the 21st century that the Western world could have paid so much attention to and would have been willing to invest handsomely into the production of an ancient Chinese drama.
When Mudan ting (The Peony Pavilion) was in Singapore for its first Asian debut, Lianhe Zaobao (literally Joint Morning Post), a local newspaper of Singapore, requested a review from this author.[40] I watched the performance from the beginning to the end, the total 55 scenes in its entirety. The entire performance consisted of six large sections. Though it was entitled “full-length” the two scenes, namely, “Xie Zhen (Drawing a Self-portrait)” and “Wan Zhen (Admiring the Portrait)” were staged in the form of tanci and some parts of the drama were performed in the form of puppet shows. Chen Shi-Zheng kept unchanged the original lyrics and verses by Tang Xianzu and used mostly the Kunqu Opera musical scores edited by Ye Tang. Chen tried hard to recreate an environment similar to that of the scholarly audiences of the Ming Dynasty in Jiangnan (or South of the Yangtze River) of China by using realistic props, stage set-ups, and designs. A pavilion-style stage surrounded by a pond of real water where fish and mandarin ducks were playing, the Chinese huamei bird (or melodious laughing thrush) singing, and furniture in the Ming Dynasty style. For carnivalesque and festive “re’nao” stage effects, stilt-walking, rubber band jumping kongzhu,and Chinese Kungfu were inserted now and then, here and there. It’s obvious that Chen Shi-Zheng’s production of the full-length Mudan ting (The Peony Pavilion) was out of consideration for a commercial market in the United States. It is understandable that the director tried hard to infuse Chinese folklore to attract more Western audiences and to enliven the somehow lengthy and monotonous atmosphere in the performance. However, acts like cleaning a real wooden chamber pot on stage and dumping the dirty water into the clean pond can be nothing but indecorous or bawdy. Meanwhile, the too realistic style of performances is not in accordance with the basic tone of this exquisite and elegant drama.
Looking back at the history of overseas dissemination and transcultural performances of Chinese xiqu, it is found, that it is a very gradual and complicated historical process. Its complexity lies in that xiqu, different from painting, music, and dancing, is a very complicated and comprehensive performing art. Transcultural performances of xiqu in territories beyond Chinese culture and for audiences from distinct cultural backgrounds will inevitably be met with a variety of difficulties. Those may include, but are not limited to, languages, arias, and stylized performance routine. To cope with them, Chinese xiqu will have to come up with solutions and strategies accordingly. In this way, Chinese xiqu will transform in ways inconceivable in its native land and will need to display new visages unprecedented in its native country.
[40] Sun, Mei. "A Delightful Thing, Beyond Time and Space: Watching the Asian Premiere of the Complete Edition of The Peony Pavilion.’” LianheZaobao, February 12, 2003, section 8.
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Toshiko, Yoshida. “Report on Mei Lanfang's 1919 and 1924 Performances in Japan-Commemorating
the 90th Anniversary of Mr. Mei's Birth.”. ,Translated by Hosoi, Naoko. The Art of Opera, No. 1, 1987, pp.80-85.
Yumi, Okazaki. “Study of Chinese Opera in the Edo Period in Japan: The Japanese Translations
of Shuihu zhan (Water Margin), Shenzhong lou (The Mirage), and Pipa ji (The Story of Pipa). ". New Theory of Chinese Drama History, Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2016, pp.305–322.
Young, Stark. “Mei Lanfang.”. Translated by Shaowu, Mei. The Study of Opera, Vol. 11, Beijing: Culture and Art Press, 1984, pp.240-255.
Lin, Hejun. “Overseas Dissemination and Performance of Chinese Opera: A Preliminary
Exploration of the Performing Arts and Related Documentary Records at the Tang Pavilion
in Nagasaki, Japan.”. Chengda Chinese Literature Journal, No. 49, June, 2015, pp.113-152.
Huang, Shizhong. “The Reception of Chinese Opera in Japan's Edo Period.”. Literary Heritage, No. 3, 2014, pp.128-138.
Huang, Shizhong. “A Textual Research on Chinese Opera on the Eastward Journey in the Edo Period.". Cultural Heritage, No. 2, 2009, pp.56-63.
Xiong, Xianguan. “Transformation of Crossing the Boundary: A Case Study of English
Translation and Performance of Chinese Opera.”. Linguistic, Literary and Cultural Translation, No. 9, 2013, pp.125-147.
Lo, Shih-Lung. "The Marvelous Undershirt of the Chinese Miser: From the French Translation
of the Yuan play Hehanshan to the Adaptations and Performances of Kanqian Nu.". Compilation & Translation Review, Vol. 10, Issue 1,March, 2017, pp.1-38.
(3) Others
Sun, Mei. “A Delightful Thing, Beyond Time and Space: Watching the Asian Premiere of the Complete Edition of Mudan ting (The Peony Pavilion).”. LianheZaobao, 12, February, 2003, section 8.
“The Complete Mudan ting (The Peony Pavilion) Performance Manual.” Singapore, 6-16, February, 2003.
2. English
(1) Books/monographs
Piet van der Loon. The Classical Theatre and Art Song of South Fukien: a study of three Ming anthologies, Taipei: SMC Publishing INC. 1992.
Kenneth Macgowan and William Melnitz. The Living Stage: A History of the World Theater, New York: Prentice Hall, 1955.
Leonard Cabell Pronko. Theater East and West: Perspectives toward a Total Theater, Berkeley University of California Press. 1967.
Nancy Yunhwa Rao. Chinatown Opera Theater in North America, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017.
Edwin Wilson and Alvin Golefarb, Living Theater: An Introduction to Theatre History, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983.
(2) Articles
Kenneth Rea. “Eastern theatre, its influence on the West.” in The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. Ed. Colin Chambers. London: Continuum, 2002.
This article was published in Chinese in 2018.
Sun, Mei. "A Retrospection of Xiqu Overseas Performances from a Transcultural Perspective". Sino-Humanitas, vol. 26, 2018, pp. 145-158.
Translator 1: Hailing Lyu, Binghamton University
Translator 2: Xueping Liang-Lee, Binghamton University
Proofreader 1: Derek Higginbottom
Proofreader 2: Emily Rosman, Binghamton University
