Table Of ContentALTERNATIVE CHINESE OPERA
IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION
Performing Zero
Daphne P. Lei
STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE
Series Editors: Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton
Studies in International Performance
Published in association with the International Federation of Theatre Research
General Editors: Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton
Culture and performance cross borders constantly, and not just the borders
that define nations. In this new series, scholars of performance produce interac-
tions between and among nations and cultures as well as genres, identities and
imaginations.
Inter-national in the largest sense, the books collected in the Studies in International
Performance series display a range of historical, theoretical and critical approaches
to the panoply of performances that make up the global surround. The series
embraces ‘Culture’ which is institutional as well as improvised, underground or
alternate, and treats ‘Performance’ as either intercultural or transnational as well
as intracultural within nations.
Titles include:
Patrick Anderson and Jisha Menon (editors)
VIOLENCE PERFORMED
Local Roots and Global Routes of Conflict
Elaine Aston and Sue-Ellen Case
STAGING INTERNATIONAL FEMINISMS
Christopher Balme
PACIFIC PERFORMANCES
Theatricality and Cross-Cultural Encounter in the South Seas
Matthew Isaac Cohen
PERFORMING OTHERNESS
Java and Bali on International Stages, 1905–1952
Susan Leigh Foster
WORLDING DANCE
Helen Gilbert and Jacqueline Lo
PERFORMANCE AND COSMOPOLITICS
Cross-Cultural Transactions in Australasia
Helena Grehan
PERFORMANCE, ETHICS AND SPECTATORSHIP IN A GLOBAL AGE
Judith Hamera
DANCING COMMUNITIES
James Harding and Cindy Rosenthal (editors)
THE RISE OF PERFORMANCE STUDIES
Rethinking Richard Schecher’s Broad Spectrum
Performance, Difference, and Connection in the Global City
Silvija Jestrovic and Yana Meerzon (editors)
PERFORMANCE, EXILE AND ‘AMERICA’
Ola Johansson
COMMUNITY THEATRE AND AIDS
Sonja Arsham Kuftinec
THEATRE, FACILITATION, AND NATION FORMATION IN THE BALKANS AND
MIDDLE EAST
Daphne P. Lei
ALTERNATIVE CHINESE OPERA IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION
Performing Zero
Carol Martin (editor)
THE DRAMATURGY OF THE REAL ON THE WORLD STAGE
Alan Read
THEATRE, INTIMACY & ENGAGEMENT
The Last Human Venue
Shannon Steen
RACIAL GEOMETRIES OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC, ASIAN PACIFIC AND
AMERICAN THEATRE
Joanne Tompkins
UNSETTLING SPACE
Contestations in Contemporary Australian Theatre
S. E. Wilmer
NATIONAL THEATRES IN A CHANGING EUROPE
Evan Darwin Winet
INDONESIAN POSTCOLONIAL THEATRE
Spectral Genealogies and Absent Faces
Forthcoming titles:
Adrian Kear
THEATRE AND EVENT
Studies in International Performance
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–4039–4456–6 (hardback)
978–1–4039–4457–3 (paperback)
(outside North America only)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a
standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us
at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the
ISBN quoted above.
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Alternative Chinese Opera
in the Age of Globalization
Performing Zero
Daphne P. Lei
Palgrave
macmillan
© Daphne P. Lei 2011
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-24565-5
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication
may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may
be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identfied as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-31903-9 ISBN 978-0-230-30042-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230300422
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Daphne P. Lei.
Alternative Chinese Opera in the age of globalization : performing
zero / Daphne P. Lei.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Summary: “Bringing the study of Chinese theatre into the 21st-century,
Lei discusses ways in which traditional art can survive and thrive in the age
of modernization and globalization. Building on her previous work, this new
book focuses on various forms of Chinese “opera” in locations around the
Pacifi c Rim, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and California”— Provided by
publisher.
1. Operas, Chinese—History and criticism. 2. Operas, Chinese—
Performances-Pacific area 3.Chinese-Ethnic identity. l.Title
ML1751.C5L44 2011
792.5089’951—dc22
2010050923
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
For David, Milo, and Rafe,
who give me a home
Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgements x
Series Editors’ Preface xii
Introduction: Performing Zero 1
Chinese nations 2
Center and peripheries 5
Zero 7
Chinese opera 8
Alternative Chinese opera 11
Nostalgia 15
Methodology 18
Chapter outlines 20
1 Femininity Comes to the Rescue: Innovative Jingju
in Taiwan 23
The rhetoric of ethnicity in Taiwan 24
Traditional jingju in Taiwan 27
Modern jingju in Transition: Early new jingju and early
Innovative Jingju 32
Strategizing Innovative Jingju: depoliticization and
effeminization 40
The “innovations” of Innovative Jingju 56
Conclusion 63
2 Pacification and Silent Resistance: Performing Hong Kong
in The Flower Princess 64
Hong Kong: colonial, postcolonial, and neocolonial 65
The Flower Princess (Dinühua, Dae Neui Fa) 71
Nostalgia, loss and mourning (views from the local) 92
Conclusion 96
3 The Blossoming of the Transnational Peony: Performing
Alternative China in California 98
Keywords to The Peony Pavilion 99
vii
viii Contents
Peony productions 103
The Young Lovers’ Edition 105
Transnational consumption: the California tour 116
The California performances 121
Transnational racial split 139
Conclusion 140
4 Waiting for Meaning: The Joint Venture of Robert Wilson,
Jingju, and Taiwan 142
The stakes of international and intercultural grand
collaborations 143
Robert Wilson and his knee structure 146
The Orlando adventure 147
Problems with the grand replication 171
Conclusion 175
Conclusion 178
Notes 184
Bibliography 214
Index 228
List of Figures
1.1 Zheng Chenggong and Taiwan (The National Theatre,
Taipei, 1999) 39
1.2 Wang Youdao Divorces His Wife (The Guoguang Theatre,
Taipei, 2004) 44
1.3 Three Persons, Two Lamps (The New Stage, Taipei, 2005) 48
1.4 The Golden Cangue (The National Theatre, Taipei, 2006) 54
2.1 The Flower Princess: The Youth Edition (The Studio
Theatre at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts,
Hong Kong, 2007) 74
2.2 The Flower Princess: The Youth Edition (The Studio
Theatre at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts,
Hong Kong, 2007) 78
3.1 The Peony Pavilion: The Young Lovers’ Edition
(Barclay Theatre, University of California, Irvine,
California, 2006) 128
3.2 The Peony Pavilion: The Young Lovers’ Edition
(Zellerbach Theatre, University of California, Berkeley,
California, 2006) 135
4.1 Orlando (The National Theatre, Taipei, 2009) 168
4.2 Orlando (The National Theatre, Taipei, 2009) 170
ix
Acknowledgements
A study with transnational scope like this one cannot be accomplished
without institutional support and recognition of the value of the project.
Among multiple grants I received during this period, I wish to acknowl-
edge two major awards. Both the Single Investigator Innovation Grant I
received in 2006 from the Council on Research, Computing and Library
Resources at the University of California, Irvine and the Pacific Rim
Development Grant I received from the University of California in 2009
helped make it possible for me to be a truly Pacific Rim investigator.
The doctoral faculty of my home department, the Department of
Drama, UC Irvine, and of our sister department, the Department of
Theatre and Dance, UC San Diego have been a source of constant sup-
port for my research. My graduate students from both departments as
well as from other campuses have enlightened me with their research
projects and inspiring conversations. UC’s Multicampus Research Group
in International Performance and Culture also provided a unique space
for my intellectual growth in the past three years.
Special thanks are due my series editors, Professors Janelle Reinelt and
Brian Singleton. Their insightful comments have helped me shape the
project and inform it with a better international understanding. They
are also academic colleagues whose works and passion I greatly admire.
I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with them. I am
also grateful to the Palgrave editorial and publication teams for perfect-
ing a smooth publication process.
This is a project about collaboration along peripheries. I wish to
express my gratitude to the people from all over the world who have
helped me: Milky Man Shan Cheung and Professor Yu Siu Wah of the
Chinese University of Hong Kong; Vivian Chang, and Zhong Baoshan
(Vice President) of the National Guoguang Opera Company in Taipei; Li
Huey-mei, Huang Pen-ting and Michael Chang-han Liu of the National
Theatre in Taipei; Amy O’Dowd and all the Peony lovers from California;
and photographers Chung Yu-sang, Hsu Pei-Hung and Liu Chen-Hsiang.
Special thanks also go to Professor Chan Sau-Yan, who opened the door
to Hong Kong Cantonese opera for me, as well as to Professor Wing-
Chun Ng, whose knowledge of and enthusiasm for Cantonese opera
have been a constant source of inspiration.
x
