Table Of ContentWOMEN IN ASIAN
PERFORMANCE
Women in Asian Performance offers a vital re-assessment of women’s contributions
to Asian performance traditions, focusing for the first time on their specific histor -
ical, cultural and performative contexts.
Arya Madhavan brings together leading scholars from across the globe to make
an exciting intervention into current debates around femininity and female
representation on stage. This collection looks afresh at the often centuries-old
aesthetic theories and acting conventions that have informed ideas of gender in
Asian performance. It is divided into three parts:
• erasure– the history of the presence and absence of female bodies on Asian stages;
• intervention – the politics of female intervention into patriarchal performance
genres;
• reconstruction – the strategies and methods adopted by women in redefining
their performance practice.
Establishing a radical, culturally specific approach to addressing female performance-
making, Women in Asian Performanceis a must-read for scholars and students across
Asian Studies and Performance Studies.
Arya Madhavan is Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at the University of Lincoln,
UK, and a practising kutiyattam performer.
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WOMEN IN ASIAN
PERFORMANCE
Aesthetics and politics
Edited by Arya Madhavan
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Arya Madhavan;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Arya Madhavan to be identified as the author of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification
and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Madhavan, Arya, editor.
Title: Women in Asian performance : aesthetics and politics /
[edited by] Arya Madhavan.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016033830| ISBN 9781138917811 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781138917828 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781315688800 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Women in the performing arts—Asia. |
Women in the performing arts—Political aspects—Asia.
Classification: LCC PN1590.W64 W596 2017 | DDC 791.082/095—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016033830
ISBN: 978-1-138-91781-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-91782-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-68880-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo and Stone Sans
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
I dedicate this book to the fond memories of Margi Sathi,
who was my Guru of kutiyattam and a most remarkable
actor and person. I will miss you always!
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CONTENTS
List of illustrations ix
Notes on contributors x
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
Arya Madhavan
PART I
Erasure 13
1 The woman thing: issues and advances for women
in Sundanese performance 15
Kathy Foley
2 Women in a man’s world: gender and power
in Japanese noh theatre 28
Barbara Geilhorn
3 “Just like a woman”: female impersonation, gender
construction and role playing in Begum Barve 39
Angelie Multani
4 Feminist Asian cosmopolitanism in Singapore
tango clubs 52
Shzr Ee Tan
viii Contents
5 Stars on the rise: the jingju actresses in Republican China 66
Xing Fan
PART II
Intervention 81
6 Between roars and tears: towards the female kathakali 83
Arya Madhavan
7 “Ruined by several actresses who added pornographic
elements”: the popularity of emerging actresses in
Chinese jingju (Beijing opera) and the censorship
of two plays 97
Siyuan Liu
8 Theatre of Kishida Rio: towards re-signification
of “home” for women in Asia 110
Nobuko Anan
9 Foreign female interventions in traditional Asian
arts: Rebecca Teele and Cristina Formaggia 124
Margaret Coldiron
10 An unexpected voice: performance, gender and
protecting tradition in Korean mask dance dramas 142
CedarBough T. Saeji
PART III
Reconstruction 157
11 Rasatrialogue: the politics of the female body
in Asian performance 159
Sreenath Nair
12 Nangiar kuthu: interference, intervention and
inheritance 173
Diane Daugherty
13 Women in British Asian theatre 187
Graham Ley
Index 199
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
10.1 The old grandmother from Gasan Ogwangdae and
Bongsan Talchum. 147
11.1 The independent entity of individual elements in the
performance. 168
12.1 Margi Sathi as Yashoda, Krishna’s foster mother, 2001. 178
Table
5.1 A set programme of Spinning Cottonas performed by
Tong Zhiling, Liang Cishan and Ci Shaoquan in 1947. 74
