In:
New Theatre Quarterly, Cambridge University Press (CUP), Vol. 38, No. 1 ( 2022-02), p. 60-74
Abstract:
The Chinese actor Mei Lanfang and his retinue prepared several documents for his visits to the USA in 1930 and the USSR in 1935. Using these primary sources, this article explores the reasons why Mei presented traditional Chinese theatre differently in each context. One reason was winning popularity among specifically targeted audiences, as indicated by the carefully selected programmes, explanatory discourses, and illustrations from promotional materials. Through a comparative examination, this article argues that, for the American tour, Mei made traditional Chinese theatre an emblem of ancient Chinese art, while, for the Soviet tour, he endorsed the Soviet Union’s social and artistic enterprises, labelling traditional Chinese theatre a modern art. Both images, one static and the other dynamic, were authentic representations of the multifaceted contemporary Chinese theatre as it underwent modernization. Wei Feng received his PhD in Theatre Studies from Trinity College Dublin and teaches in the School of Foreign Languages and Literature at Shandong University. He is the author of Intercultural Aesthetics in Traditional Chinese Theatre: From 1978 to the Present (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). Ye Pi (corresponding author) teaches in the School of Foreign Languages and Literature at Shandong University, specializing in Russian literature.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0266-464X
,
1474-0613
DOI:
10.1017/S0266464X21000427
Language:
English
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Publication Date:
2022
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2030067-0
SSG:
9,3
SSG:
7,25
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