Alternative Chinese Opera in the Age of Globalization: Performing Zero (Studies in International Performance) - Hardcover

Lei, D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 023024565X ISBN 13: 9780230245655

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Synopsis

This book is a ground-breaking study of 'alternative Chinese opera', contemporary innovative forms of traditional operas on the Pacific Rim. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and incorporating a wealth of interviews, the author provides an in-depth examination of local performances and balances discourse on the local and global, personal and political, national and transnational, offering a fresh way of addressing the problems with binaries such as tradition/innovation, Chinese/Chinese Identities, center/peripheries, home/diaspora in the age of globalization.

Chapters deal with the sociopolitical significance of the Innovative Beijing opera in Taiwan, a Youth Edition of the Cantonese opera classic The Flower Princess in Hong Kong, The Peony Pavilion performance with the transnational capital in California, and the avant-garde adventure of Robert Wilson's Beijing opera Orlando in Taiwan. Contrary to traditional scholarship, Alternative Chinese Opera addresses the "here and now' - the immediacy and stake of an age-old genre - with alternative voices from the peripheries.

About this title

Product Description:

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 Pacific Rim, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and California.

Review:

'Alternative Chinese Opera is a marvellous piece of theater scholarship and critical commentary on the contemporary performances of major genres of traditional Chinese opera around the Pacific Rim. The study offers a grand vista that is transnational in scope and suggestive in comparative analysis even as it captures the cultural and historical specificities of each locale. Whether the subject is Cantonese opera in post-colonial "born-again" Chinese Hong Kong, self-consciousness innovative Jungju opera in multicultural Taiwan, or reinvented classical Kunqu opera presented at campus theatres in California, insights and nuances abound in Lei's discussion of the staged performance and the cultural politics on and behind the scene. Along China's periphery are such uneven cultural terrains, where Lei encourages us to be steadfast in celebrating these resilient and dynamic performance traditions and to remain hopeful that they will stay vital' - Wing Chung Ng, Associate Professor of History, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 023024565X
• ISBN 13: 9780230245655
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 244