Performing the Socialist State offers a new account of the origins, evolution, and legacies of key trends in twentieth-century Chinese theater. Instead of seeing the Republican, high socialist, and postsocialist periods as radically distinct, it identifies key continuities in theatrical practices and shared aspirations for the social role and artistic achievements of performance across eras. Xiaomei Chen focuses on the long and remarkable careers of three founders of modern Chinese theater and film, Tian Han, Hong Shen, and Ouyang Yuqian. They introduced Western plays and theories, adapted traditional Chinese operas, and helped develop a tradition of leftist theater in the Republican period that paved the way for the construction of a socialist canon. Chen investigates how their visions for a free, democratic China fared in the initial years after the founding of the People's Republic, briefly thriving only to founder as artists had to adapt to the Communist Party's demand to produce ideologically correct works. Bridging the "red classics" of the 1960s and the postsocialist period, she considers the transformations of the depictions of women, peasants, soldiers, scientists, and revolutionary history in films, plays, and operas and examines how the market economy, star culture, social networks, and state sponsorship affected dramatic productions. Countering the view that state interference stifles artistic imagination, Chen argues that theater professionals have negotiated with ruling ideologies to create works that are politically acceptable yet aesthetically ingenious. Emphasizing the dynamism of Chinese performance cultures, Performing the Socialist State has implications spanning global theater, comparative literature, political and social histories, and Chinese cultural studies.

Book Information
ISBN 9780231197762
Author Xiaomei Chen
Format Hardback
Page Count 376
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
Weight(grams) 152g