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4 - Cantonese Opera and the Layering of Space on the Australian Goldfields

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2022

Joanne Tompkins ,
Julie Holledge ,
Jonathan Bollen  and
Liyang Xia
Joanne Tompkins
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
Julie Holledge
Affiliation:
Flinders University of South Australia
Jonathan Bollen
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Liyang Xia
Affiliation:
Centre for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo
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Summary

Chapter 4 explores the travelling form of Cantonese opera in the Guangdong region of south China in the nineteenth century. We address the genre’s wide geopolitical context by combining it with the popular form as toured on the Australian goldfields in Victoria in circus-style tents in the 1850s to 1870s to entertain miners who hoped to make a fortune and return to China. The virtual reconstruction of a tent theatre set up for the opening of a joss house (or temple) in Victoria suggests a consistency from the Pearl River Delta to the goldfields. We examine the sophisticated techniques used by this sojourner company to minimise the disruptions that a touring schedule with multiple and dissimilar sites of performance creates. Carrying a portable stage/backstage platform, and orientating the audience–performer relationship, the company created a spatial layering of two geographies to support its sacred and secular repertoire.

Keywords

Cantonese operagoldfieldsChinaVictoriatentsbamboo theatresritualsojournerstravelling theatrerepertoire
Type
Chapter
Information
Visualising Lost Theatres
Virtual Praxis and the Recovery of Performance Spaces
 , pp. 96 - 126
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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