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Chinese Xiqu Performance and Moving-Image Media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

MEGAN EVANS
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Abstract

This article analyses various approaches to the transposition of Chinese xiqu performance into moving-image media in terms of preserving xiqu's aesthetic aims. Pre- and post-Cultural Revolution filmic examples, as well as contemporary television serials, are discussed. I argue that within a ‘cinema of attractions’ rather than a realist line of inquiry, ‘filmed theatre’ continues as a viable and valued stream of access to xiqu performance for contemporary audiences.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 21 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2009

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References

NOTES

1 Goldstein, Joshua, ‘Mei Lanfang and the Nationalization of Peking Opera, 1912–1930’, Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 7, 2 (2007), pp. 377–420CrossRefGoogle Scholar; John Hu, ‘Ming Dynasty Drama’, and Mackerras, Colin, ‘The Drama of the Qing Dynasty’, both in Mackerras, Colin, ed., Chinese Theater from Its Origins to the Present Day (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1981), pp. 60–91, 92–117Google Scholar.

2 Berry, Chris and Farquhar, Mary, China on Screen: Cinema and Nation (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), pp. 52–3Google Scholar.

3 Ibid., p. 50.

4 Gunning, Tom, ‘The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde,’ in Elsaesser, T. with Barker, A., eds., Early Cinema – Space – Frame – Narrative (London: British Film Institute, 1990), pp. 56–62, here p. 59Google Scholar.

5 Berry and Farquhar, pp. 47–74.

6 Zhang, Yingjin and Xiao, Zhiwei, Encyclopedia of Chinese Film (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 166–7Google Scholar.

7 Xiaojian, Gao, Zhongguo xiqu dianying shi (History of Chinese Xiqu Film) (Beijing: Wenhua yishu chubanshe, 2005), pp. 11–14Google Scholar, and e.g. pp. 184–5 (praising the film Women Generals for successfully preserving xiqu aesthetic requirements) and p. 250 (criticizing White Snake for approaching the quality of a narrative feature film). Luo Hui's generally effective analysis of theatricality in Chinese film perpetuates a realist prejudice in describing xiqu influences on contemporary Chinese film as ‘aesthetic issues’ earlier makers of xiqu films had ‘failed to surmount’. He also fails to address the immensely productive xiqu film experimentation of the early 1960s. Hui, Luo, ‘Theatricality and Cultural Critique in Chinese Cinema’, Asian Theatre Journal, 25, 1 (Spring 2008), pp. 122–37, here pp. 124–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Berry and Farquhar, pp. 48–9.

9 Carroll, Noël, Engaging the Moving Image (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), pp. 244–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Berry and Farquhar, pp. 57–8.

11 Titled Yangmen Nüjiang in Mandarin, the film was directed by Cui Wei and produced by the Beijing Film Studio (Beijing Dianying Zhipianchang) in 1960.

12 Titled Bai she zhuan in Mandarin, the film was directed by Bo Chaowu and produced by the Shanghai Film Studio (Shanghai Dianying Zhipianchang) in 1980.

13 Rozik, Eli, ‘Back to “cinema is filmed theatre”’, Semiotica, 157, 1/4 (2005), pp. 169–85, here p. 178Google Scholar.

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16 Gao Xiaojian, p. 168.

17 Ibid., p. 184, quoting a report from a 1962 symposium on xiqu film in which Cui Wei participated.

18 Ibid, p. 168, quoting from a 1960 newspaper article in which Cui discussed his approach to making the film.

19 Yau, Esther, ‘China’, in Luhr, William, ed., World Cinema Since 1945 (New York: Ungar Publishing Co., 1987), pp. 116–131, here p. 124Google Scholar.

20 In early versions of the legend, the villain and hero roles were reversed. The snake spirit was portrayed as an evil, man-eating demon. The virtuous Buddhist priest was the hero rescuing the unfortunate scholar from a horrible fate.

21 Gao Xiaojian, pp. 249–50.

22 Ibid, p. 250.

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26 In interviews I conducted in Beijing in November and December 2006 at the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts (Zhongguo Xiqu Xueyuan) with Zhao Jinbo (deputy head) and Pei Fulin (directing programme head) both men gave this explanation in response to my question about why, with xiqu companies increasingly reliant on box office revenues, they would allow these broadcasts. Deputy head of the Beijing City Peking Opera Theatre (Beijing Jingjuyuan) Zhou Tielin confirmed that his company viewed the broadcasts as generating interest in new productions.

27 CCTV's political and financial power is evident in its architecturally extraordinary future home, currently under construction. See http://www.arup.com/eastasia/project.cfm?pageid=1948 (accessed 23 October 2008) for a description of the construction project.

28 Handong, Yu, Zhongguo xiqu biaoyan yishu cidian (Encyclopedia of Chinese Xiqu Performance Technique) (Wuhan: Hubei Cishu Chubanshe, 1994)Google Scholar.

29 Zhou Huabin, ‘Xiqu yu Dianshi Xiqu mianmian tan’ (Xiqu and Television Xiqu Discussed from Every Angle), Bianzuojia (Playwright), 156 (no. 5, 2006), pp. 146–8, here p. 146.

30 Ibid., p. 148.

31 Yuankai Tang, ‘Discovering Beijing: Mei Lanfang Grand Theater’, Beijing Review, 22 January 2008, available online at http://www.bjreview.com.cn/quotes/txt/2008-01/22/content_96717.htm (accessed 3 August 2008).