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Transforming Tradition: Performances of Jingju (‘Beijing Opera’) in the UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2010

ASHLEY THORPE
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Abstract

Jingju (‘Beijing opera’) is China's most iconic traditional theatre, marketed as a global signifier of Chinese theatre and national identity. Although troupes from mainland China regularly tour Europe, audiences in the UK have also had access to Jingju via two indigenous organizations: the UK Beijing Opera Society (now defunct) and the London Jing Kun Opera Association (now in its ninth year). These organizations consist of Chinese, overseas Chinese and Western performers performing both Jingju and Kunju (‘Kun opera’). Where there is a mix of ethnicity, can ‘traditional Chinese theatre’ still be conceived of as ‘traditional’? How is Jingju mapped onto non-Chinese bodies? Can Jingju performances by ethnically white performers reflect diasporic identities? Drawing on the theories of Judith Butler and Homi Bhabha, this article argues that by highlighting the performativity of identity, the performance of Jingju by non-Chinese performers challenges the notion of Jingju as a global signifier of ‘authentic traditional Chinese theatre’.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 33 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2010

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References

NOTES

1 The publication of Leung, George Kin, Mei Lan-Fang: Foremost Actor of China (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1929) coincided with Mei Lanfang's tour to America in 1930Google Scholar, although this was not the first English-language publication on Chinese theatre, or the first in America. ‘A Brief View of Chinese Drama’ was included in John Francis Davis, Laou-Seng-Urh, or, ‘An Heir in his Old Age’: A Chinese Drama (London: John Murray, 1817); and Leung's book was preceded in America by Buss, Kate, Studies in the Chinese Drama (Boston: The Four Seas Company, 1922)Google Scholar; and Zucker, A. E., The Chinese Theatre (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1925)Google Scholar. In the years following Mei Lanfang's tour, books on acting technique which conflated Jingju and ‘Chinese theatre’ were published in English: Leung, George Kin, The Essentials of Chinese Drama (Peiping: n.pub, 1935)Google Scholar; and Zung, Cecilia, Secrets of the Chinese Drama (Hong Kong: Kelly and Walsh, 1937)Google Scholar. Mei Lanfang's performances for Western practitioners in Moscow produced a great deal of commentary from the perspectives of modernism, orientalism and interculturalism. With the exception of Yueju (Cantonese opera) and Yueju (Zhejiang opera), book-length works on other regional forms of traditional theatre in English are scarce.

2 The influential critic, scholar and playwright Qi Rushan (1877–1962) argued that Jingju was the genre that most deserved the name guoju (national drama). See Goldstein, Joshua, Drama Kings: Players and Publics in the Re-creation of Peking Opera 1870–1937 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), pp. 158–9Google Scholar.

3 In 1955, the ‘Classical Chinese Theatre Company’ gave twenty-one performances of Jingju at the Palace Theatre, London, and also took part in the 1955 Royal Variety Performance. This was the first time that a Chinese theatre troupe from China had performed in Britain. In the early twenty-first century, there has been a steady increase in the number of Kunju (a form of drama that pre-dates Jingju) performances in the West, especially of Tang Xianzu's sixteenth-century masterpiece Peony Pavilion (Mudan ting). This trend might, at least partially, be explained by UNESCO's decision to elevate Kunju to the status of ‘intangible heritage’ in 2001.

4 For instance, the banning of more traditional plays during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), and the emphasis on newly written plays that espoused communist doctrine since 1949, have had, and continue to exert, a profound impact on Jingju.

5 Weixian, Dong, Jingju Liupai (Beijing: Wenhua Yishu Chubanshe, 1981)Google Scholar.

6 Benton, Gregor and Gomez, Edmund Terence, The Chinese in Britain, 1800–Present: Economy, Transnationalism, Identity (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2008), p. 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 In writing about these companies, I acknowledge that I have worked with both of them. My connections with these companies have given me an insight into their working methods, and thereby facilitated the documentation of histories and performances that might otherwise have been denied systematic, scholarly analysis.

8 Holmes, Margaret, ‘Oriental Operatics’, China Now, 145 (Summer 1993), p. 9Google Scholar.

9 The mission statement was written in Chinese: ‘该社的宗旨是促进西方对中国文化艺术的了解’.

10 Meyer, Ione, ‘“Chang, Nian, Zuo, Da” or, How to Become a Beijing Opera Lover’, China in Focus, 8 (Spring 2000), pp. 20–1Google Scholar.

11 The performance of The White Snake was by invitation of the Chinese Cultural Centre, which, based in London, was set up in 1986 to facilitate an understanding of Chinese arts and culture through performances, workshops, lectures and film screenings. The centre continues to organize cultural events, the majority of which take place in London, including an annual celebratory performance for Chinese New Year.

12 The King Bids Farewell to His Favourite tells the story of Xiang Yu, the King of Chu, and his beloved concubine Yu Ji. During a power struggle between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang (who became the founder of the Han dynasty, which governed from 206 BCE to 220 CE), Xiang Yu was forced to retreat into the mountains. It becomes clear, however, that Xiang Yu is surrounded on all sides and has little chance of escape. Yu Ji, whose deep love for Xiang Yu meant that she followed him everywhere, performs a sword dance to try and lift his spirits. The play ends with news that the enemy is now attacking from all sides, and rather than act as concubine for the enemy Liu Bang, Yu Ji commits suicide with Xiang Yu's sword.

13 As a part of the Dome's attractions, this stage was designed to enable communities from across Britain to perform shows that reflected local identities or issues.

14 See Said, Edward, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient (London: Penguin, 1995)Google Scholar.

15 Lei, Daphne, Operatic China: Staging Identity across the Pacific (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Butler, Judith, ‘Imitation and Gender Subordination’, in Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Michael, eds., Literary Theory: An Anthology (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), pp. 722–30Google Scholar.

17 Ibid., p. 727.

18 See al-‘Azm, Sadik Jalal, ‘Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse’ in Macfie, A. L., ed., Orientalism: A Reader (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000), pp. 217–38Google Scholar.

19 Rutherford, Jonathan, ‘The Third Space: Interview with Homi Bhabha’ in idem, ed., Identity: Community, Culture, Difference (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1990), pp. 207–21Google Scholar.

20 Hutnyk, John, ‘Hybridity’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28, 1 (January 2005), pp. 79–102CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Judith Mackrell, ‘Dance Preview’, Guardian, 31 May 2008.

22 Metro, 2 June 2008. With this production, the Suzhou Kunju Company were seeking to update Peony Pavilion for modern audiences and they made it clear in the programme notes that this was their intention. The cutting of twenty-eight scenes to highlight the story of the two protagonists and the use of scenery, dancing and Western instruments in the orchestra pit were all attempts by the company to render the form more accessible to a modern (i.e. younger) audience. They were not traditional staging elements, and the company made no attempt to pretend that they were.

23 Rutherford, ‘The Third Space’, p. 211.

24 Yeh, Diana, ‘Ethnicities on the Move: “British-Chinese” Art – Identity, Subjectivity, Politics and Beyond’, Critical Quarterly, 42, 2 (July 2000), pp. 65–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 The Unicorn Purse narrates the story of Xue Xiangling, a young woman from a rich family who, on the way to her marriage ceremony, happened upon a poor woman also about to be married. Moved by her predicament, Xiangling gave this poor woman the only thing she had with her – an embroidered purse containing jewels – as a gift to help her on her way. Six years later, a flood caused the destruction of Xiangling's family property and her family was dispersed. Forced to beg with her son, Zhou Daqi, Xiangling eventually found employment as a nanny for a wealthy family in a neighbouring city. The performance discussed here presented the final scene, where Daqi accidentally throws a ball into a pavilion whilst playing in the garden. Xiangling enters the pavilion to retrieve it only to find an altar table with the purse placed upon it. Xiangling then learnt that her employer was none other than the poor bride she had helped at the start of the play. The play ends with Xiangling being reunited with her entire family.

26 See Wichmann, Elizabeth, Listening to Theatre: The Aural Dimension of Beijing Opera (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991), pp. 203–11Google Scholar.

27 Performances of Jingju in English have also taken place in Hawaii. See Wichmann-Walczack, Elizabeth, ‘Jingju (Beijing/“Peking” Opera) as International Art and as Transnational Root of Cultural Identification: Processes of Creation and Reception in Shanghai, Nanjing and Honolulu)’, in Um, Hae-kyung, ed., Diasporas and Interculturalism in Asian Performing Arts: Translating Traditions (London: Routledge, 2005), pp. 161–75Google Scholar.

28 This performance of The White Snake was facilitated by Hall, who was initially contacted by the Chinese Cultural Centre (CCC) to organize a performance of Jingju in Britain. Good relations between the CCC and the Southbank Centre meant that this high-profile venue could be secured. In the production, Hall took the leading role of White Snake, with Meyer in the supporting role of Green Snake.

29 LJKOA has received some support from the London Borough of Merton Arts Fund to support local initiatives.

30 They are Cheng Yanqiu (1904–58), Mei Lanfang (1894–1961), Shang Xiaoyun (1899–1976) and Xun Huisheng (1900–68). Contemporary publications continue to credit these four actors as being the four great dan actors (si da ming dan) due to their onstage achievements and establishment of schools of acting during Jingju's ‘golden age’. See, for example, Xiaomeng, Zhou, ed., Guoren Bi Zhi de 2300 ge Jingju Changshi (Shenyang: Wan Juan Chubanshe, 2009), p. 21Google Scholar.

31 Duchesne, Isabelle, ‘The Chinese Opera Star: Roles and Identity’, in Hay, John, ed., Boundaries in China (London: Reaktion Books, 1994), pp. 217–42, here p. 226Google Scholar.

32 Ibid., pp. 232–3.

33 Chow, Rey, ‘Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: An Exercise in Popular Readings’, in Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Michael, eds., Literary Theory: An Anthology (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), pp. 958–69Google Scholar.

34 Rutherford, ‘The Third Space’, p. 211.