Rethinking Chinese Socialist Theaters of Reform: Performance Practice and Debate in the Mao Era ed. by Xiaomei Chen, Tarryn Li-Min Chun and Siyuan Liu (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Rethinking Chinese Socialist Theaters of Reform: Performance Practice and Debate in the Mao Era ed. by Xiaomei Chen, Tarryn Li-Min Chun and Siyuan Liu Whit Emerson Rethinking Chinese Socialist Theaters of Reform: Performance Practice and Debate in the Mao Era. Edited By Xiaomei Chen, Tarryn Li-Min Chun, and Siyuan Liu. University of Michigan Press, 2021. Hardcover $80.00, E-book $69.95. 310 pages. 14 illustrations. Rethinking Chinese Socialist Theaters of Reform: Performance Practice and Debate in the Mao Era spotlights the complex artistic and cultural history of twentieth-century Chinese theatre through an exploration of spoken drama, traditional opera, revolutionary opera, and dance. Eminent scholars of Chinese performing arts chisel away at the monolithic perception of modern Chinese theatre, taking a more nuanced look at how performance of the period served both international and domestic needs. In their essays, contributors such as Liang Luo, Emily Wilcox, and Siyuan Liu bring their collective knowledge to bear in unpacking the interactions between socialist revolutionary ideologies and the practice of implementing such reform between the 1930s and the 1970s. Chen, Chun, and Liu structure their study with an introduction, nine chapters, and an epilogue. The introduction gives an exceptionally insightful overview of the historical and ideological forces at work in Mao-era Chinese performing arts. This well-written essay offers a great primer for undergraduates, graduates, and instructors of theatre seeking to understand the origins of many contemporary Chinese performance practices. In chapter 1, Max L. Bohnenkamp discusses first the product and then the process of creating the 1950 “New Music-Drama” version of The White-Haired Girl, one of the most influential dramas of the Mao era (and one of Mao’s favorite plays). Bohnenkamp emphasizes the play’s role as an early point of contention in the realization of a distinctly Chinese socialist aesthetic onstage. Bohnenkamp goes further than discussing a simple Chinese/Western blend of performance aesthetics to acknowledge the influence of Sino-Soviet artistic collaboration and the ways in which the personal decisions of production supervisor Zhang Geng integrated theatrical concepts in the spirit of Richard Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk. Bohnenkamp showcases how reform is complicated by “the politicized aesthetics of Chinese socialist theatre of the Mao era” (55), while linking the idea to the official policy of state-supervised performing arts in China today. [End Page 77] In chapter 6, Emily Wilcox demonstrates how a reconsideration of history in the new Chinese socialist imaginary can lead to practical aesthetic choices made for both domestic and foreign audiences. Wilcox takes the 1959 performance of the national dance drama Dagger Society as an example of how Chinese socialist performance can be political not only in content but also in aesthetic form. To further her claim, Wilcox offers a tremendous amount of information on the history and aesthetic development of socialist dance in modern China. The inclusion of dance expands the scope of socialist performing arts in China, allowing for a more inclusive and nuanced discussion of how socialist ideology permeated aspects of the performing arts during the Mao era. Tarryn Li-Min Chun takes the innovative approach of using technical elements to examine the ideological aspects of the revolutionary model dramas (geming yangbanxi) and how they were popularized during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976. In chapter 9, Chun challenges the stereotype of The Red Lantern as the prototypical state-sanctioned yangbanxi, which was always performed in the premier theatres with the best artists and highest production values in China, illustrating how the production was adapted to suit local tastes in order to popularize it for the masses. Chun discusses the specifics of how to stage socialist performance, often in underdeveloped rural areas, as well as how artists grappled with “the messier reality of makeshift conditions” (245) in relation to what artistic choices were made in practicalizing theory. An insightful discussion of the aesthetics and function of the eponymous prop in arguably the most iconic revolutionary model opera is aided by the inclusion of three images, including a schematic of the red lantern itself. Imagery in this chapter allows the reader to get a better sense of the scale, proportion, and function of the...