Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre
Modern Chinese theatre once entailed a variety of forms, but now it primarily refers to spoken drama, or huaju. Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre looks beyond scripts to examine visuality, acoustics, and performance between the two World Wars, the period when huaju gained canonical status. The bac...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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University of Michigan Press
2025
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| Online Access: | https://admin.library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/103769 |
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| _version_ | 1869518570780622848 |
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| author | He, Man |
| author_browse | He, Man |
| author_facet | He, Man |
| author_sort | He, Man |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Modern Chinese theatre once entailed a variety of forms, but now it primarily refers to spoken drama, or huaju. Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre looks beyond scripts to examine visuality, acoustics, and performance between the two World Wars, the period when huaju gained canonical status. The backstage in this study expands from being a physical place offstage to a culturally and historically constructed social network that encompasses theatre networks, academies, and government institutions—as well as the collective work of dramatists, amateurs, and cultural entrepreneurs. Early huaju was not a mere imitation of Western realist theatre, as it is commonly understood, but a creative synthesis of Chinese and Western aesthetics. Charting huaju’s evolution from American colleges to China’s coastal cities and then to its rural hinterland, Man He demonstrates how the formation of modern Chinese theatre challenges dominant understandings of modernism and brings China to the center of discussions on transnational modernities and world theatres. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-161700 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | University of Michigan Press |
| publisherStr | University of Michigan Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1617002025-07-01T05:02:25Z Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre He, Man huaju, xiqu, spoken drama, wenmingxi, Beijing opera, Ibsen, backstage, peasant theater, mobile theater, performance, realism, modernism, amateur, professionalization, popularization, Hong Shen, Tian Han, Yu Shangyuan, Xiong Foxi, cosmopolitanism, nationalism, left-wing, May Fourth, Republican China, Nanjing Decade, World War II, overseas students, cultural entrepreneur, National Drama School, CCP, KMT, The Ohio State University, Ding Xian, Chongqing, Shanghai thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history Modern Chinese theatre once entailed a variety of forms, but now it primarily refers to spoken drama, or huaju. Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre looks beyond scripts to examine visuality, acoustics, and performance between the two World Wars, the period when huaju gained canonical status. The backstage in this study expands from being a physical place offstage to a culturally and historically constructed social network that encompasses theatre networks, academies, and government institutions—as well as the collective work of dramatists, amateurs, and cultural entrepreneurs. Early huaju was not a mere imitation of Western realist theatre, as it is commonly understood, but a creative synthesis of Chinese and Western aesthetics. Charting huaju’s evolution from American colleges to China’s coastal cities and then to its rural hinterland, Man He demonstrates how the formation of modern Chinese theatre challenges dominant understandings of modernism and brings China to the center of discussions on transnational modernities and world theatres. 2025-06-24T05:45:02Z 2025-06-24T05:45:02Z 2025-06-23T10:28:36Z 2025 book https://admin.library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/103769 9780472077557 9780472057559 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/161700 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/103769/1/9780472905119.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/103769/1/9780472905119.pdf University of Michigan Press 10.3998/mpub.12775372 10.3998/mpub.12775372 b7359529-e5f7-4510-a59f-d7dafa1d4d17 9780472077557 9780472057559 359 open access |
| spellingShingle | huaju, xiqu, spoken drama, wenmingxi, Beijing opera, Ibsen, backstage, peasant theater, mobile theater, performance, realism, modernism, amateur, professionalization, popularization, Hong Shen, Tian Han, Yu Shangyuan, Xiong Foxi, cosmopolitanism, nationalism, left-wing, May Fourth, Republican China, Nanjing Decade, World War II, overseas students, cultural entrepreneur, National Drama School, CCP, KMT, The Ohio State University, Ding Xian, Chongqing, Shanghai thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history He, Man Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre |
| title | Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre |
| title_full | Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre |
| title_fullStr | Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre |
| title_full_unstemmed | Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre |
| title_short | Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre |
| title_sort | backstaging modern chinese theatre |
| topic | huaju, xiqu, spoken drama, wenmingxi, Beijing opera, Ibsen, backstage, peasant theater, mobile theater, performance, realism, modernism, amateur, professionalization, popularization, Hong Shen, Tian Han, Yu Shangyuan, Xiong Foxi, cosmopolitanism, nationalism, left-wing, May Fourth, Republican China, Nanjing Decade, World War II, overseas students, cultural entrepreneur, National Drama School, CCP, KMT, The Ohio State University, Ding Xian, Chongqing, Shanghai thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history |
| topic_facet | huaju, xiqu, spoken drama, wenmingxi, Beijing opera, Ibsen, backstage, peasant theater, mobile theater, performance, realism, modernism, amateur, professionalization, popularization, Hong Shen, Tian Han, Yu Shangyuan, Xiong Foxi, cosmopolitanism, nationalism, left-wing, May Fourth, Republican China, Nanjing Decade, World War II, overseas students, cultural entrepreneur, National Drama School, CCP, KMT, The Ohio State University, Ding Xian, Chongqing, Shanghai thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history |
| url | https://admin.library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/103769 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT heman backstagingmodernchinesetheatre |