Socialist Theatres of Reform: Rethinking Performance Practice and Debates in the Mao Era
All events open to the public unless otherwise noted.
This workshop focuses on Chinese theatre and performance of the 1950s-1960s, a period during which the performing arts occupied a prominent political and cultural position in the People’s Republic of China. Working across a range of disciplines, methodological approaches, and performance genres, presenters will explore the tensions between the goals of socialist cultural reform and the messier realities of its implementation. Topics will range from early 1950s xiqu reform to the development of socialist dance-dramas to Cultural Revolution-era rural performance. By exploring key moments and events in the history of socialist theatre from different disciplinary and genre perspectives, this workshop aims to stimulate lively discussion of the challenges, contradictions, and “successes” of the Maoist project to reform the Chinese theatre world.
10:00am Welcome & Opening Remarks
Location: 1050 Jenkins-Nanovic Hall
Tarryn Li-Min Chun, University of Notre Dame
Siyuan Liu, University of British Columbia
10:30am-12:00pm Panel #1: Navigating the Urban & the Rural in Chinese Theatre Reform
Location: 1050 Jenkins-Nanovic Hall
Chair: Elisabeth Köll, University of Notre Dame
“Drama from Beijing to Long Bow: Reforming Shanxi Stages in Socialist
China”
Brian DeMare, Tulane University
“Navigating Bureaucratic ‘Gusts of Wind’: The Shanghai Theatre World, 1949-1966”
Maggie Greene, Montana State University
“Sent-Down Plays: Yangbanxi Stagecraft, Aesthetics, and Popularization during the Cultural Revolution”
Tarryn Li-Min Chun, University of Notre Dame
12:00-1:00pm Lunch
Location: 1050 Jenkins-Nanovic Hall
1:30-3:00pm Panel #2: Chinese Performance & the Politics of Form
Location: 1050 Jenkins-Nanovic Hall
Chair: Michel Hockx, University of Notre Dame
“The Campaign against Scenario Plays in China in the 1950s”
Siyuan Liu, University of British Columbia
“The Experimental and the Popular in Chinese Theatre of the 1950s and 1960s”
Liang Luo, University of Kentucky
“Chasing Spirits from the Country: The Urban Politics of Xiqu Adaptations”
Anne Rebull, University of Michigan
3:00-3:30pm Coffee Break
3:30-5:00pm Panel #3: Chinese Socialist Performance and the World Stage
Location: 1050 Jenkins-Nanovic Hall
Chair: Anton Juan, University of Notre Dame
“Neither Western Opera, Nor Old Chinese Theatre: The Modernist ‘Integrated Art-Form’ and the Origins of the Maoist ‘New Music-Drama’”
Max L. Bohnenkamp, Harvard University
“Aesthetic Politics at Home and Abroad: Dagger Society and the Development of Maoist Revolutionary Dance Drama”
Emily Wilcox, University of Michigan
“Staging World Revolution: Crafting Internationalism in the Chinese Dramatic Arts, 1962-66”
Christopher Tang, California State University, Bakersfield
5:00pm Closing Remarks
Location: 1050 Jenkins-Nanovic Hall
Xiaomei Chen, University of California-Davis
8:30pm Screening: Fanghua (Youth, dir. Feng Xiaogang, 2017)
Location: Browning Cinema, DeBartolo Performing Arts Centre
Speakers:
Max L. Bohnenkamp, Harvard University
Xiaomei Chen, University of California at Davis
Tarryn Li-Min Chun, University of Notre Dame
Brian DeMare, Tulane University
Maggie Greene, Montana State University
Siyuan Liu, University of British Columbia
Liang Luo, University of Kentucky
Anne Rebull, University of Michigan
Christopher Tang, California State University, Bakersfield
Emily Wilcox, University of Michigan
Sponsored by:
Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts
Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies
Department of Film, Television, and Theatre
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures