Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre: Intellectuals, Amateurs, and Cultural Entrepreneurs, 1910s–1940s
Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre: Intellectuals, Amateurs, and Cultural Entrepreneurs, 1910s–1940s
by Man He
University of Michigan Press, 2025
ISBNs
Cloth: 978-0-472-07755-7
Paper: 978-0-472-05755-9
eISBN: 978-0-472-90511-9 (OA)
About the Book
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.
About the Author
Man He is Associate Professor of Chinese at Williams College.
Reviews
"In this major English-language monograph on the history of huaju (spoken drama) in early 20th century China, Man He delivers more than new findings on empirical ground. Her bold intervention, conceptually and methodologically, invites readers to consider a new way of constructing and understanding the history of theatres at other times and in other places."— Wing Chung Ng, University of Texas at San Antonio
“With its holistic vision, innovative framing of ‘backstaging,’ and vast original sources from archives and contemporaneous publications, Man He’s monograph will make a substantial impact on the historiography of modern Chinese spoken theatre huaju.”— Siyuan Liu, University of British Columbia
“This groundbreaking book focuses on the making of modern Chinese theatre as dynamic processes of institutionalization, with keen eyes and ears for the hidden sights and sounds in the backstage. It treats theatre as a democratic institution of high social importance. Such an aspirational approach echoes the desires and sentiments of those theatre practitioners featured in this study. It is the making of theatre, happening in the backstage, that is consistently highlighted in the book’s innovative approach to rewriting modern Chinese theatre history.”— Liang Luo, author of The Avant-Garde and the Popular in Modern China: Tian Han and the Intersection of Performance and Politics
“Deeply researched, Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre offers a compelling account of huaju history from the 1910s to the 1940s. Broad vision, provocative arguments, innovative methodology, and passion for theatre enliven this study. It is a must-read for anyone interested in modern Chinese theatre, theatre history, and Chinese studies.”— Xing Fan, University of Toronto
Tags
Theater, China, Asia, Performing Arts, History and criticism, 20th century, History
Open Access Information
License: CC BY-NC
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