East Meets West: Identity and Intercultural Discourse in Chinese huaju Shakespeares

Authors

  • Renfang Tang University of Hull, UK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.20.06

Keywords:

huaju, Chinese Shakespeare adaptations, Coriolanus, King Lear, intercultural performance, identity, politics

Abstract

This article examines two huaju performances of Shakespeare—The Tragedy of Coriolanus (2007) and King Lear (2006), which are good examples of cultural exchanges between East and West, integrating Shakespeare into contemporary Chinese culture and politics. The two works provide distinctive approaches to the issues of identity in intercultural discourse. At the core of both productions lies the fundamental question: “Who am I?” At stake are the artists’ personal and cultural identities as processes of globalisation intensify. These performances not only exemplify the intercultural productivity of Shakespearean texts, but more critically, illustrate how Shakespeare and intercultural discourses are internalized and reconfigured by the nation and culture that consume and re-produce them. Chinese adaptations of Coriolanus and King Lear demonstrate how (intercultural) identity is constructed through the subjectivity and iconicity of Shakespeare’s characters and the performativity of Shakespeare’s texts.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Renfang Tang, University of Hull, UK

Renfang Tang is currently a Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Hull, UK. She worked as Associate Professor of English at Nanjing Audit University, China. In 2016 she acquired her PhD in Drama from the University of Hull, UK. Her research areas include comparative and intercultural theatre studies, theatre translation, Shakespeare performance, and modern and classical Chinese theatre.

References

Baxter, Lew. “Shanghai Meets Shakespeare.” Daily Post/Shanghai Star/China Today. 22 November 2006.
Google Scholar

Brook, Peter, The Empty Space. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1968. 布鲁克, 彼得. 敞开的门:谈表演和戏剧. 于东田译. 北京: 新星出版社, 2007. [Brook, Peter. The Open Door: Thoughts on Acting and Theatre. Trans. Yu Dongtian. Beijing: New Star Publishing House, 2007.]
Google Scholar

Brooker, Peter. “Key Words in Brecht’s Theory and Practice of Theatre.” The Cambridge Companion to Brecht. Ed. Peter Thomson and Glendyr Sacks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 209-24.
Google Scholar

Carlson, Marvin. “The Macaronic Stage.” East of West: Cross-cultural Performances and the Staging of Difference. Ed. Claire Sponsler and Xiaomei Chen. New York: Palgrave, 2000. 15-31.
Google Scholar

Cavendish, Dominic. “Edinburgh Festival 2013: The Tragedy of Coriolanus, review.” The Telegraph. 21 August 2013 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/edinburgh-festival/10257093/Edinburgh-Festival-013-The-Tragedy-of-Coriolanus-Playhouse-review.html 8 September 2018.
Google Scholar

Chen, Xiaomei, ed. and intro. The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 1-55.
Google Scholar

Conceison, Claire. “Huang Zuolin Festival (Review).” Theatre Journal 59.3 (2006): 491-93.
Google Scholar

Cooper, Brian G. “Edinburgh International Festival: The Tragedy of Coriolanus.” The Stage Reviews. 22 August 2013. http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/38849/edinburgh-international-festival-the-tragedy 18 September 2018.
Google Scholar

Dickson, Andrew. “Guitar hero: Coriolanus goes rock.” The Guardian. 6 August 2013.
Google Scholar

Ferrari, Rossella. “Transnation/transmedia/transtext: Border-crossing from Screen to Stage in Greater China.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas 2.1 (2008): 52-65.
Google Scholar

Gilbert, Helen and Jacqueline Lo. Performance and Cosmopolitics: Cross-Cultural Transactions in Australia. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Google Scholar

Greenblatt, Stephen, et al. The Norton Shakespeare. 2nd ed. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008.
Google Scholar

Grotowski, Jerzy. “The Theatre’s New Testament.” Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greek to Grotowski. Ed. Bernard F. Dukore. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winoton Inc., 1974. 978-96.
Google Scholar

Hawkes, Terence. Meaning by Shakespeare. London: Routledge, 1992.
Google Scholar

Hoylewith, Martin. The Tragedy of Coriolanus, Edinburgh Playhouse–review (2013) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d560115c-0a4f-11e3-9cec-00144feabdc0.html#axzz31KEn3SsO 23 May 2019.
Google Scholar

Huang, Alexander (Alexa) C. Y. Chinese Shakespeares: Two Centuries of Cultural Exchange. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
Google Scholar

Huang. “King Lear (review) (dir. by David Tse for Yellow Earth Theatre and Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, November 2006.” Theatre Journal 59.3 (2007): 494-95.
Google Scholar

Huang. “Review of King Lear (dir. by David Tse for Yellow Earth Theatre and Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, November 2006.” Shakespeare 3.2 (2007): 239-42.
Google Scholar

Jones, Arthur. China gets on Bard: “Lear” features bilingual script, mixed cast (2006). http://variety.com/2006/legit/news/china-gets-on-bard-1117953713/ 21 August 2018.
Google Scholar

Kennedy, Dennis, ed. Foreign Shakespeare: Contemporary Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Google Scholar

Li, Ruru. “Millennium Shashibiya: Shakespeare in the Chinese-speaking World.” Shakespeare in Asia: Contemporary Performance. Ed. Dennis Kennedy and Yong Li Lan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 170-87.
Google Scholar

Li, Ruru. Shashibiya: Staging Shakespeare in China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2003.
Google Scholar

Liang, Lia Wen-Ching. “Negotiating New Terrains: Yellow Earth Theatre’s Lear’s Daughters and King Lear.” Contemporary Theatre Review 19.3 (2009): 289-97.
Google Scholar

林, 克欢. “历史·舞台·表演—评林兆华的文化意向与表演探索.” 艺术评论 [Lin, Kehuan. “History, Stage and Performance: A Critique on Lin Zhaohua’s Cultural Images and Performance Exploration.” Art Review.] 07 (2005): 53-57.
Google Scholar

Ubersfeld, Anne. Reading Theatre. Trans. Frank Collins. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.
Google Scholar

Willett, John, ed. and trans. Brecht on Theatre. New York: Hill and Wang, 1964.
Google Scholar

Downloads

Published

2019-12-30

How to Cite

Tang, R. (2019). East Meets West: Identity and Intercultural Discourse in Chinese huaju Shakespeares. Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance, 20(35), 61–81. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.20.06

Most read articles by the same author(s)

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.