Author: Josh Stenberg

Publisher:

Published:

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 9781350157422

"This book offers an engaging introduction to the Hokkien music drama known as liyuanxi ('Pear Garden Theatre'), heir and current expression of one of China's oldest unbroken xiqu ('Chinese opera') traditions. In examining the form Josh Stenberg considers its history prior to the 20thC, reforms during the Communist era, and accounts for its prominence today; he examines the aesthetics and technique that characterize the form, considers the contribution of some of its key exponents and lastly provides a range of case studies of various plays performed in the repertoire. Musically and narratively highly distinctive, liyuanxi is closely associated with the historic port city of Quanzhou, and draws on the same musical system as the vocal tradition of Nanguan/Nanyin, included by UNESCO in 2009 as representative of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity. After first reaching nationwide renown in the new state-led theatre system of the 1950s, liyuanxi was like all tradition-based Mainland Chinese genres, decimated in the Cultural Revolution. Since the Deng Xiaoping era, the genre has again achieved prominence with its daring, socially-engaged, literary and often comical new 'historical' costume pieces, while also maintaining a major artistic and pedagogical commitment to its tradition. A single theatre of a hundred employees now pursues the twin duties of conservation and renewal, since 1989 under the direction of Zeng Jingping. Also the genre's most famous performer, and twice the winner of China's highest accolade for performers, the Plum Blossom Award, she has emerged as one of China's most thoughtful practitioners of Chinese theatre as it navigates the capital of tradition and the need for innovation. As playwright, Wang Renjie has done much the same, respecting prosodic tradition and musical requirements while crafting plays that engage with the issues of contemporary China."--