Please join the Theater & Performance Studies Workshop for Anne Rebull’s “A Korean Classic on the Chinese Stage: Theatrical Diplomacy and Artistic Innovation in Tale of Chunxiang (春香传)” on Thursday, May 28th at 4:30pm. To international audiences of the mid 1950s, Yueju actress Wang Wenjuan may have been best recognized for her stage performance as Zhu Yingtai, the heroine of The Butterfly Lovers, but to Shanghai audiences, she was known as Chunxiang. A classic melodrama borrowed from the Korean traditional stage, The Tale of Chunxiang inaugurated a theatrical project that bound together artistic innovation with international diplomacy in the waning years of the Korean War. The artistic decisions in adaptation were also inflected by contemporary aesthetic movements at work more largely in xiqu reform, in which the essential characteristics of xiqu, including its basic acting techniques and physical performance language, were under interrogation. The political life of the drama after its popular debut further entangled it in negotiations among regional forms of xiqu for cultural cache at the national level, where these aesthetic innovations took on increased significance through their wider range of impact. How did a Korean play come to be featured on the traditional stage of a Chinese regional opera, and what compromises or changes did adaptation entail? What was at stake for Yueju in undertaking a project of international political significance? In this paper, Rebull explores the history of the adaptation of Tale of Chunxiang, its significance as a project of cultural and artistic hybridization and its importance to the national rise of Yueju. She suggests that the blending of culture, art and politics in Chunxiang situated it at a unique and influential juncture in the history of xiqu arts.
Anne Rebull is a PhD candidate in East Asian Languages and Civilizations. She earned her bachelor’s in East Asian Studies and Music at the College of William and Mary in 2004, and her masters in EALC at the University of Chicago in 2009. Her research focuses on the aesthetic and political changes to traditional Chinese opera before and after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. Aside from the traditional performing arts, her research interests include Chinese theater, cinema, and art that crosses media boundaries. During her years in Chicago, she has done subtitling work for film and opera, and her translations have appeared in Opera Quarterly. She has spent time in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan with fellowships from the Institute of International Education and the Blakemore Foundation.
Light refreshments will be served.
Location: Logan Center 802
People with disabilities who believe they may need accommodations, please contact Anne Rebull anner@uchicago.edu or Amy Stebbins amystebbins@uchicago.edu in advance.