| Volume 7, Number 2, April 2010 |
Why Say No to Chineseness?
Gao Xingjian and Exile
by 方梓勋 Gilbert C. F. Fong |
The Tradition of Chinese Opera
and its Modern Day Development
by 傅谨 Fu Jin |
Where is my Chineseness? It’s right in my body. (Gao Xingjian, “What Has Exile Given Us?”)
CHINESE writers in exile(1) are often subject to otherizing and racial profiling in their new country. Their writings are invariably condemned to nostalgia, as they are perceived as unwilling or unable to break away from the memory and documentary of what transpired in their home (Chow, 1998, p. 11). Especially if the writers are from the Mainland, they are conveniently cast as either political refugees or freedom fighters. Their Chineseness follows them like a shadow, and they suffer a loss of agency in the face of marketable Orientalism and political journalism. To an extent the reception of Gao Xingjian outside China, unfortunately, has not been able to escape from this rut. Even though the Swedish Academy alleged apoliticality in awarding Gao the Nobel Prize in Literature, Western media like CNN, BBC, Time, Newsweek, etc., all zeroed in on Gao’s dissidence and his suffering days during the Cultural Revolution. In the eyes of the press... [ Read more ] |
CHINESE opera has a centuries old history as well as a complete aesthetical tradition. With a history spanning over a thousand years, it already possesses an important place in the daily lives of Chinese people. No matter whether it is performed in the city or countryside, opera is the people’s most loved form of entertainment and spiritual enjoyment, and has also generated many related creations. Because of the common existence of opera as a leisure pursuit in people’s daily lives, no matter what region of the country, the stories and characters from operas have become some of the most well accepted and universalized subjects. As a result, they have entered into all realms of art, such as decorative designs, paintings and paper cuttings, speaking volumes as to the fact that traditional operas have become deeply entrenched in people’s hearts and minds.
Nevertheless, since the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, Chinese traditional theatre has continuously been under siege by foreign culture... [ Read more ] |
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| Issue 7.2 |
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Priceless Friendship
—Matteo Ricci’s Legacy
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