DOCSLIB.ORG

Composing, Revising, and Performing Suzhou Ballads: a Study of Political Control and Artistic Freedom in Tanci, 1949-1964

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Composing, Revising, and Performing Suzhou Ballads: a Study of Political Control and Artistic Freedom in Tanci, 1949-1964 Composing, Revising, and Performing Suzhou Ballads: a Study of Political Control and Artistic Freedom in Tanci, 1949-1964 by Stephanie J. Webster-Cheng B.M., Lawrence University, 1996 M.A., University of Pittsburgh, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Music Department in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2008 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH MUSIC DEPARTMENT This dissertation was presented by Stephanie Webster-Cheng It was defended on [author‟s name] October 31, 2008 and approved by Mark Bender, Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Literature, Ohio State University Xinmin Liu, Assistant Professor, East Asian Languages and Literature Wenfang Tang, Associate Professor, Political Science Andrew Weintraub, Associate Professor, Music Akin Euba, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music, Music Dissertation Advisor: Bell Yung, Professor of Music, Music ii Copyright © by Stephanie J. Webster-Cheng 2008 iii Composing, Revising, and Performing Suzhou Ballads: a Study of Political Control and Artistic Freedom in Tanci, 1949-1964 Stephanie J. Webster-Cheng, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2008 This dissertation explores the dynamics of political control of the arts and artistic freedom in the musical storytelling art of Suzhou tanci between 1949 and 1964, years marked by extensive revision of traditional performance repertoire, widespread creation of new, contemporary-themed stories, and composition of boldly innovative ballad music. I examine four stories and ballads either composed or revised during this time, looking broadly at the role of the State in the creative process. I consider the role of high-ranking officials whose personal comments to artists shaped their creative processes, and the role of societal political pressure placed on artists through political movements and shifting trends in the dramatic arts. I study the artists‟ responses to these political forces as expressed in their newly composed and revised works. I examine decisions made during the creation of story and ballad texts, and analyze bold innovations taken by three artists during the composition of ballad music. I suggest that the musical innovations be viewed both as responses to the coercive political atmosphere of the 1950s and 1960s and as significant expressions of artistic freedom within this politicized atmosphere. This dissertation begins with an overview of the main research questions, theoretical framework, research methodology, and literature. This is followed in Chapter 2 by an introduction to the art form, and an exploration of the 1950s-1960s period in Chinese history in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, I examine the revision of the traditional story Jade Dragonfly, and the composition of new music in the story‟s climactic ballad Fighting for the Son. In Chapter 5, I iv study the creation of the new story We Certainly Must Fix the Huai River, and the composition of new music in the pivotal ballad Staying for the New Year. In Chapter 6, I explore the musical innovations made during the creation of two new ballads New Mulan Song and Butterfly Loves the Flower. Chapter 7 summarizes Chapters 4, 5, and 6, offers concluding thoughts regarding the nature of political control and artistic freedom in the Chinese arts during the 1949-1964 period, and suggests broader implications for the field of ethnomusicology. v TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... VI LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... X ACKNOWLEGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ XII PREFACE ................................................................................................................................. XIV 1.0 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 MAIN QUESTIONS ASKED ..................................................................................... 1 1.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND APPROACH ........................................... 3 1.2.1 Hegemony ......................................................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Ideology ............................................................................................................. 5 1.2.3 Artistic Agency ................................................................................................. 6 1.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE ....................................................... 9 1.3.1 Field Research .................................................................................................. 9 1.3.2 Approach to transcription ............................................................................. 13 1.3.3 Analytical Approach ...................................................................................... 14 1.3.4 Project Scope .................................................................................................. 15 1.4 STATE OF RESEARCH AND LITERATURE REVIEW ................................... 16 1.4.1 English-language research on tanci .............................................................. 16 1.4.2 Chinese-language research on tanci ............................................................. 18 1.4.3 Studies of the Chinese Performing Arts, 1950s-1960s ................................ 21 1.5 CHAPTER OUTLINE .............................................................................................. 23 2.0 OVERVIEW OF SUZHOU TANCI ................................................................................. 25 2.1 PERFORMANCE CONTEXTS ............................................................................... 27 2.2 VARIETIES OF PRESENTATION ........................................................................ 32 2.3 VISUAL ASPECTS OF PERFORMANCE ............................................................ 34 vi 2.4 SPOKEN SECTIONS AND SUNG BALLADS ...................................................... 35 2.4.1 Spoken sections ............................................................................................... 35 2.4.2 Sung ballads .................................................................................................... 36 2.5 CONCEPT OF MUSICAL STYLE ......................................................................... 38 2.6 PERFORMERS’ TRAINING AND TRANSMISSION OF TANCI ..................... 42 3.0 THE DRAMATIC AND NARRATIVE ARTS IN CHINA: 1950S-1960S ................... 45 3.1 EARLY YEARS OF THE PRC: 1949-1955 ............................................................ 46 3.1.1 Influx of new ideology .................................................................................... 47 3.1.2 Nationalized Performance Troupes .............................................................. 48 3.1.3 State Culture Institutions .............................................................................. 49 3.2 THE HUNDRED FLOWERS AND ANTI-RIGHTIST MOVEMENTS: 1956- 1958...................................................................................................................................... 51 3.2.1 Hundred Flowers Movement ........................................................................ 51 3.2.2 Anti-Rightist backlash: 1957-1958................................................................ 52 3.3 THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD AND AFTERMATH: 1958-1963 ................... 53 3.3.1 The Great Leap Forward in the Arts ........................................................... 55 3.3.2 Aftermath of the Great Leap: 1959-1962 ..................................................... 57 3.4 PRELUDE TO THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION: 1964-1967 .......................... 58 3.4.1 The re-emergence of contemporary repertoire ........................................... 58 3.4.2 Festival of Peking Opera on Contemporary Themes.................................. 59 3.4.3 The Cultural Revolution in tanci .................................................................. 61 4.0 POLITICS, ARTISTIC AUTONOMY, AND THE REVISION OF TRADITIONAL REPERTOIRE ............................................................................................................................ 63 4.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADITIONAL REPERTOIRE............................... 64 4.2 POLITICAL FACTORS........................................................................................... 67 4.2.1 “Weed through the old to bring forth the new” .......................................... 67 4.2.2 “Three Reformations” ................................................................................... 69 4.2.3 Chen Yun ........................................................................................................ 70 4.3 “CUTTING THE TAIL” OF FEUDALISM ........................................................... 72 4.4 THE REVISION OF JADE DRAGONFLY ............................................................. 76 4.4.1 Story Plot ........................................................................................................ 77 vii 4.4.2 Revised versions ............................................................................................. 83 4.4.3 Revisers ........................................................................................................... 85 4.4.4 Deleting politically
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The KNIGHT REVISION of HORNBOSTEL-SACHS: a New Look at Musical Instrument Classification
    The KNIGHT REVISION of HORNBOSTEL-SACHS: a new look at musical instrument classification by Roderic C. Knight, Professor of Ethnomusicology Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, © 2015, Rev. 2017 Introduction The year 2015 marks the beginning of the second century for Hornbostel-Sachs, the venerable classification system for musical instruments, created by Erich M. von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs as Systematik der Musikinstrumente in 1914. In addition to pursuing their own interest in the subject, the authors were answering a need for museum scientists and musicologists to accurately identify musical instruments that were being brought to museums from around the globe. As a guiding principle for their classification, they focused on the mechanism by which an instrument sets the air in motion. The idea was not new. The Indian sage Bharata, working nearly 2000 years earlier, in compiling the knowledge of his era on dance, drama and music in the treatise Natyashastra, (ca. 200 C.E.) grouped musical instruments into four great classes, or vadya, based on this very idea: sushira, instruments you blow into; tata, instruments with strings to set the air in motion; avanaddha, instruments with membranes (i.e. drums), and ghana, instruments, usually of metal, that you strike. (This itemization and Bharata’s further discussion of the instruments is in Chapter 28 of the Natyashastra, first translated into English in 1961 by Manomohan Ghosh (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, v.2). The immediate predecessor of the Systematik was a catalog for a newly-acquired collection at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels. The collection included a large number of instruments from India, and the curator, Victor-Charles Mahillon, familiar with the Indian four-part system, decided to apply it in preparing his catalog, published in 1880 (this is best documented by Nazir Jairazbhoy in Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology – see 1990 in the timeline below).
    [Show full text]
  • HUNG LIU: OFFERINGS January 23-March 17, 2013
    PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: December 12, 2012 Maysoun Wazwaz Mills College Art Museum, Program Manager 510.430.3340 or [email protected] Mills College Art Museum Announces HUNG LIU: OFFERINGS January 23-March 17, 2013 Oakland, CA—December 12, 2012. The Mills College Art Museum is pleased to present Hung Liu: Offerings a rare opportunity to experience two of the Oakland-based artist’s most significant large- scale installations: Jiu Jin Shan (Old Gold Mountain) (1994) and Tai Cang—Great Granary (2008). Hung Liu: Offerings will be on view from January 23 through March 17, 2013. The opening reception takes place on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 from 6:00–8:00 pm and free shuttle service will be provided from the MacArthur Bart station during the opening. Recognized as America's most important Chinese artist, Hung Liu’s installations have played a central role in her work throughout her career. In Jiu Jin Shan (Old Gold Mountain), over two hundred thousand fortune cookies create a symbolic gold mountain that engulfs a crossroads of railroad tracks running beneath. The junction where the tracks meet serves as both a crossroads and 1 terminus, a visual metaphor of the cultural intersection of East and West. Liu references not only the history of the Chinese laborers who built the railroads to support the West Coast Gold Rush, but also the hope shared among these migrant workers that they could find material prosperity in the new world. The Mills College Art Museum is excited to be the first venue outside of China to present Tai Cang— Great Granary.
    [Show full text]
  • Dressing for the Times: Fashion in Tang Dynasty China (618-907)
    Dressing for the Times: Fashion in Tang Dynasty China (618-907) BuYun Chen Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 BuYun Chen All rights reserved ABSTRACT Dressing for the Times: Fashion in Tang Dynasty China (618-907) BuYun Chen During the Tang dynasty, an increased capacity for change created a new value system predicated on the accumulation of wealth and the obsolescence of things that is best understood as fashion. Increased wealth among Tang elites was paralleled by a greater investment in clothes, which imbued clothes with new meaning. Intellectuals, who viewed heightened commercial activity and social mobility as symptomatic of an unstable society, found such profound changes in the vestimentary landscape unsettling. For them, a range of troubling developments, including crisis in the central government, deep suspicion of the newly empowered military and professional class, and anxiety about waste and obsolescence were all subsumed under the trope of fashionable dressing. The clamor of these intellectuals about the widespread desire to be “current” reveals the significant space fashion inhabited in the empire – a space that was repeatedly gendered female. This dissertation considers fashion as a system of social practices that is governed by material relations – a system that is also embroiled in the politics of the gendered self and the body. I demonstrate that this notion of fashion is the best way to understand the process through which competition for status and self-identification among elites gradually broke away from the imperial court and its system of official ranks.
    [Show full text]
  • Protection and Transmission of Chinese Nanyin by Prof
    Protection and Transmission of Chinese Nanyin by Prof. Wang, Yaohua Fujian Normal University, China Intangible cultural heritage is the memory of human historical culture, the root of human culture, the ‘energic origin’ of the spirit of human culture and the footstone for the construction of modern human civilization. Ever since China joined the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2004, it has done a lot not only on cognition but also on action to contribute to the protection and transmission of intangible cultural heritage. Please allow me to expatiate these on the case of Chinese nanyin(南音, southern music). I. The precious multi-values of nanyin decide the necessity of protection and transmission for Chinese nanyin. Nanyin, also known as “nanqu” (南曲), “nanyue” (南乐), “nanguan” (南管), “xianguan” (弦管), is one of the oldest music genres with strong local characteristics. As major musical genre, it prevails in the south of Fujian – both in the cities and countryside of Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou – and is also quite popular in Taiwan, Hongkong, Macao and the countries of Southeast Asia inhabited by Chinese immigrants from South Fujian. The music of nanyin is also found in various Fujian local operas such as Liyuan Opera (梨园戏), Gaojia Opera (高甲戏), line-leading puppet show (提线木偶戏), Dacheng Opera (打城戏) and the like, forming an essential part of their vocal melodies and instrumental music. As the intangible cultural heritage, nanyin has such values as follows. I.I. Academic value and historical value Nanyin enjoys a reputation as “a living fossil of the ancient music”, as we can trace its relevance to and inheritance of Chinese ancient music in terms of their musical phenomena and features of musical form.
    [Show full text]
  • Singapore Chinese Orchestra Instrumentation Chart
    Singapore Chinese Orchestra Instrumentation Chart 王⾠威 编辑 Version 1 Compiled by WANG Chenwei 2021-04-29 26-Musician Orchestra for SCO Composer Workshop 2022 [email protected] Recommendedabbreviations ofinstrumentnamesareshown DadiinF DadiinG DadiinA QudiinBb QudiinC QudiinD QudiinEb QudiinE BangdiinF BangdiinG BangdiinA XiaodiinBb XiaodiinC XiaodiinD insquarebrackets ˙ ˙ ˙ #˙ ˙ ˙ #˙ ˙ ˙ 2Di ‹ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ #˙ [Di] ° & ˙ (Transverseflute) & ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ¢ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ b˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ s˙ounds 8va -DiplayerscandoubleontheXiaoinForG(samerangeasDadiinForG) -ThischartnotatesmiddleCasC4,oneoctavehigherasC5etc. #w -WhileearlycompositionsmightdesignateeachplayerasBangdi,QudiorDadi, -8va=octavehigher,8vb=octavelower,15ma=2octaveshigher 1Gaoyin-Sheng composersareactuallyfreetochangeDiduringthepiece. -PleaseusethetrebleclefforZhonghupartscores [GYSh] ° -Composerscouldwriteonestaffperplayer,e.g.Di1,Di2andspecifywhentousewhichtypeofDi; -Pleaseusethe8vbtrebleclefforZhongyin-Sheng, (Sopranomouthorgan) & ifthekeyofDiislefttotheplayers'discretion,specifyatleastwhetherthepitchshould Zhongyin-GuanandZhongruanpartscores w soundasnotatedor8va. w -Composerscanrequestforamembranelesssound(withoutdimo). 1Zhongyin-Sheng -WhiletheDadiandQudicanplayanother3semitonesabovethestatedrange, [ZYSh] theycanonlybeplayedforcefullyandthetimbreispoor. -ForeachkeyofDi,thesemitoneabovethelowestpitch(e.g.Eb4ontheDadiinG)sounds (Altomouthorgan) & w verymuffledduetothehalf-holefingeringandisunsuitableforloudplaying. 低⼋度发⾳ ‹ -Allinstrumentsdonotusetransposednotationotherthantranspositionsattheoctave.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Zhirong “Jerry” Zhao
    Updated 03/16/2020 ZHIRONG “JERRY” ZHAO Gross Family Professor, Public & Nonprofit Management Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota (UMN) 301 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455 [email protected], 612-625-7318 (phone) BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Education 2005 Ph.D. of Public Administration, University of Georgia (UGA), Athens 1997 Master of Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China 1993 Bachelor of Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China Academic Positions 2019- pres. Chair Leadership & Management Area, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UMN 2019–pres. Gross Family Professor, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UMN 2017- pres. Director, Master of Public Policy Program, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UMN 2017- pres. Founding Director, Institute for Urban & Regional Infrastructure Finance, UMN 2012–2019 Associate Professor, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UMN 2007–2011 Assistant Professor, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UMN 2005–2007 Director, Political Science Internship Program, Eastern Michigan University 2005–2007 Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Eastern Michigan University Professional Experience 2002–2005 Education Program Specialist, Carl Vinson Institute of Government, UGA 1993–1998 Assistant Urban Planner, Xiamen Academy of Urban Planning & Design, China Awards and Honors 2020 SCPA Leadership Award, American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) 2018 Outstanding Services Award, Center for Transportation Studies, UMN 2018 Leadership Award, China-America
    [Show full text]
  • Suzhou Museum
    江 苏 Culture Scenery Gourmet Useful Info © Xie Guanghui Introduction & Map 苏州简介&地图 of SUZHOU Cultural Suzhou is one of the oldest cities in China. Canglang Pavilion, Lion Grove 历史文化 History Garden, Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden are iconic cultural sites built in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties respectively. Small bridges and running brooks at the ancient towns of Luzhi, Tongli and Humble Administrator's Garden Zhouzhuang spell out exquisiteness for the city. The Tianping Mountain in the southwest Suzhou is one of the four major Being one of then famous landscaped gardens in Suzhou, built in Ming maple viewing attractions in the country. dynasty, this garden is designed base on a waterbody, surrounded by pavilions, rock sculpture, and lush greenery which resemble the Southern Chinese’s fond of appreciating the natural splendours. N LIANYUNGANG Night Tour in Master of the Nets Garden XUZHOU Built since the Southern Song dynasty, the highly notable garden introduced night SUQIAN tour to tourists since year 1990, which is now HUAI'AN highly recommended by UNESCO as one of the must-visit tourist product ones should YANCHENG not miss. During the night tour, tourists will be able to listen to ancient operas and experience themselves the thoughtfully planned landscapes. © Chu Kit YANGZHOU NANJING TAIZHOU Zhouzhuang Water Town NANTONG ZHENJIANG Built since the Northern Song dynasty, the water town now features 60% WUXI CHANGZHOU architecture from the Ming and Qing Beijing dynasties. Canals run through the town SUZHOU and bridges connect the neighbourhood Shanghai Jiangsu from one end to another. Its beautiful Province SHANGHAI sceneries are a testament to the town's fame as the 'Venice of the East'.
    [Show full text]
  • Three Millennia of Tonewood Knowledge in Chinese Guqin Tradition: Science, Culture, Value, and Relevance for Western Lutherie
    Savart Journal Article 1 Three millennia of tonewood knowledge in Chinese guqin tradition: science, culture, value, and relevance for Western lutherie WENJIE CAI1,2 AND HWAN-CHING TAI3 Abstract—The qin, also called guqin, is the most highly valued musical instrument in the culture of Chinese literati. Chinese people have been making guqin for over three thousand years, accumulating much lutherie knowledge under this uninterrupted tradition. In addition to being rare antiques and symbolic cultural objects, it is also widely believed that the sound of Chinese guqin improves gradually with age, maturing over hundreds of years. As such, the status and value of antique guqin in Chinese culture are comparable to those of antique Italian violins in Western culture. For guqin, the supposed acoustic improvement is generally attributed to the effects of wood aging. Ancient Chinese scholars have long discussed how and why aging improves the tone. When aged tonewood was not available, they resorted to various artificial means to accelerate wood aging, including chemical treatments. The cumulative experience of Chinese guqin makers represent a valuable source of tonewood knowledge, because they give us important clues on how to investigate long-term wood changes using modern research tools. In this review, we translated and annotated tonewood knowledge in ancient Chinese books, comparing them with conventional tonewood knowledge in Europe and recent scientific research. This retrospective analysis hopes to highlight the practical value of Chinese lutherie knowledge for 21st-century instrument makers. I. INTRODUCTION In Western musical tradition, the most valuable musical instruments belong to the violin family, especially antique instruments made in Cremona, Italy.
    [Show full text]
  • Narada Foundation Annual Report
    Legal Consultant (Pro Bono) : JunHe LLP Foster Civil Society A Fair and Just Society Where Every Heart Carries Hope A / Room ����, Tower C, Vantone Center, No. � Chaowai Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing, ������, China T / ���-��������-��� Narada Foundation E / [email protected] P.C / ������ Annual Report http://www.naradafoundation.org /01-02 /03-05 /06 Foreword About Narada Foundation Board of Directors Mission and Vision Board Members and Supervisors ����-���� Strategic Plan /08-47 /48-51 /52-53 Programmes Audit Report Our Team Sector Development Scaling Up Social Innovation ○ China Effective Philanthropy Multiplier Social Enterprise and Impact Investment Other Programmes ○ Ginkgo Fellows Programme ○ New Citizen Programme ○ Quantitative Historical Research Project ○ Funding Leping Social Entrepreneur Foundation XU Yongguang ,Chair of the Board of Directors PENG Yanni , CEO In Chinese culture, twelve years is a full cycle in life and history. Narada Foundation passed its ���� marked the third year of Narada Foundation’ s ����-���� strategic plan. We have furthered our first �� years in ����. three work areas, namely sector development, scaling up social innovation (China Effective Philanthropy Multiplier) and social enterprise and impact investment, in all aspects, addressing In the past �� years, Narada Foundation upheld its mission‘ foster civil society’ and strove to fulfil the needs and underlying problems of grassroots non-profit development, and accomplished our its vision‘ a fair and just society where every heart carries hope’ . Narada has been growing and original goals set at the planning stage. strengthening philanthropy infrastructure and improving the non-profit and philanthropy ecosystem in China together with our non-profit partners, an example of ownership and The China Effective Philanthropy Multiplier continued to perform efficiently in ����.
    [Show full text]
  • THE NATURE of VARIATION in TONE SANDHI PATTERNS of SHANGHAI and WUXI WU by Hanbo Yan Submitted to the Graduate Degree Program In
    THE NATURE OF VARIATION IN TONE SANDHI PATTERNS OF SHANGHAI AND WUXI WU By © 2016 Hanbo Yan Submitted to the graduate degree program in Linguistics and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chairperson Dr. Jie Zhang ________________________________ Dr. Allard Jongman ________________________________ Dr. Joan Sereno ________________________________ Dr. Annie Tremblay ________________________________ Dr. Yan Li Date Defended: 05/11/2016 ii The Dissertation Committee for Hanbo Yan certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: THE NATURE OF VARIATION IN TONE SANDHI PATTERNS OF SHANGHAI AND WUXI WU ________________________________ Chairperson Dr. Jie Zhang Date approved: 05/26/2016 iii Abstract The primary goal of this dissertation is to understand the variation patterns in suprasegmental processes and what factors influence the patterns. To answer the questions, we investigated the variation patterns of tone sandhi in the Shanghai and Wuxi Wu dialects of Chinese. Shanghai disyllables and trisyllables have been documented to have two different sandhi patterns: tonal extension and tonal reduction. Some items can only undergo tonal extension, some items can only undergo tonal reduction, and some can variably undergo either type of sandhi. Previous works have indicated that the syntactic structure, semantic transparency, and lexical frequency of the items all play a role in the sandhi application. Additionally, the morpheme length of trisyllabic items (1+2, 2+1) is also expected to affect their sandhi application. A variant forms’ goodness rating experiment, together with a lexical frequency rating experiment and a semantic transparency rating experiment, showed that syntactic structure has a primary effect on sandhi application in general.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism
    Jiaanbieyuan new courtyard-garden housing in Suzhou Zhang Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism 2019 Volume 1 Issue 1: 1-19 Research Article Jiaanbieyuan New Courtyard-Garden Housing in Suzhou: Residents’ Experiences of the Redevelopment Donia Zhang Neoland School of Chinese Culture, Canada Corresponding author: Donia Zhang, 11211 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. L4S 0E9 Email: [email protected] Citation: Zhang D, 2019, Jiaanbieyuan New Courtyard-Garden Housing in Suzhou: Residents’ Experiences of the Redevelopment. Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism, 1(1): 526. http://dx.doi.org/10.26689/jcau.v1i1.526 ABSTRACT Cultural vitality as the fourth pillar of sustainable development has been widely acknowledged, and vernacular architecture as a major part of a nation’s material culture has entered the cultural sustainability dialogue. This recognition demands that new housing design and development should honor a local or regional identity. This in-depth case study assesses the architectural, environmental, spatial, constructional, social, cultural, and behavioral aspects of the Jiaanbieyuan (“Excellent Peace Courtyard-Garden Housing Estate”) built in Suzhou, China, in 1998. The 500-unit Jiaanbieyuan is located close to two UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites, the Canglang (“Surging Waves”) Pavilion and the Master-of- Nets Garden. It has attempted to recreate Suzhou’s traditional architecture and landscape architecture. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through numerous research methods, including onsite surveys and interviews. The findings show the new housing forms do not promote social relations as effectively as the traditional housing of the past. Moreover, the communal Central Garden has functioned to some extent as a social and cultural activity space.
    [Show full text]
  • Preliminary Pages
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Ascending the Hall of Great Elegance: the Emergence of Drama Research in Modern China A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Hsiao-Chun Wu 2016 © Copyright by Hsiao-Chun Wu 2016 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Ascending the Hall of Great Elegance: the Emergence of Drama Research in Modern China by Hsiao-Chun Wu Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2016, Professor Andrea Sue Goldman, Chair This dissertation captures a critical moment in China’s history when the interest in opera transformed from literati divertissement into an emerging field of scholarly inquiry. Centering around the activities and writings of Qi Rushan (1870-1962), who played a key role both in reshaping the modes of elite involvement in opera and in systematic knowledge production about opera, this dissertation explores this transformation from a transitional generation of theatrical connoisseurs and researchers in early twentieth-century China. It examines the many conditions and contexts in the making of opera—and especially Peking opera—as a discipline of modern humanistic research in China: the transnational emergence of Sinology, the vibrant urban entertainment market, the literary and material resources from the past, and the bodies and !ii identities of performers. This dissertation presents a critical chronology of the early history of drama study in modern China, beginning from the emerging terminology of genre to the theorization and the making of a formal academic discipline. Chapter One examines the genre-making of Peking Opera in three overlapping but not identical categories: temporal, geographical-political, and aesthetic.
    [Show full text]