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Transnational Chinese Theatres Intercultural Performance Networks in East Asia Rossella Ferrari Transnational Theatre Histories TRANSNATIONAL THEATRE HISTORIES Transnational Chinese Theatres Intercultural Performance Networks in East Asia Rossella Ferrari Transnational Theatre Histories Series Editors Christopher B. Balme Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Bayern, Germany Tracy C. Davis Northwestern University Evanston, IL, USA Catherine M. Cole College of Arts and Sciences University of Washington Seattle, WA, USA Transnational Theatre Histories illuminates vectors of cultural exchange, migration, appropriation, and circulation that long predate the more recent trends of neoliberal globalization. Books in the series document and theorize the emergence of theatre, opera, dance, and performance against backgrounds such as imperial expansion, technological develop- ment, modernity, industrialization, colonization, diplomacy, and cultural self-determination. Proposals are invited on topics such as: theatrical trade routes; public spheres through cross-cultural contact; the role of multi-ethnic metropolitan centers and port cities; modernization and modernity experienced in transnational contexts; new materialism: objects moving across borders and regions; migration and recombination of aesthetics and forms; colonization and decolonization as transnational projects; performance histories of cross- or inter-cultural contact; festi- vals, exchanges, partnerships, collaborations, and co-productions; diplo- macy, state and extra-governmental involvement, support, or subversion; historical perspectives on capital, finance, and administration; processes of linguistic and institutional translation; translocality, glocality, transregional and omnilocal vectors; developing new forms of collaborative authorship. Series Editors Christopher B. Balme (LMU Munich) Catherine M. Cole (University of Washington) Tracy C. Davis (Northwestern) Editorial Board Leo Cabranes-Grant (UC Santa Barbara, USA) Khalid Amine (Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tétouan, Morocco) Laurence Senelick (Tufts University, USA) Rustom Bharucha (JNU, New Delhi, India) Margaret Werry (University of Minnesota, USA) Maria Helena Werneck (Federal University of Rio de Janiero, Brazil) Catherine Yeh (Boston University, USA/ University of Heidelberg, Germany) Marlis Schweitzer (York University; Canada) More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14397 Rossella Ferrari Transnational Chinese Theatres Intercultural Performance Networks in East Asia Rossella Ferrari SOAS, University of London London, UK Transnational Theatre Histories ISBN 978-3-030-37272-9 ISBN 978-3-030-37273-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37273-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa- tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: Courtesy of The Theatre Practice LTD This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To Tristan, For the most significant journey. Acknowledgements This book is made of the matter that constitutes its subject: networks, connections, relations, and journeys. By the time it is published, a decade will have passed since my first in-depth excursion—over three months spent in Hong Kong in 2009—into the archives of Zuni Icosahedron, whose practice provided the first case study for this project, and since my visit to the Tate Triennial 2009 in London, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, which informed some of its theoretical propositions. Long-term undertakings of this kind are never entirely the accom- plishment of a single individual. More often, they are the outcome of generative encounters, collective dialogues, and countless conversations. As befitting a study of transnational collaboration, the production of this book has been—to an extent—a cooperative effort, which has benefited immensely from the intellectual, emotional, and practical assistance of a global community of colleagues, friends, and family. I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to the artists and arts organiza- tions which, over many years, have graciously complied with numerous requests for information, interviews, and materials and granted permis- sion to use some of those resources in this volume: Zhao Chuan (Grass Stage, Shanghai), Tom Tong Sze-hong (Asia Meets Asia/Clash Theatre Group, Hong Kong), Bernice Chan (International Association of Theatre Critics, Hong Kong), Marble Leung (Hong Kong Repertory Theatre), Tang Shu-wing (Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio, Hong Kong), Yu Rongjun (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre), Meng Jinghui and Guo Qi vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (Meng Jinghui Theatre Studio, Beijing), Guo Xiong and Cell Tono Lim (The Theatre Practice, Singapore), Kok Heng Leun (Drama Box, Singapore), Hung Chit-wah (Singapore/Hong Kong), Hung Pei-ching (Performosa Theatre Company, Taipei), Sat¯o Makoto (Za-Koenji Public Theatre, Tokyo), Ke Jun (Jiangsu Performing Arts Group, Nanjing), and the members of Zuni Icosahedron in Hong Kong—especially Wong Yue- wai, Doris Kan, and Cedric Chan, who have helped me in so many ways. My heartfelt thanks go to Zuni’s co-artistic directors, Danny Yung and Mathias Woo, who motivated this research with their groundbreaking practice and greatly assisted its development with their continued support. I am indebted to Professor Ying Chan of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong for generously hosting me during a sabbatical period in 2009, and to Professor Lia Wen-ching Liang of National Taiwan Normal University for facilitating a research visit to Taipei in 2017, funded by the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology. Early incarnations of arguments elaborated in this volume were first outlined in two contributions to special issues of the Journal of Chinese Cinemas (2.1, 2008, on the ‘transnational’, edited by Chris Berry and Laikwan Pang) and Postcolonial Studies (13.4, 2010, on “Contempo- rary East Asia, in Theory”, edited by Margaret Hillenbrand). I thank the editors for the opportunity to test some preliminary thoughts, and the audiences and discussants at several academic gatherings in Asia, Europe, and North America where parts of this study were subsequently presented and further refined. I am also much obliged to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive feedback. For providing contacts, materials, hospitality, mentorship, encourage- ment, and inspiration at various stages of the research, I thank Katherine Hui-ling Chou, Claire Conceison, Natascha Gentz, Margaret Hillen- brand, Michel Hockx, Alexa Alice Joubin, Karima Laachir, Barbara Leonesi, Li Ruru, Corrado Neri, How Wee Ng, Francesca Orsini, Wen- chin Ouyang, Sy Ren Quah, Barbara Pizziconi, Luke Robinson, Mirjam Tröster, Sebastian Veg, Jessica W. Y. Yeung, David Der-wei Wang, and others whose names I may have overlooked but whose contributions have been no less valuable. I am most grateful to the editors of the Transna- tional Theatre Histories series for endorsing this project and to the edito- rial staff at Palgrave Macmillan for their guidance and competence in steering it to timely completion. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix For lasting friendship, wise counsel, and emotional support during some exceptionally testing periods, I thank Linda Badan, Elena Baglioni, Alessandra Cecolin, Melanie Cheng, Eliza Lam, Emanuele Lugli, Alessandra Mezzadri, Federica Rossi, and Francesca Sorgato. I thank my parents, Mauro Ferrari and Roberta Guatteri, to whom I owe who I am, and my cousins, Camilla and Cristiana Conti, for being like sisters to me. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my husband Adrian Szczech, for always being there for me along this journey, and to our son Tristan Alexander—who was born halfway through it—for making the journey all the more interesting. Note on Romanization In accordance with the scholarly convention in English-language scholar- ship, this volume adopts the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system—which is standard in mainland China and most international library catalogues— but also retains the different conventions in use in other Sinophone regions, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. For personal names, the preferred or most common transcription in English-language publications is provided, with Pinyin or alternate tran-
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