DOCSLIB.ORG

Transformation of Chinese Water Sleeve Dance and Tai Ji in Contemporary Performer Training and Performance Making

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Transformation of Chinese Water Sleeve Dance and Tai Ji in Contemporary Performer Training and Performance Making Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses 2017 The reinvention of tradition: Transformation of Chinese water sleeve dance and Tai Ji in contemporary performer training and performance making Min Zhu Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses Part of the Dance Commons Recommended Citation Zhu, M. (2017). The reinvention of tradition: Transformation of Chinese water sleeve dance and Tai Ji in contemporary performer training and performance making. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1987 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1987 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Courts have the power to impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions for infringement of copyright, infringement of moral rights and other offences under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. The Reinvention of Tradition: Transformation of Chinese Water Sleeve Dance and Tai Ji in Contemporary Performer Training and Performance Making This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Min Zhu Edith Cowan University Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts 2017 Abstract The aim of this practice-led research was to investigate the nature and characteristics of the notion of reinvented tradition in China through the examination of dance practices. First, this research focused on the continuity of tradition demonstrated in the development of Chinese classical dance. Second, it concentrated on the malleability and applicability of two representative Chinese cultural dance practices, water sleeve dance and Tai Ji, in contemporary performance and performer training. The central concept behind this research was the commonly held perception in China that “tradition is a river” (P. Huang, 1990) in the context of the Chinese dance community. The overarching research methodology of this practice-led research involved critical analyses of Chinese classical dance works, 16 workshops with dance and Performance Making students, interviews, focus groups, critical reflection on my dance-making practice and the making of two new performance works: Penanegra and Hunger. Central to this entire research process is a discussion of the tension between tradition and modernity in the phenomenon of reinventing tradition in contemporary Chinese classical dance making, contemporary performance training and in the making of what I identify as contemporary performance influenced by Chinese cultural traditions. During the practice phase of the research, I investigated what traditional insights and techniques could offer contemporary performers and performance makers. In particular, the philosophy and practice of Tai Ji was analysed in relation to contemporary movement training and performance making. The research has culminated in an evaluation of how the changes and ramifications of tradition can be embodied in the current performance context. This research makes two significant contributions to knowledge in terms of understanding tradition and its reinvention. First, this thesis proposes the idea of reinventing tradition to interpret the development of Chinese classical dance since ii the 1980s, and it articulates the motivations and cultural meanings involved in the creation of contemporary Chinese classical dance. The thesis also analyses the ambiguity of ‘Chinese contemporary dance’ as a new term and demonstrates the hybridity of movement language as a response to the modernisation of Chinese traditional dance. Second, this thesis articulates the interweaving of tradition and originality in artistic creation through the examples of two representative Chinese cultural elements: the water sleeve dance and Tai Ji. The study examines how these cultural forms can be transformed and applied to contemporary training and performance. The water sleeve dance was examined within an intercultural performance project, Penanegra, illustrating how a traditional dance form can be transformed to facilitate communication between different cultural backgrounds and body languages, and how conservatoire training can enable the inheritance of tradition through body memory. Tai Ji was applied to movement training and to the making and performance of a new contemporary work, Hunger. The discussion of Tai Ji and its transformation in this project contributes to understanding psychophysical training practices and discourse. The particular approach to Tai Ji developed in this thesis informs the critical analysis of other Tai Ji-inspired works. Overall, this thesis considers the reinvention of tradition in relation to making tradition relevant to contemporary performance making and performer training. The resulting performances, new training approaches and exegesis contribute to scholarship on the body and movement in performance. iii Declaration I certify that this thesis does not, to the best of my knowledge and belief: i. incorporate without acknowledgment any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any institution of higher education; ii. contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text of this thesis; or iii. contain any defamatory material. Signature: Min Zhu Feburary 2017 iv Acknowledgements Completing this thesis was a long and challenging journey for me. I am indebted to the generosity of many people who have mentored, encouraged, inspired and helped me during this process. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Ms Nanette Hassall for graciously allowing me to foster a connection with WAAPA, and for supporting and caring for me throughout both my research and life in the past four years. I also feel much gratitude to my principal supervisor, Dr Renée Newman, who gave me tremendous support and insightful suggestions throughout the writing of the thesis. Her inspiring comments and wisdom helped elevate this work to reach higher and more exciting levels. My sincere appreciation is extended to Dr Frances Barbe, who was not only a supervisor, but also a collaborator on this project. Without her guidance and invaluable contribution to this thesis, this project could not have been possible. Her precious experiences in both teaching and performance making have left significant imprints on my own development as a teacher and artist. In my supervision committee, one person who I feel truly privileged to have been supervised by and feel heartfelt gratitude towards is my pre-principal supervisor, Associate Professor Maggi Phillips. During the time I have spent with her, I was deeply inspired and affected by her wisdom, passion and courage towards art and research. I am most grateful to have observed her tolerant attitude towards cultural differences, which allowed me to realise that as a researcher, one should always be curious, but also modest. She lives in my heart forever. During this creative exploration, I would like to thank my performance partner, Dr Tanatchaporn Kittikong, who has shared a great amount of knowledge and understanding about contemporary performance with me. In addition, this research could not have been finished without the lovely Bachelor of Performing Arts students; without their participation, my approach towards movement training would v not have been possible. I would especially like to thank those who joined the filming of the presentation workshop: Indiana Coole, Rachael Woodward, Tim Boulton, Kylie Bywaters and Julia Landberg. Outside of my supervision committee, my warmest gratitude goes to my writing consultant, Dr Jo McFarlane, who has helped me throughout every stage of the writing process and has helped make me become a better writer. I would also like to thank Dr Lyndall Adams, Dr Neil Ferguson and all of my Chinese and Australian colleagues and friends. Special thanks to WAAPA PhD candidate Gabrielle Metcalf who filmed the Tai Ji-based movement presentation workshop for me. Finally, I would like to thank my family from the bottom of my heart. Their unconditional care and support have encouraged and sustained me throughout this endeavour. Many thanks to my husband, Zhang Yunfan, for accompanying me throughout this whole journey and for never doubting me. vi Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................ ii Declaration .......................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. v Table of Contents
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Contemporary China: a Book List
    PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Woodrow Wilson School, Politics Department, East Asian Studies Program CONTEMPORARY CHINA: A BOOK LIST by Lubna Malik and Lynn White Winter 2007-2008 Edition This list is available on the web at: http://www.princeton.edu/~lynn/chinabib.pdf which can be viewed and printed with an Adobe Acrobat Reader. Variation of font sizes may cause pagination to differ slightly in the web and paper editions. No list of books can be totally up-to-date. Please surf to find further items. Also consult http://www.princeton.edu/~lynn/chinawebs.doc for clicable URLs. This list of items in English has several purposes: --to help advise students' course essays, junior papers, policy workshops, and senior theses about contemporary China; --to supplement the required reading lists of courses on "Chinese Development" and "Chinese Politics," for which students may find books to review in this list; --to provide graduate students with a list that may suggest books for paper topics and may slightly help their study for exams in Chinese politics; a few of the compiler's favorite books are starred on the list, but not much should be made of this because such books may be old or the subjects may not meet present interests; --to supplement a bibliography of all Asian serials in the Princeton Libraries that was compiled long ago by Frances Chen and Maureen Donovan; many of these are now available on the web,e.g., from “J-Stor”; --to suggest to book selectors in the Princeton libraries items that are suitable for acquisition; to provide a computerized list on which researchers can search for keywords of interests; and to provide a resource that many teachers at various other universities have also used.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise of Guangchangwu in a Chinese Village
    International Journal of Communication 11(2017), 4499–4522 1932–8036/20170005 Reading Movement in the Everyday: The Rise of Guangchangwu in a Chinese Village MAGGIE CHAO Simon Fraser University, Canada Communication University of China, China Over recent years, the practice of guangchangwu has captured the Chinese public’s attention due to its increasing popularity and ubiquity across China’s landscapes. Translated to English as “public square dancing,” guangchangwu describes the practice of group dancing in outdoor spaces among mostly middle-aged and older women. This article examines the practice in the context of guangchangwu practitioners in Heyang Village, Zhejiang Province. Complicating popular understandings of the phenomenon as a manifestation of a nostalgic yearning for Maoist collectivity, it reads guangchangwu through the lens of “jumping scale” to contextualize the practice within the evolving politics of gender in post-Mao China. In doing so, this article points to how guangchangwu can embody novel and potentially transgressive movements into different spaces from home to park, inside to outside, and across different scales from rural to urban, local to national. Keywords: square dancing, popular culture, spatial practice, scale, gender politics, China The time is 7:15 p.m., April 23, 2015, and I am sitting adjacent to a small, empty square tucked away from the main thoroughfare of a university campus in Beijing. As if on cue, Ms. Wu appears, toting a small loudspeaker on her hip.1 She sets it down on the stairs, surveying the scene before her: a small flat space, wedged in between a number of buildings, surrounded by some trees, evidence of a meager attempt at beautifying the area.
    [Show full text]
  • Fit to Dance Survey: Elements of Lifestyle and Injury Incidence in Chinese Dancers
    Fit to Dance Survey: elements of lifestyle and injury incidence in Chinese dancers Yanan Dang, MSc1,2; Yiannis Koutedakis, PhD1,3; Matthew Wyon, PhD1,4 1 Institute of Human Sciences, University of Wolverhampton, UK 2 Beijing Dance Academy, Beijing, China 3 Department of Sport Science, University of Thessaly, Greece 4 National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science, Walsall, UK Corresponding author Prof Matthew Wyon Institute of Human Sciences, University of Wolverhampton, Gorway Rd, Walsall, WS1 3BD, UK email: [email protected] Abstract The Fit to Dance survey has been conducted a number of times using primarily Western participants and has provided foundation data for other studies. The purpose of the current study was to replicate the Fit to Dance 2 survey focusing on features of health and injuries in pre-professional and professional Chinese dancers of different genres. Results revealed that respondents (n=1040) were from Chinese Folk dance (44.4%), Chinese Classical Dance (25.6%), ballet (10.2%) and contemporary dance (9.8%). Compared to the Fit to Dance 2 survey, alcohol consumption (29% vs 82%; p<0.01) and smoking (13% vs 21%; p<0.05) were significantly less in Chinese dancers, but a higher percentage reported using weight reducing eating plans (57% vs 23%; p<0.01) or having psychological issues with food (27% vs 24%; p<0.05). Reported injuries in a 12-month period prior to data collection were significantly lower in the current survey (49% vs 80%; p<0.01). The type of injury (muscle and joint/ligament) and perceived cause of injury (fatigue, overwork and reoccurrence of an old injury) were the same in both the current and previous survey.
    [Show full text]
  • Integrating Chinese Dance Into Social Studies and Humanities Curriculum
    Integrating Chinese Dance into Social Studies and Humanities Curriculum Grade Levels: 5 – 8 Duration: Five weeks, 3 days per week. Ohio Dance Standards: Historical, Cultural and Social Contexts: Students understand dance forms and styles from a diverse range of cultural environments of past and present society. They know the contributions of significant choreographers, dancers and dance organizations to dance heritage. Students analyze the philosophical beliefs, social systems, and movement norms that influence the function and role of dance in the lives of people. Benchmark A: Perform and describe the dances from various cultures and historical periods with emphasis on cultures addressed in social studies. Benchmark B: Explain the social and historical contexts that influence the development of dance in a culture. Benchmark C: Explain a recognized contributor to dance, (e.g. choreographer, dancer, or educator) and trace the development of the individual’s work to its historical and cultural influences. Creative _Expression and Communication: Students create, interpret and perform dances to demonstrate understanding of choreographic principles, processes and structures. They understand how to use dance and movement to express ideas and to make meaning of their world. Benchmark A: Perform basic body movements, body positions and spatial patterns from one or more dance forms, styles or traditions. Benchmark C: Perform a full dance for a peer audience that demonstrates artistic expressions and performance skill. Analyzing and Responding: Students express orally, and in writing, their interpretations and evaluations of dances they observe and perform. They understand and use the vocabulary of art (dance) criticism to discuss their responses to a variety of dance forms and styles.
    [Show full text]
  • Content of Professional Training of Teacher-Choreographers in China
    SHS Web of Conferences 97, 01026 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20219701026 TEDUVIS 2020 Content of professional training of teacher- choreographers in China L.A. Kasimanova1, and In Boven1 1Head of the Department of Choreography of the Institute of Music, Theatre and Choreography of the RGPU, I.A. Herzen, Ph.D 2PhD student in the Department of History and The Theory of Pedagogy, RGPU by A.I. Herzen Abstract. The article is devoted to the analysis of the state of modern professional training of teachers-choreographers in China. The article presents the authors’ vision of modeling the content of modern professional training of choreographers. The analysis of the existing literature on the topic of the research made it possible to determine the tendencies and patterns of modern professional training of teachers- choreographers. Considering in the study the problems of training teachers of the artistic and creative direction, namely, teachers-choreographers, to solve professional problems, we proceed from the fact that their professional training should be aimed at mastering the teacher's professional competencies, as well as deep knowledge and skills in the field of choreographic art The rationale for this is the demand for teachers- choreographers in the modern labor market in the field of education - in its various segments (preschool, school, professional, general and additional, as well as in the field of educational leisure). The analysis presented in the study confirms that the content of professional training of teachers - choreographers remains largely at the same level and does not meet modern requirements. The study is devoted to the peculiarities of the organization of the educational process, the content of professional training.
    [Show full text]
  • LILY CAI CHINESE DANCE COMPANY Study Guide for Chinese Dance
    LILY CAI CHINESE DANCE COMPANY Study Guide For Chinese Dance Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company Fort Mason Center, Landmark Building C-353, San Francisco, CA 94123 415-474-4829 fax: 415-474-1188 [email protected] www.ccpsf.org The Lily Cai Study Guide for Chinese Dance “Many people said it was impossible for me, an immigrant Chinese Artistic Director Lily Cai woman, to continue as a professional dancer in the MEET LILY CAI A former Shanghai Opera principal dancer and a 2000 Irvine United States. But I came Fellow in Dance, Lily Cai forges new images of Chinese dance in to America for the America. Since arriving to California in 1983, Lily has choreographed many new works, expanding traditional Chinese freedom to develop as a dance into contemporary theatrical settings. As Artistic Director dance artist. Back in of the Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company, Lily combines traditional, folk and classical Chinese dance with Russian ballet Shanghai, there is a limit and American modern dance. Lily has received numerous grants for artistic development. and awards for her work, including an Isadora Duncan Dance Award, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts But in America, I believe Council, Asian American Arts Foundation, California Dance there is no limit.” Educators Association, Irvine Fellowships in Dance, San Francisco Arts Commission, Rockefeller Foundation, Creative Work Fund, and the Bay Area Fund for Dance. Today, Lily Cai ~ Lily Cai is considered a major authority and resource in Chinese dance. ABOUT THE COMPANY Elegant, sensual and captivating, the Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company melds ancient Chinese forms with modern dance in an artistic and inventive marriage of styles.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dialectics of Virtuosity: Dance in the People's Republic of China
    The Dialectics of Virtuosity: Dance in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-2009 by Emily Elissa Wilcox A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Joint Doctor of Philosophy with the University of California, San Francisco in Medical Anthropology of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Xin Liu, Chair Professor Vincanne Adams Professor Alexei Yurchak Professor Michael Nylan Professor Shannon Jackson Spring 2011 Abstract The Dialectics of Virtuosity: Dance in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-2009 by Emily Elissa Wilcox Joint Doctor of Philosophy with the University of California, San Francisco in Medical Anthropology University of California, Berkeley Professor Xin Liu, Chair Under state socialism in the People’s Republic of China, dancers’ bodies became important sites for the ongoing negotiation of two paradoxes at the heart of the socialist project, both in China and globally. The first is the valorization of physical labor as a path to positive social reform and personal enlightenment. The second is a dialectical approach to epistemology, in which world-knowing is connected to world-making. In both cases, dancers in China found themselves, their bodies, and their work at the center of conflicting ideals, often in which the state upheld, through its policies and standards, what seemed to be conflicting points of view and directions of action. Since they occupy the unusual position of being cultural workers who labor with their bodies, dancers were successively the heroes and the victims in an ever unresolved national debate over the value of mental versus physical labor.
    [Show full text]
  • China's Smiling Face to the World: Beijing's English
    ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: CHINA’S SMILING FACE TO THE WORLD: BEIJING’S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MAGAZINES IN THE FIRST DECADE OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC Leonard W. Lazarick, M.A. History Directed By: Professor James Z. Gao Department of History In the 1950s, the People’s Republic of China produced several English-language magazines to inform the outside world of the remarkable transformation of newly reunified China into a modern and communist state: People’s China, begun in January 1950; China Reconstructs, starting in January 1952; and in March 1958, Peking Review replaced People’s China. The magazines were produced by small staffs of Western- educated Chinese and a few experienced foreign journalists. The first two magazines in particular were designed to show the happy, smiling face of a new and better China to an audience of foreign sympathizers, journalists, academics and officials who had little other information about the country after most Western journalists and diplomats had been expelled. This thesis describes how the magazines were organized, discusses key staff members, and analyzes the significance of their coverage of social and cultural issues in the crucial early years of the People’s Republic. CHINA’S SMILING FACE TO THE WORLD: BEIJING’S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MAGAZINES IN THE FIRST DECADE OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC By Leonard W. Lazarick Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2005 Advisory Committee: Professor James Z. Gao, Chair Professor Andrea Goldman Professor Lisa R.
    [Show full text]
  • The Return of Chinese Dance Socialist Continuity Post-Mao
    5 The Return of Chinese Dance Socialist Continuity Post-Mao With its suppression of early socialist dance projects in favor of the newer form of revolutionary ballet, the Cultural Revolution decade of 1966–76 nearly brought an end to Chinese dance, as both an artistic project and a historical memory. Prior to the Cultural Revolution, Chinese dance had been the dominant concert dance form in the PRC. Most new dance choreography created between 1949 and 1965 had been in the genre of Chinese dance, and Chinese dance was the dance style officially promoted domestically and abroad as an expression of China’s socialist ideals and values. However, with the introduction of new cultural policies begin- ning in 1966, a decade of support for ballet and suppression of Chinese dance nearly wiped out memories of pre–Cultural Revolution activities in China’s dance field. Although many Chinese dance institutions that had been forced to shut down in 1966 reopened in the early 1970s, by the beginning of 1976 they were still banned from performing most pre–Cultural Revolution Chinese dance rep- ertoires, and ballet was still dominating the curriculum used to train new dancers. Dance films created before the Cultural Revolution were still censored from public view, meaning that most audiences had not seen pre–Cultural Revolution reper- toires, either live or on screen, for at least a decade. For children and adolescents too young to remember the pre–Cultural Revolution period, revolutionary ballet had become the only kind of socialist dance they knew. For them, revolutionary ballet was socialist dance.
    [Show full text]
  • UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Dancing Cross-Cultural Misunderstandings
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Dancing Cross-cultural Misunderstandings: The American Dance Festival in China’s New Era A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance by Fangfei Miao 2019 © Copyright by Fangfei Miao 2019 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Dancing Cross-cultural Misunderstandings: The American Dance Festival in China’s New Era by Fangfei Miao Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance University of California, Los Angeles, 2019 Professor Susan Leigh Foster, Chair This dissertation explores the embodiment of cross-cultural misunderstandings in a key transitional period in modern China—the late 1980s, during the country’s economic reformation and cultural opening to the West after the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). From 1987 to 1991, teachers from the American Dance Festival (ADF), at the invitation of the Guangdong (Canton) Dance School, trained the first group of professional modern dancers in China, known as the “Guangdong Modern Dance Experimental Program,” profoundly altering the history of Chinese modern dance in the New Era (1978–). Based on this program, China established its first modern dance company in 1992—the Guangdong Modern Dance Company. Under the guidance of ADF teachers, Chinese students created two new genres of Chinese modern dance that differed from the previous realism style. Some of ii the students later became internationally acclaimed artists—Shen Wei, Jin Xing, and Wang Mei. Contesting existing accounts of the Guangdong program as a complete success in America’s and China’s dance histories, this dissertation instead argues that misunderstandings and miscommunications repeatedly occurred in both directions throughout this corporeal exchange.
    [Show full text]
  • Labanotation Translated Into Chinese
    V ol ume VII No. 1 September 2012 From the Dance Notation Bureau IN SIDE THIS ISSUE Labanotation Translated into Chinese • La banotation Translated into << 拉班記譜法 >> C hinese • Labanotation – The Textbook by Mei-Chen Lu • Preface to Chinese Labanotation Text The first foreign edition of Labanotation is to be published by the end of 2012 in China. We congratulate Bing-Yu Luo, the head translator, who completed this Dance Notation Bureau Library exciting project. Up to now, the study of Labanotation outside of English- Monda y - Friday 10 am – 5 pm speaking countries has been a difficult task, especially when there are very Advan ce Notification by Phone/Email limited notation materials available in other languages. In China, for example, Recommended besides Mme. Dai Ai-Lian, author of Eight Chinese Ethnic Folk Dance Series, and Li-Xue Ma, editor of Chinese Minjian [Folk] Dance: Teaching Materials 111 Jo hn Street, Suite 704 and Teaching Methodology, only Ming-Da Guo, a n elder Labanotation scholar, New York, NY 10038 had translated some Labanotation articles and published them in Chinese dance Phone: 212/571-7011 research journals. Fax: 212/571-7012 Email: [email protected] Website: www.dancenotation.org Currently there are two dance departments in China offering Labanotation regularly in their curriculum – one is at Beijing Normal University and the other Library News is published twice a year at Shanghai Normal University. Because there is no standard notation textbook in New York available commercially in China, the teachers write or prepare their own textbooks and handouts according to their course description.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright by Jun Shen 2016
    Copyright by Jun Shen 2016 The Thesis Committee for Jun Shen Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: (What Is Not Written on) The Wall: A Choreographic Exploration of Censorship and the Chinese Cultural Revolution APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: Charles O. Anderson Martha Hilley Tina Curran (What Is Not Written on) The Wall: A Choreographic Exploration of Censorship and the Chinese Cultural Revolution by Jun Shen, BA Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2016 Abstract (The Writing not on) The Wall: A Choreographic Exploration of Censorship and the Chinese Cultural Revolution Jun Shen, MFA The University of Texas at Austin, 2016 Supervisor: Charles O. Anderson My primary research effort in this thesis relies on self-reflection and analysis of my MFA Thesis performance The Wall. I discuss the content of the piece for the manner in which it serves as a critical cultural intervention to the longstanding system of revision rather than preservation of Chinese cultural history particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries. To conduct my research, I studied articles written by Chinese scholars and artists living outside of China discussing China’s cultural history, reviews of performances of Chinese choreographers and companies from outside of China, books written about Chinese culture by Chinese and Chinese American authors living outside of China, as well as books by American authors about political dance such as Ann Cooper Albright’s book, Choreographing Difference: The Body in Identity in Contemporary Dance (1997) and Susan Foster’s Choreographing History.
    [Show full text]