This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Liu, Yung-Chen Title: In-Yer-Face in Taiwan Mark Ravenhill and Contemporary Taiwanese Political Playwriting General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. 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In-Yer-Face in Taiwan: Mark Ravenhill and Contemporary Taiwanese Political Playwriting Yung Chen Liu A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements for award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Theatre, Film and Television June 2020 Word count: 90,284 Abstract This thesis aims to interrogate the possibilities of a new kind of political playwriting to address the problems and conflicts of contemporary Taiwan. Drawing on existing observations and research on the problems of current Taiwanese democratic political systems, it seems that the crisis of losing Taiwanese subjectivity and nationality are growing, with both domestic and external threats. However, Taiwanese political theatre is ineffective and unable to reflect on this phenomenon; mainstream playwrights or theatrical producers seem apolitical and apathetic because of a perceived inability to change reality. A similar circumstance can be found in works from 1990s Britain, termed by Aleks Sierz ‘in-yer-face theatre’. In these works, young playwrights applied violent, erotic and disturbing images to gain unprecedented attention and demonstrate how theatre could intervene in the public sphere (Sierz, 2013: 9). Mark Ravenhill can be seen as a representative of this group, he utilizes a particular dramaturgy to present his characters from the angle of queerness: a marginal position from which to critique the dehumanizing process of capitalism. This research will explore how Ravenhill employs shocking scenarios in his writing, and the effect he desires to achieve. In those violent actions, he deliberately confuses the identities of victims and oppressors, presenting a more complicated and introspective witnessing experience to his audience, and allowing them to recognise the true face of capitalism. He asks his audience the dialectic question: how are we to survive in this imperfect world? According to my analysis of Ravenhill’s dramaturgy, which I term the Queer’s Journey. It will bring out a valuable methodology for my own political playwriting as a practice, that adapted for the Taiwanese political context. The story will be based on true figures in the history of Taiwanese democratization and will be contrasted with the contemporary troubles and plights which the democratic government still fails to resolve or answer. By focusing on the special queer identities of those characters, I hope to reveal the fundamental issues that constrain and limit the Taiwanese people. By using provocative scenes to involve the audiences in unbearable atrocities, I hope to raise their consciousness of how to avoid the worst outcome and discover what is acceptable. By introducing Ravenhill’s dramaturgy to today’s Taiwan, I hope it will develop a newer philosophical and methodological model for Taiwanese in-yer-face theatre, which will bring to a new wave of political playwriting. i Acknowledgements I am grateful to my supervisor Professor Simon Jones and Dr. Katja Krebs, of the University of Bristol, for their generous support, encouragement and invaluable advice over the past four years, they helped me to learn cross the boundaries of nations, and guided me as the mentor on the path of academia. I am indebted to Jia-Hong Huang and Dan-Zhe Wang who agreed to be my first reader and offered comments in-depth, sensitive feedback and pushing me forward in productive ways; and to everyone in the hub, Peter Peasey, Andy Machals, Annette Balaam, it was great to have your kindly support and assistance during the most difficult first year. I would also like to thank my parents Qin-Han Liu and Shu-Xian Xie, and my wife Pei-Yu Chen; who have encouraged me and given me the determination to complete this project. ii Author’s declaration I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University's Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate's own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. SIGNED: . DATE:…5th September, 2020…....... iii Table of Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Table of Contents iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The crisis of Taiwanese political theatre 1-1 The political background of Taiwan and the origin of modern Taiwanese theatre 20 1-2 The first generation of political theatre in Taiwan: Experimental Theatre (1980-1986) 30 1-3 The second generation of political theatre in Taiwan: Postmodern Theatre (1986-1990) 40 1-4 The completion of democratization and the death of Little Theatre 49 1-5 The Taiwanese political crisis of populism and new political playwriting 62 1-6 Contemporary Taiwanese exterior crisis and political theatre 79 Chapter 2: The Characteristics of Mark Ravenhill’s Dramaturgy: The Queer’s Journey 2-1 On violence on stage 92 2-2 The ‘Queer’ identity of Ravenhill’s characters 106 2-3 The traumatic past 125 2-4 Witnessing and suffering 141 2-5 Survival as a political tactic 153 iv Chapter 3: Voting and Fucking 164 Chapter 4: Analysis of Voting and Fucking: Applying Ravenhill’s aesthetic to Taiwanese theatre 4-1 The creative background of Voting and Fucking 252 4-2 Analysis of the methodology: applying Ravenhill’s Queer’s Journey 262 4-2-1 The ‘Queer’ identity in Voting and Fucking 267 4-2-2 The traumatized past in Voting and Fucking 276 4-2-3 Witnessing and suffering in Voting and Fucking 289 4-2-4 Survival as a political tactic in Voting and Fucking 298 Conclusion 307 Bibliography 318 Appendix 345 #1 Glossary and list of abbreviations #2 Timeline gives dates for key political and theatrical events of Repbulic of China v Introduction 1. Research motivation On 18th March 2014, a political protest movement against the trade agreement with China arose in Taiwan. More than 400 protesters broke into the Legislative Yuan (Taiwanese parliament building) and occupied it for 20 days; the press named this the ‘Sunflower Movement’. During this period, when the government did not respond to their requests, dissatisfied protesters decided to occupy another government building, which led to the outbreak of violence and many students and policemen were injured. Such violence between the government and civilians on the street had not been seen since 1996 after Taiwan’s first presidential election, and thus this was widely reported on every live news channel and in the newspapers. Many well-known scholars, artists, media people and intellectuals publicly supported the protesters in their civil disobedience, and there is a mentality among my peers that it is becoming acceptable to use violence against the government authority, in the glorious Taiwanese tradition of fighting for democracy. The students in the Sunflower Movement strongly believe that they were fighting not only the Taiwanese government but also the totalitarian Chinese government behind it. The main source of this tension is that Taiwan has a peculiar relationship with China. As an independent regime, Taiwan nevertheless faces interference from China in terms of national identity and autonomy, especially after the hawkish Jin-ping Xi became the chairman of the People’s Republic of China in 2012, and attempted to impose the ‘one-country two-systems’ model on Taiwan again, as was used in Hong Kong after 1997. This was done to symbolize China’s sovereignty over Taiwan, and Xi vowed to use military force if necessary to prevent moves toward Taiwanese independence (Chen, 2011: 602). China also uses its senior membership of the United Nations Security Council to prevent Taiwan from joining international movements or 1 conferences. Under its influence in the international arena, only 17 countries recognise Taiwan as a legitimate country in 2018 (Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Republic of Palau, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu in Asia-Pacific; Belize, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guatemala, the Republic of Haiti, Honduras, the Republic of Nicaragua, Paraguay, the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, St. Lucia in Latin America and the Caribbean; Kingdom of Swaziland in Africa; and the Holy See in Europe). Moreover, many economic experts and political researchers argue that an even greater threat for Taiwan is Chinese economic sanctions, because of its highly capitalized society and long-term economic stagnation.