New From Oxford Shakespeare and East Asia Alexa Alice Joubin 30% OFF ow did Kurosawa influence George Lucas and Star Wars? Why do critics repeatedly use the adjective “Shakespearean” to Hdescribe Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite (2019)? What are the connections between cinematic portrayals of transgender figures and disability? Shakespeare and East Asia analyzes Japanese innovations in sound and spectacle; Sinophone uses of Shakespeare for social reparation; conflicting reception of South Korean films and touring productions to London and Edinburgh; and multilingualism in cinema and diasporic theatre in Singapore and the UK. Features • The first monograph on Shakespeare on stage and on screen in East Asia in comparative contexts • Presents knowledge of hitherto unknown films and stage adaptations • Studies works from Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and the UK • The glossary and chronology provide orientation regarding specialized vocabulary and timeline January 2021 (UK) | March 2021 (US) Oxford Shakespeare Topics Paperback | 9780198703570 | 272 pages £16.99 £11.89 | $20.00 $14.00 Hardback | 9780198703563 | 272 pages £50.00 £35.00 | $65.00 $45.50 Alexa Alice Joubin is Professor of English, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Theatre, East Asian Languages and Literatures, and International Affairs at George Washington University where she serves as founding Co-director of the Digital Humanities Institute. Order online at www.oup.com/academic with promo code AAFLYG6 to save 30% OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 8/12/2020, SPi Contents List of Illustrations xi A Note on the Text xiii Prologue: The Cultural Meanings of Shakespeare and Asia Today 1 1. “To unpath’d waters, undream’d shores”: Sound and Spectacle 22 2. “Our toil shall strive to mend”: Politics of Remediation 63 3. An “isle...fullofnoises”: Polyphonic Reception 106 4. “Divided in three our kingdom”: Multilingualism and Diaspora 142 Epilogue 187 Notes Copyright material. Not for circulation. 195 Acknowledgments 225 Glossary 229 Further Reading 239 A Chronology of Shakespeare and East Asia 245 Index 253 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 8/12/2020, SPi Contents Prologue 1 Plays: Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Hamlet Media: theatrical film and cinematic stage 1. Sound and Spectacle 22 Play: Macbeth Media and Genres: Japanese samurai film; Kabuki; Noh; anime film; Asian-American theatre Directors: Akira Kurosawa, Yukio Ninagawa, Satoshi Kon, John R. Briggs 2. Politics of Remediation 63 Plays: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Media andCopyright Genres: American material.film, Not British for circulation.film, British-Chinese theatre, Hong Kong comedy film, Chinese wuxia and kungfu films, Tibetan film, Taiwanese Beijing opera, huaju parody Directors: Anthony Chan, Feng Xiaogang, Sherwood Hu, Wu Hsing-kuo, Lee Kuo-hsiu, Michael Almereyda, Edgar Wright 3. Polyphonic Reception 106 Plays: King Lear, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew Media and Genres: Korean period drama film, transgender performance, modern Korean theatre, t’alch’um masked-dance drama, British reception of touring theatre Directors: Kim Myung-gon, Lee Joon-ik, Oh Tae-suk, Yukio Ninagawa OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 8/12/2020, SPi x Contents 4. Multilingualism and Diaspora 142 Plays: Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Romeo and Juliet Media and Genres: Singaporean film and theatre multilingual theatre, British East Asian theatre, American film Directors: Ong Keng Sen, Chee Kong Cheah, David Tse, Baz Luhrmann Epilogue 187 Plays: Macbeth, The Tempest, Hamlet Copyright material. Not for circulation. OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 8/12/2020, SPi Prologue The Cultural Meanings of Shakespeare and Asia Today Performance is a doubly acted affair that is shaped not only by the characters but also by the actors. Actors embody characters across history and culture. Adaptations, meanwhile, are strangers at home. They defamiliarize canonical works and everyday utterances while offering something recognizable through a new language and form. When Viola, disguised as page boy Cesario, and finding herself “ pursued by theCopyright lovelorn Olivia,material. declares Not that for circulation.I am the man . she were better love a dream” in Twelfth Night (2.2.25–26), she speaks with double irony as a doubly cross-dressed boy actor on the early modern English stage (such as Nathan Field, 1587–1619) and as an adult male actor (Johnny Flynn) in Mark Rylance’s all-male pro- duction at the Globe Theatre in London in 2012 (dir. Tim Carroll). In Yukio Ninagawa’s 2005 Kabuki Twelfth Night, Onoe Kikunosuke V brought a new perspective to the notion of gender fluidity when he played in rapid succession Viola, her twin brother Sebastian, and her alter ego Cesario. As an otokoyaku (actress specializing in male roles) in the all-female Takarazuka musical production (dir. Kimura Shinji, 1999) derived from shōjo (teen girl) mangas, Yamato Yuga’s Viola would embody enticing gender fluidity when speaking Japanese, a language that often elides the subject. Since the genre of Takarazuka is an all-female production, Viola’s Cesario would not be the only cross-dressing character. Otokoyaku actresses present the “sensitive masculinity” of idealized male characters for a predominantly female audience.1 In addition to making the right choice of employing the familiar or the polite register, based on the relation between the Shakespeare and East Asia. Alexa Alice Joubin, Oxford University Press (2021). © Alexa Alice Joubin. OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 8/12/2020, SPi 2 Shakespeare and East Asia speaker and the addressee, male and female speakers of Japanese are restricted by the gender-specific first-person pronouns available to them. The gender dynamics in Twelfth Night worked well for Takarazuka, which is known for its romantic, extravagant musicals.2 Similarly, gendered code-switching creates semantic ambiguity in Kei Otozuki’s double performance of both twins, Viola and Sebastian. Having played exclusively male roles in the Takarazuka Revue until her retirement in 2012, Kei brings a unique perspective to her roles in Twelfth Night, the second Shakespeare production in Japanese, with a Japanese cast, directed by John Caird, honorary associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (Nissay Theatre, Tokyo, March 2015).3 It was a rare opportunity to see an actress specializing in male roles play Viola, Cesario, and Sebastian. In general, syntactical differences create linguistic and cultural opportunities in articulating anew Orsino’s comments about love from a masculinist perspective and Viola’s apology for a woman’s love when in disguise (2.4.78–125)—or the exchange between Oliver and Rosalind in disguise as Ganymede on her “lacking a man’s heart” when she swoons, nearly giving herself away in As You Like It (4.3.164–Copyright76). These are material. but a few Not examples for circulation. of how the phenomenon of global Shakespeare reshapes academia, festivals, and theatre circuits. Touring Shakespeare performances and globally circulated films have become a staple at international festivals, allowing audiences to appre- ciate the vitality of world cinema and theatre. Since the nineteenth century, stage and film directors have mounted hundreds of adaptations of Shakespeare drawn on East Asian motifs and styles and performed in Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Taiwanese, English, Singlish, Hokkien, and a wide range of dialects. Some of the works have originated outside Asia, whereas others have toured from Asia to the West to critical acclaim. They have been recognized as among the most innovative in the world. The first Asian-language performances of Shakespeare took place at different points in history within comparable contexts of moderniza- tion: 1885 in Japan, 1913 in China, 1925 in Korea, and 1949 in Taiwan.4 Performing Shakespeare in Asian styles has constituted an act of defamiliarization for audiences at home and abroad. By the late twentieth century, Shakespeare had become one of the most frequently performed playwrights in East Asia. OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 8/12/2020, SPi Prologue: Meanings of Shakespeare and Asia Today 3 Hamlet has been a popular play for political appropriation. Notably, Chinese director Lin Zhaohua staged his production of Hamlet (Hamulaite) in the wake of the student demonstration in Tian’anmen Square and the Chinese government’s crackdown on the democratic movement in Beijing, which culminated in the massacre on June 4, 1989. Lin’s Hamlet (1989, 1990, 1994), set in contemporary China, used three actors to play the titular character (among other roles) in order to demarcate different stages of psychological development of the prince. The director extrapolated something extraordinary from Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy (3.1.58–92; delivered alter- nately and collectively by the three actors) to drive home the message that, in his postsocialist society, “everyone is Hamlet,” and Hamlet is one of us. The production paid tribute to the student protestors’ boldness in awakening China to the vision of a democratic, civil society. To view the full production (1995 version), visit the page curated by Alexa Alice Joubin on the MIT Global Shakespeares: global shakespeares.mit.edu/hamulaite-lin-zhaohua-1995/ Two centuries of Asian interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays such as Hamlet and Macbeth are now making a world of difference in how we experienceCopyright Shakespeare. material. Akira Kurosawa Not for’s circulation.Throne of Blood (based on Macbeth, Toho Studios, 1957; starring Toshirô Mifune) and Ran (based on King Lear, Herald Ace and Nippon Herald Films, 1985)— while now canonical in the study of Shakespeare—are far from the earliest or the only Shakespeare films from East Asia. There are several notable early twentieth-century silent film adaptations. Around the time that Asta Nielsen’sgender-bendingHamlet (dir. Svend Gade and Heinz Schall, 1921) was filmed, silent-film adaptations of The Merchant of Venice (Nü lüshi [Woman Lawyer], also known as Rou- quan [Bond of Flesh], dir. Qiu Yixiang, Tianyi Film, 1927; starring HuDie[akaButterflyHu]asPortia)andThe Two Gentlemen of Verona (Yi jian mei [A Spray of Plum Blossoms], dir.