SIGNIFICANT OTHER SIGNIFICANT OTHERŨ Staging the American in China Claire Conceison University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu © University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Conceison, Claire. Significant other: staging the American in China / Claire Conceison. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn --- (alk. paper) . Americans—China. Chinese Drama—th century— History and criticism. i. Title. e..cc .'—dc University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Designed by Chris Crochetière, BW&A Books, Inc. Printed by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group Ũ For my parents, Manuel and Anne Conceison, and for Bailey, my little pal Ũ Contents Acknowledgments ix Prologue chapter 1 Setting the Sino-American Stage chapter 2 Occidentalism (Re)considered chapter 3 Immigrant Interculturalism: China Dream chapter 4 Exilic Absurdism: The Great Going Abroad chapter 5 Cultural Cross-Examination: Bird Men chapter 6 American Self-Representation: Student Wife chapter 7 Anti-Americanism: Dignity and Che Guevara chapter 8 Self-Occidentalism: Swing Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index Black-and-white plates follow page 132 Ũ Acknowledgments The first chapter of this book was composed in a tree house outside Ithaca, New York, and the final chapter was completed in a little red barn in Santa Barbara, California. In between, pages were drafted in locations ranging from Beijing and Shanghai to Massachusetts and Michigan. Along the way, many generous friends, colleagues, institutions, and organizations in both China and the United States provided the support that made this book possible. Financial assistance at various stages of my travel, research, and writing came from the Asian Cultural Council, the U.S. Department of Education, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the Association of Asian Studies, and many divisions of Cornell University, including the Einaudi Center for Interna- tional Studies, the East Asia Program, the John S. Knight Writing Program, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Theatre, Film & Dance. During manuscript revision, the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan and the office of Dean David Marshall at the University of California, Santa Barbara, provided funds for additional travel to China. The research for this project could not have been accomplished without the kind cooperation of host institutions in China that provided housing, ac- ademic mentorship, and access to libraries, archives, private rehearsals and meetings, and public performances. These institutions include the Shanghai Theatre Academy, the Shanghai People’s Art Theatre and the Youth Spoken Drama Troupe now merged as the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, the Cen- tral Academy of Drama in Beijing, the China National Experimental The- atre and the China National Youth Theatre now merged as the National Theatre Company of China, and the Beijing People’s Art Theatre. For ad- ministrative and academic support from these organizations, I wish to thank Yu Qiuyu, Rong Guangren, Yu Luosheng, Yang Shaolin, Zhu Dakun, Zeng Xinhuan, Xu Xiaozhong, Lin Kehuan, Zhao Youliang, Meng Ruifeng, Meng He, Yin Wenzhen, Gao Jing, Zhang Fang, and the staffs of the foreign-affairs offices at both theatre academies. Among the colleagues in Shanghai who shared their experiences and ex- pertise with me through interviews and materials are Sun Huizhu, Fei Chun- fang, Cao Lusheng, Gu Yi’an, Yin Zhusheng, Lü Liang, Xu Zheng, Yu Rong- ix jun, Sha Yexin, Lei Guohua, Xi Meijuan, Zhou Yemang, Du Yeqiu, Zhao Yaomin, and Ren Guangzhi. Their counterparts in Beijing include Pu Cun- xin, Yang Lixin, Lin Zhaohua, Ren Ming, Shen Lin, Wang Gui, Wang Xiao- ying, Meng Jinghui, Ge Dali, Ren Chengwei, Wang Yansong, Guo Shixing, and Bai Ren. Among the distinguished theatre artists I am privileged to know in China, I wish to extend my gratitude especially to the late Huang Zuolin and Ying Ruocheng, and to Bai Hua. For their steadfast assistance, wonderful humor, and tremendous friendship over many years, I thank Li Yu, Ji Wei, Yu Rong- jun, Gu Yi’an, Meng Jinghui, Shen Lin, the incomparable Zhang Fang, and my wonderful “mom” Huang Lanlin. I have been inspired by the scholarship of Colin Mackerras, Antje Budde, William Sun, and Edward Gunn, all of whom have been generous mentors. I am fortunate to have worked under the tutelage of a superb advisor at Cor- nell University, David Bathrick, whose patience, compassion, and high stan- dards are greatly appreciated. Shelley Wong provided valuable support and guidance. Others who have encouraged me throughout my work on contem- porary theatre practice in China include Vera Schwarcz, Timothy Wong, Jeffrey Kinkley, Richard Schechner, and the late Fritz deBoer. For direct contributions to this book in materials and analysis, I thank Zhang Qiuge, Li Yan, Li Ruru, Wang Luoyong, Cheng Yinghong, Matt Trusch, Robert Daly, Basia Wajs, Lily Tung, Rachel DeWoskin, Patrick Kelly, Mark Kitto, Bryan Pentony, Charles D’Orban, Michael Berry, Christina Jen, Kong Nan, Jackie Ye, Xu Xin, Li Hong, and Cornell University’s Olin Li- brary information, reference, and interlibrary loan departments. For collegial insight and encouragement, I thank Julian Chang, Robert Chi, Felicity Luf- kin, Iain Johnston, Cobina Gillitt Asmara, and fellow members of the Asso- ciation for Asian Performance, especially Carol Sorgenfrei, Richard Davis, Craig Latrell, John Weinstein, and Sam Leiter. For use of his treehouse, I thank David Kirk. University of Hawai‘i Press acquisitions editor Pamela Kelley warmly wel- comed the manuscript and encouraged me along the way, and managing ed- itor Jenn Harada and copy editor Karen Weller-Watson, both superbly tal- ented, were a joy to work with. I am grateful to Richard Kraus, Jeff Kinkley, Peter Gries, and David Rolston for their careful reading of several chapters, and to Richard Schechner and one anonymous reader for their kind and in- sightful reviews of the manuscript. Earlier versions of chapters and ap- peared in Theatre InSight , no. (Spring ): – and Asian Theatre Journal , no. (Spring ): –. My thanks to the University of Texas at Austin for copyright permission. x Acknowledgments Perhaps my greatest debt is owed to the – Cornell football pro- gram, especially Kay Ford and head coach Pete Mangurian and his family, for their generous provision of resources and their overall kindness, concern, and spiritual support during the initial writing process. For loving encour- agement then and during the subsequent writing, revising, and editing stages, I wish to acknowledge Margaret John Baker; Beth Raley Harris; Barb Seaward; Sarah Moessinger Go; the Cartwright, DiCapua, Seely, LaMon- tagne, Ferrari, and Rolston families; Maria DePina; Susan Crawford Sulli- van; Anne Gallagher Ernst; Claire Morrissey CSJ; my parents and siblings; and Jesus, my “significant other” throughout. Acknowledgments xi Ũ Prologue I don’t feel like a foreigner, the way I do in Baghdad or New York. I feel like an ape, a martian, an other. —Julia Kristeva, About Chinese Women Julia Kristeva’s description of how it feels to dwell in the gaze of ordinary citizens in China is typical of the experience of many foreigners who spend time there. During my first stay in Beijing, in , routine daily occurrences included being followed in the streets, being surrounded by a large crowd whenever I stood still, and being analyzed by complete strangers for the du- ration of bus rides—strangers who were unaware that I understood what they were saying. Their comments would range from guessing my national- ity to discussing my weight and accouterment. It is difficult to describe the effect of this kind of daily experience to those who have never been exposed to it by living in China. Though one attempts to remain conscious of the fact that such treatment is prompted merely by genuine—even friendly— curiosity, the residual effects of such encounters over time can be quite nega- tive: in my case, they ranged from being reluctant to go out alone in public unless absolutely necessary to imagining that my hundred-pound frame was actually “fat.”1 More than fifteen years later, despite the increased globalization of China’s major cities and the exponential increase in the number of expatriate citizens living in them, similar practices endure. Although I am no longer surrounded by crowds whenever I stop moving in the streets, I am still frequently the ob- ject of persistent staring and pointing and of comments uttered with the as- sumption that I cannot understand them. Behavior that I once attributed to lack of exposure to “real live” foreigners now must be explained in other terms, for in China’s major cities today foreigner-sightings are frequent and non-Chinese citizens are increasingly integrated into native environments. In there were separate monetary currencies for locals and visitors, along with several other political and institutional strategies that kept foreigners systematically distanced from ordinary Chinese, and it was only recently that laws segregating expats and forcing them to live in overpriced foreigners-only housing units (by prohibiting them from renting Chinese apartments) were re- laxed. Today, many of these fabricated barriers have dissolved, but routine gestures of “othering” remain intact.2 Perhaps the most common otherness experience of a foreigner living in China is when a small child walking along with an adult stops suddenly and points, shouting, “Waiguoren!” (foreigner, or outsider). In many cases, it is the adult guardian who first indicates the presence of the foreign Other to the child, who in turn responds by pointing and calling out. This encounter became so frequent during my residencies in China that I devised a strategy for coping with it: I would point back at the child and say, “Zhongguoren!” (Chinese person), thus diffusing with humor my discomfort.