Women playing men : Yue opera and social change in twentieth-century Shanghai / Jin Jiang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jiang, Jin, 1954-

Series:

Donald R. Ellegood International Publications

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater--China--Shaoxing--History and criticism.

Theater.

Theater--China--Shanghai--History and criticism.

Folk drama, Chinese--China--Shaoxing--History and criticism.

Folk drama, Chinese.

Folk drama, Chinese--China--Shanghai--History and criticism.

Women in opera.

Popular culture--China--Shanghai.

Popular culture.

Shanghai (China)--Social life and customs--20th century.

Shanghai (China).

Physical Description:

xv, 340 p. : ill., map.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This ground-breaking volume documents women's influence on popular culture in twentieth-century China by examining Yue opera. A subgenre of Chinese opera, it migrated from the countryside to urban Shanghai and morphed from its traditional all-male form into an all-female one, with women cross-dressing as male characters for a largely female audience. Yue opera originated in the Zhejiang countryside as a form of story-singing, which rural immigrants brought with them to the metropolis of Shanghai. There, in the 1930s, its content and style transformed from rural to urban, and its cast changed gender. By evolving in response to sociopolitical and commercial conditions and actress-initiated reforms, Yue opera emerged as Shanghai's most popular opera from the 1930s through the 1980s and illustrates the historical rise of women in Chinese public culture. Jiang examines the origins of the genre in the context of the local operas that preceded it and situates its development amid the political, cultural, and social movements that swept both Shanghai and China in the twentieth century. She details the contributions of opera stars and related professionals and examines the relationships among actresses, patrons, and fans. As Yue opera actresses initiated reforms to purge their theater of bawdy eroticism in favor of the modern love drama, they elevated their social image, captured the public imagination, and sought independence from the patriarchal opera system by establishing their own companies. Throughout the story of Yue opera, Jiang looks at Chinese women's struggle to control their lives, careers, and public images and to claim ownership of their history and artistic representations.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

Introduction / Opera, Gender, and the City

Chapter 1 / The Origins of Yue Opera

Chapter 2 / The Rise of Feminine Opera

Chapter 3 / Patrons and Patronage

Chapter 4 / Staging in the Public Arena

Chapter 5 / The Opera as History

Chapter 6 / A Feminine Aesthetics

Conclusion

Appendix / Interviews and Informants

Notes

Chinese Character Glossary

References

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-329) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9780295800134

0295800135

OCLC:

704348924