![]() ![]() Over three decades of seclusion meant that Kinmen retained Hokkien characteristics, in contrast to Taiwan, where a Japanese legacy persisted even after its departure in 1949. After the Second World War, Kinmen was highly militarized and was cut off from contact with the outside world until the 1992 Consensus was reached. In contrast to Taiwan, Kinmen was not directly colonized by Japan in the late Qing due to its geographical position near Fujian, and this proximity to Fujian allowed Kinmen to retain more characteristics of a Hokkien society. ![]() Puppeteers incorporated elements of Gezai opera into the vocal performance of puppet theater, and the liturgical elements faded due to their lack of proper training in ritual practices.Ĭhapters 3 and 4 also show the different fate of Kinmen due to geopolitics. With Chinese migrants’ trajectories from sojourners to residents after the war, Hokkien theater also departed from its traditionally liturgical function and entered the realm of secular entertainment. As part of the process of ‘modernization’, in the 1930s the easier-to-understand colloquial language led to the rise of the folksier Gezai opera, which fundamentally overshadowed Gaojia opera by the 1950s. The massive waves of Chinese migration after the first Opium War (1839–1842) introduced traditional Hokkien theater to British-colonized Singapore due to the colonizers’ laissez-faire policy on theatrical activities. In the case of Singapore, Chia uses urbanization and secularization as prisms to describe the major trends of Hokkien theater. Their prohibition of Gezai opera and promotion of Peking/Beijing opera ( jingju) as the ‘national opera’ showed a tension between the mainland Chineseness that Nationalists tried to maintain and the Taiwanese identity constructed during colonization. After the war, the Nationalists ( Kuomintang/Guomindang) retreated to Taiwan and used theater as a vehicle to ‘Rebel the Communist and resist the Soviets’. As a result, a made-in-Taiwan theatrical form-Gezai opera-soon overshadowed the traditional forms of Liyuan opera and Gaojia opera. Central to her narrative is the third phase, when an intermixed Taiwanese culture was formed out of Hokkien culture and Japanese influence, a process that eventually led to Nipponization after Taiwan was ceded to Japan by the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. ![]() Chia divides the case of Taiwan into three phases-Koxinga’s (Zheng Chenggong) rule, Manchu control, and Japanese colonization. It later turned from fixed-repertoire to ad libitum performances of canovaccio, due to the audience’s demand for a varied repertoire.Ĭhapters 3 and 4 delineates the historical development of Hokkien theater in the scenes of colonization and nationalization, initiated by the end of the Second World War. As a result, Gaojia opera was soon able to take the place of the more refined Liyuan opera by virtue of martial performances. While nanxi and the local song form of Nanguan (or Nanyin) ‘played a formative role in the development of Hokkien theatre’ (p. 15), Hokkien theater is more a form of ‘lower culture’ per se, favored by the greater masses rather than the elite class. Historically, due to Quanzhou’s prominent position as China’s maritime nexus for international commerce after the first millennium, the relative openness to outside influence formed a diversified theatrical tradition. On the basis of a brief introduction to the features of Hokkien culture in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 starts from major genres in Hokkien theater, clarifying their rise and fall in the Medieval Ages. Based on the openness of this ‘sea’ or ‘maritime’ culture, she examines the localization of Hokkien theater in Nanyang after it was absorbed from southern Fujian, demonstrating how different social, cultural, and political contexts have influenced theatrical practices, primarily in the three major sites of Taiwan, Kinmen, and Singapore.Ĭhia’s narrative is basically chronological, covering a longue durée history from the ninth century through to contemporary times. She argues that, in contrast to the homogeneity of ‘continental culture’, the region’s ‘archipelagic culture’ features fluidity and openness. ISBN: 9789811318337, price: EUR 77.99 (hardcover) 9789811318344, EUR 64.19 (ebook).Ĭaroline Chia’s book carefully and meticulously examines the development of Hokkien theater, including Liyuan opera, Gaojia opera, Gezai opera, string puppet theater and glove puppet theater, in three regions of Nanyang (Southeast Asia). Caroline Chia, Hokkien Theatre Across the Seas: A Social-Cultural Study. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |