The show and gaze of intermedial interculturalism: a reflection on the curation of Otherness at PQ19

ABSTRACT

This article is a reflection on the theatrical gaze that the author encountered in the 2019 PQ exhibition and PQ-commissioned performances. PQ calls for skills in curating performance designs that carry culture-specific symbols and that aim to represent certain cultures. Meanwhile as communication technology and digital media have brought intercultural exchange to a daily level, cultural icons at an international exhibition no longer easily shock audiences. Therefore, the intermediality of the theatrical gaze in PQ often succeeds in defying Orientalist impulses and enables ‘interweaving performance cultures' (in Erika Fischer-Lichte’s sense). However, due to some institutional and cultural barriers, it is still difficult for interdisciplinary art works, which are increasingly prominent not only in the exhibition but also in the performance space across the world in general, to emerge from China so as to effectively take part in the PQ discourse. These kinds of barriers must be removed if PQ is to engage with more performance cultures and support more creative arts with a cosmopolitan spirit. Perhaps the solution is to step out of institutionalized curation. Some case studies of student-led collaboration will be presented to shed light upon how innovative interdisciplinary works can be facilitated.

Acknowledgments

The title and topic of this article are inspired by Erika Fischer-Lichte’s 1997 book The Show and the Gaze of Theatre: A European Perspective.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Zheyu Wei is a lecturer in drama at Guangxi Arts University, China. Wei received his BA at Sun Yat-sen University and MA at Nanjing University, both in English Language and Literature. He was a Trinity Long Room Hub Fellow (2013–2017) and was awarded his PhD at Trinity College Dublin in 2017. Wei has published several articles on contemporary Chinese theatre, intercultural theatre and intermedial performance studies. Wei's current research is funded by the Middle-aged and Young Teachers' Basic Ability Promotion Project of Guangxi, ‘Contemporary Intermedial Theatre Studies in the Context of Globalization’ (2019KY0505).

Notes

1 In his ground-breaking 1978 book Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient, Edward Said argues that the Orient has been ‘almost a European invention’. The Orient, as the Other, ‘has helped to define Europe (or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience’ (Said 2003, 2). Said advocates a critique of Orientalism, ‘culturally and even ideologically as a mode of discourse with supporting institutions, vocabulary, scholarship, imagery, doctrines, even colonial bureaucracies and colonial styles’ (ibid., 2), so as to criticize Eurocentric epistemologies and hegemonic practices.

2 Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Chinese to English in this article are mine. Chinese names retain their standard format of family name first, followed by given name.