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Notes
1 Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2003), p. 15.
2 The Minguo shiqi qikan quanwen shujuku 民國時期期刊全文數據庫 (Shanghai Library pre-1949 periodical database) was particularly helpful for this overview; I also consulted Dacheng lao jiu qikan quanwen shujuku 大成老舊期刊全文數據庫 (Dacheng old journal full text database).
3 Dalu bao 大陸報 (Mainland report), 1904.10: 19–23.
4 Jiaoyu shijie 教育世界 (Education world), 1907.3: 1–6. Other European “xiqu masters” introduced to China through newspapers and magazines include Russia's Tolstoy (Dongfang zazhi 東方雜誌 [Eastern miscellany] 18.9 (1921): 63–73), France's Alexandre Dumas fils and Norway's Henrik Ibsen (Mengjin 猛進 [Fiercely forward] 1925.14: 5–6).
5 Xiaoshuo yuebao 小說月報 (Fiction monthly) 4.7 (1913): 47–51. Photographs of xiqu masters that include Jean Racine, Molière, and Maurice Maeterlinck appear in a special issue of this literary journal in volume 15 (1924).
6 Beijing daxue rikan 北京大學日刊 (Peking University daily), January 27, 1918, p. 75.
7 For example, see Wang Youde 王有德, “Dong Xi xiqu zhi guanxi” 東西戲曲之關係 (The relationship between Eastern and Western xiqu), in Yunnan lü Jing xuehui huikan 雲南旅京學會會刊 (The journal of the Yunnan sojourners association in Beijing) 1924.5: 65–84.
8 See, for example, Gao Fei 高飛, “Xiqu yu xiaoshuo” 戲曲與小說 (Xiqu and fiction), Xiandai yishu 現代藝術 (Modern art) 1940.2: 30–31.
9 Jingju has also been known as Pingju 平劇 (capital drama), Jingxi 京戲 (capital drama), pihuang 皮黃 (named after its two major musical modes, xipi 西皮 and erhuang 二黃), and guoju 國劇 (national drama). For a study of the various terms that have denoted Peking opera, see Joshua Goldstein, Drama Kings: Players and Publics in the Re-creation of Peking Opera, 1870–1937 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), pp. 1–13.
10 Youxi zazhi 遊戲雜誌 (Entertainment magazine) 1915.19: 1–5. Other plays under the same rubric of “historical opera” include theater columnist and editor Liu Huogong's 劉豁公 (1890–?) Wenji guihan 文姬歸漢 (Wenji's return to China) and modernist poet Gu Foying's 顧佛影 (1901–1955) Kunlun nu 崑崙奴 (The Kunlun slave), both serialized in the Women's Literature section of the same magazine Xinsheng 心聲 (The sound of the heart), in 1923 and 1924, respectively.
11 For example, Jin Biyan 金碧艷, “Jian chun” 餞春 (A farewell feast to the spring), Xinsheng 1.1 (1922): 1–2; Jingwu 精武 1924.41: 21–22. The play appears in the form of an extracted scene or zhezi xi 折子戲, and it contains few lines of stage direction (involving little action). Daiyu's arias mostly take the form of manban 慢板 (slow tempo). Thus the script runs only two pages.
12 Feng Shuluan, style name Mr. Ma the Second 馬二先生, “Yulunpao” 鬱輪袍 (The song to the tune Yulun Robe), Shanghai Puck/Shanghai poke 上海潑克, beginning 1.1 (1918): 19.
13 Wang Xiaoyin 王小隱, “Geju zhi yinyue biaoxianli” 歌劇之音樂表現力 (The expressive power of operatic music), in Xiju zhoukan 戲劇週刊 (Theater weekly), March 9, 1925, p. 97.
14 Chenjian 沉健, “Zhongguo geju de guoqu yu jianglai” 中國歌劇的過去與將來 (The past and future of Chinese opera), in Jiao Da yuekan 交大月刊 (Jiaotong University monthly) 1929.2: 96–105. The character suo 所 seems to have been interpolated into the quoted text (it is hard to make sense of), so I have not tried to reflect it in my translation.
15 Wang Guowei, “Song Yuan xiqu shi,” published serially in Dongfang zazhi 東方雜誌 (Eastern miscellany), vol. 9, nos. 10–11, and vol. 10, nos. 3–6, 8–9, from 1913 to 1914. For a modern typeset edition, see Wang Guowei quanji 王國維全集 (The complete works of Wang Guowei), vol. 3 (Hangzhou: Zhejiang jiaoyu; Guangzhou: Guangdong jiaoyu, 2009), pp. 1–160.
16 I am not suggesting that only one set of terms, xiqu/geju, were used. The dichotomy between jiuju 舊劇 (old theater) and xinju 新劇 (new theater), also popular at the time, is less directly connected to the place of singing in the theatrical forms.
17 Chenjian, “Zhongguo geju de guoqu yu jianglai,” p. 102.
18 Ouyang Yuqian, “Mingri de xin geju” 明日的新歌劇 (The new opera of tomorrow), Xiju shidai 戲劇時代 (Theater times) 1.1 (1937): 69.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 Tian Han, “Tuqiao zhi zhan: xin geju” 土橋之戰 (新歌劇) (The Battle of the Tu Bridge [New Opera]), Kangzhan xiju 抗戰戲劇 (Anti-Japanese war theater) 1.4 (1938): 98–102. Because of the loss of the major coastal cities to the Japanese and the consequent retreat to the interior of the country, Tian Han's wartime stage productions in the genre of “new opera” were staged in cities like Changsha 長沙 and Guilin 桂林 and not Shanghai or Beijing.
22 Ouyang Yu-chien, “Improvement of the Ancient Drama” 歌劇的改良, China Today/Jinri Zhongguo 今日中國) 1.3 (1939): 25.
23 1928 and 1935 were the years of publication of his important works, Zhongguo ju zhi zuzhi 中國劇之組織 (The organization of Chinese drama; Beijing: Beige yinshuaju, 1928) and Guoju shenduan pu 國劇身段譜 (A register of choreographies of national drama; Beijing: Beiping guoju xiehui, 1935), respectively. Both are included in two largest modern multi-volume collections of his writings.
24 Tiannü has a specific connection to Buddhism, identified by some scholars as Bishamen Tianwang's sister, Sri Devi, known in the Chinese system as Goddess of Auspiciousness (Jixiang Tiannü 吉祥天女) or Meritorious Goddess (Gongde Tian 功德天). See Ren Jiyu 任繼愈, Zongjiao cidian 宗教詞典 (Dictionary of religion; Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe, 1981), p. 379.
25 Huang Zhigang, “Zhongguo jiang yong meiyou geju” 中國將永沒有歌劇, Taibai 太白 2.5 (1935): 222–23.
26 Recently, a few scholars have suggested an association between Mei Lanfang's new dances and his exposure to the international modern dance scene. For example, the papers that Catherine Yeh and Norikazu Hirabayashi wrote for the panel I organized at the 2016 annual CHINOPERL conference both assert that Mei's “Spreading Flowers” dance sequence was inspired by American dancer Loie Fuller (1862–1928).
27 Examples of articles in this line of argument include Chen Hong 陳洪, “Zhongguo xin geju de chuangzao” 中國新歌劇的創造 (The creation of China's new opera), Wenyi yuekan 文藝月刊 (Arts Monthly) 10.4–5 (1937): 11–13; Di Zhou 荻舟, “Jiu geju yu xin geju” 舊歌劇與新歌劇 (Old opera and new opera), Yishu qingqi 藝術輕騎 (Arts cavalries), August 15, 1942; Gong Meng 公孟, “Jiuxi yu xin geju zhijian” 舊戲與新歌劇之間 (Between old theater and new opera), Wenyi xianfeng 文藝先鋒 (Arts Vanguard) 1.5 (1942): 31–32; Zhu Zhaoluo 朱肇洛, “You ‘xin geju’ zhi chuangzao shuodao Zhongguo xiju de chulu” 由“新歌劇”之創造說到中國戲劇的出路 (Speaking from the creation of “new opera” to the way out for China's theater), Zhongguo wenyi 中國文藝 (China arts) 9.1 (1943): pp. 11–18.
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Notes on contributors
Peng Xu
Xu Peng is an assistant professor of premodern Chinese literature at Swarthmore College. Her articles on late Ming music and voice have appeared in T'oung Pao and Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. She is completing her book manuscript on late sixteenth-century Chinese elite theater from the perspectives of gender studies and performance studies. More recent projects include studies on late Ming drama publishing and on Chinese scroll painting as a prop in theater. She is planning a book on the new spatialities and acoustic experiences associated with modern media, of which the first essay in this special issue is an initial piece. In addition to her scholarly focus on theater and performance, as an award-winning singer, she has delivered many lecture-demonstrations of Jingju and Kunqu at American colleges and universities.