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All discourses of modernisation in the twentieth century Sinophone world engaged Western, Soviet and Japanese influences and models, and traditional Chinese theatre education was no exception. Although the Republic of China on Taiwan never confined theatre to state-sponsored organisations, a system of theatre education was created to ensure continuity of Jingju (i.e. ‘Peking opera’) performance, officially identified as the ‘national theatre’. Beginning with the 1957 establishment of a private vocational school, Jingju education adopted various (Western-inspired) models, moving from professional training colleges to the present single national post-secondary institution, the 12-year (elementary, secondary and post-secondary) National Taiwan College of Performing Arts (NTCPA). Since nationalisation in 1968, the school has featured in public debate surrounding the place of traditional theatre in Taiwan’s shifting cultural politics. Its curriculum and training methods notably came under scrutiny by a legislator in 1970, who found that the school was in desperate need of ‘modernisation’ to conform to education standards. Yet since actor technique is acquired through kinship-like student‒teacher relations, the adaptation of oral teaching to ‘Western’ and ‘modern’ ideas of education, as well as to an academic calendar, remains problematic and contested, with far-reaching implications for theatre performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Italian Carlo Goldoni' s theatre has surprisingly played an important role in the development of Chinese theatre in the second half of the 20th century. The servant and two masSers have been performed in China since 1956, it was taken as a model in the promotion of a new modern and popular theatre and played a role in the promotion of huaau revolutionary. This article firstly analyzes the process of assimilation of Goldoni' s theatre into the Chinese cultural context and its ideological meaning attributed to it by Chinese critique during the 20th century. According to Gissenwehrer researches on the intercultural exchange between Western and Chinese theatre, Rossella Ferrari's study on Brechtian theatre in China and Chen Xiaomei's theory on Occidentalism, it also attempts to explain motivation that leads to define Chinese performances of Goldoni' s plays as productive reception, which had experimental function in the creation of new theatrical models and stylistic forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study argues against the common perception that the Qing court theatre was a closed cultural institution. It suggests that this theatre developed in conjunction with popular performance traditions outside the court that were stimulated by Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908). Through close readings of a set of ceremonial dramas (yidian xi) commissioned by the Empress for the birthday celebrations of imperial family members, this essay explores the aesthetic transition from ritual to entertainment in this particular genre. It shows how as Empress Dowager Cixi indulged in her personal fantasies, the court theatre altered. These new plays initiated a paradigm shift from choreographed pageantry to an actor-centered stage, and as such indicate Cixi's important role in the transformation of ceremonial court theatre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]