1st Edition
Chinese Theatre Troupes in Southeast Asia Touring Diaspora, 1900s–1970s
A detailed account of the cultural history of the Chinese diaspora, with a focus on the performers and audiences who were involved in the making of Chinese performing cultures in Southeast Asia.
Focusing on five different kinds of theatre troupes from China and their respective travels in Singapore, Bangkok, Malaya and Hong Kong, Zhang examines their different travelling experiences and divergent cultural practices. She thus sheds light on how transnational mobility was embodied, practised and circumscribed in the course of troupes’ travelling, sojourning and interacting with diasporic communities. These troupes communicated diverse discourses and ideologies influenced by different social political movements in China, and these meanings were further altered by transmission.
By unpacking multiple ways of performing Chineseness that was determined by changing time-space constructions, this volume provides valuable insight for scholars of the Chinese Diaspora, Transnational History and Performing Arts in Asia.
Introduction
Part I Chinese theatre troupes on the Sino-Southeast Asian Corridor, 1900s–1930s
1 Formation of Chinese theatrical spaces: temples, theatres and amusement parks in the Straits Settlements
2 Travelling with Teochew immigrants: Chaozhou theatre troupes on the move
3 Performative encounters: China’s Song and Dance Troupe and the Nanyang tour
4 Saving the motherland: diasporic Nationalism and Mobilisation of Chinese in Malaya during WWII
Part II 'Dangerous' reaching out via performative linkages in the Cold War
5 Old ties and new routes: socialist Chaozhou theatre in Hong Kong, 1950s–1960s
6 Chaozhou opera film nexuses: Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok, 1960s
7 Appropriating postcolonial Chineseness: Hong Kong leftwing troupes in Cold War Singapore and Malaya(sia)
8 Conclusion and epilogue
Biography
Beiyu Zhang obtained her PhD from the History department at the National University of Singapore. She worked as Post-doctoral Fellow, funded by the Macau Talent Program at the University of Macau, from 2018 to 2020. Now she is affiliated with the Jinan University, Guangzhou. Her research interests include cultural history, Chinese diaspora, theatre and performances, and Cold War culture.
"This exciting new book by Beiyu Zhang offers a vivid and deeply historicized account of Chinese performing arts in Southeast Asia...This is an outstanding study that is well informed by the secondary scholarship in both English and chinese and is strongly grounded in original research using historical newspapers, periodicals and unpublished documentary sources...Beiyu Zhang's book makes an enormous and very welcome contribution to the field of Chinese and Sinophone peformance studies. It is a must-read for all those interested in the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia." - Emily Wilcox, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, William & Mary in SOJOURN the Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asai Vol 37 No.2 [2022]
