This dissertation investigates three types of jingju plays known during 1949-1967 for their innovative or invented features, so as to explore the ramifications brought about by the theatre censorship, the confrontation of traditions and inventions, the dilemmas and challenges of both artists and reformers, and the paradoxical dynamics of the relationship between form and content. By analyzing a paradoxical jingju created by both reformers and artists--the paradox of making a modern opera reflecting contemporary history and preserving traditional performance features; the contradiction of acting conventions and realistic stage scenography; the confrontation of actors' aesthetic methodologies and the directors' considerations, it argues that, since 1919 it was the China-induced forces, rather than the colonial modernization of the pre-1949, that reshaped jingju, its history and its politics.

Peking Opera provides a comprehensive illustrated introduction to the origins and development of this unique performance art.

Part historical drama, part thriller, and part comedy, Tsui Hark's Peking Opera Blues (1986) invites--if not demands--examinations from multiple perspectives. Tan See Kam rises to the challenge in this study by first situating Tsui in a Sinophone context. The diasporic director explores different dimensions of "Chineseness" in the film by depicting competing versions of Chinese nationalism and presenting characters speaking two Chinese languages, Cantonese and Mandarin. In the process he compels viewers to recognize the multiplicities of the Chinese identity and rethink what constitutes cultural Chineseness. The challenge to a single definition of "Chinese" is also embodied by the playful pastiches of diverse materials. In a series of intertextual readings, Tan reveals the full complexity of Peking Opera Blues by placing it at the center of a web of texts consisting of Tsui's earlier film Shanghai Blues (1984), Hong Kong's Mandarin Canto-pop songs, the "three-women" films in Chinese-language cinemas, and of course, traditional Peking opera, whose role-types, makeup, and dress code enrich the meaning of the film. In Tan's portrayal, Tsui Hark is a filmmaker who makes masterly use of postmodernist techniques to address postcolonial concerns. More than a quarter of a century after its release, Tan shows, Peking Opera Blues still reverberates in the present time.

What was the most influential mass medium in China before the internet reaching both literate and illiterate audiences? The answer may surprise you...it’s Jingju (Peking opera). This book traces the tradition’s increasing textualization and the changes in authorship, copyright, performance rights, and textual fixation that accompanied those changes.

Born in the grandeur of the Qing dynasty, Peking Opera is known the world over for its lively music, colourful costumes, and thrilling displays of acrobatic prowess. Although reflective of the many changes that have occurred in Chinese society, Peking Opera today retains the drama and action that have charmed generations of audiences. Peking Opera's success rests on a fine integration of performance, plotting, and music. This illustrated introduction traces the developments of the genre from its roots in Chinese folk and high-art dramas to its situation in the present day. It features explanations of the opera's common character types, short descriptions of selected pieces, and discussions of the common stage settings and music that support the performance art.

"[Wichmann's] writing has authority rarely encountered.... Not only a comprehensive study but [a] study of Beijing theater. A marvelous overview, a virtual encyclopedia." --Choice "Overall, this is a pathbreaking book in terms of contributing to our understanding of the important Chinese art form that is the Beijing opera. It is a model of production. Its wealth of detail does not prevent it from being eminently readable. The author has unparallelled mastery of knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of her subject. The book will certainly help not only to make Beijing opera better understood in the West but also to make it more widely performed and appreciated." --China Review International, Spring 1994

Describes the formation of the Peking opera in late Qing and its subsequent rise and re-creation as the epitome of the Chinese national culture in Republican era China. This book looks into the lives of some of the opera's key actors, and explores their methods for earning a living, and their status in an ever-changing society.