PRODUCTION King Lear [Lier zai ci]
Data Type:essay
Author:Huang, Alexander C. Y.
Title:Small-Time Shakespeare: New Faces of Twenty-First Century Chinese Performance
Source:Chung Wai Literary Quarterly
Place:Taipei
Volume, Number:34.12
Date:2006/5
Pages:109-123
Language:Chinese
Abstract:Michael Bristol coined the term "big-time Shakespeare" to describe institutional appropriation of Shakespearean values. In twenty-first century Asia, Shakespearean performance is inflected by not only political agendas but also highly personal ones; hence the emergence of "mall-time Shakespeare." Wu Hsing-kuo, a veteran jingju actor and director based in Taiwan, recently staged his third jingju adaptation of Shakespeare. Titled Lear Is Here, this solo performance mobilizes (auto)biographical differences and connections between the actor and his characters to reconcile personal identity crises and to expand the representational practices of jingju.