Abstract
It is extremely meaningful, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Wang Yuanhua's birth, to restudy his ideas of jingju. Wang's thoughts on the revival and development of jingju from the perspective of cultural heritage are highly valuable. He believes that, in terms of moral ideas, jingju is a medium and vehicle in disseminating grand traditions of Chinese culture towards smaller traditions. Meanwhile, considered as a performance system, jingju embodies the“bixing”mindset, the lyrical expression with mind-object interaction, as well as the flexible distance-immersion dynamic among performers and spectators. This results in a complete system of“virtuality, conventionalization, and ideographics”. He therefore maintains that the guideline of the revival and development of jingju should be innovation based on inheritance. Wang's views on jingju, which underwent an enduring process, primarily stemmed from his reflections on the controversy of new and old theatre during the May Fourth Movement and the subsequent reforms and new practices in xiqu. Although Wang's thoughts on jingju reform are more preliminary than active, less constructive than destructive, they indeed point a direction for further reflection.
Keywords
Wang Yuanhua, ideas of jingju, moral ideas, performance system, xiqu reform
First Page
26
Last Page
32
Recommended Citation
Li, Wei. 2021. "On Wang Yuanhua's Ideas of Jingju and His Reflection on the May Fourth Movement." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 41, (2): pp.26-32. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol41/iss2/3
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