Shanghai City In The Process Of Music Theater

The music theatres of the international metropolitan Shanghai reflect from a specific perspective both the city's cultural conditions and its degree of urbanization. On one hand, music theatres, important venues for art exchange and cultural events, can partially satisfy people's demands for culture, influence to some extent urbanites' ideology, aesthetics, tastes and life styles, and reveal such indexes in urbanization as cultural establishments, cultural consumption and people's cultural qualities of the city. On the other hand, as performing enterprises for cultural media, music theatres are characteristic of changes in systems, management and social functions, . which in turn can reveal the effect of social and economic institutions on cultural markets.The thesis consists of a preface and two parts, four chapters altogether. Part 1 is a survey of Shanghai Conceit Hall and Shanghai Grand Theatre, including their operations and performing markets. Part 2 focuses on the functions of music theatres both in Shanghai and in the world, tackling how they can turn Shanghai into a "central city for international exchange", which involves such perspectives as audience, class, cultural market, and cultural strategy.The thesis applies theories and methods of ethnomusicology to the practical research, e.g. man and music, culture and music, as well as sociological survey, with the music theatres of Shanghai as places for fieldwork. Based on the materials collected from Shanghai Concert Hall and Shanghai Grand Theatre and on the thinking that deals with the social functions of music theatres in Shanghai's socio-cultural context, the writing analyzes and studies music theatres in the city's urbanization, so that their specific functions can be revealed, e.g. how they broaden people's cultural visions, strengthen their cultural tastes, heighten the city's status in culture, promote exchanges between Shanghai and the world.