Cultural Significance Of Sino-us Theatrical Exchange

There have been twists and turns in the theater exchanges between China and America since 1950s, though such activities started even earlier. The Chinese-American theater exchanges took place naturally, or due to social and economic factors, or due to ideological conflicts and political needs so that they have taken the general features of cultural exchanges. On the other hand, the Sino-American cultural ties established during the theater exchanges represent, to a certain degree, the Eastern and Western cultural connections which in turn reflect the situations of the political and economic order of the world. These actually are the important elements of cultural studies and also the deep meanings and values of historical facts uncovered in this research. However, this research is neither a discussion of the historical matters-of-fact nor a cultural study in the ordinary sense, but an exploration of the features of the Chinese-American theater exchanges and the corresponding cultural implications from the perspective of cultural survival, cultural evolution, cultural prosperity and cultural communication. This effort becomes even more important because nowadays the acceleration of world economy integration, national and ethnic cultural pluralism, and the increasing demand of the individuals are faced with unprecedented challenges. Thus, the lessons from history and the inspirations from the reality are essential for a nation to take a proper position in cultural exchanges, to strengthen its belief, and to preserve its cultural individuality. In the past, communications took place in the background of capitalist expansion and the "Occidentalism"from the colonialist powers. Nowadays, in the context of the imperialist hegemony and the domineering "Universality of American Values", the international situations are undergoing radical changes. Though more and more nations have won independence out of the imperial colonial powers, and the UN, as a world organization, seems to be able to handle the international affairs, things are not so simple. Who takes control over the international discourse and who establishes the rules of world order that are closely tied with national interests? It is well-known that, over the centuries, there have not been evident changes in the attitudes of Western countries toward the Eastern counterparts. The dominant Western discourse over the Eastern, the Western power politics in the international affairs and the self-glorification of the Western nuclear values all seem to be rampageous. Further, the U.S. stubbornly goes its own way as to interfere with the affairs all over the world in defiance of the UN Charter. However, there is a generally ignored fact that the once colonized people, because of the influences from colonial politics, education, culture, and economy, have developed "a post-colonial state of mind"---a sense of cultural inferiority so as to abandon their own values in favor of the Western cultures. They habitually and blindly take the Western values in place of their own. Consequently, a sad and startling phenomenon has appeared that the ex-colonizer's cultural invasion, "maltreatment from the other", has turned into the cultural betrayal, "the maltreatment from the colonized themselves". The Chinese-American theater exchanges have provided lots of such startling examples. This is an important issue meriting attention in the discussions of cultural pluralism, diversity, coexistence and individuality. In the old days of China, many public-spirited people put that the construction of "the young China"must be preceded by a new cultural movement fitted for its situation. Mao Zedong, during the period of Yan'an Rectification Movement, published On New Democracy and he put forward the idea of new culture. According to Mao, culture as an ideology must reflect and serve a given politics and economy, and new democratic culture is the culture of the people under the leadership of the proletariat against the imperialism and feudalism. Further, "this new democratic culture is a national culture, and it sticks to the resistance against the imperialist oppression, and holds fast to the dignity and independence of the Chinese nation…The new culture of China must possess its own form; and this is the national form. The national form, the content of the new democracy, is our new culture today."(one-volume edition of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Beijing, 1969.) The entire literary reformist movement, the new cultural movement, the socialist culture, and the trend to learn from the Western countries during "the second Western Tide", and the efforts to build national culture, all took place in background of "Western learning spreading to the East"and "China turning to learn from the Western countries."The "dual paradox"between the demand of social movement form for social reality and the selection of national cultural construction in emotional affinity, and the conflicts between actual selection and rational demand, all have led to the historical limitation and theoretical paradoxes of the Chinese culture in the course of self-improvement and revolution. Such limitation and paradox are best reflected in the historical events during the Chinese-American theater exchanges and the cultural psychology of the Chinese people. Even so, the Chinese-American exchanges in theater have produced positive fruits and effects in that they have promoted the construction of contemporary Chinese theater and paved the way for the development of the American theater. Moreover, the most fruitful achievement lies with the representative and symbolic significances of such activities during the Eastern-Western cultural exchanges, and with the inspirations of these activities on the reorganization of world order highlighting dialogue and communication. This research concludes that it is urgent to improve one's state of mind in cultural exchanges so as to build a peaceful, equal, and mutually benefited communication context in which diversity exists in integration and co-development and co-prosperity are ensured. Such a favorable environment requires the eradication of prejudice, reduction of misunderstanding and the willingness on the part of the powerful cultures to abandon the desire to conquer. Meanwhile, national or ethnic cultural builders from small and weak cultures or post-colonial countries must be highly aware of their cultural values and nationality or ethnicity so that they can maintain their cultural individuality in the present world of cultural diversity. .