Samuel Beckett On Chinese Stage (1964-2011):A Study Of Intercultural Performances

Since the premiere of Waiting for Godot in Paris in 1953,Samuel Beckett,the Irish-French writer and 1969 Nobel Prize winner,has made his name with the unique absurd style on the post-WWII theater stage.His works were translated into Chinese in the mid-1960s,and his plays have been continuously performed in the Mainland,Hong Kong,and Taiwan for nearly half a century,which established his canonic status in China.However,the international and domestic Beckett criticism has attached far more attention to textual analysis than performance study,which leads to a considerable lack in the latter.And this dissertation intends to make up for this deficiency by examining 14 typical Chinese Beckett performance cases which will be carried out through contextualizing the performances in particular socio-historical conditions,reconstructing the motives behind,pinpointing the adaptation strategies employed,and reproducing the theatrical effect in response to certain historical periods.Chapter One establishes theoretical framework for the dissertation.Firstly,Chinese Beckett performance is presented as a manifestation of "cultural translation" in Homi Bhabha's sense.The term is borrowed as a subsuming concept to underline the"newness" that localized adaptations bring into and therefore hybridize the established Beckett criticism in different theatrical forms under different socio-historical circumstances.Secondly,"theater performance" is highlighted as a concrete form of cultural translation practice.It is examined within intercultural performance study and adaptation study which justify the legitimacy of "other" infidel Becketts on stage by arguing for the alteration of the meaning of certain play through repetition,and against the essentialist tendency in textual criticism.Thirdly and complementarily,a marginal perspective championed by Bhabha is used to reveal that Chinese Beckett performances are performed from the peripheral stand to question the dominancy of the "center"while trying to make up for the problematic central values by incorporating the peripheral experiences.Chapter Two to Chapter Six are the analysis of the 14 performance cases.Chapter Two focuses on the early attempts that share a political concern.By examining The Theater Quarterly magazine's Waiting for Godot in Taiwan(1966),and Meng Jinghui's Waiting for Godot(1991),the chapter proposes that in the domestic and international historical background,Beckett is interpreted as a "defiant" icon through which discontent is channeled against all sorts of master narrative.Chapter Three and Chapter Four deal with the performances from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century which share an interest in artistic experimentation.Chapter Three uses Lai Sheng-Chuan's environmental theater Footfalls:Beckett in the Ancient Chinese Gardens(1988),Lin Zhaohua's Chan Buddhism collage Three Sisters/Waiting for Godot(1998)and Shanghai International Studies University's "mo lei tau" adaptation Godot Comes(2004)to show that after the political enthusiasm recedes,Beckett's plays become a laboratory where Western postmodern techniques such as pastiche,collage,and fragmentation are localized and appropriated.Chapter Four focuses on the three female-cast Beckett performances:Beijing People's Art Theater's Waiting for Godot(1998),Shanghai "Hard Man" Cafe Theater's Waiting for Godot(2001)and Taiwan "Tainaner Ensemble" Theater Club's Endgame(2004).The background of the female-cast performances is the quick development of Chinese cities into Western consumerist society when women are simultaneously empowered as consumering subject and exploited as consumerist symbol.The dubious position of women in the postmodern consumerism is reflected by the female involvement in these three cases.Chapter Five and Chapter Six tackle the Beckett performances taking place in the intensively globalized period since the mid-2000s when direct cultural exchanges between theater practitioners of China and Europe are made possible.Chapter Five is concentrated on the co-produced performances that involve both European and Chinese theater practitioners,illustrated by Irish director Sarah-Jane Scaife's "Beckett Workshop" in Central Academy of Drama(2006)and German director Walter D.Asmus' Endgame in cooperation with Shanghai Dramatic Arts' Center(2005).While the face-to-face intercultural collaboration clarifies some ambiguity in Beckett comprehension for the Chinese,such co-productions also allows a glimpse of the condescending attitude of the West and the local complicity in the process of Western authority construction,which calls attention to both sides in the future cooperation.Chapter Six analyzes Taiwan Contemporary Legend Theater's jingju adaptation Waiting for Godot(2005),modern Chinese dance theater Waiting for Godot(2010),Beijing Institute of Technology's Waiting for Godot(2006),and Hong Kong Alice Laboratory Theater's "Beckett project"(2007).The four cases show that in the field of Western canon representation where the Western dominance prevails,Chinese artists are still making efforts to struggle for their own voice not only through such adaptations as jingju and modern dance,but also through straight huaju performances by which they dialogue with and even challenge the Western standards.To conclude,stage representations constitute an indispensable part in Beckett interpretation.On one hand,Chinese Beckett performances do deviate from or even obliterate the original text under certain socio-historical conditions.But on the other hand,after the examination of the 14 performance cases,this dissertation tries to show that such deviation and obliteration may expand the interpretation possibilities of Samuel Beckett in the non Euro-American cultures,and reflect at the same time the Chinese thinking about social changes.And this may explain how and why Chinese Beckett is kept alive through the vicissitudes of the half century on and off stage.