| The dissertation examines the Chinese presence on the Broadway stage. It consists of three parts. Part I is a case study on David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly (1988), a masterpiece produced by a Chinese-American playwright using a cast of characters diverse in gender, nationality, cultural affinity and power, exploring political, social and philosophical themes, and blending theatrical elements from Chinese and Western traditions. The play parodies the famous story of Madame Butterfly, a play of 1900 by David Belasco, later adapted into the well-known opera of the same title by Giacomo Puccini. The popularity of the story started a vogue of turning to Oriental themes in American theatre. Following this vogue of theatrical Orientalism, plays concerning Chinese subjects, themes, ideas and theatricality have kept emerging on Broadway. The period from Madame Butterfly to M. Butterfly serves as the time span for the historical survey in Parts II and III. Thematically, Part II analyses three groups of plays: plays dealing with Sino-Western love themes; plays portraying Chinese characters in the American domestic environment; and plays concentrating on China, either imagined by American authors or adapted from original Chinese sources. The analysis explores the scope of dramatic presentation of Chinese subjects on Broadway and reveals the basis on which M. Butterfly manipulates stereotypes that its predecessors had created, presented, and carried on without question or modification. Following the thematic survey, Part III traces the exhibition of Chinese theatrical styles in M. Butterfly to different sources: Western scholarship on Chinese theatre; Chinese performances in America; and American innovative employment of Chinese stage conventions. This analytical search presents the Chinese theatrical influences on the American stage in perspective. The historical analysis of all the plays discussed also includes comparative studies between The Yellow Jacket and The Orphan of Zhao, Lute Song and Pipa ji, and Our Town and Chinese acting. The dissertation is appended with bibliographies of English publications on Chinese theatre and English translations of Chinese plays in chronological order. |
