A Study On The Development Of Huai Opera In Shanghai And Its Spatial Change

This paper studied the development history of Huai Opera in Shanghai during Late Qing Dynasty and the Republican Period, and explored on the transition of the spatial distribution of performance venues of Huai Opera in Shanghai and its causes. The whole paper consists of five parts.The "introduction" part, Huai Opera was named as Jianghuai Opera and Jiangbei Opera at the initial stage. Starting from identifying the relation between Jianghuai Opera and Northern Jiangsu, this paper proposed the problems for discussion:why could Jianghuai Opera, which was originated in Huaiyin, Huaian, Yancheng and Funing, achieved development in Shanghai? What was the spatial process of the distribution of its performance venues in its development in Shanghai? What was the motivation mechanism behind it?The first chapter "The Development History of Huai Opera in Shanghai" mainly investigated the rooting process of Jianghuai Opera in Shanghai and its development conditions in Shanghai. At the beginning of20th Century, a large number of people from Northern Jiangsu swarmed into Shanghai due to famine, and Jianghuai Opera then followed it. Jianghuai Theatrical Troupe generally existed and operated in the form of family theatrical troupe, after1920S, it gradually developed into professional theatrical company, but it still had strong blood relationship color of theatrical troupe.The second chapter "Spatial Research on Jianghuai Performance Venues in Shanghai in the20th Century" explored the spatial process of the development of Huai Opera in Shanghai. The distribution of the performance venues of Huai Opera in Shanghai Had formed four gathering areas:1. South of Zhongxing Road, Zhabei and the northern area of Suzhou River;2. the area of western fringe of international settlement to Zhaofeng Park (now Zhongshan Park);3. Northeastern area of international settlement;4. Southern part of the outer fringe of inner city. The formation of these four gathering areas had sequences. Accordingly, the development history of Huai Opera in Shanghai can be generally classified into three stages:1910s;1920s-1930s; and1940s-1950s. In1910s, Huai Opera entered Shanghai, which was mainly distributed in the South of Zhongxing Road, Zhabei and the northern area of Suzhou River; during1920s-1930s, with the springing up of industries, especially cotton textile industry and wharf loading and unloading industry, a large number of workers from Northern Jiangsu had gathered at the west and northeastern fringe of international settlement, thus multiple Huai Opera performance venues had grown up here. After1940s, for avoiding chaos caused by war, labors from Northern Jiangsu had entered the fringe of French Concession, thus multiple Huai Opera performance venues had formed a gathering area at the southern part of the outer fringe of inner city. All in all, the distribution of Jianghuai Opera Houses all had clear evolution in the two dimensions of space and time. While tracing the motivation behind this evolution, in a word, it changed with the change caused by the influence of current political situation to a group of people from Northern Jiangsu and with industry attraction.Meanwhile, chapter2also analyzed the relationship between Jianghui Opera Houses and shanty towns. Shanty towns was the gathering area of people from Northern Jiangsu, historical data showed the dense distribution areas of shanty towns were:along Beijing-Shanghai Railway; North Shore of Wusong River; outer fringe of former French Concession; the surroundings of Yangshupu in former International Settlement; the surroundings of Nanshi Shiliupu Pier; and the eastern waterfront of Huangpu River. The distribution of Jianghuai Opera Houses had close relations with shanty towns. People from Northern Jiangsu in shanty towns were engaged in bottom hard work, thus they had formed segmentation with personages of other classes in the city. Most of Jianghuai Opera Houses were distributed in the surroundings of shanty towns, thus Jianghuai Opera which used Northern Jiangsu dialectal accent had become the most intimate and accessible recreational activities of labors from Northern Jiangsu. People of Northern Jiangsu were segmented into a relatively independent group in culture, it was superficially due to geographical relationship, but was essentially attributed to the relative superiority or inferiority in economic level.Chapter3"Origin of Jianghuai Opera and Shanghai Culture in Republic of China" started from lists of plays of operas, artistes name and laudatory titles, which analyzed the origin of Jianghuai Opera with Peking Opera. The performer names of Peking Opera and Huai Opera had many similarities, and the laudatory title of the performers of Huai Opera also had the tendency to approach Peking Opera, which suggested that people from the bottom of society had own channels to absorb upper class culture, which were regarded as status symbol."Conclusion" part responded to the problems proposed in the "Introduction" part. The entering of Huai Opera in Shanghai was related to a pair of push-pull effect. People from Northern Jiangsu hap swarmed into Shanghai for avoiding famine, meanwhile, the emerging industries in Shanghai were in urgent need of migrant labors, and the influx of people from Northern Jiangsu had brought the rooting of Huai Opera in Shanghai. The performance venues of Huai Opera in Shanghai had successively formed four gathering areas, and its process can be classified into three stages. Although the audiences of Huai Opera were people from Northern Jiangsu at the bottom of society, it also intentionally absorbed the upper class cultural elements represented by Peking Opera in the process of its development, which became a pathway for bottom class people to come into contact with upper class culture.