Study Of Urban Theater Song And Dance Duet Status Quo

Er-ren-zhuan, with a nearly 300-year history, originally as a peasants' self-entertainment in Northeast China, has developed into a recreational performing genre. With its vitality from its diversity and changeability, the genre becomes peasants' favorite, as well as urbanites' favorite on its arrival in cities. It flourished in quite a number of Northeast cities and towns from the 1960s to the 1980s.Like other local theatres and ballad singings in China, er-ren-zhuan was on the decline in the late 1980s, an impact from the change of time and space. However, since the early years of the new millennium, the genre has recaptured its audience in diverse urban entertainments, thanks to its own features and some individuals' efforts. The thesis is an ethnomusicological analysis of the causes for its revival in urban theatres.Out of a long-term fieldwork, the writer has found the cultural elements around the genre more important than its text. The re-acceptance of modern urban er-ren-zhuan can be explained as follows: its re-construction with popular elements to cater for the taste of audience (i.e. marginality of tradition and centralization of pop culture), its maintenance by means of social elements or carriers like theatres, and personal efforts or promotions.Therefore, by adopting Geertz-Rice holistic tripartite model -"historically constructed, socially maintained and individuallycreated and experienced" , the thesis is a case study of the Peace GrandTheatre in Changchun, Jilin province, aiming at the effects in itsdevelopment in a modern urban context.