Workshop on Gender and Performance in Chinese Theater

Gender as performance is nowhere more clearly articulated than on the theater stage and in opera-based films. On stage, the male and female characters are enacted through artistic mimesis based on societal conceptions of masculinity and femininity. Theater is also a great unifying force that standardizes these notions while at the same time offering stage characters a larger than life-size power to influence the audience and through them societal attitudes. Thus, gender is not only a form of social performance, but through theater, the artistic form embodies the normative ideals of gender roles and is one of the mechanisms through which it is formalized. This workshop explores different types of theatrical performance of gender – both on the social normative and personal levels – as forms of dialogue between the past, the present, and visions for the future. It explores this theme through different forms of theater including music, dance, and acting. Within this broad framework, the papers raise and address further related questions including the constraints imposed by existing hegemonic narratives of gender and identity, Asianess, and the impact of the transcultural flow of ideas.