The Adaptation of Shakespeare into Chinese Traditional Opera

Abstract

Shakespeare has been a perennial topic of Chinese intellectual and artistic life since he was introduced to the Chinese people in the nineteenth century. His plays have provided new angles on life and the world. Adaptations of Shakespeare on the Chinese stage are many and various. Among them, adaptations into Chinese traditional opera have proven to be the most novel, as well as the most controversial, drawing increasing attention from the Chinese public and initiating hot debate. While some scholars insist that the adaptations are brilliant ways of combining the essence of two different cultures - introducing Shakespeare to a Chinese audience and at the same time Chinese traditional opera to the world - others have criticized them for either destroying Shakespeare or betraying the opera, being neither fish nor fowl.

What changes does Shakespeare undergo in Chinese traditional opera? Can the adaptations still be thought of as Shakespearean, at the same time as being accepted as Chinese traditional opera? To answer these questions, this thesis takes a close look at the adaptations, interviewing adapters, directors, actors, and other participants, and using as case studies several adaptations of Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The thesis focuses on interpretation, confrontation, and reception during the adaptation process, as well as on the ways in which Shakespeare's plays are changed in the course of their adaptation, and it examines the extent to which cultural translation, which is inevitable in adaptation, is responsible for the changes. What makes an adaptation a success is still disputed and disputable, and in the process of being further recognized and theorized. Ultimately the adaptations, each one with its own merits and demerits and all of them displaying Chinese traditional opera's negotiation with an exotic resource, must be treated as independent creative works and cannot be considered simplistically as either succeeding or failing to re-present Shakespeare's original plays. Show more