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Rhizomes, Radicants, and Journeys: Transnational Chinese Theatres as Networks of Intercultural Collaboration

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Transnational Chinese Theatres

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Abstract

This chapter offers a reassessment of intercultural performance theory from the perspective of trans-Asian collaboration. As well as critiquing the Western-centric bias of conventional methods of intercultural analysis, it sets out to ‘dislocate the West’ from the discourse of Asian interculturalism by investigating the distinctive politics and practices of transnational Chinese theatres through the prism of rhizomes and radicants as theorized, respectively, by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and Nicolas Bourriaud, and in conversation with Asia-focused methodologies. This chapter illustrates the practice of performance in journey-form as a dynamic process defined by notions of mobility and transvergence through an examination of Poisonous Weeds (2002), a performative installation by Hong Kong-based visual artist and theatre director Danny Yung.

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Ferrari, R. (2020). Rhizomes, Radicants, and Journeys: Transnational Chinese Theatres as Networks of Intercultural Collaboration. In: Transnational Chinese Theatres. Transnational Theatre Histories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37273-6_2

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