General Introduction

Abstract

Staging China is a book about Chinese drama in the twenty-first century. “Drama” in this context refers to the modern theatrical form, called huaju or spoken drama in Chinese.¹ Artistically, the new genre drew inspiration from Western realistic/naturalistic theatre when it first emerged in 1907; ideologically, it was a response to the call for a new realm of Chinese literature and art, which leading intellectuals believed would help to reform the nation after the country had suffered several military defeats at the hands of Western powers. By emphasizing the importance of the word “spoken” in “spoken drama,” huaju radically distinguished itself from the traditional “song-dance” theatre xiqu (literally “theatre [of] sung-verse”).