Chinese Classical Drama - Avenues of Adaptation in the Contemporary Age

Tseng, Yong-Yih

National Taiwan University

Abstract

“Drama” was originally a term for the Song dynasty’s Southern genre of music

and drama. Since Wang Guowei’s book, Dramatic History of the Song and Yuan

Dynasties, the term has been alluded to Chinese Classical Drama. This paper

summarizes the development of Chinese Classical Drama, a process that evolved from

“story acting” toward a level of maturity, spanning the early Zhou dynasty through to

the late Jin and mid Southern Song dynasties. The development is traced through the

nine elements that compose Chinese Classical Drama, namely “story, song, dance,

music, acrobatics, spoken and sung literature along with its narrative, pantomime

artists taking on roles and portraying characters, first-person narratives and confined

theatre spaces”.

Confronted with the impact of the contemporary age, the writer believes: When

the three dramatic genres, “classical drama”, “classical infused with modern”, and

“avant-garde drama rooted in the classical” are integrated and blended with

Sino-foreign ways, it presents the avenue of adaptation for Chinese Classical Drama.

游佳莹译 崔峰校