It is a great pleasure to read a book so thoroughly researched and carefully crafted that no proverbial stones seem to have been left unturned during its production. Even more satisfying is when that same book, due to its innovativeness and breadth, truly changes the way we look at a particular field, by examining a topic that the field had previously marginalized. Siyuan Liu's Performing Hybridity in Colonial-Modern China offers just this combination of virtues. It is a must-read for scholars of Asian theater, intercultural performance, and the global history of modern drama.
The topic of Liu's study is wenmingxi (“civilized drama”), a hybrid theatrical form developed by Chinese performance groups in Shanghai and Tokyo during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Wenmingxi blended elements of Western spoken theater; indigenous Chinese theater; and shinpa, itself a Japanese hybrid form that blended kabuki and Western-style spoken theater. Despite...
