回望中國戲曲的跨文化演出

A Retrospection of Xiqu Performances Overseas from a Transcultural Perspective

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

作爲演劇活動的各種地方戲曲，一直是中國傳統社會廣大民衆生活中不可缺少的部分。隨著中國人走向海外，戲曲也被帶到了中國的域外。迄今爲止，中國戲曲的域外演出最早可以追溯到明代。另一方面，自十八世紀起，在西方就開始出現一些用西方語言改編自中國戲曲的演出。不過，這些改編本大多是採用原劇的故事梗概，不是以中國戲曲原來的方式，而是以當時歐洲人的方式演出。戲曲的海外傳播和跨文化演出，是一個緩慢、漸進、複雜的歷史過程。它不可避免會遇到語言、唱腔、程式化表演、異文化受衆等諸多方面的問題和挑戰，必然會出現一些在母國所不曾有過的變異和新的景觀。本文回顧了中國戲曲在異文化中諸種樣式和演劇上的歷史流變。

This paper discusses the overseas history of Chinese theatrical performances from a transcultural perspective. First of all, it reviews historical developments or events, such as the spread of regional xiqu forms in southeast China to Southeast Asia during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, the Cantonese opera reaching North America in the nineteenth century, as well as Mei Lanfang’s performance in US in 1930 and in the former Soviet Union in 1935. The second aspect of the paper concerns how various xiqu plays have been translated and/or adapted into Western languages, and presented on Western stages in a variety of forms since the eighteenth century.