Making Space for the Maid

Chinese television dramas over the past decades have seen the rise and decline of various narratives, but no other narratives speak to the emerging urban middle class's fear and anxiety more palpably than the stories of the maid. However, despite the growing popularity of the maid stories among urban viewers, most of these stories do not resonate with domestic workers themselves. How do we make sense of the growing popularity of the maid stories among urban viewers? And how do we account for the differentiated capacity to resonate and identify with the characters among viewers? These are important questions to consider if one is to understand the new cultural politics of power and social formations in post-Mao China. In this paper, I explore some of the crucial ways in which a controlling gaze is facilitated and naturalised by the visualisation of place and space in these dramas. Then, through both critical analyses and engaged ethnography, I demonstrate how two sets of controlling gaze—everyday and televisual—reinforce and justify each other. Finally, I advance the concept of “peripheral vision,” which, I show, denies the modernist “master” narrative of the city and, instead, empowers the subaltern figure with an epistemological position of “eye-witness” and anthropologist of the city.     

一场声势浩大的新闻事件策划——浅析《金沙》的推广宣传策略

“新闻事件策划”这个命题自上世纪九十年代中期被提出以后,长期受到广泛争议和关注。在笔者的研究中,以一系列新闻事件策划的理论和实践研究成果为评判标准,主要关注成都市历时打造一年的文化名片“金沙”,以及作为媒体聚焦点的《金沙》音乐剧。在分析“金沙”成功的造势背后,揭示这条“金光闪闪”的文化产业链运作的新思路。     

论戏剧与科技的互动

艺术与科技有着天然的渊源关系。在艺术家族里 ,从科技的发展中受惠最多的可谓戏剧 ,它在科技引导与催促下的发展是艺术与技术互动的典型样式。因此 ,从戏剧发展的历史上 ,可以透视科技发展的轨迹。但戏剧并非单方面地受惠 ,科技的进步 ,物质世界的丰富与创新 ,戏剧艺术也发挥了独特作用。随着网络科技的发展 ,不仅使戏剧观众与戏剧创造者形成了新的互动关系 ,而且 ,使一种并非将舞台戏剧搬上网络的网络戏剧的诞生成为可能。在未来社会发展中 ,戏剧艺术与科学技术的互动与联姻 ,将使二者都获得无限的生命力     

From the Mouths of Mothers: Can Drama Facilitate Reflective Learning for Social Workers?

This article explores and evaluates a cross-disciplinary small-scale project using applied theatre in social work education. The aim was to provide an ‘Affective Encounter’ where students could practice empathic engagement, understanding of the needs of children who have been sexually abused and their protective parents/carers and engage in the complexities of working with family members who may be resistant. The workshop took place five times over a period of three years and was attended by children and families social workers on a one year post-qualifying graduate diploma course. While the use of verbatim theatre does not offer a guarantee of factual truth, it provided the students with some performed moments of personal testimony which was taken word-for-word from mothers whose children had been sexually abused. This allowed the social workers to hear the marginalised narratives of the protective mothers and to practice without a negative impact on the service user. The evaluation identified from self-report the development of emotional and practical skills and knowledge of available resources. This paper focuses on the emotional skills reported and two emerging themes are discussed: learning for humane practice, and the use of this pedagogical approach to encourage affective reflection.     

舞剧《妈勒访天边》带给文化创意产业的思考

文化创意产业是世界创意经济的一部分。作为文化创意产业,它在很大程度上影响、改变着我们日常工作、交往、休憩、娱乐以至内在心理世界的活动方式。文化创意产业的发展,是整个文化创意机制、文化传播构成与文化参与的行为活动方式的全面创新。     

翻译理论视角下的戏剧剧本翻译及原则

随着中外文化交流的日渐频繁与深入,中国要向世界展现华夏文明和中国文化,而戏剧正是文化的精髓。我国有丰富的剧种和曲目繁多的优秀剧目,要有效地展现中国文化就要让优秀剧目跨出国门尽显中国戏剧的魅力。然而由于戏剧剧本的内容有大量的文言句式和诗词曲赋,在翻译中要有效地传递诗词曲赋的意象美面临很多挑战。同时,戏剧剧本的内容中还有大量的古代典故和戏剧术语,这些对于中国人都陌生的中国元素要有效地传递给全世界的朋友就需要有高质量的翻译。翻译的高质量需要有效翻译理论的指导,文章尝试用翻译剧本为例,阐述翻译理论指导下的戏剧剧本翻译的翻译原则。     

经典剧作的对外传播与中国国家形象建构

经典剧作是我国优秀传统文化的代表,是中国人民智慧的结晶,也是中华民族优良品德的集中体现。做好经典剧作的对外传播,有利于将客观、真实的中国介绍给世界,消除个别国家对我国国家形象的误解,对于我国的社会主义现代化进程和在国际社会树立良好的大国形象,具有积极的推动作用。     

Televisual pregnancy beauty

Theorizing the contours of televisual pregnancy beauty, this essay demonstrates how televisual stylistics construct and communicate a political ideology of pregnancy. When the crime dramas Bones and In Plain Sight incorporated their star actors’ pregnancies, they produced different televisually styled portrayals of pregnancy; these medium-specific portrayals play an important role in how pregnancy itself is culturally conceptualized. Although pregnancy beauty, the commodification and sexual objectification of the pregnant and postpartum body, has been analyzed in ways that link it to post-industrial, neoliberal, capitalist, and patriarchal forces, this analysis demonstrates how televisual style sets the scene for this broader discourse. Specifically, I contend that the costuming, blocking and staging, cinematography, and editing determine how the pregnant body appears, and this then communicates a clear ideology to viewing audiences. Through these two case studies, I analyze contrasting televisual styles and argue that while Bones’ style disciplines the pregnant body and In Plain Sight’s style welcomes the pregnant body, both styles enact a televisual pregnancy beauty that commodifies pregnancy.     

教育与娱情:中外戏剧价值论永恒的内部角力——以曹禺剧作批评史为中心

“戏剧何为”是曹禺剧作的批评者共同关注的焦点问题之一.耐人寻味的是,在不同历史阶段,研究者们于曹剧的思想价值与艺术价值之间总是有意无意地突出一方而非等而视之——要么肯定一方而否定另一方,要么将一方视为另一方的附属产品.这一现象首先与曹禺在个人创作倾向和时代、社会要求的冲突中所生发的价值犹疑有关——作者在“教育”和“娱情”两大功能之间的摇摆直接导致了其剧作价值倾向的模糊.更进一步说,由于戏剧自身的艺术特性及其不同于其他文类的受众特征,“教育”和“娱情”之间的角力始终潜隐于古今中外戏剧价值论内部,曹剧中两大功能之间的“暗斗”恰是其具体表现之一.     

略论古希腊戏剧的宗教性

古希腊戏剧起源于酒神狄奥尼索斯的庆祭仪式。在古希腊戏剧萌芽、产生、发展和成熟的过程中,始终受到古希腊社会、宗教环境的束缚,洋溢着浓厚的宗教色彩。从古希腊戏剧的题材、结构、情节乃至内容里,都可以找到宗教仪式的影子,所以古希腊的戏剧演出自始至终都不仅仅是一种纯娱乐的活动,而是城邦政治生活和宗教生活的一部分。