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Organized Panel Session
Theater plays a key role in the history of Shanghai. From 1851 to 1937, hundreds of theater houses were established and demolished in different Chinese and foreign sections of Shanghai. As such, two different kinds of geographies exist in parallel: the physical location of the theater in the city and the spatial formations within the theater. As theaters occupied new geographical locations, audiences were able to access shifting identities when a new kind of social and representational space was created. I argue that not only is the location and the organization of social space closely related, they in fact reinforce one another. This paper examines five representative theater houses from the perspective of these two geographies: Three-elegant Garden (Sanya Yuan, 1851), Fragrant Courtyard (Manting Fang, 1867), Dangui Teahouse (Dangui Chayuan, 1867), New Stage (Xin Wutai, 1908), and Common Stage (Gong Wutai, 1927). For instance, proclaiming Jingju as authentic Chinese culture, theater houses in the International Settlement like Manting Fang and Dangui Chayuan brought Jingju to Shanghai and used it as a means to construct a cosmopolitan and local identity. On the other hand, Xin Wutai, which was located outside the International Settlement and in the Chinese zone, sought to push theater to the forefront of a political stage and promoted a Republican Chinese identity. By tracing the changing geographical locations and the changing social geography within these theaters, we can plot shifts in how Shanghai denizens experienced significant aspects of identity formation and novel ways of thinking over time.
Sophia Tingting Zhao
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University