Significant Other: Staging the American in China (review)

After a long introduction dealing with cross-cultural theory, especially as it concerns Chinese images of the United States portrayed through theatre, this book analyzes seven Chinese plays, ranging in production date from 1987 to 2002. All items are in the form of huaju [usually translated "spoken drama"], which is marked by having little or no music or singing, unlike traditional forms of Chinese drama, termed xiqu. The huaju was introduced into China from the west through Japan in the early twentieth century. A play might be fictional, but the author assumes that one can find more about what people really think of one another through expression in a play than in what they say in public or often even in private.

This is an excellent book. Its writing style is provocative and interesting. It is thoroughly documented with references in English and Chinese. It certainly makes a contribution to the literature on Chinese theatre through its detailed analyses of contemporary spoken dramas revolving around a particular theme. It also makes a contribution to cross-cultural studies through its perceptive analyses of Chinese images of the United States. It helps balance the literature on western images of China by considering the equally relevant topic of how China views the west.

Images of China inevitably recall the theories of the late Edward Said about "orientalism." These emphasize the biased nature of western images of nonwestern culture and assert that, when the western powers colonized non-European countries, they also colonized knowledge about them, stamping them as inferior. Conceison inverts this idea through an analysis of "occidentalism," which suggests that, through nationalism, the Chinese have typecast American culture as the other, with the implication that it is inferior or hostile. Conceison acknowledges that occidentalism is not a new theory and that it can be applied not only to China but also to other non-western cultures. What is distinct is the Orient's turning difference or otherness against the Occident (74) and choosing the spoken drama as the site of images, with the United States as the particular target country. The United States has become the "significant other."

I very much admire the commentaries on the plays. They are informative and penetrating. The way the various themes brought out by the seven plays is explained and analysed is brilliant. Of course, the focus of analysis is virtually always China because the plays are Chinese. But there is also quite a lot about American attitudes towards life and towards China, and attention is given to Sino-American relations since the late 1980s, as well as to developing anti- Americanism among various groups in China.

In general, the book makes an excellent contribution to social theory. And although there is plenty about the difficulties of Americans and Chinese understanding each other and about the existence of occidentalism in China, as well as about orientalism in the west, Conceison can also find room for optimism. The final sentence of analysis of the seventh of the plays, Swing, is that "Occidentalism is not necessarily the dragon that needs to be slayed; it is, rather, the proverbial elephant-in-the-room that needs to be acknowledged" (223).

Conceison wisely acknowledges three levels of opinion in China: the state, the intellectuals, and the masses (176), as well as differences within these groups, especially among intellectuals (183). Sometimes the three coincide, as she points out in relation to anti-Americanism following the NATO bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade in 1999. In contrast to what some commentaries would have us believe, however, this is not a country where people all speak with the state's voice.

I do have one criticism. It seems to me that Conceison is a bit too free with charges of "racism," without an adequate definition of that term's meaning. Moreover, if occidentalism does not need to be killed, as the sentence cited above suggests, then is it really appropriate to relate it in any way to...