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The Avant-Garde Is Dead, Long Live the (Pop) Avant-Garde! Critical Reconfigurations in Contemporary Chinese Theatre
- positions: asia critique
- Duke University Press
- Volume 20, Number 4, Fall 2012
- pp. 1127-1157
- Article
- Additional Information
The article examines the trope of the “death of the avant-garde” in the context of contemporary Chinese theatre. It addresses comparable “death discourses” such as the so-called theatre crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s and critiques of “pseudo avant-gardism” that have been formulated with respect to the recent praxis of established experimentalists such as Beijing-based director and dramatist Meng Jinghui. The article argues that the Chinese avant-garde is not dead; it has, rather, evolved into a distinctive “pop avant-garde” mode that more aptly reflects and responds to the condition of Chinese society in times of market economy and cultural commoditization.