Listening to Theatre: The Aural Dimension of Beijing Opera (review)

282 China Review International: Vol. i, No. i, Spring 1994 beyond generalities about the desire to revitalize the ideology and rectify the party organization, consensus breaks down on their content. Reformers and conservatives differed over the interpretation ofideology, the role of ideology in the polity , and the content of"party building." To take but one example, White calls the Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) a "force to ensure adherence to new economic policies" (p. 179), though he later goes on to acknowledge its role in inner-party struggle (p. 181). In fact, the CDIC was very much involved in inner-party struggle from the time ofits creation, and it would be difficult to point to a time when its existence supported the implementation ofeconomic reform. Finally, in discussing the creation ofa new societal organization, White casts the discussion in terms of"civil society." His discussion is hampered by the lack of systematic analysis; in the end, it is difficult to know what White means by the term civil society or whether China might be building one. On the one hand, White calls the emergence of societal organizations in China "ofworld-historical proportions, comparable to the emergence ofbourgeois civil society from the pores of feudalism" (p. 225). If this is so, it certainly merits more than the ten pages given over to it. On the other hand, however, White quickly acknowledges that they are hardly autonomous at present and in fact represent only"tendencies " in the direction of civil society. White then goes on to suggest that the emerging pattern ofsocietal organization in China is likely to involve some form ofcooperation between state and society, a type of"socialist corporatism" (p. 230). While this seems likely, it hardly resembles the emergence ofbourgeois society. In short, this is a frustrating book. Greater attention to detail, more effort to elucidate the rules ofpolitical conflict, and more effort to explain the mechanism bywhich the changes in Chinese society are reflected (or not reflected) in the political system would have yielded great dividends. Joseph Fewsmith Boston University Elizabeth Wichmann. Listening to Theatre: The Aural Dimension ofBeijing Opera Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991. 342 pp. $25.00. copyright1994 by University of Hawai'i Press Few people, ifany, brought up in the Western tradition have as detailed an experience and knowledge of the Beijing opera as an art form as Elizabeth Wichmann. She has the distinction ofbeing the first American since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 actually to perform in public on the Chinese stage, and the specific performance she gave, Guifei zuijiu (The favorite concubine becomes intoxicated), is mentioned quite a few times in this book. She is ex- Reviews 283 traordinarilywell qualified to write about the aspects ofperformance of the Beijing opera. She lived, worked, and studied in China during the mid-1980s and learned from Shen Xiaomei, the youngest student ofthe great Mei Lanfang (1894-1961), himselfprobably the most famous performer China ever produced. It is obvious from its title that this book covers just one aspect of the Chinese performing arts. Amid the important political, economic, and social developments in the China ofthe reform period since 1978, it is essential not to forget the major role played by literature and the arts. In particular, the modernization of China has been accompanied by reform in the theater, but at the same time by a major revival of tradition. Wichmann's book has a great deal to say about both tradition and change in the Beijing opera, but, although she worked in the 1980s in China and consequently was among those to benefit by the opening of China in the modern period, her work deals much more with the tradition than with the present age. What is special about this book is what is implied in the title: that it covers not Beijing opera as a whole, or its history, plots, or literature, but its aural dimension . This means the language, music, singing, instrumentation, and so on. In these areas it can claim to be comprehensive, showing the wealth of knowledge and understanding which comes from intimacywith the art and its practitioners . She has read widely, but it is much...