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  • Zhang Yimou's Turandot in Taiwan: Intercultural Spectacle, Aesthetic of Excess, and Cross-Strait Sensibility
  • Iris Hsin-chun Tuan

Theatre has, at times, facilitated a cultural diplomacy that provides opportunity to develop new theatre practices and to extend the reach of a specific nation-state. As one form of that diplomacy, the Taiwan government has generated plans to further its cultural creative industry and tourism (Sheng). In 2009, the Council for Cultural Affairs, the National Theatre, and the city mayors of Taiwan began to invest a substantial amount of funds in order to invite internationally acclaimed directors from the United States, China, and Japan to come to Taiwan to stage "intercultural" performances. Under this notion of cultural diplomacy, the practice of diplomacy brings "famous" others to one's own home state in order to forge cultural partnerships. For example, Chinese film and theatre director Zhang Yimou's 2010 staging of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot in Taiwan attempted to help attract more global, especially Chinese, tourists to visit Taiwan and to extend diplomatic understanding between China and Taiwan. 1

Zhang's Taiwanese Turandot, a cooperative endeavor between China and Taiwan, took place in the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium on the weekend of 27-28 March 2010. 2 The principal singers were Warren Mok (Calàf), Xiu-Wei Sun (Turandot) (both Chinese nationals living abroad), and Chinese soprano Yao Hung (Liu). The conductor was Janos Acs, a Hungarian-Italian musician. It engaged three orchestras and two choruses from China and Taiwan. The staging encompassed large-scale use of technology and the presence of hundreds of musicians, dancers, singers, and actors, and the location of the performance in a baseball stadium created a surreal mix of film, sports, and opera. The large-scale filmic projections, the architectural framing of the sports arena and its popular entertainment, and the grandeur of opera all served to create a show of fantastic proportions. In brief, the work, through the cinematic spectacle, attracted large local audiences, who wanted to see this revised version of Beijing's Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium's staging. Zhang's Taiwanese Turandot has also furthered a Chinese cultural branding for global touring. This 2010 Zhang performance has added multiple layers of "Chinese-ness" that have their origins in Puccini's original version of Turandot.

Puccini's Turandot

Loosely based on Carlo Gozzi's 1761 fairytale and subsequent play of the same title, 3 Puccini's version of Turandot, with a libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, was left unfinished at the time of his death. It premiered in 1926 after being completed by Franco Alfano. The basic story is originally found in an ancient Persian collection of stories called The Book of One Thousand and One Days (not to be confused with The Book of One Thousand and One Nights), specifically in the 1722 French translation by François Pétis de la Croix. In the original Persian version, the character of "Turandokht" is a cold Turkish princess; in de la Croix's adaptation, however, her name was changed to "Turandot"—translated as "Central Asian Daughter," the daughter of the Mongol emperor of China. Instead of challenging her suitors in wrestling, as in the original version, de la Croix had her [End Page 175] challenge them with three riddles, and instead of wagering their horses, suitors would be killed if they failed to answer any of the riddles correctly.

In Puccini's opera, Turandot, a chilling Chinese princess, seeks revenge for her mistreated ancestor Princess Lou-Ling. She asks her suitor-princes to solve three riddles. First, what is born each night and dies each dawn? (Answer: hope [sometimes translated as courage.) Second, what flickers red and warm like a flame, but is not fire? (Answer: blood.) And third, what is like ice, but burns like fire? (Answer: Turandot.) 4 If a suitor gives a wrong answer he will be put to death. Calàf, an exiled Tartar prince, falls in love at first sight when he sees Turandot's portrait and thus is unafraid of risking death in taking up the challenge, even though he has just witnessed the previous suitor being sent for beheading. Even though Calàf provides...

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