Project MUSE®: Asian Theatre Journal - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Asian Theatre Journal.daily12026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 16, no. 2 (1999) through current issueLatest Articles: Asian Theatre JournalTWOProject MUSE®Asian Theatre Journal1527-21090742-5457Latest articles in Asian Theatre Journal. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Erratum
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989955
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Catherine Diamond would like to acknowledge that playwrights Nabilah Said, Lee Wai Lok, and Sim Xin Yi collaborated with Ang Xiao Ting on the writing of Extinction Feast featured in her article “Singapore’s Ecotheatre: Mind, Body, and Alter Ego.”
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallErratum2026-05-12text/htmlen-USErratum2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®15912026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12From the Editor
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989956
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After eight years as ATJ editor, I am stepping down after this issue. Man He will take over as the new editor. It has been a tremendous learning experience. I am grateful to everyone who helped make the task possible, from the authors, editors, reviewers, editorial assistants, and the editors and production teams at the UH Press to our readers.With the exception of Emerging Scholar Essays, which always appear in the fall issue, this issue is complete with every regular format in ATJ: translation, article, report, performance review, and book review. It starts with Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei’s translation of Bluebeard’s Castle, one of the final works by Terayama Shūji (1935–1983), a leading figure of Japan’s angura
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallFrom the Editor2026-05-12text/htmlen-USFrom the Editor2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®140222026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Masks, Lies, and Hells: Introduction to Terayama Shūji’s Bluebeard’s Castle
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989957
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Terayama Shūji (1935–1983) was a multitalented poet, songwriter, photographer, essayist, memoirist, dramatist, and filmmaker.1 He was also a compulsive storyteller who wrote an autobiography filled with lies. Despite his short life, dying at age 47, he published around 200 literary works—including nine volumes of collected plays, most produced by his theatre company, Tenjō Sajiki—as well as countless poems, short stories, and much more. He also wrote and directed at least twenty-one short and full-length films. Virtually everything Terayama created or touched—from photos to plays to boxing gloves, ticket stubs, childhood letters, and assorted memorabilia—is housed in the Terayama Museum in Misawa, Aomori
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallMasks, Lies, and Hells: Introduction to Terayama Shūji’s Bluebeard’s Castle2026-05-12text/htmlen-USMasks, Lies, and Hells: Introduction to Terayama Shūji’s Bluebeard’s Castle2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®1987552026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Review of Terayama Shūji’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989958
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The performance was presented in partnership with New York City’s Under the Radar Festival, celebrating its 20th anniversary, noted for experimental approaches. Staged at Japan Society by Tokyo-based Project Nyx (title also used in Japanese, a cross-dressing bijo gekidan 美女劇団 all-female troupe), under the direction of the much-awarded Kim Sujin 金守珍(b. 1954), founder of Shinjuku Ryōzanpaku 新宿梁山泊 (Place for Forward-Looking Kindred Souls, with martial overtones) in 1987. In a distinct sense, Kim, former protégé of the angura (underground) and shōgekijō undō 小劇場運動 (little theatre movement) progenitors Kara Jūrō 唐十郎 (1940–2024) and his Jōkyō Gekijō 状況劇場 (Situation Theatre, founded in 1963), then later of Terayama Shūji
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallReview of Terayama Shūji’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle2026-05-12text/htmlen-USReview of Terayama Shūji’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®164232026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Toward an Inter-Asia Theatre in Sino-Japanese Encounter: Mei Lanfang and Sifan in Japan’s New Dance Movement, 1919–1921
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989959
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In 1919, Mei Lanfang 梅兰芳(1894–1961), one of China’s most renowned actors of dan 旦 (female role), and his troupe made their first visit to Japan.1 The tour was initiated and arranged by Japan’s Imperial Theatre.2 However, the political atmosphere between the two countries was getting increasingly tense. China had been particularly alerted to Japanese imperial aggression in the northeastern part of its territory.3 Against strong boycotts and criticisms, Mei and his associates regarded the invitation as a valuable opportunity to showcase Chinese civilization and culture, and thereby enhance China’s international status through jingju 京剧 (Beijing opera or Peking opera). On 1 May 1919, Mei gave an impressive debut in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallToward an Inter-Asia Theatre in Sino-Japanese Encounter: Mei Lanfang and Sifan in Japan’s New Dance Movement, 1919–19212026-05-12text/htmlen-USToward an Inter-Asia Theatre in Sino-Japanese Encounter: Mei Lanfang and Sifan in Japan’s New Dance Movement, 1919–19212026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®1187852026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Shakespeare in the Reconstruction of Cultural Identity: The Modern and Intercultural Adaptation of The Merchant of Venice Presented by China Youth Art Theatre
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989960
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The influx of Western literature and philosophy into China in the late 1970s and early 1980s led to the rejection of both the politically charged “model plays” and the simple but artistically honed traditional plays in the search for cultural modernism. Moreover, traditional Chinese theatre gradually lost its appeal to significantly younger audiences. To enliven the theatre and make it more accessible to modern audiences, Chinese theatrical practitioners once again turned to the West for inspiration. Ruru Li (1999: 355) pointed out that Shakespeare’s plays were mainly produced in China at that time in two ways: one was to adapt the original texts into traditional Chinese dramatic forms such as jingju (Beijing
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallShakespeare in the Reconstruction of Cultural Identity: The Modern and Intercultural Adaptation of The Merchant of Venice Presented by China Youth Art Theatre2026-05-12text/htmlen-USShakespeare in the Reconstruction of Cultural Identity: The Modern and Intercultural Adaptation of The Merchant of Venice Presented by China Youth Art Theatre2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®870552026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12The Idea of Motherhood in the North Korean Minjok Gageuk Chunhyangjeon: The Gendered Role of Wolmae
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989961
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In North Korea,1 the discourse of “motherhood” plays a crucial role in upholding the socialist system.2 The regime has periodically organized mothers’ conferences to highlight the central role of “mothers” and underscore the necessity for women to actively engage in addressing the national crisis.3 Women in North Korea are not perceived as weak and dependent; rather, they are regarded as “mothers,” envisioned as revolutionary figures in production, reproduction, and the preservation of the country (Park 2012: 367).The main objective of this study is to examine the character Wolmae, who portrays the role of Chunhyang’s mother in the North Korean minjok gageuk (national opera) Chunhyangjeon (The Tale of Chunhyang
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallThe Idea of Motherhood in the North Korean Minjok Gageuk Chunhyangjeon: The Gendered Role of Wolmae2026-05-12text/htmlen-USThe Idea of Motherhood in the North Korean Minjok Gageuk Chunhyangjeon: The Gendered Role of Wolmae2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®1173742026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Character and Competing Loyalties in Nineteenth-Century Parsi Theatre
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989962
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On 25 September 1889, Farāmjī Kāvasjī Mehtā, editor and proprietor of the Bombay-based newspaper Kayasare Hinda (Kaiser-i-Hind), brought a defamation charge against Kekhuśro Navrojī Kābrājī, the conservative editor of the Gujarati-language Rāst Goftār tathā Satya Prakāś (Rast Goftar or Herald of Truth, henceforward Rast Goftar).1 At the heart of this case was a seemingly trivial reference to Gurgīn, a minor trickster character from the Persian epic Shahnama, popularized by the commercial theatre. In the play Bejan ane Manījeh (Bejan and Manijeh), Gurgīn, envious of the Persian hero Bejan, induces him to travel into enemy territory, Turan, where he is captured. Thereafter, crafty Gurgīn escapes and returns to Iran
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallCharacter and Competing Loyalties in Nineteenth-Century Parsi Theatre2026-05-12text/htmlen-USCharacter and Competing Loyalties in Nineteenth-Century Parsi Theatre2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®978732026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12The Dynamics of Indian Dalit Theatre: Plays and Performance
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989963
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The birth of Dalit Theatre as a theatre for liberation is the need of the hour . . . Dalit Theatre operates as a weapon for Dalit liberation. Since most of the Dalits who perform slave labour remain illiterates, drama serves as an appropriate medium to present the various pertinent views to educate the Dalit masses. Dalit Theatre is foregrounded as a symbol of cultural awareness of the Dalits.This statement by eminent Tamil Dalit playwright, director, and actor K. A. Gunasekaran holds the key essence of Indian Dalit theatre in a nutshell. Dalit Theatre, though a less advanced genre in the context of Indian Dalit literature, uses the ideology of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar regarding the annihilation of the caste system and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallThe Dynamics of Indian Dalit Theatre: Plays and Performance2026-05-12text/htmlen-USThe Dynamics of Indian Dalit Theatre: Plays and Performance2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®776952026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Masked-Dance and Audience Reception in the Performing Art Tradition of Purulia Chhau
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989964
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Human development is believed to be rooted in performance. Performances are commonly regarded as a means by which oral cultures are constituted and through which they maintain their folklore. Folklore is best understood not as a static body of inherited tradition but as emerging through specific and observable instances of performance. As Noyes argues, “people were connected to folklore not through abstract linkage of group to tradition but through empirically trace-able instances of performance” (2012: 14). In the case of Purulia Chhau, a masked-dance form of Eastern India, the relationship between indigenous communities and their environment is expressed through embodied practices such as dance and song, which
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallMasked-Dance and Audience Reception in the Performing Art Tradition of Purulia Chhau2026-05-12text/htmlen-USMasked-Dance and Audience Reception in the Performing Art Tradition of Purulia Chhau2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®679752026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Reimagining Occupation and Futurity in Iraq: A Feminist Decolonial Perspective on the Script and Stage Adaptation of Falah Shaker’s The Wild Wedding
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989965
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Theatre in Iraq has served as a potent vehicle for grappling with the nation’s socio-political challenges, and Falah Shaker’s The Wild Wedding (1991) exemplifies this tradition. This play stands out as a remarkable example portraying the plight of a raped Iraqi woman and the broader devastation of Iraq under foreign invasion. This dual focus not only serves as a poignant critique of colonization but also prophesies the atrocities that would befall Iraq during the US-led war in 2003. Set against the backdrop of Iraq’s turbulent history, the play explores the subject of rape as a multifaceted symbol of collective violation—a concept deeply tied to the experiences of an invaded and colonized homeland. This symbolic
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallReimagining Occupation and Futurity in Iraq: A Feminist Decolonial Perspective on the Script and Stage Adaptation of Falah Shaker’s The Wild Wedding2026-05-12text/htmlen-USReimagining Occupation and Futurity in Iraq: A Feminist Decolonial Perspective on the Script and Stage Adaptation of Falah Shaker’s The Wild Wedding2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®757502026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Field Observations from Nepal’s Gurung Hills: Sati Ghatu of Nalma, 2022
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989966
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In the hill regions of Nepal, scattered Gurung villages hold an annual trance-inducing dance-drama known as sati ghatu, a once-widespread ritual that has existed longer than anyone remembers. Explanations for its purpose differ: some say it protects the village from bad spirits and natural disasters; others believe it ensures good rains for the planting season; still others argue it is for entertainment. Though the reasons and ways of practicing vary, several fundamental aspects define this singular, surprising tradition: a Gurubaa (head singer) leads a chorus of men playing madal (Nepali two-headed drum) and singing an ancient royal love tragedy, accompanying the ghatusaris (prepubescent girl dancers) who align in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallField Observations from Nepal’s Gurung Hills: Sati Ghatu of Nalma, 20222026-05-12text/htmlen-USField Observations from Nepal’s Gurung Hills: Sati Ghatu of Nalma, 20222026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®668732026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Realisms in East Asian Performance ed. by Jessica Nakamura and Katherine Saltzman-Li (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989967
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In Realisms in East Asian Performance, editors Jessica Nakamura and Katherine Saltzman-Li challenge the dominance of Eurocentric frameworks in the study of theatrical realism, advocating for a broader and more inclusive understanding of this term. They assert that realism in East Asian theatre should not be seen as derivative of Western traditions but as a diverse and independent phenomenon shaped by the region’s unique cultural, historical, and technological contexts. Through case studies spanning from the seventeenth century to the present, multiple authors explore how East Asian performances redefined and enriched the concept of realism, demonstrating its pluralistic and context-specific nature. As the editors
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallRealisms in East Asian Performance ed. by Jessica Nakamura and Katherine Saltzman-Li (review)2026-05-12text/htmlen-USRealisms in East Asian Performance ed. by Jessica Nakamura and Katherine Saltzman-Li (review)2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®102852026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12The Cornucopian Stage: Performing Commerce in Early Modern China by Ariel Fox (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989968
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In The Cornucopian Stage: Performing Commerce in Early Modern China, Ariel Fox examines the intertwined relationship between commerce, material culture, and theatrical performance in late imperial China. Heightened by the title, the word “cornucopian,” which is also the title of a play, signals a distinct approach to literary analysis. This analytical framework is situated in what the book defines as early modern China, primarily the late Ming and early Qing, when literati attitudes toward money, once shaped by moralistic traditions, began to shift. Rather than simply condemning it as too worldly, too commercial, and too cosmopolitan, some began to reimagine money’s cultural and social significance. Moving beyond
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallThe Cornucopian Stage: Performing Commerce in Early Modern China by Ariel Fox (review)2026-05-12text/htmlen-USThe Cornucopian Stage: Performing Commerce in Early Modern China by Ariel Fox (review)2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®121822026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Transforming Tradition: The Reform of Chinese Theater in the 1950s and Early 1960s by Siyuan Liu (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989969
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Imagine, if you will, a time when arts policies are confused and muddled. A time when the government rolls out policies, but there is very little understanding of how that policy applies to the specific theatre form or to the theatre world; those policies are so intricately connected to the political world that if your troupe oversteps or makes a mistake, you are at risk of losing everything.This is not 2025 America under the second Trump administration, but 1950s and 1960s China under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which worked to solidify its ideological and political hold on Chinese society and politics. In his book, Transforming Tradition: The Reform of Chinese Theater in the 1950s and Early 1960s, Siyuan
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallTransforming Tradition: The Reform of Chinese Theater in the 1950s and Early 1960s by Siyuan Liu (review)2026-05-12text/htmlen-USTransforming Tradition: The Reform of Chinese Theater in the 1950s and Early 1960s by Siyuan Liu (review)2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®97782026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Xin Fengxia and the Transformation of China’s Ping Opera by Siyuan Liu (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989970
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Xin Fengxia (1927–1998) was a cultural icon, an actress, writer, and artist whose life and works not only transformed pingju (ping opera) but also serve as a research site for scholarship on Chinese theatre in the twentieth century and the history of performers during this politically tumultuous time. Xin Fengxia and the Transformation of China’s Ping Opera is a critical biography that examines Xin’s life before, during, and after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. In this work, Siyuan Liu examines the social and political environment that shaped Xin and how these environments formed her legacy. Liu divides Xin’s life into four main sections: childhood and upbringing in Tianjin
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallXin Fengxia and the Transformation of China’s Ping Opera by Siyuan Liu (review)2026-05-12text/htmlen-USXin Fengxia and the Transformation of China’s Ping Opera by Siyuan Liu (review)2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®81102026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Brutal Beauty: Aesthetics and Aspiration in Urban India by Jisha Menon (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989971
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In Brutal Beauty: Aesthetics and Aspiration in Urban India, Jisha Menon examines the aspirations and anxieties of liberalized India through art-works, performances, and aesthetics. Viewing neoliberalism as an aesthetic project rather than simply an economic or social phenomenon, Menon uses artworks to explore the aspiration of urban entrepreneurs as they struggle with the radical cultural, social, spatial, and economic transformations of postliberal India. Through these artworks, Brutal Beauty emphasizes the affective cultural formations not only as transient emotions but also as long-lasting social forms.Menon approaches liberalized urban India with the kaleido-scopic view of new subjects, socialites, and affects
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallBrutal Beauty: Aesthetics and Aspiration in Urban India by Jisha Menon (review)2026-05-12text/htmlen-USBrutal Beauty: Aesthetics and Aspiration in Urban India by Jisha Menon (review)2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®87832026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12Naqqali Trilogy: Azhdahak, Arash, Testament of Bondar Bidakhsh by Bahram Beyzaie (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989972
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Bahram Beyzaie, often referred to as the “Shakespeare of Iran,” is one of the country’s most significant playwrights and theatre scholars. His 1965 treatise, Theatre in Iran, remains one of the most well-known historical studies of Iranian theatre. Yet, until now, very little of his dramatic work has been translated into English from Farsi. Naqqali Trilogy, translated by Richard Saul Chason and Nikta Sabouri, who also provide an excellent and thorough introduction, marks a major contribution to Iranian theatre and cultural scholarship. These texts showcase Beyzaie’s blend of myth, psychological realism, and sociopo-litical critique, artfully woven together within the context of the naqqali storytelling tradition.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-16T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/20/image/coversmallNaqqali Trilogy: Azhdahak, Arash, Testament of Bondar Bidakhsh by Bahram Beyzaie (review)2026-05-12text/htmlen-USNaqqali Trilogy: Azhdahak, Arash, Testament of Bondar Bidakhsh by Bahram Beyzaie (review)2026-05-122026TWOProject MUSE®90482026-05-16T00:00:00-05:002026-05-12