Editorial Comment Behind the Paradox of Religious Rhetoric in a Time of Swine Flu, or An Accidental Asianist

I begin my comment with a confession: I am remarkably ill-informed about Asian theatre and performance. So, you might ask, why, for your last special issue as editor of Theatre Journal, did you choose a topic about which you know so little? When I began musing on Asia in summer 2010, my rationale was simple: the flow of open-submission essays on various aspects of Asian theatre and performance has increased appreciably over the last four years, but TJ had yet to produce a special issue on a topic of obvious interest to a significant sector of the theatre and performance studies community. The time seemed right to do it. Nonetheless, without considerable assistance from real Asianists, there would have been no special issue. I am especially grateful to Carol Sorgenfrei, a TJ associate editor who worked well beyond her usual charge.

Since the Call for Papers went out almost a year ago, my reasons have become somewhat more complicated. Reading submissions not only increased my knowledge of Asian cultures and performance practices, but also provoked my curiosity about Asia beyond theatre, performance, and cultural studies. As the essays moved through the review process and the list of potentially publishable pieces narrowed, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Koreas rose to the top. Indeed, we received more essays about China, both historical and contemporary, than any other Asian nation. So large does China loom on the West’s horizon that the original Call for Papers might have restricted its scope to theatre and performance in the PRC. I will always be a Russia watcher, but the process of producing this issue has persuaded me to watch China a bit closer as well.

TJ readers have surely followed developments in the united States’ relations with the PRC and the Koreas. Although South and North Korea are less prominent now in national and international news than they were during the cold war, we still sit up when Kim Jongil torpedoes a South Korean warship or detains, tries, and condemns a hapless US tourist. In the absence of torpedoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and annoying phone banks, however, over the last decade, China appears to have eclipsed all other Asian nations in the US imagination. But wait! Allow me to amend that assertion: more important than the US imagination is the US economy—and the US economy hits TJ readers hard in the institutional belly. My own institution, the university of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), where recent developments reflect what must surely be larger trends in bankrolling higher education, is exemplary in this regard. Indeed, UMCP’s relationship with China promises to become much closer—which will surely affect scholarship on the campus. For that reason, a brief summary seems appropriate.

News of the China initiative arrived on 13 June 2011 in an e-mail from Walter Loh, the university’s new president, to the campus community. In it, President Loh described the objectives and outcomes of his recent trip to China with Maryland’s governor, Martin O’Malley, and a host of aides and university administrators. Readers of TJ will not be surprised to know that seven days of meetings with government officials, businessmen, and academics emphasized research and development (R&D) in various areas of science and technology (most notably biotech and pharmaceuticals) and UMCP’s "international business incubator."¹ Mention of the social sciences and humanities appears only once in this three-page, single-spaced document, in the context of Governor O’Malley’s keynote address to Renmin university on “performance-based management.” I took this as a rather ominous omen for theatre and performance at UMCP until another e-mail appeared in our in-boxes several months later asking for data on any work across campus with, in, or on China. I assume—and as a Russianist, I hope wrongly—that the university intends to prioritize any sort of R&D that advances its relationship with the PRC. Imagine, then, the ensuing scramble to locate and spin such data. Near the end of...