ENCOUNTERING CHINESE PERFORMING TROUPES IN NANYANG: TRANSNATIONAL CIRCULATIONS, DIASPORIC LOCALIZATIONS AND CHANGING CHINESENESS, 1850S-1980S

Abstract

While most extant works on Chinese migration to Nanyang paid attention mostly to economic patterns and political entanglements with changing regimes in China, this dissertation chooses to focus on performing troupes that had paralleled the movement of Chinese immigrants to the various ports and cities of Nanyang. The thesis places the focal point on the embodied movements of Chinese performing troupes across space and time. It attempts to analyze different Chinese performing enterprises that included the dialect opera troupes and films, salvation drama troupes, and the folk artists of street opera, all within the context of modern Chinese migration. By doing so, it teases out how transnational connections and local adaptations wrestled with each other to constantly reproduce and reshape the notions of de-territorial diasporic Chineseness. This thesis also proposes to draw insights from recent Sino-soundscape publications to address the multiplicity and diversity of Chinese operatic practices that had thrived and taken root at the global and trans-local stages. By shifting the vantage point away from the power center of China, this study reveals the development of Chinese theatricals that had extended beyond the margins of Chinese empire and thrived among the Nanyang Chinese diaspora.