Chinese Theatre Troupes in Southeast Asia: Touring Diaspora 1900s-1970s

A detailed account of the cultural history of the Chinese diaspora, with a focus on the performers and audiences who were involved in the making of Chinese performing cultures in Southeast Asia.

Focusing on five different kinds of theatre troupes from China and their respective travels in Singapore, Bangkok, Malaya and Hong Kong, Zhang examines their different travelling experiences and divergent cultural practices. She thus sheds light on how transnational mobility was embodied, practised and circumscribed in the course of troupes’ travelling, sojourning and interacting with diasporic communities. These troupes communicated diverse discourses and ideologies influenced by different social political movements in China, and these meanings were further altered by transmission.

By unpacking multiple ways of performing Chineseness that was determined by changing time-space constructions, this volume provides valuable insight for scholars of the Chinese Diaspora, Transnational History and Performing Arts in Asia.

Beiyu Zhang obtained her PhD degree in the History Department in National University of Singapore. She worked as a Post-doctoral Fellow funded by the Macau Talent Program in the University of Macau from 2018 to 2020. Her research interests include Cultural History, Chinese Diaspora, Theatre and Performances, Cold War Culture.