Lin, Da
(2017)
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF KUN OPERA IN CHINA (1940S-2015).
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
My dissertation is a political economic history of contemporary Kun opera (Kunju), a 600-year-old operatic genre that originated in Kunshan, China. Based on a range of broader narratives about political and economic change, ideological values, and nation-building in the People’s Republic of China, I argue that the production, circulation, and consumption of Kun opera must be analyzed in relation to the history of different political and economic structures. I show how Kun opera articulates with different forms of capital within the history of contemporary China (1940s to 2015): as political capital that only submits to a centralized power, as cultural capital that expresses a sense of symbolic distinction, and as economic capital that enables commodification and exchange. My research shows how Kun opera as a cultural activity reflects political and economic patterns in a society, and how the competition for political and economic interests conditions the dominant meanings and values of the genre.
I utilize Pierre Bourdieu’s “capital theory” to analyze the production and consumption of Kun opera in terms of economic, political, and cultural capital. I situate the production of Kun opera and the circulation of its meanings within three main political and economic conditions in contemporary China: (1) the establishment of state-ownership of troupes under maximal political administration (the late1940s-1982), (2) the financial crisis in the state subsidy system after the “Opening-up” period of political economic reforms (1983-2002), and (3) state-owned troupe’s delegated power of working with private investment in China’s growing cultural industry in the 21st century (2003-2015). Further, I explore various forms of labor that create different forms of capital, including performers’ artistic labor of producing operas, audiences’ labor of appreciating a performance, cultural entrepreneurs’ labor of trading Kun opera products, government officials’ labor of promoting (or censoring) the genre, and scholars’ labor of criticizing or consecrating certain plays. I show how these forms of labor have engaged with the production of meanings and values of contemporary Kun opera.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
| Title | Member | Email Address | Pitt Username | ORCID |
|---|
| Committee Chair | Yung, Bell | | byun@pitt.edu | | | Committee CoChair | Weintraub, Andrew | | anwein@pitt.edu | | | Committee Member | Helbig, Adriana | adahelbig@gmail.com | anh59@pitt.edu | | | Committee Member | Lee, Tong Soon | tongsoon@gmail.com | | |
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| Date: |
27 September 2017 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
22 May 2017 |
| Approval Date: |
27 September 2017 |
| Submission Date: |
11 August 2017 |
| Access Restriction: |
5 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 5 years. |
| Number of Pages: |
405 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Music |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Kun opera; Chinese theater art; cultural industry; political economy; cultural system reform |
| Date Deposited: |
27 Sep 2017 23:32 |
| Last Modified: |
27 Sep 2022 05:15 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/33077 |
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