Music in American Life: Chinatown Opera Theater in North America (ePub)

The Chinatown opera house provided Chinese immigrants with an essential source of entertainment during the pre "World War II era. But its stories of loyalty, obligation, passion, and duty also attracted diverse patrons into Chinese American communities Drawing on a wealth of new Chinese- and English-language research, Nancy Yunhwa Rao tells the story of iconic theater companies and the networks and migrations that made Chinese opera a part of North American cultures. Rao unmasks a backstage world of performers, performance, and repertoire and sets readers in the spellbound audiences beyond the footlights. But she also braids a captivating and complex history from elements outside the opera house walls: the impact of government immigration policy; how a theater influenced a Chinatown's sense of cultural self; the dissemination of Chinese opera music via recording and print materials; and the role of Chinese American business in sustaining theatrical institutions. The result is a work that strips the veneer of exoticism from Chinese opera, placing it firmly within the bounds of American music and a profoundly American experience.|
Cover
Title
Contents
Acknowledgments
A Note on Chinese Names and Terms
Introduction
Part I. Transnational History and Immigration
1. Shaping Forces, Networks, and Local Influences
2. The Chinese Exclusion Act and Chinatown Theaters
3. Immigration: Privilege or Right?
Part II. Performance Practice of the 1920s
4. Aesthetics, Repertoire, Roles, and Playbills
5. An Examination of the Aria Song "Shilin Jita"
Part III. British Columbia and the Return of Opera to San Francisco
6. Powder and Rouge: Theaters in British Columbia
7. From Lun On and Lun Hop to the Great China Theater, 1922–1925
8. The Affluent Years: The Great China Theater, 1926–1928
Part IV. San Francisco's New Theater and Rivalry
9. A Successful, Majestic Stage: The Mandarin Theater, 1924–1926
10. A Theater of Actresses: The Mandarin Theater, 1927–1928
Part V. In New York and the Transnational Arena
11. Two Theaters and a Merger in New York
12. From Honolulu to Havana
Epilogue
Appendix. List of Chinese Names and Terms
Notes
Bibliography
Index|Nancy Yunhwa Rao is an associate professor of music at Rutgers University.