Whether from states, promoters, or observers, there is a great deal of enthusiasm about the circulation of Chinese culture abroad, not least in contemporary cultural diplomacy projects. High-flown abstractions do not always translate to attention toward either the cultural product that is travelling (e.g. a dramatic text or narrative, or a performance troupe or practice) or to the society where it arrives. This presentation considers a variety of transnational circulations, including 19th century theatre translation in France, a 1960 performance tour of Jingju (Beijing opera) to Canada, and a contemporary Chinese-origin puppetry practice in Indonesia to reconsider what these circulations actually mean, and what determines how Chinese culture is received on arrival in various socio-historical contexts.

Josh Stenberg is a Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Sydney. He worked as foreign liaison for the Jiangsu Kunqu Company from 2001 to 2004 and studied and taught in Nanjing again from 2011 to 2015. He is the author of Minority Stages: Sino-Indonesian Performance and Public Display (University of Hawai’i, 2019) and the translator or editor of several volumes of Chinese fiction in translation. 

Introduction by Celina Hung, Assistant Professor of Literature, Interim Director of the Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai.

Recommended Reading:

How far does the sound of a Pipa carry? Broadway adaptation of a Chinese classical drama

Wayang potehi: Glove puppets in the expression of Sino-lndonesian identity