EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

East-West Contacts & Perceptions 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 150 curating, collecting, representing, and translating contemporary Chinese art and culture within a wider inter- national context and analysing curatorial research strategies using past exhibitions and current projects from the CFCCA and to analyse the organisation's relationships with artists, curators and audience engagement including artist residencies, educational programmes and public events surrounding the CFCCA’s exhibitions. Mylnikova Yulia (Saint Petersburg State University) Adapted, Updated or Sinicized? Russian Classical Literature on the Chinese Stage Key words: theatre, huaju, Russian plays in China, the Stanislavsky’s system, perception and inter- pretation “Asian theatre” in Western scholarship usually refers to the traditional theaters of Asia. Yet for over a century, also China has had a vigorous, modern drama and theatre developed by internal and external cultural forces. China’s modern theatre, known as huaju (spoken drama), started in the first decade of the 20th century. Ideological and formal experiments in dramaturgy in the 1920s and agitational drama of the 1930s were then transformed on a fundamental level following the change of government in 1949. The rebirth of modern drama took place well after the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution. From the '80s on, the Chinese performing arts sector became more diverse: experimental theater, pro-government mainstream production, avant-garde performances and urban theatre. Most of the state-owned theatres in the PRC implement the Stanislavsky’s system which was praised to be “the top of socialist realism” in the USSR and has flourished also in China since the ’50s. At the beginning of the ’60s, 5 among 8 volumes of the complete works of Stanislavsky, called “the creator of realistic theatre”, were translated into Chinese. Acloser view to the contemporary huaju reveals that the Stanislavsky’s method was perceived in China only partly. This paper will give a brief overview of several fundamental problems of perception and interpreta- tions that contemporary Chinese theatre confronts, focusing on the production of Russian plays (Chekhov’s predominantly). The first problem is the lack of tradition or habit to examine the “material” (epoch described in the particular play, way of life, attitude to religion, cultural characteristics etc.). As a result, the second problem is the challenge of translation. The third problem is the dominance of “international stereotypes”: Chinese know how to play Russians, know how to play Americans; other nationalities more or less fit these two performing models. The forth problem is the absence of theatrical critique. Patil Vaishnavi (SOAS, University of London) China MeetsWest: Understanding Cross-Cultural Artistic Interactions through the Battle-Scenes of the Qianlong Emperor Key words: battle-prints, East-West collaboration, Qianlong emperor, artistic interaction, East Turke- stan campaign This paper aims to understand the artistic interactions between China and France during the Qianlong reign. Even though the Chinese were not the first ones to readily accept western techniques of art, they were accommodating of it, and the Jesuits and Chinese court artists devised certain techniques unique to the period. With that said, the set of prints discussed here is exceptional in its own way. It was the first set of battle- paintings completed to commemorate the East Turkestan campaign during the Qianlong period, the first and only to have been sent to France to produce copperplates and prints, and the only one to have direct influences of western artists in its content without the interference of the Chinese. And they were produced for a special commission by the Qianlong emperor himself. All these factors make them interesting and very important to a person trying to find crosscultural links during the 18th century. They are evidence to the east-west collaboration, of how China interacted with European countries and vice versa. It is necessary to find if one could visually select and distinguish the different elements working in harmony and how it affects its production, reception and position in history. The proposed paper intends to explore this very aspect of the battle scenes of the East Turkestan Cam- paign, and discuss the various questions it raises, regarding the artistic interaction between the East and West in the 18th century.