Research Proposal on Opera: A National Heritage Unchanging Through the Years

Introduction

Opera is one of the artistic areas that have remained unchanged over the years remaining true to their initial traits. New opera performances have been created but they is still maintain a strong similarity to the traditional opera performances. Seeing that it is one of the fields in the art that have not changed a lot, opera has been synchronized with nationality to the extent of having a shared perception where opera is viewed as national heritage. As a national heritage, it generates improvement for the country’s image abroad with the roots emanating from the complex intertwined link between opera and nationalism. However, the world has become a village of sorts since everything is connected through fast means of communication and travel and this has seeded foreign opera seeds to different regions of the world (Boerner & Renz, 2017).

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China is one of the world leaders in the establishment of grand opera theatres, which has seen foreign operas being accommodated in these theatres (Smith, 2014). The performances are usually performed hand in hand alongside the rich traditional Chinese opera. The National Centre for Performing Arts (NPCA) in Beijing is one such example (Dongbei academy of economic & social development, 2014). The casting of western classicals in Chinese theatres raises a series of questions concerning the issue to opera signifying nationalism. There is the oblivious risk of China losing its sense of nationalism by having immense attractive power through opera only their theatres are not casting traditional Chinese opera which would be promoting their nationalism (Throsby, 2015). Casting western classicals means they promote western nationalism at the expense of their own. The effect of different cultures on the Chinese culture will then be partially attributed to cultural and economic consequences of the globalization of opera, leading to a crisis of value on Chinese opera (Throsby, 2015).

Research Questions

• Does casting western classicals by Chinese opera cause deprivation of nationality for the Chinese?
• Does Chinese opera find international legitimacy even after casting western classicals?
• Which artistic strategies fall under international practices that would give Chinese opera legitimacy?

Research Objectives and Statement of Problems

Chinese opera has adopted casting western classicals despite opera rising as a cohort of nationalism. As a result, casting western art could result in the illegitimacy of Chinese opera with the international community assuming china lacks its opera since it presents western art. The objectives of this research are;

• To identify artistic and production practices that could be regarded as international practices giving China the originality card.
• To identify the effects of western classical on Chinese opera culture and economy
• To determine whether western classicals cast in Chinese theatres can be differentiated from traditional Chinese opera.

Literature Review

Western opera in china has a history that can be denoted in modern and contemporary political, social, cultural, and economic changes in China, having contributed to the evolution of traditional opera in China. Companies that introduced European opera in china arrived in the middle years of the seventh decade of the 19th century initially docking on the shores of shanghai (Melvin, 2014). However, despite their early arrival, western opera has only become widely embraced in recent years a thing that was triggered by the influence of pursuit to liberate the market via economic reforms that were introduced by Deng Xiaoping in the last two years of the seventh decade of the 20th century (Boerner & Renz, 2017). This influence was also backed by an insurgence of urbanization in the 1990s and even a rapidly growing upper middle class that was developing a keen taste for foreign culture at the beginning of the second millennia (Chen, 2007: Yeh et al, 2015).

Beijing has seen an architectural boom with regard to the establishment of opera theatres. The year 2013 say to the building of four major opera houses and two more sizable ones in 2015 and 2016 (Newhouse, 2017). With the introduction of western opera and establishment of these theatres, there is an impression that Chinese theatres are expressing their intention and capabilities to cast and spread imported cultures that are considered to be prestigious (Agid, & Tarondeau, 2016). Other than the high holding status in contemporary Chinese society, this imported tradition can is portrayed to be superior and more unique than China’s customs. The superiority is illustrated by expressing the western classicals as more scientific, heroic, and accommodating since it is brought out as international (Melvin & Cai, 2014). The political and cultural influence can be denoted by the introduction of new tendencies such as government policies indicating a detachment from such proclivity. The 12th Chinese government produced a five-year plan between the years 2011 and 2015 which was geared to push for dynamic changes in the cultural policy domain to strategically maximize cultural development to become an actively contributing sector to the nation’s Gross domestic product (Haili, 2016). The government, however, was to promote traditional Chinese opera. Such changes indicate how far the Chinese government is willing to promote classical Chinese opera as an antiserum for western cultural influence in China (Sun, 2016).

The director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing, Stefania Stafutti also noted that the Chinese government had taken notice of western culture having massive influence within its population. Stafutti also noted that the political devotion of the Chinese government was entirely focused on enhancing traditional Chinese heritage (Haili, 2016). This was assumed to be an effort to salvage the precious traditional heritage that had been derelict for decades and to promote it since the world did not know of it yet, at least not fully. Other cultures have been praised and embraced in China that the traditional Chinese culture itself yet the reason for this is vague (Greffe, 2018).Significance of the Study

The world is diverse only because of the origins of its different peoples, and therefore, there is a need to preserve every culture on the planet. This study will help to demarcate the boundaries between Chinese opera, western opera, and international practices in the art that cannot be owned by one specific culture. It will help set apart Chinese opera and preserve it in its traditional form. The study can also be used to understand the dynamics of interaction between Chinese opera and western opera and understand how each affects the other politically, economically, and socially.

Research Methodology

The research methodology will be qualitative and will use a variety of methods to obtain data. It will use secondary sources of data using library research and online databases, including but not limited to, Google Scholar, Jstor, Social science research network, and arXiv. There will be surveys to determine why people with high social status take preference to western cultures over traditional Chinese culture. Structured interviews will also be issued to opera audiences to know which type of opera they prefer and if they can tell the difference between the two featured in the study.

References

Agid, P.; Tarondeau, J. (2016) The Management of Opera: An International Comparative Study. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Boerner, S.; Renz, S. (2017) Performance Measurement in Opera Companies: Comparing the Subjective Quality Judgments of Experts and Non-experts. International Journal of Arts Management, 10 (3), 21-37.

Chen, L. (2007) Brand culture and consumption: Chinese consumers and foreign brands. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Universite d’Aix-Marseille III. Available at: http://www.cerdi.org/uploads/sfCmsContent/html/253/LI_Chen.pdf

Dongbei academy of economic & social development (2014) 国家大剧院管理体制研究国家大剧院管理体制研究 (Research on NCPA Management system).

Greffe, X. (2018) European Cultural Systems in Turmoil. In Anheier, H.; Raj Isar, Y. (eds.). The Cultures and Globalization Series 2: The cultural economy (pp. 163-172). London: Sage Publications.

Haili, M. (2016) Urban Politics and Cultural Capital: The Case of Chinese Opera. New York: Routledge.

Melvin, S. (2014) Boom times for opera in china. New York Times. 10 December. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/arts/21iht-chinopera21.html

Melvin, S. (2014), How Western Opera Came to China. Artsjournal, 17 June. Available at: http://www.artsjournal.com/china/2014/06/how-western-opera-came-tochina/

Melvin, S.; Cai, J. (2004) Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese. New York: Algora Publishing.

Newhouse, V. (2017) Site and Sound: The Architecture and Acoustics of New Opera Houses and Concert Halls. NewYork: The Monacelli Press.

Smith, K. (2014) Norma, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing – review. The Financial Times. Available at: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/de-2f382e-3d90-11e4-b782-00144feabdc0.html

Sun, H. (2016) Performing Arts and Cultural Identity in the Era of Interculturalism. The Drama Review, 53 (2), 8.

Throsby, D. (2015) Globalization and the cultural economy: a crisis of value? In Anheier H.; Raj Isar Y. (eds). The Cultures and Globalization Series 2: The cultural economy (pp. 29-42). London: SAGE Publications.

Throsby, D. (2015) The economics of Cultural Policy. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.

Yeh, A.; Xu, J.; Liu, K. (2015) China's post-reform urbanization: retrospect, policies and trends. London: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).