Kunqu, a 600 years old genre of Chinese opera that almost perished 30 or so years ago, is now enjoying a renaissance. Chinese now embrace the genre as divine music and marketable heritage. They find kunqu stories exhilarating, and their performance--acting, dancing, and singing--mesmerizing. They also find kunqu a marketable commodity, one that they can mount on world stages, winning fans/friends and generating tangible and non-intangible profits. This lecture will analyze a popular and representative kunqu scene to demonstrate how the genre appeals with divine expressions and serves China's social-political agendas.
Joseph S.C. Lamis Professor of Musicology at the University of Michigan and Visiting Professor in GLS Studies at Duke Kunshan University. A musicologist and sinologist, Lam specializes in the music and cultures of Southern Song, Ming, and modern China. His recent publications include Songdai yinyueshi lunwenji: lilun yu miaoshu/Historical Studies on Song Dynasty Music: Theories and Narratives; “'Escorting Lady Jing Home': A Journey of Chinese Gender, Opera, and Politics;" "Ci Songs from the Song Dynasty: A Ménage à Trois of Lyrics, Music, and Performance;" and"Eavesdropping on Zhang Xiaoxing's Musical World in Early Southern Song China.” Currently, he is preparing for publication a monograph entitled Kunqu, the Classical Opera of Globalized China.
