Asian Theatre as Method: The Toki Experimental Project and Sino-Japanese Transnationalism in Performance

Ferrari, Rossella

Abstract

In 2012, Zuni Icosahedron (Hong Kong), Za-Koenji (Tokyo), and the Jiangsu Kun Opera Theatre (Nanjing) initiated the Toki Experimental Project, an intercultural platform devoted to the transmission of kunqu and noh through contemporary performance. Originating from a Shanghai Expo 2010 commission, Toki presents strategic interpenetration of national discourse and “minor” transnational dynamics. Most significantly, it provides a theatrical application of Chen Kuan-hsing’s influential notion of “Asia as method”. As epitomized by the yearly One Table, Two Chairs performances at Nanjing’s Toki International Arts Festival, Toki partakes in Asia as method’s effort toward “decolonization, deimperialization, and de-cold war” through aesthetic and epistemological deconstruction, endorsing a dialogic model of intercultural performance as inter-Asian relation.

Citation

Ferrari, R. (in press). Asian Theatre as Method: The Toki Experimental Project and Sino-Japanese Transnationalism in Performance. TDR (1988), 61(3), 141-164. https://doi.org/10.1162/DRAM_a_00678

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 31, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Aug 25, 2017
• Deposit Date: Sep 29, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 29, 2016
• Print ISSN: 1054-2043
• Electronic ISSN: 1531-4715
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 141-164
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/DRAM_a_00678
• Keywords: Chinese-language theatres, Sinophone theatre, Japanese theatre, intercultural theatre, Zuni Icosahedron, Danny Yung, Sato Makoto, kunqu, Kun Opera, Noh Theatre
• Publisher URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/dram
• Related Public URLs: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/dram
• Additional Information: Additional Information : Accepted version of forthcoming article to be published by MIT press.