| The developments of New Age theatres and the relevant theories play a vital role in Chinese theatre history. On one hand, it takes over the great career of enlightenment; on the other hand, it establishes the system of modern play.Active artistic practice and theoretical evaluation make a fundamental change in the nature of New Age theatres. Theatre that has been long defamed as a political instrument and an attachment of the vulgar social functionalism is taken as the artistic creation of the subject.The track of the theater theories in New Age is fairly clear. Passion and ideals were the keywords of the theories in early stage. The intellectual spirits created their theatrical discourses with crazy concern to the nationals. Their enlightening discourses played a dominant role in the theatrical creation of that age though the mainstream ideology and the authoritative discourses very often stood in their way of writing.In 1990's the new social environment, political policies and financial oppression all frustrated the academic pursuit of the intellectuals, and it goes further with the furthering of the influence of western postmodernism.Thus, cynical reason became prevalent while the enlightening discourse lost its dominant place. Political authority and commercial market cooled down the passion of the intellectuals. Meanwhile, the mainstream theatre theories and criticism began to take a larger percentage of the room in public media. The prosperity of popular and commercial theatre must result in the rise of relevant theories.Since 1995, particularly the new century, never has been the quest for personal identity so intense, with the rise of nationalism resulting from the widening influence of China in the world.The developments of theatre theories and criticism mentioned above derive from very profound social and cultural background. The wide heated discussion on the nature of theatre in the starting period of New Age is the product of cultural development. What follows is that more free creation is imputed into theatre and needless to say, the latter is not the political instrument or attachment any more. However, the arguments about the histories still stood hopeless in a quagmire in 1980's. In 1990's, the old mode of research was given up and a bantering attitude was accepted in decoding those heavy history issues. Some problems are laid aside and a reasonable academic exploration became possible.The public carnival since 1990's closely relates to the guidance of mainstream media, the decoding of the intellectual spirits'discourses, the advancement of the nation and the prosperity of marketsDiachronically, this paper discusses the origin, contents and influence of the arguments on the nature of theatre; the establishment of china's modern play system; a retrospection and reflection on the discussion about histories; the discussion on the fate of theatre; the rise of theories on popular theatre; and the exploration of nationalism to seek for national identity. The author attempts to make a depiction about the facts and what's more serious, to find out the hidden cultural and social reasons. |
