| This dissertation examines how China was depicted and staged in a selection of London theatrical productions from the Restoration up to the early twentieth century. I argue that all these works demonstrate how English theatre negotiated between contemporary theatre practice (especially the genre needs) and ethnographic information on China (informed by the Anglo-Chinese contacts), thus developing various mindsets of historical consciousness, to conceive and present works that not only demarcated China as different, but also reflected England's own theatre culture and popular taste. In the late seventeenth century, playwrights based their depictions of China on historical accounts and invented individual events and customs. When the China trade began to make a huge impact on English decorative arts and architecture in the eighteenth century, the representation of China developed a focus on exhibiting its material goods. The materialistic approach to staging China became even more dominant in the nineteenth century. In the early twentieth century, in conjunction with the development of historicism and ethnography, the London stage saw productions that, in addition to utilizing the above approaches, depicted Chinese conventions, either within performance traditions or in the conduct of daily life. |
