Representing Hamlet In Contemporary China A Study On Chinese Reception Of The Character Of Hamlet Since The1950s

The school of aesthetics of reception was born at the end of the1960s. The present thesis adopts this theory to review Chinese reception of the character of Hamlet through three dimensions:textual criticism, theatrical adaptation and cinematic re-creation. It claims that Chinese representation of the character of Hamlet through these forms showcases the political, aesthetical, cultural and commercial transformations of Shakespeare’s character of Hamlet, and the reconstruction of Chinese Hamlets reflects the recipients’ concern for Chinese local ideology, cultural tradition and social reality.The main body of this thesis is divided into five parts. The "Introduction" gives a brief review of the existing literature on the re-criticism of the criticism and adaptations of the character of Hamlet in China.Chapter One examines the textual interpretations of Hamlet by Chinese literary critics. Before1980s, the traditional Marxist critics regarded Hamlet as a stereotype of humanist hero, ignoring his taedium vitae, pessimism towards politics, and religious inclination. Critics after1980s tried to take off Hamlet’s heroic mask by analyzing his spiritual predicament. Such transformation from ideological to critical interpretation of the character of Hamlet substantiates that the readers’ horizon of expectations bred in different historical and social contexts leads to the variety of interpretations.Chapter Two addresses Hamlet reception in China through a detailed analysis of certain stage adaptations of this character, and uncovers the directors’ contemporary awareness and the cultural hybridity in the adaptations. Theatrical adaptation of Hamlet, as a form of interpretation, reflects the adapters’interpretation of the protagonist. In the1990s, identifying with the contemporary critics’view that Hamlet does not represent the humanist hero, Lin Zhaohua adopted such tactics as role-changing to deconstruct Hamlet’s humanist and heroic disposition and reconstruct him as a common man in the modern society. Xiqu adaptations of Hamlet reflect an aesthetic transformation of the original character of Hamlet by presenting to the audience a localized Hamlet. However, how to integrate Chinese xiqu form with Hamlet’s philosophical, rational and religious inclination and how to fuse different cultures in xiqu adaptations are the issues that xiqu participants should consider.Chapter Three analyzes the Chinese Hamlets in The Banquet and Prince of Himalayas and claims that directors’cinematic representation of the character of Hamlet is a process of re-creation. Feng Xiaogang presents Wu Luan as an escapist musician whose lack of masculine traits impedes his mission of revenge. Sherwood Hu creates a Tibetan Prince who chooses to forgive rather than to revenge so as to evoke the audiences to forgive one another in the modern society. Both films reflect the directors’creative ideas and their local awareness. However, they also expose certain shortcomings, for example, the absence of presenting the character’s psychological progression leads to the flatness of the character; Wu Luan’s feminine disposition in The Banquet and the image of nakedness in Prince of Himalayas destroy the aesthetical value of the original protagonist in Shakespeare’s text, though they can secure huge commercial profit by catering to the audience’s voyeuristic desire. Therefore, the cultural identification of Hamlet remains a task for the adapters to handle.The "Conclusion" sums up the set of thought for working on the evolution of Hamlet reception in China, i.e. a re-criticism of the textual criticism, theatrical adaptation and cinematic re-creation of Hamlet. The final part also points out the limitations of this thesis and possible further research topics. Overall, the discussion in this thesis reveals that the many-faceted criticism and adaptations of Hamlet promote Chinese audience’s reception of western classics. Any form of criticism and adaptation functions as a dialogue between the contemporary recipients and the source text. In contemporary Chinese context, Shakespearean critics and adapters should pay more attention to such cultural dialogism. Only in this way can the classic plays exert more significant influence on contemporary Chinese cultural construction.