A Report on the Sixth International Nanxi (Southern Drama) Conference

A REPORT ON THE SIXTH INTERNATIONAL NANXI (SOUTHERN DRAMA) CONFERENCE JOSH STENBERG Nanjing University In 1987, the Association for Nanxi (Southern Drama) Research (Nanxi xuehui 南戲學會, hereafter the ANR) was established. Eminent drama scholars of that generation were involved, with Wang Jisi 王季思 (1906–1996), Xu Shuofang 徐朔方 (1923–2007) and Xu Shunping 徐順平 (1936–) occupying leading positions. The association held three international conferences and published Nanxi tantao ji 南戲探討集 (Collected investigations into nanxi; 1989) and Nanxi guoji xueshu yantao hui lunwen ji 南戲國際學術研討會論文集 (Papers from the international conference on nanxi; 2001). After that generation of researchers reached an advanced age, there was a considerable gap in activity before the reestablishment of the ANR in the new millennium. Three conferences have been held since then: the fourth (2009; Nanjing University), fifth (2011; Wenzhou University), and sixth (2014; Wenzhou University). This report concerns the sixth conference, held from October 11–12, 2014. The conference attracted over one hundred researchers, mostly from Mainland China and Taiwan, but also including researchers from Macau, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The Wenzhou municipal government and Wenzhou University have made nanxi a major focus for research support, reflected in their recruitment of specialists and their establishment of a Wenzhou University Nanxi Research Institute (Wenzhou daxue nanxi yanjiu suo 溫州大學南戲研究所) with related exhibits and holdings. Among the achievements of the institute is the Nanxi dadian 南戲大典 (Grand compendium of nanxi; 2011–), an unprecedented compilation of historical sources (ziliao 資料) and play scripts ( juben 劇本). The two volumes of Qing dynasty sources were presented to conference attendees. At the opening ceremony, a municipal leader even urged the scholars attending the conference to work for the recognition of the performance of nanxi as an “intangible cultural heritage” ( feiwuzhi wenhua yichan 非物質文化遺產), a surprising appeal given that nanxi, although influential as a precursor of several theatrical genres, especially Quanzhou’s Liyuan xi 梨園戲 and Putian/Xianyou’s Puxian xi 莆仙戲, has not itself been a living tradition for centuries. A similar attempt to connect nanxi and its play texts with the contemporary stage (and a prestigious theatrical genre) also produced a Kunju 崑劇 production of one of the three earliest nanxi texts, Zhang Xie zhuangyuan 張協狀元 (Top scholar Zhang Xie), in 2000 by the Yongjia Kunju Troupe (Yongjia Kunju tuan 永嘉崑劇團) of Wenzhou. It and two other nanxi play texts are all that survives of the nanxi play texts copied into the Yongle dadian 永樂大典 (Grand compendium of the Yongle reign) in the first decade of the fifteenth century. Kunju versions of the # The Permanent Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. 2015 DOI: 10.1179/0193777415Z.00000000028 CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 34.1 (July 2015): 41–45 other two were staged by other Kunju troupes in 2003 and 2006. Since none of these three plays were part of the Kunju repertoire, these productions might provide an interesting avenue for discussing the intersections between cultural policy, academics, and theater production in China. Ye Changhai 葉長海, of Shanghai xiju xueyuan 上海戲劇學院 (Shanghai Theater Academy), speaking at the opening of the conference, suggested that one could identify three sites and focal points for nanxi research: Nanjing University for textual history, Zhejiang Province for cultural history, and Fujian Province for performance history. These prefatory remarks served to set the stage for three of the most prominent older researchers, who addressed the entire assembly: Tseng Yong-Yih 曾永義, newly minted as an academician (yuanshi 院士) of Academia Sinica in Taiwan, proposed that texts from unofficial histories pointed to the development of Yongjia (i.e., Wenzhou) nanxi as early as the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127); Wu Xinlei 吳新雷 (Nanjing University) discussed the travels in Wuxi and Kunshan of the Yuan playwright, Gao Ming 高明, author of the Pipa ji 琵琶記 (The lute); and Xu Shunping sought to establish firmer boundaries for nanxi terminology. The group then split into four groups of roughly twenty presentations each, the results of which were summed up the next morning by a representative from each group. Since most essays were also included in the conference proceedings or otherwise made available in hard copy, it is possible to trace tendencies in the research presented despite the simultaneous sessions. FIG. 1. From left to right: Si Tou Sau-ieng司徒秀英 (Lingnan University), conference organiser Yu Weimin...

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