Theatre From Opression

The vast amount of theatre and opera in China and the specificity of the regions each originated in, reminded me of studying dance in my Spanish classes.  To an outsider, it is so easy to cluster and clump these different forms of art all together as homogenous.  Doing so gives no credit to the rich history the respective preforming arts have, let alone, what they actually consist of.  Both Latin America and China have endured and continue to live in environments where oppression is a day-to-day encounter.  Dances like the Tango and, in respect to China, the Cantonese Opera both were born out of the repressive contexts that possessed their countries at the time.

This emblazons a cliché surrounding the preforming arts: that they are an outlet, a release for emotions.  While this a predictable, stereotypical answer to the question “why do you preform?” history proves it true.  Living in America, its hard to imagine living under a government where freedoms like speech, protest, access to media and books et cetera do not exist.  In such a society, theatre presents an outlet for not only the lack of freedoms but the frustration and hardships that come with it.  In China, theatres like Cantonese opera, Cuotaiji opera, Yuan Theatre all developed from adversity and oppression.  Traditional theatre in the Mao era was suppressed, thus another release developed to channel emotions of the public: Cantonese opera.  Cuotaiji opera is representative of sacrifice, cultivation and good wishes- values and preeminent trends of the society.  During the Mongol Invasion in the North, Yuan theatre was born out of the newfound stress confusion and subjugation.

Though it is a very familiar answer behind the motivation of theatre, history does show theatre is an outlet- especially in difficult times.  Whether it is used to express the hardships, bring joy or add dimension, theatre gives a public a means of unity.  Because of that, it seems theater will forever be inherent within societies.