Chinese government policy and international exchange in performing arts 1949-2005

Connell, XY 2007, Chinese government policy and international exchange in performing arts 1949-2005 , PhD thesis, University of Salford.

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Abstract

More than fifty years have past since the found of the People's Republic of China in 1949; after which Chinese society experienced many changes owing to the adjustments of government policies. The aim of this thesis is to determine how Chinese government policies have affected the international exchange of performing arts from 1949 to 2005. The assessment was conducted over three historical periods: the planned-economy (1949-76), the transitional period (1977-96), and the marketedeconomy period (1997-2005), in order to measure the impact of the changing governmental policies. Five performing entities that represent the major elements of the performing arts industry were selected as the case study subjects to investigate the transformations that have occurred to these organisations over the last fifty years. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies is applied, in which the secondary sources published and unpublished were examined, backed up by the primary information obtained through surveys and interviews. This thesis is divided into six chapters. The first explains the purpose of this study, illustrates the development of research question, reviews the current literature on the subjects and outlines the methodology used to complete the research. The second chapter shows that the fundamental cultural principles of the Chinese government remained the consistent over the research periods, but, the specific performing-artsrelated legislation have shown a gradual transforming process from a planned cultural administrative style to a market-oriented mode. The third chapter is the case study of the China Performing Arts Agency; chapter four studies the Hunan Opera and Ballet, and chapter five examines the performing venues of the Tianqiao Theatre, Beijing Concert Hall and Shanghai Grand Theatre. These case studies reveal that the operational models and structures within these organisations have progressively adapted to a market-oriented mode, though the changes appear in different level towards various performing organisations, under the commercialisation of foreignrelated performing arts industry led by the Chinese government. However, some unchanged features such as approval procedure and state-owned identity have existed in the Chinese performing arts system throughout all three historical periods. The sixth chapter concludes that the changed features within the international exchange of the performing arts industry was related to the government's intention to commercialise the cultural sphere and the unchanged features was due to persistence of a fundamental cultural principle held by the CCP. This thesis as a whole not only provides information on how the Chinese government cultural policies developed since 1949, but also uncovers how these polices affected the specific performing organisations during the transformation of the international exchange of performing arts from the government cultural exchange projects to a profit-driven industry.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Contributors:	Scott, DB (Supervisor)
Schools:	Schools > School of Arts & Media
Depositing User:	Institutional Repository
Date Deposited:	17 Aug 2021 07:17
Last Modified:	04 Aug 2022 11:22
URI:	https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/61581

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