Association for Asian Performance Conference, 2018
July 31 – August 1, 2018 Boston, MA
Join us for the 18th annual conference of The Association for Asian Performance. The AAP conference is a two-day event in Boston, MA, July 31 – August 1, preceding the annual Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) conference.
The AAP Conference offers selective and adjudicated panels of papers, showcasing research on theatrical performance in, about, and relevant to Asia. The conference also features performance and training workshops, professional interest meetings, and discussions of member publications.
Tuesday July 31, 2018
11:45am Registration
12:00pm Welcome!
Jennifer Goodlander, AAP President
Location: Webster
12:15-1:30pm Concurrent Session #1
Panel 1A. Organized Panel: Performance, Community, Identity in/from India
Organizer: DavidMason(Rhodes College) | Location: Webster
"Durga Puja and the South Asian Diaspora Community in Southern California"
Arnab Banerji (Loyola Marymount University)
"Stirring: A Performance Collaboration in Goa, India"
Radhica Ganapathy (West Virginia University)
"Religion as the Performance of Communal Identity"
David Mason (Rhodes College)
"Namaste India: Inside the Indian Dance Festival in Tokyo"
Kristen Rudisill (Bowling Green State University)
Panel 1B. Treading the Boards: Actors & Acting in Modern Chinese Theatre
Chair: Xiaomei Chen (University of California, Davis) | Location: Stone
"Sounding Huaju: Techniques, Training, and Discourses of ‘Speaking’ in Modern Chinese Theatre, 1937-1945. "
Man He (Williams College)
"From ‘Lachrymose’ to Persevering Wife: Overacting Reconsidered and Staging Salesmanin Beijing "
Hanging Jiang (University of British Columbia)
"The Problems with China’s State-Owned Traditional Theatre Companies in the 1950s"
Siyuan Liu (University of British Columbia)
1:45-3:00pm Concurrent Session #2
Panel 2A. Asian Theatre in the Americas
Chair: David Jortner (Baylor University) | Location: Webster
"Modern Mulans Dressed as Lions: Women Performing Masculinity in Boston’s Chinatown During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)"
Casey Avaunt (Colgate University)
"Revisiting Ramayana and after: the creation of the text of Le rêve d’Urmila(Urmila’s dream)"
Sylvi Belleau (Université Laval)
"Art, Gentrification, and Placemaking: A Case Study of the Pao Arts Center in Boston's Chinatown"
Yizhou Huang (Tufts University)
2B. Audience, Immersion & Engagement Across Asia
Chair: Kristen Rudisill (Bowling Green State University) | Location: Stone
"Immersive Theater in China: Intimacy and Intersectionality"
Ensue Zhang (University of Massachusetts)
"Performing the Spectator: Digital Participation in Chinese Idol Producing Show"
Pay Wang (University of California, San Diego)
"Conscience on Stage: Revising Jatra as a Tool for Representation, Restoration, and Revolution"
Jashodhara Sen (University of Colorado, Boulder)
3:15-4:30pm Concurrent Session #3
3A. Organized Panel: Case studies of Female Performers in East Asia: From the Repertoire to the Archive
Organizer and Chair: Megan Ammirati (University of California, Davis) | Location: Webster
"Anecdotes and Ephemera: Methodologies for Studying Female Performers"
Megan Ammirati (University of California, Davis)
"Razing the Canon: Women's Collective Agency from Butoh to JPop"
Katherine Mezur (University of California, Berkeley)
"Freudian Shifts: Gender Fluidity on the Contemporary Hong Kong Stage"
Ellen Gerdes (University of California, Los Angeles)
"From Trinidad to Beijing: Dai Ailian and the Making of Chinese Dance"
Emily Wilcox (University of Michigan)
3B. Collage Panel
Chair: Jennifer Goodlander (Indiana University) | Location: Stone
"Performing Divergence: The Theatrical Schema of Tainaner Ensemble’s Belle Reprieve"
Fan-ting Cheng (NTU)
"KĀLBELIYĀS: DANCERS, GYPSIES OR SNAKE CHARMERS: The Staging of Authenticity and Dynamics of Identity"
Ayla Joncheere (Ghent University)
"Revisiting Chitra in China: Lin Huiyin's Translational Performances and Cultural Translations"
Annalise Finnegan Wasmoen (NYU School of Professional Studies)
4:30-6pm WORKSHOP: "Deconstructing Dōjōji"
Location: Webster
Organizer/Workshop Leader: Helen Moss (Fujima Nishiki-no; 藤間錦乃) (IchiFuji-kai Dance Association)
Dancer/Demonstrator:Dr. Dongshin Chang (Hunter College, City University of New York)
Dancer/Demonstrator:Yoshiko Furuse (IchiFuji-kai Dance Association)
7pm SCHMOOZEFEST Conference Dinner
Location: China Pearl Restaurant (9 Tyler Street Boston, MA, 02111)
617-426-4338
Wednesday August 1, 2018
8:00-9:00am AAP Board Meeting
Location: Webster
9:00-10:15am Concurrent Session #4
4A. Problematizing the Premodern: Literary & Historic Interventions in Chinese Drama & Dance
Chair: Faye ChunfangFei(East China Normal University) | Location: Webster
"Discordant Sounds: The Swallow Letterand its Significance in The Peach Blossom Fan"
Allison Bernard (Columbia University)
"Rainbow Dance, Inkling of Collapse or Symbol of Eternal Love: A reading of Rain on the Wutong Tree and The Palace of Eternal Youth"
Melody Yunzi Li (University of Houston)
"A Broken Inheritance: Chinese ‘Classical’ Dance in China"
Ziying Cui (Temple University)
4B. Local, National, International: Aesthetics & the Politics of Place in Chinese Performance
Chair: Man He (Williams College) | Location: Stone
"A Spectacular Trap: The Dangers of Interpreting the Chinese Aesthetics of Spectacle with Western Anti-Theatrical Biases"
Alissa Elegant (Temple University)
"Chasing Spirits: The Troubled Nationalist Politics of XiquAdaptation"
Anne Rebull (University of Michigan)
"Mapping Theater: Tracing Shanghai’s Identity Formation, 1851-1937"
Sophia Tingting Zhao (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)
10:30am-11:45am Concurrent Session #5
5A. Ghosts, Zombies & Traces of Trauma in East Asian Media & Performance
Chair: Siyuan Liu (University of British Columbia) | Location: Webster
"Recalling Collective Memory and Trauma through the Unreliable Narration of History in Humoring President Chiang Kai-Shek"
Yan Chen (ART/Harvard)
"A Ghost within Modernity: Kazuo Ohno’s Butoh Performance"
Weiyu Li (University of Washington)
"Soft and Sweet: The Ghostly Performances of Teresa Teng"
Andy Rodekohr (Wake Forest University)
"Disreputable Dead: The Nuclear Zombie in Okuyama Yūta’s Kareha ni yosete."
Justine Wiesinger (Yale University)
5B. Innovation, Preservation & Training
Chair: Xing Fan (University of Toronto) | Location: Stone
"Adaptation, Appropriation, Assimilation and Innovation: Emerging Outcomes of ‘World Performance’ Training and the Development of New Work"
Margaret Coldiron (University of Essex)
"Taiji quanas a Unique Source for Developing ‘Pre-expressivity’ in Modern Theater"
Ai-cheng Ho (University of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté)
"A Bare Board: Electrain Japanese style”
Deidre Onishi (Cameron University)
"Immaterial Remains: Radical Traditionality and the (Im)possibilities of Preserving China's Shadow Puppet Tradition"
Annie Katsura Rollins (Concordia University)
11:45am-1:15pm Lunch Break / Grad Student Brown Bag Lunch
Location: Lawn on D
1:15-2:30pm Concurrent Session #6
6A. Asian Choreographies: Gesture & Identity in Dance
Chair: Emily Wilcox (University of Michigan) | Location: Webster
"Figure Skating in Asia as an Asian Dance Form: Exploring a New Field"
John Weinstein (Bard College)
"Natural Body/National Body: Anna Pavlova in Japan"
Tara Rodman (University of California, Irvine)
"Ways of ‘Showing’ and ‘Being’ in Koodiyattam and Nangiarkoothu: On Gendered and Subaltern Bodies in an Indian Performance"
Rose Merin (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
6B. Traditions Across Time and Space
Chair: Tarryn Li-Min Chun (University of Notre Dame) | Location: Stone
"Reinventing Western Classics for Chinese Traditional Xiqu Theatre"
Faye Chunfang Fei (East China Normal University)
"‘Diegetic Narrativity’, the Essence of Iranian Theater and Drama"
Amin Azimi (Tehran Art University)
"How does Scenography Create a Language to Help Audiences Understand Cross-cultural Performance? ‘I’ Fantasie– Rencontre between Debussy and Du Liniang"
Chun Liu (Southeast University)
"Myth and Levi-Strauss: Theater Performance Classic of Mountain and Seaand Film The Monkey King: Kingdom of Women"
Iris H.Tuan (National Chiao Tung University)
2:45-4:00pm Concurrent Session #7
7A. Emerging Scholars Panel
Chair: Arnab Banerji (Loyola Marymount University) | Location: Webster
“Spaces of Citizenship in Contemporary Singaporean Theatre” Nathan Bullock (Duke University) “Performing Intercultural Trauma: State, Land, and Women in Troy, Troy…Taiwan” Sophia Yashih Liu (National Taiwan University)
7B. Organized Panel: Transformation, Negotiation, and Regeneration in Today’s Cambodian Performing Arts Traditions
Organizers: Stéphanie Khoury (Tufts University) and Celia Tuchman-Rosta (CUNY York College) | Location: Stone
“From Temple to UNESCO: Reflexivity and Negotiations in the Patrimonialization of Rural Ritual Theater”
Stéphanie Khoury (Tufts University)
“Disseminating Intangible Heritage: The Dance Workshops of Season of Cambodia”
Celia Tuchman-Rosta (CUNY York College)
“Sounding Re-Generation: Commemoration, Renewal, and Border-Crossings in Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia (2017)”
Emily Howe (Boston University)
Discussant: Toni Shapiro-Phim (Philadelphia Folklore Project)
AAP @ ATHE
Wednesday August 1, 2018
4:30-6:00pm ATJ Lecture: “Performing Socialist Revolutions on Contemporary Chinese Stages” by Xiaomei Chen (University of California, Davis)
Location: Webster
6:00-7:00pm AAP Membership Meeting
Location: Faneuil
Thursday August 2, 2018
12:30-2:00pm Performance, Shibai, Biǎoxiàn: The Ethics and Challenges of Translation
Session Coordinator: David Jortner (Baylor University)
“Translating a Playwright Who Hated Playwriting: Osanai Kaoru and Modern Audience”
David Jortner (Baylor University)
“Choreographing Dunhuang: The Staging of China’s Silk Road Theme Dance Dramas”
Lanlan Kuang (University of Central Florida)
“Translating Improvised Comedy in Balinese Wayang Listrik”
Kirstin Pauka (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
“Performable English Translations of Jingju”
Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
“Translation from Transcription: Multi-Lingual Improvised Topeng Shows and a 19th C Indian Text”
John Emigh (Brown University)
“Translating from Tamil”
Kristen Rudisill (Bowling Green State University)
2:15-3:45pm Jingju (Beijing opera) Reform and Revolution, from Script to Performance
Session Coordinator: Siyuan Liu (University of British Columbia)
“Solidifying the Path for Revolutionizing” Jingju?—The Mystifying Three Raids at the Zhu’s Village”
Xing Fan (University of Toronto)
“The Public Denunciation of the Jingju Actress Zhao Yanxia in the Early 1950s”
Siyuan Liu (University of British Columbia)
“Gui Zhong Yuan(Treasure in the Chest)—The Cleaned-Up Version of A “Yellow” Play”
Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
Friday August 3, 2018
9:45-11:15am Politics, Resistance and Ideology in Asian Theatre I: China
Session Coordinator: Kevin Wetmore (Loyola Marymount University)
“Body, Violence and Resistance: Revolutionary Ideology in The White-Haired Girl”
Huihui Huang (Indiana University)
“Mediocre Masculinity, Contaminated Chineseness: Performing Cultural Identities in Cantonese Opera in Contemporary Hong Kong”
Priscilla Tse (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
“Reading Ruan Dacheng Taohua shan’s Villain-Playwright”
Allison Bernard (Columbia University)
3:15-4:45pm Politics, Resistance and Ideology in Asian Theatre II: Japan and Korea
Session Coordinator: Kevin Wetmore (Loyola Marymount University)
“Choreographing the Self‐Determination Movement of the Stateless”
Hyo Jeong Hong (University of Minnesota)
“Corporeal Politics of Feminist Idealism in Twentieth Century Japanese Theatre and Butoh”
Katherine Mezur (Independent Scholar)
“Reconfiguring the 49th State Through Theatre: Americanism and American Drama as a New Identity Construction in the Occupation Era in Japan”
David Jortner (Baylor University)
“Resistance and Culpability in Kinoshita Junji’s Kami to hito to no aidaand Betsuyaku Minoru’s Match Uri no Shojo”
Kevin Wetmore (Loyola Marymount University)
Saturday August 4, 2018
1:30-3:00pm Re-imagining Revolution and Protest in Asian Performance
Session Coordinator: Shiao-ling Yu (Oregon State University)
“Internationalizing Color Wars: Brother Cane and the Performance of US‐Singapore Diplomacy”
Zihan Loo (New York University)
“Between Resistance and Consensus: The Mercurial Dramaturgy of The Necessary Stage and Drama Box’s Manifesto”
Melissa Wansin Wong (John Jay College of Criminal Justice)
“Politics and Theater in the PRC: Dramatizing the Chinese Communist Revolution on Stage”
Shiao-ling Yu (Oregon State University)
5:00-6:30pm Revolutionary Futurity in the Middle East and its Diaspora
Session Coordinators: Marjan Moosavi (University of Toronto) and Matt Jones (University of Toronto)
“The Shrine Pigeons’ Coos: Interventionist Theatre on Women’s Issues in Iran”
Marjan Moosavi (University of Toronto)
“A Woman Walks Through Occupied Kabul: The Geopolitics of Danger in Kubra Khademi’s Performative”
Matt Jones (University of Toronto)
“Pedagogy, Performance and the Iran‐Iraq War”
Ali Pour Issa (University of Washington)
“Challenges of Theatre of the Oppressed in Iraq and Canada”
Amir Al-Azraki (University of Waterloo)