Pingju (Ping Opera) and the Politics of Celebrity in 1930s Shanghai

Abstract

Abstracts: Between 1935 and 1937, pingju (ping opera), a folk-based theatrical form from northern China, enjoyed a sensational two-year run in Shanghai. It was welcomed by both the lower class, who enjoyed its focus on the daily lives of the average folks and less convention-bound performance routines, and the literati, who did not share their northern counterpart's class-based bias toward the form as lower-class entertainment. Using concepts from celebrity studies while challenging the field's Eurocentric tendencies, this essay analyzes the popular xiaobao (tabloid) media's role in making the star actress Bai Yushuang a celebrity. It then focuses on two areas of pingju 's evolution that sustained its popularity through two star actresses: Bai Yushuang's antifeudal plays with transgressive heroines created in cooperation with leftist intellectuals and Zhu Baoxia's adaptions of jingju (Beijing opera) plays that formally elevated pingju toward the supposedly more advanced genre.