What’s in a Name? The Nationalisation of Traditional Opera in Taiwan

Abstract

With its disputed international status and a recently proindependence government, Taiwan is striving to erase the memory of China as the motherland and construct a local homeland legacy. In the last fifteen years, the Taiwanese government has started a vigorous nation-building process and has strived to construct Taiwan as an island-state in its own right. In this process, the traditional opera form —xiqu— has been deployed as a crucial element in the formation of national identity. This paper looks at the changing definition of 'national opera' in relation to the emergence of Taiwanese identity. Traditional opera in Taiwan has become a symbol of a multi-racial, culturally-hybrid Taiwanese identity. By negotiating a sense of identity and constructing new traditions, a new national narrative is formulated and takes effect