Contents
Selected List of Tian Han’s Works
Prologue
Introduction: The Avant-Garde and the Popular
Avant-Garde, Popular, and Propaganda
A Chinese Avant-Gardist
“Creating the New Woman” and “Going to the People”
Situating the Book
Outline of Chapters
Chapter One. The Lights of Tokyo
Tian Han in Tokyo
Performing “Spiritual Light”
Tokyo at the Post–WorldWar I Moment
The Christian Context
Avant-Garde Encounters through Popular Media
Art and Social Movements: Cross-Illuminations
Conclusion
Chapter Two. The Night and Fire of Shanghai
Shanghai Night: Connecting Japan and China
Back to Japan: Between the Aesthetic and the Proletarian
Night and Fire in Independent Publishing
Independent Filmmaking as a Silver Dream
The Politics of Performing Salome and Carmen
Conclusion
Chapter Three. Lovers and Heroes in the Wartime Hinterland
The Avant-Garde and the People
The Use of Tradition and Intermedia Experiments
From Lovers to Volunteers
How to Conduct “Guerrilla Drama Warfare”?
“A New Legend of Lovers and Heroes” and Wartime Opera
“Rhapsody on the Sounds of Autumn” and Wartime Spoken Drama
“Memories of the South” or “The Lament of the South”
Conclusion
Chapter Four. The International Avant-Garde and the Chinese National Anthem
One Song, Many Renditions
The International Avant-Garde
One Country, Two “National Anthems”
Making “March of the Volunteers”
Marketing “March of the Volunteers”
Performing “March of the Volunteers”
Mass Singing “March of the Volunteers”
Conclusion
Chapter Five. A White Snake in Beijing: Re-creating Socialist Opera
Obsession with Chinese Opera
Metamorphosis of the White Snake
The Peking Opera “White Snake”
A Profound Propaganda: The International Avant-Garde in the 1950s
Tian Han and Guan Hanqing
Ai Wei Wei and the Transformation of the Chinese Avant-Garde
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index