상하이 뤼바오 극장과 레퍼토리 연구(1938~1941)

Abstract

The Lubao Theater was opened in Shanghai in 1938 as a theater exclusively for popular plays. The popular plays performed in Lubao gained a lot of support from the public in Shanghai at the time. There are talks that it showed a high‐level performance, but it was not able to be recognized as a popular art as it has been stigmatized as a low‐grade play by elite theater people and has been negatively evaluated. This, along with the impact of negative evaluations made by the mainstream discourse at the time, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, is because of the historical reasons why vulgar 'popular dramas' during the 'occupation' period by Japan could not be properly discussed academically amid the strengthened politicization of literature. Performance at the Lubao Theater, the formation of the Wenmingxi reform discourse surrounding it, and the attempt to reform the repertoire of the Lubao Theater clearly show the clash between the popular theater world, which was maturing in Shanghai in the 1930s, and the elite theater world, which was aggravated by the situation of war. In the previous studies, Lubao Theater's Wenmingxi improvement movement was described in some aspect as a relentless improvement under the leadership of the elite theater world. But if looking at it closely, in the 1930s, you can observe the theater world that was maturing while being adjusted amid the emergence of a situation of war and the popular culture market that was fragmenting. Also, examining the activities of Lubao Theater can serve as a bridge to explain the phenomenon of popular dramas that overflowed after Shanghai was completely captured.