Mapping China: Performing Arts - Theatre: Brief Definitions of Terms

There are two terms typically used for “theatre” or “drama” in Chinese: huaju and xiju.

Xiju is a more all-encompassing term meaning a dramatic performance or a play. Huaju, literally translated as word (hua) drama (ju), refers more specifically to “spoken-word” drama, or text-based plays that are spoken as opposed to traditional Chinese opera performances which were sung. Modern / contemporary drama in China is typically referred to by this latter term.

Xueyuan: Chinese word for “academy”, as in Central Academy of Drama. An educational institution in China must have government-designated “academy” status in order to grant students undergraduate degrees or higher (masters, PhD and post doctorate).

Xuexiao: Chinese word for “school”, used for both elementary/junior high/high school and also for vocational arts training institutions. Arts institutions in China recognized as “schools” rather than “academies” are more vocational certification level, cannot grant an undergraduate degree, and offer no masters or other higher-degree programs.

Stanislavski training: Still the basis for most training at theatre academies throughout China. After the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, nationalized Chinese spoken drama troupes started to function along proletariat and Maoist ideology. As UK-based scholar Rossella Ferrari writes of spoken drama in Beijing after 1949 (see further readings), ‘the Stanislavskian system, or rather, a highly ideologically-distorted and “localized” version of it was adopted as the sole and unquestionable dogma in Chinese dramatic production and education.’ The famous Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art (1942) by Mao also set the tenor for culture within ideologically-based political discourses. The Shanghai actor and director Zheng Junli (1911-69) is said to have introduced the performing system of Stanislavski into China.