‘Purification’ and ‘Hybridization’: (Re)construction and Reception of Theatrical Nationality in Western Tours of the Mei Lanfang and Tsutsui Troupes in 1930

The Western tours of the Mei Lanfang and Tsutsui troupes in 1930 illustrated how to (re)construct theatrical nationality China Japan through manifestation manipulation performance Peking opera kabuki. Through ‘purification’ opera's stage presentation system, troupe forged a ‘pure’ Chineseness that boosted Americans’ fascination with ‘(a)historicality’ Chinese tradition. By presenting Westerners ‘hybridized’ kabuki, which embodied ‘historically authentic’ Japaneseness, deconstructed Westerners’ psychological expectations culturally imagined ‘classical’ Japanese theatre. As two sides same coin, troupes’ (re)construction Japaneseness together challenged West's essentialist views cultural ‘Others’, forcibly endowed Eastern theatre pure unchanged ‘otherness’.