Women in Asian Performance Aesthetics and politics

Women in Asian Performance offers a vital re-assessment of women's contributions to Asian performance traditions, focusing for the first time on their specific historical, cultural and performative contexts. Arya Madhavan brings together leading scholars from across the globe to make an exciting intervention into current debates around femininity and female representation on stage. This collection looks afresh at the often centuries-old aesthetic theories and acting conventions that have informed ideas of gender in Asian performance. It is divided into three parts: erasure – the history of the presence and absence of female bodies on Asian stages; intervention – the politics of female intervention into patriarchal performance genres; reconstruction – the strategies and methods adopted by women in redefining their performance practice. Establishing a radical, culturally specific approach to addressing female performance-making, Women in Asian Performance is a must-read for scholars and students across Asian Studies and Performance Studies.

Introduction Arya Madhavan PART I, ERASURE The woman thing: issues and advances for women in Sundanese performance Kathy Foley Women in a man’s world: gender and power in Japanese noh theatre Barbara Geilhorn "Just like a woman": female impersonation, gender construction and role playing in Begum Barve Angelie Multani Feminist Asian cosmopolitanism in Singapore tango clubs Shzr Ee Tan Stars on the rise: the jingju actresses in Republican China Xing Fan PART II, INTERVENTION Between roars and tears: towards the female kathakali Arya Madhavan "Ruined by several actresses who added lewd elements": the popularity of emerging actresses in Chinese jingju (Beijing opera) and the censorship of two plays Siyuan Liu Theatre of Kishida Rio: towards re-signification of "home" for women in Asia Nobuko Anan Foreign female interventions in traditional Asian arts: Rebecca Teele and Cristina Formaggia Margaret Coldiron An unexpected voice: performance, gender, and protecting tradition in Korean mask dance dramas CedarBough T. Saeji PART III, RECONSTRUCTION Rasatrialogue: the politics of the female body in Asian performance Sreenath Nair Nangiar kuthu: interference, intervention and inheritance Diane Daugherty Women in British Asian theatre Graham Ley

Arya Madhavan is Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at the University of Lincoln, UK,and a practising kutiyattam performer.