Chinese
Opera & Psychology
My book Alternative Watching/Listening: Brain
Diseases and Voice Disorders in Performing Arts (Tsai, 2011) draws together
medical and musical sources to make sense of the artistic depictions of disease
manifestation in social and historical contexts. Whereas Zhe-Tzi-Xi (折子戲) can merely depict symptoms,
Quan-Ben-Xi (全本戲) is able to cover
socio-cultural issues and achieves a global viewpoint of pathology by shaping the
protagonist with brain diseases. I discuss Monkey Xiqu from a perspective of
Tourette syndrome and review Kunqu “Peony Pavilion”(牡丹亭) from a perspective of manic-depressive
disorder. Witty, ticcy Ukong Sun (孫悟空) and romantic Liniang Du (杜麗娘), who are hero/heroine
overcoming difficulty in the real world, exemplify how sufferers of brain
diseases can contribute to the human community.
Interestingly, my "psychological research" on Chinese opera led to my failure to achieve promotion to Associate Professor. An ethnomusicologist gave interesting comments that may reveal the nature of ethnomusicology constructed by White American:
In a sharp contrast to these negative comments, another reviewer wrote:
I recorded audience’s skin
conductance responses while they were watching Beijing opera Pong-Yin (捧印). It is found
that changes in singing or gait, ending poses, and special facial/bodily
expressions of the actor have a strong moving power (Tsai, 2014).
REFERENCES
Tsai, C.G.
(2014). The emotional expressions and structure in Beijing opera Pong-Yin:
combining performance analysis with audience’s physiological measures (in
Chinese). Journal of Traditional Chinese
Theater, 11, 125-161.
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2015© 蔡振家 Chen-Gia Tsai