Spatialization of Time, Crystallization of Tradition: The Kunqu Opera and the Reinvention of Aesthetics

This paper investigates the reinvention of Aesthetic China in the post-aesthetic era by examining the new developments of Chinese courtyard culture as reflected in the twenty-first century rise of “Kungqu Opera in Real Garden/Courtyard”(shijing yuanlin kunqu) both in China and abroad. Traditional Kunqu Opera presents the real through the virtual world and is accompanied by tonal music, elaborate costumes and stage sets. By contrast, the new “Kunqu Opera in Real Garden/Courtyard” immerses the virtual in the real. Significantly, the xieyi or impressionistic virtual space in traditional Kunqu Opera is replaced by “the impressionistic real” space. Director and artist Tan Dun’s 2012 production of The Peony Pavilion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Astor Court best illustrates this flip; as Tan Dun creates a miniature Chinese garden set in Zhujiajiao, a small town on the outskirts of Shanghai, China, for the performance. By blending the common elements of Kunqu Opera and the Chinese garden in a new space, Tan produces a symphony between time and space. Tan Dun shows us how a miniature presentation of traditional China can communicate a new face of Chinese tradition globally. In this way, Tan’s new enterprise creates a unique dialogue between the lyric/aesthetic tradition of China and the epic/realistic tradition of the West with a promising and inspiring acknowledgement of the rich value of what the past can teach us as represented by “Aesthetic China” in a post-aesthetic age.