Chinese government policy and international exchange in performing arts 1949-2005

Connell, XY

Abstract

More than fifty years have past since the found of the People's Republic of China in
1949; after which Chinese society experienced many changes owing to the
adjustments of government policies. The aim of this thesis is to determine how
Chinese government policies have affected the international exchange of performing
arts from 1949 to 2005. The assessment was conducted over three historical periods:
the planned-economy (1949-76), the transitional period (1977-96), and the marketedeconomy
period (1997-2005), in order to measure the impact of the changing
governmental policies. Five performing entities that represent the major elements of
the performing arts industry were selected as the case study subjects to investigate the
transformations that have occurred to these organisations over the last fifty years. A
combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies is applied, in which the
secondary sources published and unpublished were examined, backed up by the
primary information obtained through surveys and interviews.
This thesis is divided into six chapters. The first explains the purpose of this study,
illustrates the development of research question, reviews the current literature on the
subjects and outlines the methodology used to complete the research. The second
chapter shows that the fundamental cultural principles of the Chinese government
remained the consistent over the research periods, but, the specific performing-artsrelated
legislation have shown a gradual transforming process from a planned cultural
administrative style to a market-oriented mode. The third chapter is the case study of
the China Performing Arts Agency; chapter four studies the Hunan Opera and Ballet,
and chapter five examines the performing venues of the Tianqiao Theatre, Beijing
Concert Hall and Shanghai Grand Theatre. These case studies reveal that the
operational models and structures within these organisations have progressively
adapted to a market-oriented mode, though the changes appear in different level
towards various performing organisations, under the commercialisation of foreignrelated
performing arts industry led by the Chinese government. However, some
unchanged features such as approval procedure and state-owned identity have existed in the Chinese performing arts system throughout all three historical periods. The
sixth chapter concludes that the changed features within the international exchange of
the performing arts industry was related to the government's intention to
commercialise the cultural sphere and the unchanged features was due to persistence
of a fundamental cultural principle held by the CCP. This thesis as a whole not only
provides information on how the Chinese government cultural policies developed
since 1949, but also uncovers how these polices affected the specific performing
organisations during the transformation of the international exchange of performing
arts from the government cultural exchange projects to a profit-driven industry.

Citation

Connell, X. Chinese government policy and international exchange in performing arts 1949-2005. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Aug 17, 2021
• Award Date: Nov 1, 2007