A study of the performance of secret love in peach blossom land.

Abstract

In 1986, the Performance Workshop, led by Stan Lai, performed Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, a play created using the innovative improvisation method introduced into Taiwan by Lai, to overwhelming popular and critical acclaims. Over the past twenty years, Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land has been staged many times in many Asian countries with various versions. This thesis aims to discuss the two main versions of Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, namely, the 1986 “Modern Spoken Drama” version and the 2006 “Modern Spoken Drama with Traditional Taiwanese Opera” version (a collaboration of the Performance Workshop and Ming Hua Yuan Taiwanese Opera Company). In this thesis, the two versions of Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land are the subjects of study, which is carried out in the light of the theory of Semiotics as proposed in Roland Barthes’ Mythologies. The analysis will focus on a discussion of the dramatic structure, cultural metaphors, and narrative style, taking into special consideration the respective social and political contexts of the 1980s and early twenty-first century. It is hoped that some lights will also be shed on the changes in the political and cultural consciousness, as well as the national and cultural identity of the creators and audiences.