2 Throughout the 1920s, only one kabuki troupe, headed by the famous Japanese kabuki performer Ichikawa Sadanji II (1880–1940), toured the Soviet Union in 1928.

3 The Tsutsui troupe's New York tour started on 4 March 1930 at the Booth Theatre, which lasted two weeks. On 11 April, the Tsutsui troupe began a new round of performances at the Roxy Theatre for one week. The Mei Lanfang troupe's New York tour started at the Forty-Ninth Street Theatre on 17 February; its duration was extended to three weeks from the initially planned two weeks, then it moved to the Imperial Theatre. The Mei Lanfang troupe's New York tour at the two theatres lasted thirty-five days.

4 Qi Rushan, Qi Rushan tan Mei Lanfang (Qi Rushan Talks about Mei Lanfang) (Beijing: Wenhua Yishu Chubanshe, 2015), p. 9.

5 Quoted in Dianqi, Huang, Hua ju zai bei fang de dian ji ren: Zhang peng chun (Zhang Pengchun: The Founder of Spoken Drama in the North) (Beijing: Zhongguo Xiju Chubanshe, 1995), p. 269Google Scholar.

6 As pointed out by Qi Rushan, ‘the reason why we decided to go to perform in the West was to show them (Westerners) a Chinese theatre with a strong personality, and their intent was to see a pure Chinese theatre. If there were Western elements introduced into [our performances], then [the performances] could not be regarded as real Chinese theatre which they want to see.’ Qi Rushan, Qi Rushan tan Mei Lanfang, p. 55.

7 As pointed out by Rao, the theatres where the Mei Lanfang troupe's performances took place, ‘from the lobby to the stage, were decorated with elegant Chinese lanterns, paintings of Chinese opera, and various Chinese artifacts’. Rao, Nancy Yunhwa, ‘Racial Essences and Historical Invisibility: Chinese Opera in New York, 1930’, Cambridge Opera Journal, 12, 2 (2000), pp. 135–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here p. 141.

8 Lanfang, Mei, ‘Mei Lanfang you e ji’ (Records of Mei Lanfang's Trip to Russia), in Yan, Liang, ed., Mei Lanfang yu jing ju zai hai wai (Mei Lanfang and Peking Opera Overseas) (Zhengzhou: Daxiang Chubanshe, 2016), pp. 492–528Google Scholar, here p. 512.

9 Qi Rushan, ‘Guo ju shen duan pu’ (Illustrations of Bodily Gestures and Movements in National Theatre), in Lianjing Shiye Chuban Gongsi, ed., Qi Rushan quan ji di yi juan (The Complete Works of Qi Rushan), Vol. 1 (Taipei: Lianjing Shiye Chuban Gongsi, 1979), pp. 347–562, here p. 373.

10 Rushan, Qi, ‘Zhong guo ju zhi zu zhi’ (The Organization of Chinese Theatre), in Lianjing Shiye Chuban Gongsi, Qi Rushan quan ji di yi juan, vol. 1, pp. 1–138Google Scholar, here p. 31.

11 Rushan, Qi, Qi Rushan hui yi lu (Memoir of Qi Rushan) (Beijing: Zhongguo Xiju Chubanshe, 1998), p. 113Google Scholar.

12 On how the West divided the ‘primitiveness’ of old Eastern civilizations, such as India, into the ‘childlike’ and ‘childish’ facets see Zhou Yunlong, Yue jie de xiang xiang: Kua wen hua xi ju yan jiu (zhong guo, 1895–1949) (Border-Crossing Imagination: Intercultural Theatre Studies (China, 1895–1949)) (Xiamen: Xiamen University Press, 2010), pp. 171–9.

13 Guy, Nancy, ‘Brokering Glory for the Chinese Nation: Peking Opera's 1930 American Tour’, Comparative Drama, 35, 3–4 (2001–2), pp. 377–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here p. 385.

14 When explaining the reason for creating some guzhuang xinxi works with mythical themes, which were included in the repertoire of the Mei Lanfang troupe's American tours, Qi Rushan stated bluntly that traditional Chinese ‘ghosts and gods plays’ (guishenxi) were not as ‘elegant and pure’ as Western myth plays because they were ‘too worldly’. Qi Rushan, Qi Rushan hui yi lu, p. 101.

15 Hulei is a stringed instrument used in ancient China, especially in the Tang Dynasty.

16 Huqin is a bowed stringed instrument used in Chinese music.

17 Qi Rushan, Qi Rushan tan Mei Lanfang, p. 27.

18 Yinchang is a practice of the actor drinking water or tea to moisten his throat onstage during xiqu performance. Jianchang are special service staff members in charge of some chores onstage while the performance is ongoing, such as moving props, helping change the actor's costume and serving tea to the actor. The purpose of throwing cushions onto the stage in xiqu performance is to avoid dirtying the actor's costume when the actor makes certain motions such as worshipping on bended knee.

19 Zhang Pengchun was the first person in the Mei Lanfang troupe to request the removal of these stage practices from the troupe's performances, and he advised Mei Lanfang to ‘abolish the corrupt custom of jiangchang to purify xiqu performance’. Qi Rushan also insisted that ‘all types of actors should not practice yinchang onstage and it is not allowed to throw cushions when the actor makes the motion of worshipping on bended knee’. Ma Ming, ‘Zhang Pengchun yu xiandai zhong guo hua ju’ (Zhang Pengchun and Chinese Modern Spoken Drama), in Zhongguo Renmin Zhengxie Tianjinshi Weiyuanhui Wenshi Ziliao Yanjiu Weiyuanhui, ed., Tianjin wen shi zi liao di shi jiu ji (Archives of Literature and History on Tianjin), vol. 19 (Tianjin: Tianjin Renmin Chubanshe, 1982), pp. 112–39, here p. 136; Qi Rushan, Qi Rushan tan Mei Lanfang, p. 41.

20 In an interview with an American journalist upon arrival in New York in 1930, ‘Mei Lanfang's statement was intended to underline the essence of the Chinese theatre and to draw a clear line between his art and Western realist theatre’. Min Tian, Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth-Century International Stage: Chinese Theatre Placed and Displaced (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), p. 73.

21 Goldstein, Joshua, Drama King: Players and Publics in the Re-creation of Peking Opera 1870–1937 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), p. 273CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 In a sense, the Mei Lanfang troupe's practice of excluding ‘impurities’ from the stage presentation system of its performances concealed and distorted the actual situation of Peking opera's stage practice at the time in China. Actually, some Chinese critics criticized the troupe's performances in America for ‘obliterat[ing] the essence of Peking opera’ by, for example, moving the orchestra offstage and underplaying the gongs, which was dismissed ‘as maiming Chinese culture beyond recognition’. Cosdon also noted, ‘The program that Mei Lanfang presented to American audiences was hardly of the theatrical fare normally presented in the playhouse of Beijing’. Goldstein, Drama King, p. 278; Cosdon, Mark, ‘“Introducing Occidentals to an Exotic Art”: Mei Lanfang in New York’, Asian Theatre Journal, 12, 1 (1995), pp. 175–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here p. 181.

23 In fact, Qi Rushan's theories and practices of guzhuang xinxi, which largely contributed to the ‘dancization’ treatment of the Mei Lanfang troupe's Peking opera productions, were probably influenced by the Western avant-garde dance movement to which Qi Rushan was exposed when he was staying in Europe in his early years. For example, the formation and development of Qi Rushan's views of ‘all voices being songs, all movements being dances’ was to a great extent inspired by the performances of the Russian avant-garde dance group Ballets russes, which Qi Rushan saw at Opéra de Paris. Regarding Tiannu san hua (The Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers), a guzhuangxinxi production Qi Rushan created for Mei Lanfang, it bore many similarities with the experimental dance works of the Paris-based American female dancer Loie Fuller (1862–1928) in terms of choreography. For a further discussion of this issue see Catherine Vance Yeh, ‘Experimenting with Dance Drama: Peking Opera Modernity, Kabuki Theater Reform and the Denishawn's Tour of the Far East’, Journal of Global Theatre History, 1, 2 (2016), pp. 28–57.

24 For instance, due to ‘the realization that the melodies and tones of guoju (national theatre) could not be understood by Westerners’, prior to the Mei Lanfang troupe's American tours, Mei Lanfang specially entrusted the famous Chinese composer and music educator Liu Tianhua (1895–1932) with the task of translating the arias to be sung by Mei Lanfang in the troupe's overseas performances, which were initially composed in a traditional Chinese music notation method called gongchepu, into the form of the staff and printing them with lyrics into pamphlets for the American audiences. Mei Lanfang, ‘Preface I’, in Liu Tianhua, ed., Mei Lanfang ge qu pu (Books of Mei Lanfang's Songs) (Shanxi: Shanxi People's Publishing House, 2018), p. 5.

25 As far back as three or four months before the Mei Lanfang troupe departed for America, Qi Rushan had organized a series of training seminars for the troupe members on how to behave and dress themselves decently in America on various occasions, such as on public transport, in the street or at the hotel. Moreover, every day after the troupe's performers finished their rehearsals of the plays for the overseas tours, they had to ‘do rehearsals for eating’. To this end, the troupe even specially engaged people who were familiar with dining protocols in the West to demonstrate the correct dining manners for the troupe members. Qi Rushan, Qi Rushan tan Mei Lanfang, p. 26.

26 Qi Rushan seems to have already acknowledged this fact even before the Mei Lanfang troupe's American tours. As far back as in 1919 when Mei Lanfang was setting out on a tour of Japan, Qi Rushan was initially opposed to the inclusion of Tiannu san hua in the repertoire because he thought this kind of guzhuang xinxi production created by himself could not qualify as orthodox ‘national theatre’. Qi Rushan, Qi Rushan hui yi lu, p. 127.

27 For example, when touring Paris, the Tsutsui troupe billed itself as kabuki japone and professed that its ‘plays are from the repertoire of kabuki in the 18th century’. Le Figaro, 12 May, 1930, p. 17.

28 For instance, the scene of the Tsutsui troupe's stage work Koi no Yozakura (Romance in Cherry Blossom Lane), according to a British reviewer, ‘is almost crudely realistic in the fashion of an English musical comedy’. ‘The Japanese Players’, Manchester Guardian, 26 June 1930, p. 21.

29 Throughout the overseas tours, Tsutsui seemed to have been arguing that what his troupe would offer to Westerners was the staging of an ‘authentic’ Japanese theatre. For instance, ‘In France, Tsutsui emphasized that he “wants to put the Western audience in the presence of the true Japanese theatre such as the Japanese conceive it”.’ Min Tian, The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre: The Displaced Mirror (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), p. 135.

30 The ‘traditionality’ of kabuki is quite problematic. As pointed out by Japanese theatre scholar Kamiyama Akira, the concept of ‘classical kabuki’ was constructed and reinforced by some cultural nationalists (e.g. Orikuchi Shinobu and Mishima Yukio) in the post-Second World War era to confront the discourses of radical cultural iconoclasts. Throughout modern times, kabuki had always kept a lukewarm and detached relationship with classical traditions. Historically speaking, as a shimpa performer, what Tsutsui Tokujirō conceived of as a ‘true’ kabuki during his troupe's overseas tours could hardly be ‘classical kabuki’ to be culturally (re)constructed in later years. Kamiyama Akira, ‘Ōdan teki ni miru kabuki to shingeki’ (Seeing Kabuki and Shingeki in a Cross-sectional Way), in Kamiyama Akira, ed., Kousatsu suru kabuki to shingeki (Kabuki and Shingeki Intersected) (Tokyo: Shinwasha, 2016), pp. 8–28, here pp. 8–9.

31 As pointed out by Kamiyama, the various stage practices of kabuki in modern times, regardless of preceding shingeki in first staging adapted or translated Western dramas or having been actively participating in various theatre reform movements since the early Meiji period, took on an appearance of distinct modernity. In particular, there had been complicated personal and contextual interconnections among kabuki and some sub-genres of shingeki, such as shimpa and shinkokugeki (new national theatre), in terms of playwriting, acting, directing and scenic design, which altogether constituted a kind of ‘cross-sectional realism’. Kamiyama Akira, ‘Ōdan teki ni miru kabuki to shingeki’, p. 27.

32 As argued by Kamiyama, under historical circumstances in which a strong aspiration to Western modernity was pervading all aspects of Japanese society, kabuki and shingeki, as two parts of ‘Japanese modern theatre’ that was expected to play an important role in ‘the revival of new arts’, were equally endowed with a mission to ‘lean towards the value of realism’. Kamiyama Akira, ‘Ōdan teki ni miru kabuki to shingeki’, p. 17.

33 Tanaka Tokuichi, ‘Tsutsui tokujirō no kaigai kōen to kindai engeki no mondai’ (The Overseas Tours of Tsutsui Tokujirō and the Issues of Modern Theatre), in Kamiyama Akira, ed., Engeki no jyaponisume (Japonisme in Theatre) (Tokyo: Shinwasha, 2017), pp. 323–58, here pp. 351–3.

34 As argued by Tsubouchi, the main reason for the Soviet audience's obsession with the Ichikawa troupe's performances was the ‘bizarre impressions’ brought to the audience caused by ‘inscrutable performing means’ such as hara-kiri (disembowelment) and onnagata (female-role actor). Tsubouchi Shikō, ‘Hisenmonteki na kabuki’ (Unspecialized Kabuki), Takarazuka Kokuminza (National Theatre of Takarazuka), 11 (1928), pp. 28–31, here p. 28.

35 From December 1906, Ichikawa Sadanji II, accompanied by Japanese theatre director and playwright Matsui Matsuyō (1870–1933), who was a Western-oriented theatre reformist, conducted a theatrical investigation in European countries (mainly in Britain, France and Germany) for eight months. After returning to Japan, Ichikawa and Matsui applied what they had learnt and experienced from theatre schools and theatre-going in the West in terms of actor training, directing and the design of lightning and scenery, to the staging of productions for the so-called daiikkai kichō kouen (the first round of performances after returning home). For a detailed discussion of this issue see Azuma Harumi, ‘Nidaimei ichikawa Sadanji no houō to “narukami”: 1907nen no yōroppa to 1910nen no nihon bundan no kakawari kara’ (Ichikawa Sadanji II's Visit to Europe and Narukami: In Terms of Its Relationship to European Theatre in 1907 and the Japanese Literary Movement in 1910), Nihon kenkyū (Japan Studies), 44 (2011), pp. 305–22.

36 As pointed out by Tian, ‘exoticism indeed played an important part in America's reception of Mei's performances’. Min Tian, Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth-Century International Stage, p. 84.

37 Some American critics seem to have recognized that a certain amount of ‘modernity’ could be found in the theatre productions presented by the Mei Lanfang troupe. For example, the famous theatre critic Stark Young pointed out that Mei Lanfang combined the various traditional stage elements of Peking opera ‘with his country's modern theatrical art’ such as by setting ‘the old classical dances of China … to the music of to-day’. Nevertheless, many American critics paid heavy attention to the antiquity of Chinese theatre demonstrated by the Mei Lanfang troupe's performances. For instance, Herbert L. Matthews, a reporter working for the New York Times, stated that what the troupe prepared for the American audience was an art with ‘two millenniums of tradition’. The noted American theatre critic Brook Atkinson considered Peking opera ‘an arrested form of class drama’ that was ‘as old as hills’. Some Chinese people also played a role in forging this ahistorical understanding of Chinese theatre. For example, Hu Shih, the famous Chinese progressive intellectual, in an article written for the playbill for the troupe's San Francisco tour, argued that ‘[t]the Chinese drama is historically an arrested growth … nowhere in this modern world are to be seen such vivid presentations of the irrevocably lost steps in the slow evolution of the dramatic art as are seen on the Chinese stage today’. Young, Stark, ‘Mei Lan-fang’, Theatre Arts Monthly, 14, 4 (1930), pp. 295–308Google Scholar, here pp. 295–6; Herbert L. Matthews, ‘China's Stage Idol Comes to Broadway’, New York Times, 16 February 1930, p. X2; J. Brooks Atkinson, ‘China's Idol Actor Reveals His Art’, New York Times, 17 February 1930, p. 18; Shih, Hu, ‘Mei Lanfang and the Chinese Drama’, in Moy, Ernest, ed., The Pacific Coast Tour of Mei Lan-fang (New York: China Institute of America, 1930), p. iGoogle Scholar.

38 For instance, Brooks Atkinson contended that Chinese theatre is ‘a completely exotic art’ that ‘has no resemblance to American theatre and is far removed from anything in American theatrical experience’. Min Tian, Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth-Century International Stage, p. 84; Brooks Atkinson, ‘China's Idol Actor Reveals His Art’, p. 18.

39 Mary F. Watkins, ‘The Colorful Meeting of East and West at Current Performances in Forty-Ninth Street Theater; Dance Events Crowd This Evening’, New York Herald Tribune, 23 February 1930. Quoted in Ernest Moy, ed., Mei Lan-fang: What New York Thinks of Him (New York: s.n., 1930), p. 34.

40 Min Tian, Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth-Century International Stage, p. 85.

41 For example, one critic recommended that all stage elements of the troupe's performances should be ‘as remote as possible from our practices … [to serve] better to whet our interest and to avoid the pitfalls of dullness’. Min Tian, Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth-Century International Stage, p. 85; John Martin, ‘The Dance: an Exotic Art’, New York Times, 23 February 1930, p. X11.

42 Joshua Goldstein, ‘Mei Lanfang and the Nationalization of Peking Opera, 1912–1930’, Positions, 7, 2 (1999), pp. 377–420, here p. 413.

43 As pointed out by Goldstein, Drama King, p. 273, ‘Qi's tomes were intended to stun Westerners with the richness of Chinese tradition through a kind of polemical empiricism’.

44 For example, one critic argued that the American audience could not ‘pass judgement [on the Mei Lanfang troupe's performances], until we, too, have a few thousand years of “finished” civilization behind us’. Arthur Ruhl, New York Herald Tribune, 16 March 1930, p. 10.

45 Similarly, some people in China believed that Westerners’ ignorance of the conventions and traditions of xiqu would make them maintain reverence for the artistry of Chinese theatre. For instance, a Chinese critic argued that ‘given the fact that Mr. Mei is generally acknowledged as the most gifted celebrity in the community of Chinese theatre, Westerners, who know they do not have a deep understanding of Chinese theatre, definitely will not cast slurs against but make compliments on [Mei's performances]’. Le Tian, ‘Mei Lanfang fu mei cheng bai lun’ (On the Success or Failure of Mei Lanfang's American Trip), Beiyanghuabao (Beiyang Pictorial), 10, 473 (1930), pp. 2–3, here p. 3.

46 For instance, a British critic found the Tsutsui troupe's performance a ‘curious blend of violent realistic expressiveness and extreme conventionalism’. Desmond MacCarthy, ‘The Japanese Players’, New Statesman, 5 July 1930, pp. 408–9, here p. 408.

47 For example, when the Tsutsui troupe was touring Paris, a French reviewer viewed some of the troupe's performances as ‘expressionistic’, ‘conventional’ and ‘executed perfectly according to a long and secured tradition’. Maurice Brillant, ‘Notes et réflexions: Spectacles d'Asie’, La vie intellectuelle 7 (1930), pp. 488–514, here p. 500. Quoted in Min Tian, The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre, p. 137.

48 The absence of hanamachi (flower path), a typical part of the stage structure in orthodox kabuki theatres in Japan, made the manifestation of the Tsutsui troupe's performances on European stages ‘constitute inevitably a false representation of Japanese theatre’. Min Tian, The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre, p. 186.

49 Min Tian, The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre, p. 186.

50 Jacques Copeau, Copeau: Texts on Theatre, ed. and trans., John Rudlin and Norman H. Paul (London: Routledge, 1990), p. 256. Copeau was greatly impressed by the strong bodily expressions of the Tsutsui troupe's performers, to such an extent that he exclaimed, ‘the life of theatre lies in the abundant dynamic movements of the Japanese performers with speechless silence’. Osaka Asahi Shimbun, 27 June 1930, p. 6.

51 Recording later the impressions of the Tsutsui troupe's performances he saw in Paris in an essay titled ‘On the Japanese Performers: A Correspondence in May 1930’, Dullin, like Copeau, sang the praises of various physical techniques used by the troupe's performers and thought these impressive bodily expressions were only made possible by the rigorous body training the performers had received: ‘The bodies of the Japanese performers, different from the bodies of those extremely competent dancers that are merely flexible, get developed and trained for and by theatre. They receive education from their masters and inherit their titles and techniques. With such an education, they have become highly specialized.’ Charles Dullin, Haiyō no shigoto ni tsuite (On the Work of the Performer), trans., Watanabe Jun (Tokyo: Miraisha, 1955), pp. 68–9.

52 For Dullin, ‘It is very regrettable that the Japanese actors did not give us their performance in the traditional system of the Japanese theatre.’ Charles Dullin, Souvenirs et notes de travail d'un acteur (Paris: Gallimard, 1946), p. 59. Quoted in Min Tian, The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre, p. 136.

53 Dullin, Souvenirs et notes de travail d'un acteur, p. 59.

54 Min Tian, The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre, p. 136.

55 During a conversation with Tsutsui Tokujirō, Copeau expressed his confusion over why Japanese people wanted to imitate Western modern theatre, given that they already had such a beautiful theatrical form. Tsutsui Tokujirō, ‘Mandan: Ōbei no tabi’ (Gossip: Travel to Europe and the United States), Dōtonbori, 6 (1931), pp. 42–5, here p. 45.

56 As pointed out by Min Tian, ‘Copeau examined the Japanese troupe's performance evidently from the magnifying glass of his anti-naturalistic perspective.’ Min Tian, The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre, p. 120.

57 For instance, viewing traditional Chinese theatre as ‘the purest theatre of the world’, Dullin was ‘strongly opposed to reforming it [Chinese theatre] by imitating European theatre’. Although he had never seen the performance of an ‘authentic’ Chinese theatrical tradition, for Dullin, Chinese theatre's values functioned ‘as a confirmation of the ideas that had long been fermenting in his mind: his ideas of a theatre of transposition that imaginatively evokes Eastern Asian theatre’. Min Tian, The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre, pp. 142 and 147.

58 Tao [Gordon Craig], ‘Japan: Tokio: Women in the Theatre’, The Mask, 3, 6 (1931), pp. 95–6, here p. 96.

59 When talking about the reason the Mei Lanfang's New York tour won out over that of the Tsutsui troupe, Qi Rushan put it bluntly: ‘there was a Japanese theatre troupe, who advertised its engagement like this: “our performances squarely met the Americans’ tastes”. This single statement made [the Tsutsui troupe's New York tour] doomed. The American public was upset, saying that we hope to see the theatre performance of your country, [your performances do not] need to cater to our tastes; if [we] want to satisfy our own tastes, then [we] would better see the performance of American theatre.’ Qi Rushan, Qi Rushan hui yi lu, p. 141.

60 In this regard, the American audience's responses to the Mei Lanfang and Tsutsui troupe's New York tour were representative. While some American critics indeed identified ‘a punctilious ritual’ in the Tsutsui troupe's performances and thought that the ‘theatre art of Mei Lan-fang is not completely without realism’, most critics ‘found Mei's classical, ceremonial, and stylized art superior to the performances of the Japanese players, which were considered artistically distinctly inferior because they were modern, popular, and thereby less interesting in their naïve and clumsy imitation of Western realism both in scenery and acting’. Miriam Beard, ‘Come the Japanese: Their Kan-Geki Plays Will Bring an Exotic and Exciting Drama Form to New York’, New York Times, 2 March 1930, p. 120; Young, ‘Mei Lan-fang’, p. 300; Min Tian, Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth-Century International Stage: Chinese Theatre Placed and Displaced, p. 76.