As iThe Mad Drummer /i(狂鼓史) demonstrates a close correlation between performance and spectatorship, it appears baffling that the storyteller Liu Jingting claims that he does not need an audience in Kong Shangren’s (孔尚任) iThe Peach Blossom Fan /i(桃花扇). In order to answer the question, this paper interprets iThe Peach Blossom Fan /i(桃花扇) as a dynamic realm with geographic and metaphorical places rather than a static literary text. Master of Ceremonies’ multiple identities extend the notion of metaphorical displacement to an ongoing movement of shifting in and out the role inside performances. His repeated passages in and out the acting role and the performative realm signal a linear and cyclical dynamism. In terms of genre, a comparison between Ma Zhiyuan’s (馬致遠) deliverance play “Yueh-yang Tower” (呂洞賓三醉岳陽樓) and the historical play iThe Peach Blossom Fan /i(桃花扇) further analyzes distinctive dynamisms in dreamscape and in theatricality. Moreover, an examination of Zhang Dai’s (張岱) “Mid-September on West Lake (西湖七月半) ” points out a concentric spectatorship and a paradox of spectatorship. Spectator’s simultaneous states of being the subject and the object of gazing result in endless circles of watching and a concentric spectatorship with hierarchies. The paradox of spectatorship echoes the dynamism of iThe Peach Blossom Fan /i(桃花扇) with notions of liminality and ongoing movement, but restricts the dynamism due to endless layers of concentric spectatorship. Thus, we can answer the question by stating that although Liu Jingting (柳敬亭) desires to escape audience’s gaze and has the ability to temporarily step out of theatricality, it is still impossible for him to completely escape the audience due to the paradox of spectatorship.
Vivien Jiaqian Zhu (Thu,) studied this question.