Race and the Body Revisited: Representing China in Louis Nowra’s The Precious Woman (1981)

Since the late 1970s, Australian performing and visual arts have moved towards an increasing de-Orientalising of Chinese characters and China-related thematic topoi in drama. A key example of this development is Louis Nowra’s The Precious Woman (1981), set in 1920s China, which revolves around the protagonist Su-ling, widow of the provincial governor, and her confrontation with Bao, her tyrannical son. This article positions the play within the historical context of Chinese presences in Australian theatre in order to examine how it enables alternative constructions of difference in a dynamic of reorientation towards China. The analysis adopts two approaches in order to engage with the play as a dramatic text. First, I establish how the play departs from prior racialised stereotypes of Chinese characters by foregrounding storylines that engage with moral, social and political conflicts beyond ethnic antagonism. Second, I problematise how any retrospective critique of the politics and impact of a White-authored, White-acted play about China is destined to be perpetually undermined by the use of “yellowface” in its original production. Thus I raise questions about how recuperable plays penned in previous eras that rely upon the racialisation of performers and characters actually are.