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September 10, 2025

Cold War Legacies: American Illiteracy of the Postcolonial Aesthetics of Spectacle in Chinese Dance Dramas

Key Points

The negative perception of chinese dance dramas highlights a lack of understanding influenced by cold war biases.
A new generation of chinese critics appreciates these performances as grounded in local cantonese culture, contrasting with american views.
The use of spectacle in these performances reflects china's economic development, yet is misinterpreted in the american context.
Interactions between classical ballet and modern dance create a misunderstanding of aesthetics in the reception of chinese art.

Abstract

In 2016, a New York Times dance critic devalued the genre of Chinese dance dramas by reducing a performance of Dragon Boat Racing ( Shawanwangshi 沙湾往事) by the Guangdong Song and Dance Ensemble to “kitschy spectacle.” This review exemplifies illiteracy of Chinese dance dramas based on bias against maximalist deployment of spectacle filtered through a Cold War influenced understanding of Chinese aesthetics that is exacerbated by American ignorance of Chinese history. This dismissive review contrasts with the warm reception the Chinese language press gave this contemporary piece (2014 premiere) and the regional and national awards it won in China (Liu 2014). Chinese critics generally describe it as an original choreographic work grounded in the specifics of local Cantonese culture (F Wu 2014; She 2018). This positive reception aligns with my experience watching the piece with a mostly Chinese diaspora audience at the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia in January 2018. 1 This article addresses the gap in understanding, examining the dynamics that shaped the development of Chinese dance dramas as a genre as well as the forces shaping American reception of it. I assert that key to the mistranslation is differing understandings of the maximalist deployment of spectacle, which is connected to fissures in the field of dance between supporters of classical ballet and modern dance. I argue that the use of the aesthetic is a celebration of China’s economic development and an assertion of belonging in modernity. But, in the United States its reception is shaped by aesthetic hierarchies developed during the Cold War.

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