Liyang Xia

Joanne Tompkins, Jonathan Bollen, Julie Holledge, and Liyang Xia. Visualising Lost Theatres: Recovering Social Interactions from the Spaces of Performance. Cambridge University Press, Delivery 2020.

Xia, Liyang (2016). Heart Higher than the Sky: Reinventing Chinese Fimininity through Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, In Frode Helland & Julie Holledge (ed.),  Ibsen Between Cultures.  Novus Forlag.  ISBN 9788270998630.  5.  s 113 - 142

• Xia, Liyang (2016). Heart Higher than the Sky: Reinventing Chinese Fimininity through Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, In Frode Helland & Julie Holledge (ed.),  Ibsen Between Cultures.  Novus Forlag.  ISBN 9788270998630.  5.  s 113 - 142
• Xia, Liyang (2007). Power Struggle in Hedda Gabler - A Close Reading of the Conversations between Hedda, Brack and Løvborg, In Frode Helland; Kaja* Mollerin; Jon Nygaard & Astrid Sæther (ed.),  The Living Ibsen: Proceedings - The 11th International Ibsen Conference, 21 - 27 August 2006.  Unipub forlag.  ISBN 978-82-91540-10-8.  Chapter 2.  s 153 - 158

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• Xia, Liyang (2013). Heart Higher than the Sky - Reinventing Chinese Femininity through Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. Show summary

  This dissertation examines a Chinese transcreation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler into the yueju Heart Higher than the Sky (Xin Bi Tian Gao). It argues that this performance text is implicated in contestations over the representations and consumptions of femininity, Chinese identity, and aesthetic purity within contemporary China theatre. Two intertwined aspects of a cultural imaginary dominate the discussion: the representations of women in the yueju genre and by extension within the Chinese culture, and the search for a Chinese identity in and through Chinese traditional theatre. The discussion of femininity is closely tied into the discussion of "Chinese-ness". This dissertation asks questions such as: What is a Chinese woman? What are their socially prescribed aspirations? What kind of gender norms apply to them? The author attempts to answer these questions by looking at the female depiction in the history of the yueju genre, an art form that closely reflects and informs the transformations of women's social status in China. In addition, she looks at the lived realities for women in today's Chinese society, arriving at the conclusion that this yueju adaptation of Hedda Gabler challenges some areas of the current gender norms in China, as well as reinforces other areas. As part of the effort to change the way women and their assigned roles are viewed in the cultural imaginary in China, Heart Higher than the Sky suggests certain ethical values, both for the women and for the society at large, through promoting traditional "Chinese" values in traditional theatre. By adapting an Ibsen play into the traditional Chinese yueju form, the artists of this production evoked a search for a "Chinese identity" in and through Chinese traditional theatre. This searching is done in a two-way manner: placing Ibsen's provocative characters and stories in traditional Chinese theatre challenges the Chinese audience's idea of what "Chinese-ness" is; and interpreting Ibsen's play through a traditional Chinese theatre form sets up an image of a Chinese imaginary to the world.

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