The Evolution of Themes and the End of Performances:A Research on the Theme of"Lao Ma Goes to Beijing"across the Late Qing Dynasty and the Republican China Times from the Perspective of Cross-textuality
"Lao Ma goes to Beijing"is a literary theme popular in the Beijing area during the late Qing Dynasty and Republican China period.This theme unfolds in the sequence of four nodes:"Lao Ma goes to Beijing","Lao Ma does housework","Lao Ma returns home",and"Lao Ma brags".It is discovered that the image of"Lao Ma"underwent two transformations during the dissemination of this theme.Firstly,with the creation of the"Lao Ma brags"node,she transforms from an ordinary maid into a boastful and vain figure.Secondly,with the emergence of the play"Shoot Little Lao Ma",Lao Ma directly evolved into the image of an"adulteress".Generally speaking,the first transformation of Lao Ma's image is successful,facilitating the further spread of the theme.However,the adaptation of the play"Shoot Little Lao Ma"concretized Lao Ma's image as an"adulteress".Due to its obscene content,the play was banned,leading to its disappearence from the stage.And what was worse,stage performances of"Lao Ma goes to Beijing"themed texts in other art forms were also substantially brought to an end."Lao Ma goes to Beijing"is one among many popular literary themes.The stage performance history of this theme reveals that plot nodes impose certain limitations on the evolution of theme content,that while reasonably adding nodes on the basis of the original ones is beneficial for the development of the theme,creations that completely deviate from the nodes may also deal a devastating blow to the entire theme.
Lao Ma goes to Beijingthe evolution of themescross-textuality
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
万方数据
