Zhang Yimou’s Turandot in Taiwan: Intercultural Spectacle, Aesthetic of Excess, and Cross-Strait Sensibility

Theatre has, at times, facilitated a cultural diplomacy that provides opportunity to develop new theatre practices and to extend the reach of a specific nation-state. As one form of that diplomacy, the Taiwan government has generated plans to further its cultural creative industry and tourism (Sheng). In 2009, the Council for Cultural Affairs, the National Theatre, and the city mayors of Taiwan began to invest a substantial amount of funds in order to invite internationally acclaimed directors from the United States, China, and Japan to come to Taiwan to stage "intercultural" performances. Under this notion of cultural diplomacy, the practice of diplomacy brings "famous" others to one's own home state in order to forge cultural partnerships. For example, Chinese film and theatre director Zhang Yimou's 2010 staging of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot in Taiwan attempted to help attract more global, especially Chinese, tourists to visit Taiwan and to extend diplomatic understanding between China and Taiwan. 1

Zhang's Taiwanese Turandot, a cooperative endeavor between China and Taiwan, took place in the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium on the weekend of 27-28 March 2010. 2 The principal singers were Warren Mok (Calàf), Xiu-Wei Sun (Turandot) (both Chinese nationals living abroad), and Chinese soprano Yao Hung (Liu). The conductor was Janos Acs, a Hungarian-Italian musician. It engaged three orchestras and two choruses from China and Taiwan. The staging encompassed large-scale use of technology and the presence of hundreds of musicians, dancers, singers, and actors, and the location of the performance in a baseball stadium created a surreal mix of film, sports, and opera. The large-scale filmic projections, the architectural framing of the sports arena and its popular entertainment, and the grandeur of opera all served to create a show of fantastic proportions. In brief, the work, through the cinematic spectacle, attracted large local audiences, who wanted to see this revised version of Beijing's Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium's staging. Zhang's Taiwanese Turandot has also furthered a Chinese cultural branding for global touring. This 2010 Zhang performance has added multiple layers of "Chinese-ness" that have their origins in Puccini's original version of Turandot.