Cultural entrepreneurship and border-crossing practices: the multi-faceted career of Ouyang Yuqian

Abstract

This thesis explores the multifaceted life of Ouyang Yuqian, one of the esteemed founding fathers of modern Chinese drama. Focusing on the concept of “cultural entrepreneurship”, my study unveils Ouyang’s diverse professional endeavours that traversed the terrain of mass-mediated cultural enterprises during the Republican era and beyond. In contrast to the prevailing narrative that highlights his canonical status in the history of modern Chinese drama, I characterize his career as a border-crossing journey, as he skilfully directed his fame, talents, and social assets into various cultural ventures in his roles as an opera actor, fiction writer, editor, filmmaker, government employee, and a choreographer in Socialist China. Based on a wide range of newly discovered primary materials, this thesis throws light on the lesser-known facets of his image and argues that there was a nuanced fusion of “new” and “old”, “serious” and “popular,” “left” and “right” throughout his vast repertoire of works, defying facile classification. In doing so, this thesis also illuminates the complexity of popular cultural production in modern China, which involved entangled forces of intellectual discourses, political shifts, commercial interests, and personal aspirations.