摘要
When Mao Zedong declared traditional forms of theater to be bourgeois and feudalists,he opened the doorway to a subgenre of theater known as revolutionary opera.Encapsulating the essence of the Cultural Revolution,they were designed to inspire and inform the proletariat in their glorious mission to reform China.Overseen by Mao's wife Jiang Qing,a former actress,yangbanxi were created that adhered to the government dogma of the time.Known in English as model plays,they quickly gained traction with the public-hardly surprising,since all art was strictly policed and few other stage works were permitted.
