Towards Global Xiqu Studies: Situating Latin America on the Trans- Pacific Circuit

Abstract

Xiqu (Chinese opera) studies have been increasingly considering transnational history and practice. New scholarship has improved the understanding of trans-Pacific connections in Cantonese opera between Asia and North America. This article recovers Cuba and Peru (especially Havana and Lima) as major nodes of Cantonese opera in the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, showing how it was practiced and sketching out its reception and legacy. This contributes to the elaboration of a global perspective in xiqu studies, while laying the groundwork for future critical approaches surrounding Chinese and transnational performance in later 19th and earlier 20th-century Latin America.