ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how a cultural export, such as Western musicals, translates in China in dimensions that eschew critical analysis in favor of pure replication. It shows how these duplications gloss over the inherent conflicts between characters that point to greater social concerns. The chapter explains how the velocity of Chinese consumerism gives rise to the pursuit of symbolic capital which, in turn, promotes the desire to reject all things Chinese in favor of symbols Western. It also explores how the reflections of both Chinese and Western theatre practitioners and Chinese undergraduate musical theatre students can elucidate some of the underlying reasons for the mechanism of cultural appropriation. The chapter also shows how a recent musical theatre course, conducted by the authors, demonstrated all the tensions and currents which can be illustrative of the state of China today. A rundown and barely ventilated rehearsal room in one of the major training universities in Beijing for musical theatre.
