ABSTRACT
Theater, although once a core feature of royal ceremonies, urban entertainment, agrarian leisure, religious rituals, and one of the central means of transmitting cultural stories and values to succeeding generations for many Asian cultures, has become marginalized in contemporary society. Asian performers, directors, and playwrights began to take control of their representation and asserted a regional identification that culturally countered Western Orientalism. By the twenty-first century, the need to present a united cultural front by Asian dramatists waned, in part because of their increased international participation as individual artists. Small-scale intercultural experimentation was ongoing, including newly established intra-Asian regional festivals. A generic Asian style, based on the wide stance of the male dancers, the diagonal or off-balance hip position, and the graceful articulation of the fingers, was extended with balletic leaps and pirouettes. As individual contemporary Asian artists, they were ready to cross borders rather than be obsessed with the representation of traditional cultures or national identities.
