ABSTRACT
This chapter utilises a Chinese video database — the “Zhongguo jingju yinpeixiang jingcui” (Selected Classics of Chinese Beijing Opera Video Matching Audio) project — as a hub through which to discuss the historiographical prospects of combining Theatre Studies’ qualitative methodologies with digital humanities’ quantitative visualisation tools, specifically Power BI. Known as the Yinpeixiang (literally the “Sound Dubbed [with] Image,” or video matching audio) project, the database contains videos of 460 predominantly jingju (Beijing opera) plays recorded between 1985 and 2007 that match studio performances with original audio recordings from 1907–97. The project’s medium size allows analysis at both micro and macro levels, whether as case studies of specific artists and plays or for quantitative visualisation that scrutinises and counterbalances narratives and anecdotal evidence. This compels a return to archives and published sources for evidence neglected in existing historical narratives. By combining quantitative visualisation, Theatre Studies’ qualitative methodologies of archival research, and performance analysis, it becomes possible to challenge official narratives, rectify scholarly blind spots, and scrutinise the continuity, disruption, and erasure of jingju legacies.
