ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the creation and contestation of place in kunqu in Suzhou today. Drawing on and exploring two contrasting narratives, It focuses on the meanings and construction of place in kunqu singing practices and performances. In the 1570s, the first libretto, Washing Silk (Huanshaji), was written by Liang Chenyu, incorporating the use of kunqu vocal style and melodies. The chapter examines how tourism as an event can create, reconstruct, or transform spaces and places. It presents the visual landscape of the tourist trail, following this with the musical elements that feature in the landscape, and discusses how these impact tourist expectations and how this is reconciled with imagination and otherness. As the author strolls along two streets in 2016, Pingjiang Street and Shantang Street, melodies of kunqu and pingtan (a musical storytelling form) could be heard drifting from sound systems projecting out from teahouses and restaurants.
