ABSTRACT
There has always been a trace of suspicion, a hint of opposition, a touch of wariness between business and the arts, despite their often natural affinities. If this sounds different than the China we've been hearing about from the media, with its contaminated chickens, floating pigs, poisoned air, corruption, cyber espionage, human rights abuse, child control, inhumane prison treatment, and, most recently, rural relocation, well it is. However, the only political criticism to be heard was at least half a century old, directed against the Japanese in World War II and Mao's Cultural Revolution in the sixties. China's audience is young; ours is superannuated. China looks to the unknown future while we revive our familiar past. Maybe Chinese plays can teach us something about how to rejuvenate a faltering, doddering, senescent theatre and restore it to life.
