Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Significant Other: Staging the American in China (review)

Significant Other: Staging the American in China (review) 368 BOOK R EV I EWS Weintraub’s book is a subtle analysis of major developments and polemics in the world of wayang golek over the last four decades. Extensive attention is given to audiocassette and television mediations, contests and fes- tivals, cultural policy and scholarly representation. The study draws substan- tially on Indonesian and Sundanese language writing on wayang golek in the popular press and is informed by an intimate knowledge of performance prac- tice gained through long experience in the field. One readily senses that the superstar puppeteers are not just Weintraub’s informants, but they are also his friends and teachers. The writing is slightly mottled by jargon from cul- tural studies and critical theory. The Asep Show, a variety show created by Asep in 1996 starring the clown-servant puppet Cepot, hardly “challenged modes of narrativity” (p. 192). It is debatable whether one can speak of an “opposi- tional Sundaneseness” (p. 127) during the New Order, a period when ethnic formations were dominated by the state. More attention, perhaps, might also have been placed on the role of popular Islam. These are minor faults in this otherwise excellent scholarly account. Weintraub’s book will likely appeal mostly to specialists http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Theatre Journal University of Hawai'I Press

Significant Other: Staging the American in China (review)

Weinstein, John B.
Asian Theatre Journal , Volume 22 (2) – Oct 31, 2005
Download PDF
4 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/university-of-hawai-i-press/significant-other-staging-the-american-in-china-review-nl3VLDhImw

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 The University of Hawai'i Press.
ISSN
1527-2109

Abstract

368 BOOK R EV I EWS Weintraub’s book is a subtle analysis of major developments and polemics in the world of wayang golek over the last four decades. Extensive attention is given to audiocassette and television mediations, contests and fes- tivals, cultural policy and scholarly representation. The study draws substan- tially on Indonesian and Sundanese language writing on wayang golek in the popular press and is informed by an intimate knowledge of performance prac- tice gained through long experience in the field. One readily senses that the superstar puppeteers are not just Weintraub’s informants, but they are also his friends and teachers. The writing is slightly mottled by jargon from cul- tural studies and critical theory. The Asep Show, a variety show created by Asep in 1996 starring the clown-servant puppet Cepot, hardly “challenged modes of narrativity” (p. 192). It is debatable whether one can speak of an “opposi- tional Sundaneseness” (p. 127) during the New Order, a period when ethnic formations were dominated by the state. More attention, perhaps, might also have been placed on the role of popular Islam. These are minor faults in this otherwise excellent scholarly account. Weintraub’s book will likely appeal mostly to specialists

Journal

Asian Theatre Journal – University of Hawai'I Press

Published: Oct 31, 2005

There are no references for this article.