The Resignation of Wang An-Chi, the Artistic Director of Taiwan's GuoGuang Opera Company: A Debate from Two Versions of Phaedra (2019, 2021)

Abstract:Taiwan's GuoGuang Jutuan (GuoGuang Opera Company, GGOC)'s artistic director, Wang An-Chi (b. 1955), resigned in November 2021 after serving in the position for almost twenty years. Two versions of GGOC's production of Phaedra in 2019 and 2021 led directly to her resignation, which opens up a series of questions about GGOC's creative path. This report firstly analyzes the choices made by GGOC in the two productions, and then explores the plight of GGOC as a state-owned and state-run jingju troupe in Taiwan which embodies the close relationship among jingju, Chineseness and national identity. In the event of Wang's resignation, I argue that the development of jingju in Taiwan is not a path to China (unification), but a series of continuous inquiries into Taiwan's subjective cultural identity. Jingju, as a case study of the transfer of the Taiwanese identity, showcases the unnecessarily coherent decoding and recoding process.