Teaching, Therapy, and Tourism: Infrastructural Transformations in Contemporary Chinese Theatre

Research in contemporary Chinese theatre and culture, more generally, has not yet examined the interconnections between infrastructural transitions, culture, and the arts. In this chapter, I employ an infrastructural lens to examine theatre as physical infrastructure (architecture) and art form in Beijing (China). I look at theatre as interlinked with other systems in the city. The main part of this chapter examines transitions in theatre architecture and how they are entangled with changes in urban cultural life and expectations and experiences of theatre, in particular. I discuss interconnections between technical aspects and social practices in twenty-first-century theatre in Beijing. This approach contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamics involving material and social infrastructures in Chinese cities.