OVERVIEW: This study will attempt to speak on behalf of the imperial Russians who fled their country of origin and their tireless efforts to preserve and maintain the style of Imperial Theatre and ballet.

Imperial Russian Culture Exiled

This study will attempt to speak on behalf of the imperial Russians who fled their country of origin and their tireless efforts to preserve and maintain the style of Imperial Theatre and ballet. These refugees, known commonly as White Russians, having supported the White Army during the Russian Civil War, were forced to leave the Bolshevik ruled Russia and settled temporarily in Shanghai and Harbin China where they existed as second class citizens without a sovereign state of their own. Nevertheless, these refugees preserved the heritage of the tsar and his court and, when they eventually rose up from their poverty, reintroduced their imperial symphony, ballet and theatre into Shanghai’s Jazz Age. These Imperial traditions eventually vanished from Shanghai along with the White Russians following the Second World War as the red flag of Communism spread to China. However, there is some scholarly work that suggests a cultural appropriation and fusion of Imperial Russian culture used by the People’s Republic in their national cultural hubs. It is, therefore, the purpose of this paper to explore the nature of this preservation with a particular emphasis on how it was altered and reappropriated by the Chinese Communist Party. The end goal is to show through exploration of both Chinese and Russian high culture, that there are examples of a blended fusion of cultural appropriation which provide us with a prime example of globalized culture and global theatre.

A Brief History of White Russians in Shanghai

In the final days of Tsar Nicholas II’s court, the state of Imperial Russian high culture was being held in the balance. After the storming of the Winter palace in 1917 and the later assassination of the Romanov family, thousands of Russians loyal to the monarchy fled the Empire’s cultural hubs like St. Petersburg and Moscow and emigrated to the far reaches of the world. While many Russian emigres chose to try their luck in the prominent European capital cities such as Berlin and Paris, many others looked to the far east for refuge, most notably in the Chinese cities of Harbin and Shanghai.

Prior to the revolution, the few Russians in Shanghai were predominantly wealthy tea barons and businessmen who enjoyed extraterritoriality and cheap labor. This all changed after the October Revolution and subsequent Civil War which sent thousands of impoverished and starving Russians south into Shanghai. Suddenly, the immense Russian Diaspora residing in Shanghai numbered around 25,000-30,000 at its peak with a majority being destitute farmers fleeing collectivization, former White Army soldiers, and capitalist families who lost everything when the Soviets took over. Over the years, the Russian Diaspora in Shanghai was able to settle themselves in the French concession, popularly referred to as “Little Moscow” by other foreigners in Shanghai, and ultimately establish a thriving community reminiscent of their old home and fiercely loyal to the preservation of old customs, traditions and cultures of the Romanov Dynasty.

Perhaps the most significant of these preservations was the imperial culture of music, opera, and ballet. While most of the White Russians in Shanghai were poverty stricken and uneducated, there was a small but prominent population of Russian musicians and instructors who contributed to the rise of Shanghai as a cultural center of the Far East. Shanghai was a lively place for artists, with a mixture of Russian, German, Dutch and Italian musicians who brought to the city a vast array of art forms including opera, ballet, and symphonies. With the opening of places such as the Lyceum Theatre in 1930 and the Shanghai Conservatory in 1927, we begin to see the beginning of mixing cultures and adaptations of old traditions.

The Lyceum Theatre

The Lyceum Theatre House was established in 1930 and was later renamed the Shanghai Arts Theatre in 1952. Situated among the beautiful and opulent western hotels, the Garden Hotel and the Jin Jang Hotel, the Lyceum was an established center for Russian theatre, opera, and ballet.

Above the theatre which seats 680, there existed a ballet studio open to Chinese, Russian and other Western students and saw many famous performers in their earlier days. The teachers, however, were wholly Russian led by the determinedly strict and expertly talented headmistress Evgenia Pvlovlna Baranova, wife of the equally talented theatre choreographer, N. Sokolsky. Together, these two kept the Lyceum Theatre House operating and churned out many famous dancers. Many of Evgenia’s pupils were Russian women who, because of their impoverished situation, had to leave the school in order to work at the Paramount Theatre as cabaret dancers or in the more popular jazz clubs which during this time numbered well over 300. The Chinese students, who could afford to stay in the school, used their acquired skills in many of the PRC’s later ballets such as The Dove of Peace, Magic Lotus Lantern and Five Pieces of Red Clouds. The students of these Russian Ballerina’s brought the elegance, grace, and rigidity of Russian ballet into the Chinese theatre.

The Shanghai Conservatory

“Shanghai was unique in those days, we were all so broadminded having experienced all culture and religions, with no prejudices. I would relive that era again and again if I could.”

– Arrigo Foa. Former professor at the Shanghai Conservatory.

The Shanghai Conservatory was founded in November 1927 and is often accredited by scholars as the cradle of Chinese “new music” or Western-style music composed by Chinese composers. Many of these of famous Chinese musicians, performers, and composers owed their later success to the early teachings at the Shanghai Conservatory by their western instructors and mentors, most especially the many Russian pedagogues who taught at that time. When examining the relationships between these pedagogues and their pupils, it is illuminated that this was an important phase of Chinese musical development during a transculturation of the nation’s musical practices.

Before venturing into the many examples of Chinese performers and their Russian roots, it is important to note first that when attempting to fill the many staff vacancies, Xiao Youmei, the Conservatory’s founder, looked to the French Concession for teachers. This is primarily because, at that time, the French Concession Orchestra was entirely comprised of talented Russian musicians. Additionally, the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra or SMO was over 60% Russian and 19 out of 30 players in the Municipal Brass Band were Russian. Thus the Shanghai Conservatory existed as both a school for educating young Chinese musicians in Western styles as well as an incubator for the last imperial Russian musicians to grow and resuscitate their old traditions.

One such Russian pedagogue the composer Sergei Aksakov. A graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, Aksakov help found the Russian Musical Educational Society in Shanghai and taught at the Conservatory for many years. Of his pupils, two stand out most; Lu Ji who went on to become the Chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association in the Peoples Republic of China; and composer Xiang Yu who was one of the composers of The White Hair Girl, which is considered one of the most famous and popular of Chinese operas.  With these composers learning first hand from old imperial powerhouses of Russian culture, it is no wonder that there are so many aspects of Russian ballet and opera within The White Hair Girl. 

However, while in many ways, the Shanghai Conservatory existed as a one-sided exchange from Russians to Chinese pupils, there are instances where continued Russian culture was appropriative of Chinese performance traditions. Aaron Avshalomov, a Russian composer loosely connected to the Conservatory is one case of reciprocal influence whose works incorporated many Chinese elements. For example, in his orchestral pieces like Alleys of Beiping, Avshalomov used Chinese melodies as the main themes. Similarly, in his ballet The Soul of the Chin and theatrical work The Great Wall, he employed Chinese narrative, singing, costume, and scenery against a backdrop of Western orchestral accompaniment.

Those non-Russians who worked at the Conservatory did fear however that the Europeanization of  Chinese musicians could be detrimental to the legacy of Chinese national music. Additionally, there was some concern over the number of conservatory applicants who were non-Chinese and a quota was established to keep the majority of students Chinese. On the whole, however, the relationship between Russian and Chinese musicians and performers was an amicable one. This is due largely in part to the social standing of the White Russians in Shanghai, who were regarded, from their racial composition as being above the Chinese but because of their political and economic positions were not regarded as equal to the Britons and other foreigners in Shanghai. Because of this, Chinese and Russian styles of performance were more easily shared, appreciated, replicated, adapted and performed and contributed to the emergence of what many scholars refer to as the “phase of musical exchange between China and the West and the development of Chinese modernity”

Bartok’s Influence on Chinese New Music

Perhaps one of the most important Russian figures who influenced China was Bela Bartok. During the Cultural Revolution of China, the whole nation was closed to the colonialist imperial cultures of the west. All forms of western music were banned and former many former students of these Russian imperialists were subjected to hard labour. However, the Cultural Revolution was unable to completely sever the teachings of Russian pedagogues from the Chinese sound. Though most of the White Russians left Shanghai in the wake of the communist revolution in China, their legacy remained and was present within the PRC’s national sound. After the Cultural Revolution, attitudes towards Western music softened a bit and studies of Bela Bartok and his enthusiasm for mixing in folk music styles in his classical pieces proliferated. Bartok especially drew much attention from Chinese musical scholars and his pieces helped contribute to the national music of the People’s Republic of China. Many national songs, most notably Miraculous Mandarin, are attributed to Bartok’s style. Perhaps what was most enticing to communist Chinese musicians about Bartok was his ability to incorporate folk music, the music of the people, into larger and grander pieces which contained all the accouterments of European imperial classical music. The accommodation of both elite and plebeian sounds resonated with many Chinese musicians and is an extension of previous decades of musical style appropriations on the part of both Russians and Chinese.

 

Works Cited

Edmunds, Dedicated To Neil, and Hon-Lun Yang. “The Shanghai Conservatory, Chinese Musical Life, And The Russian Diaspora, 1927–1949.” Twentieth-Century China 37, no. 1 (2012): 73-95.

French, Paul. “The French Concession A-Z.” The Old Shanghai A-Z, 1st ed., Hong Kong University Press, 2010, pp. 178-228.

Strauss, G. B., and Chu Liren. “Best-Known Ballet Performances in China, 1949-1981.” Dance Research Journal, vol. 14, no. 1/2, 1981, pp. 78–78.,

Wiley, Roland John. “Three Historians of The Imperial Russian Ballet.” Dance Research Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, 1980, pp. 3–16.,

Wong, Hoi-Yan. “Bartók’s Influence on Chinese New Music in the Post-Cultural Revolution Era.” Studia Musicologica, vol. 48, no. 1/2, 2007, pp. 237–243

Images Cited (By order of Appearance).

Figure 1. Jordiferrer. Birds Eye View of the Bund in 1930. 1930. Wikimedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABund_in_1930_-_Shanghai_Urban_Planning_Exhibition_Center.JPG Accessed April 18, 2017.

Figure 2. Unkown. 1930s,Tientsin French Concession, the crossroad of Avenue Général Foch and Rue de Chaylard. 1930. Wikimedia. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/1930年代天津法租界杜总领事路与福煦将军路交叉路口.jpg Accessed April 18 201

Figure 3. Nicholls, Dave. Lyceum Theatre. March 18, 2007. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicholls/423917070/in/photolist-DsFM1-6DGiXn-6TPWV9/ Accesses April 18, 2017.

Figure 4. Unkown.  Aaron Avshalomov. 1934. American Composers Alliance. https://composers.com/aaron-avshalomov Accessed April 18, 2017.

Video 1. “White Haired Girl Ballet, 1964 (Film 1971): A Different Overture, Dockside Workers…” Youtube, James P, 01 Oct 2012), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcs2aoL1ewE.