{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.016930022573363433, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.522058823529412, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
“Little Theater” in Twenty-First-Century China

This article provides an overview of China’s little theater since the turn of the millennium, arguing that present changes must substantially be considered in terms of responses of troupes and playwrights to the present commercial challenges faced by spoken theater troupes. By and large these shifts can be identified as part of popularization or fashionability. Specific strategies include attracting white-collar audiences with plots focused on romantic and extramarital embroilments, the challenges of technology, and an emphasis on the styles and trends of the leisure class. Formal experimentation is combined with genre plurality and a fragmentation of consciousness that is drawn from web culture. Highlighted cases include the Beijing Youth Theatre Festival and the little theater productions of the Beijing People’s Art Theatre.