Focusing on the ‘change of regime’ and ‘queer modes of life’ staged by a renowned Taiwanese play, He is My Wife, He is My Mother, this paper invites readers’ critical attention to the layered construction of the individual and the collective. It aims to re-examine the making of identity, family and history within the context of the founding of R.O.C., Cold War system, and martial law in Taiwan. I apply Raymond William’s concept of structure of feelings and argue that the play is a project of historicization conducted by subjects of feelings that illuminates the intertextuality of culture, politics and ordinary people in the shifts of time and space. The play adapts dramatist Li Yu’s short story, ‘Male Mother Meng’s Three Moves’ written in early Qing Dynasty. I will begin by providing a comprehensive overview of the social and cultural context of the story, shedding light on the playwright and director Katherine Hui-ling Chou’s attempts of reimaging it for the 21st century. I will then analyze the casting, scene setting, and the ethical dilemmas addressed in both works, emphasizing the play’s inheritance from its source while spotlighting the spectacle staged by Chou’s alterations. The spectacle implies the limitations and inadequacies of ethical discipline and comments on the state apparatus and cultural governance’s grim absurdity. This paper concludes with retrospection about historical narratives and relationships that govern, altered, and lived, hoping to foresee a future at this critical moment in Taiwan.

Authors:
Fang-chan Yang, National Cengchi University, Taiwan

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Posted by Clive Staples Lewis

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00

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