全球資本時代的「先鋒性」：張獻自九○年代末以來的戲劇實踐

Avant-Gardism in the Age of Global Capitalism: On Zhang Xian's Theatrical Practices since the Late 1990s

一九八○年代改革開放以來，市場經濟變革推動國有院團戲劇體制轉型，中國當代先鋒戲劇重新浮現歷史地表，歷經四十年的發展之後，如同多位學者指出，已經成為一種「大眾流行文化」。然而，「先鋒戲劇」一詞在中國語境面臨歧異與爭議。中國當代先鋒戲劇如果泛指所有與原有院團體制抵抗的美學實驗，在這四十年來發生過的種種實驗戲劇，卻有著十分不同的內容與形式表達，哪些作品應當屬於先鋒戲劇的範疇？又，西方先鋒戲劇因抵抗市場機制而生成，借市場之力而茁壯的中國先鋒戲劇，還能被稱作是先鋒戲劇嗎？本文聚焦討論張獻先生自一九九○年代末以來的戲劇實踐與理念。一九八○年代，張獻先生創作出《屋裡的貓頭鷹》以及《時裝街》，成為被時代所需要的典型啟蒙青年。一九九○年代市場經濟大潮來襲，弄潮兒張獻大可游刃有餘，行走體制內外，乘著《美國來的妻子》以及《樓上的瑪金》票房長紅的氣勢，搭著小劇場戲劇商業浪潮，成為上海的「流行先鋒」教父，但是他終究沒有發展出如同北京孟京輝一樣的「流行先鋒」現象。本文從分析張獻一九九○年代末轉型時期的三個作品──《玩罈者說》、《擁擠》與《母語》開始，追索此後他在「組合嬲」時期以來至今的戲劇實踐歷程。本文發現在全球資本的當代上海，對於此刻的張獻來說，要維持戲劇實踐的「先鋒性」不必然需要區隔體制內外，而是在國家、市場、觀眾品味、與國際文化政治邏輯層疊交錯的權力結構裡，尋找裂隙與矛盾。真正重要的是藝術實踐的方法與目的：（1）反文本、反情節的反模擬論劇場；（2）以肢體跟聲音實驗為主的表演；（3）大量並置歷史文化素材，形成多重意義交叉指涉。以這些實踐準則，張獻與其所涵養的新一代獨立藝術家，在一次又一次的實踐裡，持續實驗身體、主體與群體的再造技術，然後點滴改變當代高度資本化生活裡，權力運作的毛細現象。

Since the 1980s, China's open door policy has enabled a market economy and subsequently brought about the reformation of the state-owned, state-operated theatre system in the socialist era. As a result, Chinese avant-garde theatre re-emerged from the contemporary historical horizon. After 40 years of development, as many scholars have pointed out, it has evolved into a kind of “popular culture.” Nevertheless, to discuss “avant-garde theatre” in the Chinese context, one would have to deal with contested meanings and scholarly controversies first. If contemporary Chinese avant-garde theatre can refer to all experimental theatres in rebellion against the previously state-controlled system, over the course of 40 years, numerous experimental forms have been produced. Which ones can be categorized as avant-garde? In addition, Western avant-garde theatre was born out of its intentional confrontation with the profit-driven logic of the capitalist system. Can we still consider Chinese avant-garde theatre, obviously made possible by the power of the market, avant-garde at all? To answer these questions, this paper focuses on Zhang Xian's theatrical practices and ideas since the late 1990s. In the 1980s, Zhang Xian created Night Owls in the House and Fashion Street and immediately became the avant-garde youth of enlightenment very much needed by the era. The 1990s witnessed the increasing solidification of the market economy. Zhang Xian was on top of this trend and wrote two highly profitable plays-A Wife from the U.S. and Majin on the Floor Above. He could have easily ridden on this wave of commercialization and become the Godfather of “popular avant-gardism” in Shanghai. However, he never managed to create a phenomenon of “the pop avant-garde” like Meng Jinghui did in Beijing. This paper starts with analyses of three works that define Zhang Xian's turn to radically alternative theatres in the late 1990s, namely Thus Speaks the Pot-Player, Crowded and Mother Tongue and further traces his later developments during the “Zuheniao” phase up until the current moment. This paper finds that Zhang Xian does not necessarily operate along the demarcating lines of the fields of cultural production to retain his avant-gardist spirit. He seeks fissures and loopholes in the entangled power structure made of the state, the market, the audience and also the international logic of cross-cultural politics. What matters the most for him is the methods and goals of his theatrical practices: First, he insists on creating anti-mimetic, non-text-based, non-narrative theatres. Second, he produces performances to experiment with physical movements, human voices and sounds. Third, he always mixes historical and cultural references to create layered meanings for critical thinking about current living realities. With these artistic endeavors, Zhang Xian has fostered a whole new generation of independent artists. They, again and again, keep on testing the technologies of subjectivity, corporeality and community. In the long run, their artistic efforts will slowly but surely change the power mechanism of our highly capitalized world at micro as well as macro levels.