This dissertation is a comparative study of gezaixi (Taiwanese opera) in China and Taiwan. It foregrounds the different, at times conflicting, performance styles and aesthetics of gezaixi on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, which is primarily the result of a long closure (1949-1987) imposed by the two regimes, and explores how the past is inscribed in performance today. The study examines particularly the subgenres of gezaixi: xiandaixi (the contemporary play) in the PRC and opela (a hybrid form engaging multicultural, especially Japanese, elements) in Taiwan. The two subgenres are both categorized apart from the "antique-costumed play," but one performance style is highly polished and choreographed, while the other is mostly casual and improvised. I argue that the only similarity between xiandaixi and opela is that both are products of the response to modernity in the two regimes. The response of the PRC has been a top-down mobilization: Through collective experimentation and discussion by a selective group of cultural elites under the mandate of the state, xiandaixi gradually took its shape. In contrast, under the state policy of preserving "national essence," gezaixi practitioners in Taiwan carried out their own experiments to cope with modernity; the unlicensed practice among the grass-roots thus produced opela and its negative association.

Part One argues that the Drama Reform Campaign (1949-1965) and the ensuing Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) played a pivotal role in shaping gezaixi in China. The PRC state exercised its regulatory power by suppressing traditional plays, implementing a fully scripted system, institutionalizing the practitioners, and establishing authoritative "model plays" for all the theatres nationwide. Part Two examines opela and the various readings it has incurred in Taiwan over time. I argue that the hybrid style of opela today was born as a result of the Japanese assimilation project, and subsequently, during the post-war era, became a conscious practice for commercial competition and developed. Moreover, I demonstrate how the emergence of Taiwanese national consciousness in the post-martial law era shaped the citizens' views of "tradition."