Intangible heritage diplomacy and the Taiwan strait: kunqu revival 1987–2001

In recent decades, the xiqu (‘Chinese opera’) genre of kunqu has grown in domestic and international prominence and is now an important part of PRC soft power and heritage projects. This article examines how Taiwanese institutions and aficionados contributed to the genre’s material revival. It does so by examining their involvement in kunqu in the 15 years before the UNESCO recognition that marked the genre’s improved fortunes. The engagement of Taiwanese institutions and audiences constitutes heritage diplomacy focused on a claim to shared culture, allowing kunqu troupes to improve a difficult situation at home and paving the way for greater international recognition. The fillip offered to kunqu by 1990s Taiwan, in the island’s period of transition from one-party rule to multiparty democracy, represents a late and successful ROC elite heritage diplomacy intervention in the ordering of cultural prestige in China, projecting its admiration for the favoured genre of its exiled and disappearing elite. Understanding both PRC and ROC cultural heritage systems can be improved by border-crossing and non-state perspectives of heritage diplomacy.