Coda

The coda offers an analysis of how the five major artistic aspects work together in model jingju in communicating a particular type of aesthetics. Focusing on the nature and expression of beauty, the author examines three interrelated questions: Did the notion of beauty matter during the creative process? What is considered beautiful and therefore aesthetically favored? And how is this sense of beauty communicated? The author highlights two dominant aesthetic qualities in model jingju : the beauty of the sublime and the beauty of masculinity. The author analyzes imbalance as a primary aesthetic feature in two spheres: gender representation and aesthetic expectations. Finally, the author proposes that the deep roots of the imbalance in model jingju lie in the varied levels of association among the three traditional aesthetic principles—conventionalization, stylization, and synthesis—and each of the five major artistic aspects—playwriting, acting, music, design, and directing, and that, ultimately, the overarching creative directive, the Combination of Revolutionary Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism, was a flawed premise for model jingju .