The Arts Britain Utterly Ignored: Or, Arts Council Revenue Funding and State Intervention in British East Asian Theatre in the Late 1990s and Early 2000s

Abstract

This chapter maps the simultaneous existence of two British East Asian (BEA) theatre companies: Mu-Lan Theatre, which was founded in 1988 and folded in 2004, and Yellow Earth Theatre, which was launched in 1995 and continues into the present. It argues that Arts Council policies on diversity were tokenistic. In particular, by ending the funding for Mu-Lan and revenue funding only one BEA theatre company (Yellow Earth), the council fermented frustration about the narrowness of BEA participation in British theatre in the early twentieth century. The chapter suggests that the logic of the “diversity of diversity”—a cornerstone of Arts Council policy—was not enacted. Until recently, an ongoing lack of funding for BEA theatre practitioners has resulted in a growing plurality of theatre voices, but as many work without even basic expenses being covered, the chapter suggests that BEA performance practice was one of the arts that Britain utterly ignored. The chapter concludes by raising questions about Arts Council policy as it embarks on a new funding initiative for BEA theatre.