Since the end of the 1970s,French anthropologist Catherine Capdeville-Zeng has fo￣cused her studies on China. Her research field in￣cludes popular songs of China,rock music of Chi￣na,Beijing Opera Amateur Sessions,shadow play, Nuo opera, and Sichuan opera, etc. She has pub￣lished a series of her research findings related to China in the past years, including Le théâtredansl��espace du peuple,uneenquête de terrain en Chine ( in French ) , Rites et Rock à Pékin –Traditions sociales et modernitédans la musique rock en Chine( in French) ,and fengchangzuoxi or 逢场作戏(in Chinese)etc. On 23 March 2015,Profes￣sor Capdeville-Zeng was invited to give a lecture on Popular Opera—An Anthropological Investiga￣tion in China at the Southwest University for Na￣tionalities. In the lecture,Professor Catherine Cap￣deville-Zeng took Nuo opera,Sichuan torch opera troupe,and Beijing opera amateur sessions as case studies,and shared her ideas on the connection be￣tween “ritual opera” and “entertainment opera”, the common structure of various operas, the rela￣tionship between the audience and the actors/ac￣tresses, the audience’s response to the opera and the actors/actresses’ attitudes, etc. After the lec￣ture,Zhao Xiuyun,an editor of the Journal of Eth￣nology published by the Southwest University for Nationalities,conducted a comprehensive interview with her regarding her anthropological investiga￣ tions in China. In this interview,Professor Cather￣ine Capdeville -Zeng talked about the process of conducting fieldwork in China as a French anthro￣pologist. She stated that her research was deeply influenced by the theory of Louis Dumont, an im￣portant representative scholar of French structural￣ism. She used Dumont’s theory of “individualism”to make an in -depth analysis of the relationship between the“individual” and the“whole” in Chi￣nese society. She mentioned that although the style of modern musical activities( for instance,the rock band ) and traditional musical activities ( for in￣stance,“Beijing Opera Amateur Sessions”) are to￣tally different from each other, there are structural similarities. Based upon her cross-cultural expe￣rience, she also mentioned thatan anthropologist must keep his/her own rational and independent thinking while conducting fieldwork, and cannot measure the culture of “the other” with the stand￣ards of his/her own culture. In addition, she also expressed her worry about the disappearance of tra￣ditional culture during the process of moderniza￣tion. Hence,she calls upon anthropologists to go to rural areas as soon as possible to record traditional culture which is already in danger of disappearing.
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