Embodied Learning: Hypotesis for an action-based physical approach to Chinese characters teaching

Chinese actor Mei Lanfang has been extremely influential for the development of actor’s theatre in the past century. Dramaturgical approaches that brought the creative spark back to the actor’s body and movement could not but look at Eastern theatrical examples as a role model. Western societies had been opening to cultural exchanges with orient since the world exhibitions of the Nineteenth century (Savarese 2010). Cultural anthropology had since open world knowledge about Eastern cultural practices. In particular, what Barba (1995) was to define as theatre anthropology, was going to broaden Western understandings about the actors’ body and stage presence by observing and learning from Eastern theatre and dance traditions. China has not been an exception, inspiring several artists with its folklore, opera and music. With Mei Lanfang, however, we observe a reverse cultural dynamic: in his writings Eastern eyes look at non-Chinese traditions (Pompa 2010). We wish to discuss these perspectives, by focusing on Mei Lanfang’s observations on the actor’s creativity and pedagogy. By doing so, we wish to draw anthropological and pedagogical indications for a broader audience of educators and arts based methods scholars.