When this occurs, the strange bedfellows of tourist consumerism and nationalist ideology co-conspire to reinvigorate the traditional art. With the emergence of modern nation-states in previously colonized areas, traditional arts are apt to collapse with the political and social change that self-determination and economic development encourage. I hope to extrapolate how the case of yokthe is representative of the situation of other genres in Southeast Asia as arts make the transition from a colonial to postcolonial era. My intention in this brief report is to comment on the yokthe in its earlier milieu and discuss the current framework for puppet performance in Myanmar, showing how, as the traditional patronage system for the art has passed, the modern forces of tourism and nationalism have promoted the revival of the genre. In August 1998, however, I found a resurgence of Burmese marionette theatre, but in a new context. The traditional puppet theatre of Myanmar (Burma), yokthe thay, experienced a severe decline in the period from World War II to the late 1980s when some claimed the art was in danger of demise.
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