"劇場藝術"一詞的崛起并逐漸取代"戲劇藝術"的現象是進入21世紀之后。而西文theatre是個多義詞。長期以來,當它與art搭配時,中文通常都譯為"戲劇藝術"。然而,近幾年來,"劇場藝術"卻大有取而代之的勢頭。本文通過對"劇場藝術"一詞在中國的走紅過程,深入討論了其所反映的深層次問題,亦即對戲劇藝術本質的認識,試圖指出部分大陸學者面對紛亂的后現代戲劇,盲目使用這一名詞并將之擴大化,不只是在學術上造成了混亂,更重要的是扭曲了戲劇藝術的本質。

It is a phenomenon of the new century that the term "theatre art" became popular replacing the "art of drama".However, "theatre" in western languages is a word of multiple meanings.When used with "art",it has usually been translated into "art of drama" [xijuyishu]in Chinese.But in recent years,that translation tends to give way to "art of theatre" [juchangyishu].By tracing the course of the popularity of the term "art of theatre",this paper makes an in-depth discussion of the problem imbedded in the terminology,that is,the problem in understanding the nature of drama,and argues that by misusing and spreading the term,some scholars from mainland China have not only caused confusion in academic discourse,but distorted the nature of drama when talking about the chaos of postmodern drama.