本文以兩齣歌仔戲做比較，來分析勞工階級與知識份子不同的美學與歷史概 念。兩齣戲同樣是以淸領時期臺灣的「甘國寶」民間傳說爲背景，其中「甘國寶過 臺灣」乃一齣外臺胡撇仔戲，而「刺桐花開」則是在國家戲劇院演出的精緻歌仔戲; 前者是探討社會階級的鬧劇，後者則是探討族群衝突的悲劇。
外臺戲的美學爲寫意（allegory)。在「甘國寶過臺灣」這齣戲裡，臺上的過 去世界將現代社會抽象化、精髓化。淸領臺灣「眞實的」歷史背景與胡撇仔表演方 式的結合，使戲中主角旣是道德典範，又同時是現代社會不同的階層地位之刻板印 象。因此，這齣戲以古諷今，同時以今諷古；一方面批評當代階層關係，也同時用 現代生活的經驗來挑戰傳統倫理。
相反地，「刺桐花開」這齣戲則是以類比（analogy)的表現手法來呈現過去和 現在的關係——當時平埔族與漢族的文化衝突就如同是現代臺灣人與西方人的衝 突。雖然「刺桐花開」的目的在於創造一個獨特的臺灣國族認同，然而，它卻套用 了美國的「民族」（ethnicity)概念來再現臺灣的面貌。

To analyze the different poetics of working-class and intellectual popular history, this paper compares two koa-a-hi 歌仔戲(Taiwanese opera) performances which take Qing dynasty Taiwan as their setting, and are loosely based on the same folk legend. Kam Kokpo Goes to Taiwan (Kam Kokpo Koe Taioan 甘國寶過臺灣）was performed at a temple festival in Taipei, in the bricolage o-pei-la 胡撇仔 style; India Coral Reblossoming (Chhiatang Hoe Khui 刺桐花開）is an original “refined” opera performed at the National Theater. Kam Kokpo is a farce about class relations; India Coral is a tragedy about ethnic relations.
Kam Kokpo constructs an allegorical relationship between the past and the present, in which characters stand for abstract essences. The combination of the “real” historical setting with the o-pei-la style makes the characters simultaneously social types and moral exemplars，allowing for a critical reading of both contemporary class relations and a traditional moral economy. In contrast, India Coral constructs a relationship between past and present that is analogical——the Pingpu aborigines were to the Han settlers as Taiwanese are to Americans. Despite the opera’s explicit purpose of constructing a unique Taiwanese identity, its analogical poetics ironically replicate a distinctly American model of ethnicity.