Overview

This book is a comprehensive and inviting introduction to the literary forms and cultural significance of Chinese drama as both text and performance. Each chapter offers an accessible overview and critical analysis of one or more plays-canonical as well as less frequently studied works-and their historical contexts. How to Read Chinese Drama highlights how each play sheds light on key aspects of the dramatic tradition, including genre conventions, staging practices, musical performance, audience participation, and political resonances, emphasizing interconnections among chapters. It brings together leading scholars spanning anthropology, art history, ethnomusicology, history, literature, and theater studies. How to Read Chinese Drama is straightforward, clear, and concise, written for undergraduate students and their instructors as well as a wider audience interested in world theater. For students of Chinese literature and language, the book provides questions to explore when reading, watching, and listening to plays, and it features bilingual excerpts. For teachers, an analytical table of contents, a theater-specific chronology of events, and lists of visual resources and translations provide pedagogical resources for exploring Chinese theater within broader cultural and comparative contexts. For theater practitioners, the volume offers deeply researched readings of important plays together with background on historical performance conventions, audience responses, and select modern adaptations.

Full Product Details

Author:   Patricia Sieber ,  Regina Llamas
Publisher:   Columbia University Press
Imprint:   Columbia University Press
ISBN:  

9780231186483

ISBN 10:   0231186487
Pages:   480
Publication Date:   25 January 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Contents Thematic Contents Preface to the How to Read Chinese Literature Series A Note on How to Use This Anthology Chronology of Historical Events Symbols, Abbreviations, and Typographical Usage Introduction: The Cultural Significance of Chinese Drama Patricia Sieber and Regina Llamas Part I: Yuan and Ming Dynasties: Zaju Plays 1. The Story of the Western Wing: Tale, Ballad, and Play Wilt L. Idema 1.1 Yuan Zhen’s (779–831) “The Tale of Oriole” 1.2 Story of the Western Wing in All Keys and Modes: “The Tale of Oriole” in Narrative Ballads 1.3 *The Story of the Western Wing: Student Zhang and Oriole on Stage 1.4 Controversies in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 2. Purple Clouds, Wrong Career, and Tiger Head Plaque: Jurchen Foreigners in Early Drama Stephen H. West 2.1 Approaches to the Foreign 2.2 Wrong Career and Purple Cloud: Jurchen Performers in the World of Entertainment 2.3 The Tiger Head Plaque: Jurchen Performers in Their Native Lands 3. The Pavilion for Praying to the Moon and The Injustice to Dou E: The Innovation of the Female Lead Patricia Sieber 3.1 Guan Hanqing (ca. 1220–after 1279), Zhulian xiu (fl. 1270–1300), and the Acting Culture of Yuan Zaju Theater 3.2 The Pavilion for Praying to the Moon: The Moral Suasion of Situational Ethics 3.3 The Injustice to Dou E: The Disruptive Power of Filial Remonstration 4. The Story of the Western Wing: Theater and the Printed Image Patricia Sieber and Gillian Yanzhuang Zhang 4.1 Image-Making Between Self-Expression and Commerce 4.2 *The Story of the Western Wing: The Deluxe Edition (1499)—an App for Singing 4.3 The Story of the Western Wing: The Glossed Edition (c. 1609)—an App for Role-Playing 4.4 The Story of the Western Wing: The Exclusive Edition (1639–1640)—an App for Virtual Reality 5. The Orphan of Zhao: The Meaning of Loyalty and Filiality Shih-pe Wang 5.1 Historical Background 5.2 The Orphan of Zhao: How the Yuan Zaju Play Dramatizes the Story 5.3 *The Orphan of Zhao, Wedge: The Confrontation between Good and Evil 5.4 *The Orphan of Zhao, Act 1: How the Orphan Was Smuggled Out 5.5 The Orphan of Zhao, Act 2: To Die or to Live On 5.6 The Orphan of Zhao, Act 3: A Play Performed for the Eyes of the Villain 5.7 The Orphan of Zhao, Acts 4 (and 5): Truth and Revenge 5.8 The Orphan of Zhao: Twenty-First-Century Adaptations 6. The Female Mulan Joins the Army in Place of Her Father: Gender and Performance Shiamin Kwa 6.1 Xu Wei (1521–1593) and His Quartet of Ming Zaju Plays 6.2 Mulan: The Two-Act Structure 6.3 *Mulan: Changing Clothes 6.4 Mulan: Gentle Men 6.5 Mulan: Happily Ever After Part II: Ming Dynasty and Early Qing Dynasty: Nanxi and Chuanqi Plays 7. Top Graduate Zhang Xie and The Lute: Scholar, Family, and State Regina Llamas 7.1 Top Graduate and The Lute: Background 7.2 Top Graduate and The Lute: The Prologues 7.3 Top Graduate and The Lute: The Ungrateful Scholar 7.4 *The Lute: The Husk Wife 7.5 *Top Graduate and The Lute: Language and Comedy 8. The Southern Story of the Western Wing: Traditional Kunqu Composition, Interpretation, and Performance Joseph S. C. Lam 8.1 Storied Kunqu and Its Traditional Practitioners 8.2 A Historical Account of Li Rihua’s Southern Western Wing 8.3 “Reading Li Rihua’s “Happy Time” and “Twelve Shades” as Kunqu 8.4 Li Rihua’s Composition of “Happy Time” and the Reactions It Elicited 8.5 Performing “Twelve Shades” 9. The Peony Pavilion: Emotions, Dreams, and Spectatorship Ling Hon Lam 9.1 Under the Weather 9.2 *Waking to Dreams 9.3 In the Face of a Page 10. Green Peony and The Swallow’s Letter: Drama and Politics Ying Zhang 10.1 New Dramas and Old Interpretive Techniques 10.2 A Dramatist’s Dilemma 10.3 Wu Bing, Ruan Dacheng, and the Factional Struggles in a New Political Culture 10.4 Weaponizing Drama 10.5 The Suspect Author 10.6 Evidence of Insinuation 10.7 Spontaneity in Theater 11. A Much Desired Match: Playwriting, Stagecraft, and Entrepreneurship S. E. Kile 11.1 Li Yu: A Very Theatrical Entrepreneur 11.2 Leisure Notes: Toward a Coherent, Up-to-Date, and Accessible Theatrical Experience 11.3 How to Read an Opening Scene 11.4 Love, Art, and Theater in a World Full of Frauds 12. Peach Blossom Fan and Palace of Everlasting Life: History, Romance, and Performance Mengjun Li and Guo Yingde 12.1 Kong Shangren and Hong Sheng: Chuanqi Plays as Alternative History 12.2 Peach Blossom Fan: “Talk about Love is Simply Pointless” 12.3 Palace of Everlasting Life: “With New Lyrics, (This Play) Is All about Love” 12.4 Peach Blossom Fan and Palace of Everlasting Life: Music as the Language of Love 12.5 Peach Blossom Fanand Palace of Everlasting Life: Performance as Political Remonstration 12.6 Peach Blossom Fanand Palace of Everlasting Life: Performance as Mediated History Part III: Mid–Qing Dynasty: Zaju and Chuanqi Plays 13. Song of Dragon Well and Other Court Plays: Stage Directions, Spectacle, and Panegyrics Tian Yuan Tan 13.1 Contextualizing Wang Wenzhi’s Court Drama 13.2 Wang Wenzhi’s Authorship of Court Drama 13.3 Texts and Functions of Wang Wenzhi’s Court Drama 13.4 In Praise of the Occasion and His Majesty: Functionalities of Court Plays 13.5 Pageantry, Formulaic Sequences, and Visual Spectacles 13.6 Engagement through Literary Elements 14. The Eight-Court Pearl: Performance Scripts and Political Culture Andrea S. Goldman 14.1 Eight-Court Pearl: The Script 14.2 Suzhou School History Plays and Other Textual Antecedents 14.3 Violence as the Solution 14.4 Who Were the Disaffected? Part IV: Ming, Qing, and Modern Eras: Ritual Plays 15. Mulian Rescues His Mother: Play Structure, Ritual, and Soundscapes Sai-shing Yung 15.1 The Iconography of Hell 15.2 Zheng Zhizhen’s Mulian Rescues His Mother: Exhortation to Goodness 15.3 Exhortation: Structure and Plot 15.4 Mulian Plays and Sonic Force in Performance 15.5 The Soundscape of Exorcism 16. The Story of Hua Guan Suo: Chantefable and Ritual Plays Anne E. McLaren 16.1 Genres 16.2 TheChantefable The Story of Hua Guan Suo: Regionality 16.3 The Story of Hua Guan Suo: Central Themes 16.4 Origins and Historical Development 16.5 Authorship 16.6 Performative Aspects 16.7 The Story of Hua Guan Suo: Example of a Prelude 16.8 Chantefables and Plays: The Oath of the Brotherhood 16.9 The Story of Hua Guan Suo: An Example of “Ten Beats to a Line” 16.10 A Play of Exorcism from Guichi (Anhui Province), Twentieth Century 16.11 Guan Suo Plays in Xiaotun Village, Chengjiang (Yunnan Province), Twentieth Century 16.12 Combat Sequences Acknowledgments Contributors Visual Resources Glossary-Index * Excerpts from those plays are also featured, accompanied by modern Chinese translation and extensive annotation, in Guo Yingde, Wenbo Chang, Patricia Sieber, and Xiaohui Zhang, eds., How to Read Chinese Drama in Chinese: A Language Companion. New York: Columbia University Press (under advance agreement).

Reviews

Traditional Chinese theater is a different kind of theater that synthesizes a great variety of performance modes, making it both difficult and very rewarding to learn and to teach. Bringing together a wide variety of approaches and focuses, How to Read Chinese Drama is an outstanding achievement. -- David L. Rolston, author of <i>Inscribing</i> Jingju<i>/Peking Opera: Textualization and Performance, Authorship and Censorship of the National Drama of China from the Late Qing to the Present</i>

Another gem in Columbia's How to Read Chinese Literature series. From comic obscenities to heartbreaking lyricism, the expressive language of Chinese drama runs the gamut, making it the hardest but most rewarding of all genres. Now we have the perfect guide for novices and experts alike. -- Judith Zeitlin, coeditor of <i>The Voice as Something More: Essays Toward Materiality</i> A stunning achievement in the study of Chinese drama. This well-structured and concisely composed anthology provides students, scholars, and general readers a timely scholarly book which is at once accessible and comprehensive. Highly recommended for theater studies, traditional and modern cultural and literary studies, comparative drama, and global performance studies! -- Xiaomei Chen, author of <i>Staging Chinese Revolution: Theater, Film, and the Afterlives of Propaganda</i> Traditional Chinese theater is a different kind of theater that synthesizes a great variety of performance modes, making it both difficult and very rewarding to learn and to teach. Bringing together a wide variety of approaches and focuses, How to Read Chinese Drama is an outstanding achievement. -- David L. Rolston, author of <i>Inscribing</i> Jingju<i>/Peking Opera: Textualization and Performance, Authorship and Censorship of the National Drama of China from the Late Qing to the Present</i> Perhaps the most helpful element in this excellent guide for students and scholars is its Thematic Contents list. By guiding the reader to related topics across its many descriptive and interpretive essays, it both demonstrates and provides access for understanding the richness and complexity of the Chinese theatrical tradition. -- Robert E. Hegel, cotranslator of <i>A Couple of Soles</i>

Author Information

Patricia Sieber is associate professor of Chinese at Ohio State University. She is the author of Theaters of Desire: Authors, Readers, and the Reproduction of Early Chinese Song-Drama, 1300–2000 (2003). Regina S. Llamas is associate professor in the humanities at IE University, Spain. She is the translator of Top Graduate Zhang Xie: The Earliest Extant Chinese Southern Play (Columbia, 2021).

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