[Lees] eKnihy The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese
Drama
By Xiaomei Chen
The first of its kind in English, this anthology translates twenty-two
popular Chinese plays published between 1919 and 2000, accompanied by a
critical introduction to the historical, cultural, and aesthetic evolution of
twentieth-century Chinese spoken drama. Primarily comprising works from
the People's Republic of China, though including representative plays from
Hong Kong and Taiwan, this collection not only showcases the revolutionary
rethinking of Chinese theater and performance that began in the late
Qing dynasty. It also highlights the formation of Chinese national and
gender identities during a period of tremendous social and political
change, along with the genesis of contemporary attitudes toward the
West.Early twentieth-century Chinese drama embodies the uncertainty
and anxiety brought on by modernism, socialism, political conflict, and war.
After 1949, PRC theater painted a complex portrait of the rise of
communism in China, with the ideals of Chinese socialism juxtaposed
