The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama (Abridged Edition) ed. by Xiaomei Chen

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-223
Author(s):  
Xing Fan
Keyword(s):  
Modern Chinese ◽  
Modern Chinese Drama

Modern Chinese Drama: Characteristics – Problems – Perspectives

1983 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 220-232
Author(s):  
Wolfram Schlenker ◽  
Antony Tatlow
Keyword(s):  
Political Context ◽  
Chinese Theatre ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
Commercial Theatre ◽  
Modern Chinese Drama ◽  
At Home

In China, Western theatre-goers often have the feeling that they are sitting in a boulevard theatre. At most the higher moral level and a certain didactic quality, together, with political seriousness, seem to distinguish the melodramas, comedies and thrillers from the popular plays of the commercial theatre at home. Reflecting on the different character of Chinese theatre, the European viewer quickly falls back on adjectives like ‘backward’, ‘underdeveloped’, even if he or she would justifiably reject such eurocentric judgments in an economic or political context. I should like to try not just to describe modern Chinese drama but to suggest some historical and social reasons for its specific characteristics.

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