How to Read Chinese Drama in Chinese - (How to Read Chinese Literature) by Patricia Sieber & Wenbo Chang & Yingde Guo & Xiaohui Zhang (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book is at once a guided primer on Chinese drama and an innovative textbook. A companion to How to Read Chinese Drama designed for Chinese-language learners, it provides a versatile introduction to traditional Chinese plays for readers who want to experience Chinese drama in the original language.

Book Synopsis

This book is at once a guided primer on Chinese drama and an innovative textbook. It is a companion volume to How to Read Chinese Drama, designed for Chinese-language learners.

How to Read Chinese Drama in Chinese provides a versatile introduction to iconic scenes from traditional Chinese plays for readers who want to experience Chinese drama in the original language. Each chapter features an excerpt from a well-known play, ranging across political intrigue, military adventure, heroic devotion, romantic passion, and raucous humor. A succinct and informative English-language introduction precedes each scene. Excerpts are accompanied by line-by-line modern Chinese translations; individual words and expressions are annotated in English with modern Chinese equivalent expressions supplied. Dramatic scenes are followed by exercises that deepen language proficiency and knowledge of traditional and modern Chinese culture.

This book can be used as a textbook in the advanced modern Chinese or the classical Chinese classroom, as a companion in a Chinese literature course for advanced learners and native speakers, or as a springboard to deeper engagement with Chinese theater for specialists and interested general readers alike.

Review Quotes

Chinese theater synthesizes a great variety of performance modes rather than separating them out. This makes it both difficult and very rewarding to learn and to teach. Comprising a stellar group of scholars, How to Read Chinese Drama in Chinese is extraordinary scholarship of the highest quality that will benefit students greatly.--David Rolston, author of Inscribing Jingju/Peking Opera: Textualization and Performance, Authorship and Censorship of the "National Drama" of China from the Late Qing to the Present

The very first of its kind, this carefully crafted primer on classical Chinese drama offers a pleasant and informative reading of the best works of Chinese theater and helps the reader to appreciate the beauty and musicality of the original Chinese language.--Ying Wang, cotranslator of The Fragrant Companions: A Play About Love Between Women

This well designed coursebook will allow Chinese language instructors and students to approach advanced Chinese language learning through traditional drama. The selected plays are iconic and do a good job of introducing students to different types of drama, which unfortunately is currently rarely taught in classical Chinese courses.--Emily Wilcox, coeditor of Corporeal Politics: Dancing East Asia

About the Author

Guo Yingde is professor of Chinese language and literature in the Institute of Chinese Language and Literature at Beijing Normal University.

Wenbo Chang is lecturer in Chinese language and literature in the Department of Comparative Literature and Intercultural Studies at the University of Georgia.

Patricia Sieber is associate professor of Chinese literature and director of the Translation and Interpreting program at Ohio State University as well as coeditor of How to Read Chinese Drama: A Guided Anthology (2022).

Xiaohui Zhang (1985-2020) was a PhD candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.