About the Anthology and Companion
THE VOLUMES
Patricia Sieber and Regina Llamas's co-edited volume How To Read Chinese Drama: A Guided Anthology (New York: Columbia University Press, 2022) is the first major resource for traditional Chinese drama intended to reach a diverse international audience. Written by an interdisciplinary group of leading drama scholars to address the multimedia nature of Chinese drama (lyrics, music, acting, publishing), the chapters examine individual plays originally written between the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Each chapter offers contextual analysis and bilingual excerpts.ABOUT THE ANTHOLOGY
In addition to discussions of key plays and their associated performance traditions, the volume also contains many supplementary materials designed to make the traditional Chinese theatrical tradition more accessible to curious non-specialists: a thematic table of contents, a timeline of major events in Chinese theatrical history, a narrative survey of the major developments in traditional Chinese drama and theater from its inception to the present day, a bilingual glossary, and a list of visual resources.ABOUT THE LANGUAGE COMPANION
Guo Yingde, Wenbo Chang, Patricia Sieber, and Zhang Xiaohui's co-edited volume How To Read Chinese Drama in Chinese: A Language Companion (New York: Columbia University Press, 2023) is designed to allow advanced learners of Chinese to experience the beauty, poignancy, and rambunctious wit of the Chinese theatrical tradition in its original language. This volume includes excerpts from six of the plays discussed at length in How To Read Chinese Drama, namely, The Orphan of Zhao, The Story of the Western Wing, Top Graduate Zhang Xie, The Lute, Mulan Joins the Army in Place of Her Father, and The Peony Pavilion. Each of the chosen scenes is copiously annotated in English with references to usage in modern Chinese.TEACHING AND ACCESSIBILITY
In order to make Chinese drama more accessible, both volumes encompasse ancillary materials. In How To Read Chinese Drama: A Guided Anthology, in addition to an "Introduction: The Cultural Significance of Chinese Drama," we provide the following tools: Thematic Contents, Chronology of Historical Events, Visual Resources, and Glossary-Index (all in English).In How to Read Chinese Drama in Chinese: A Language Companion, we feature the following items: Targeted introductions to each scene (in English), dramatic conventions (bilingual), rhyme tables (in Chinese), and a list of literary issues discussed (Chinese). To enhance student engagement, the volume also showcases bilingual exercises structured around authentic cultural content related to the plays' reception history in dynastic and modern China as well as bilingual assignments designed to improve student competence across all four skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening). Some of these exercises makes use of the material found on the "Chinese Theater Collaborative."