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Chinese Theater Collaborative

Book Cover - How to Read Chinese Drama

This page is referenced by:

About 101 plain 12 2025-01-30T15:30:03+00:00
- Read this page in Simplified Chinese
- Read this page in Traditional Chinese
WELCOME
Welcome to the Chinese Theater Collaborative! We are excited that you are here and we hope that you will find ways to make this resource part of your exploration of the life and afterlives of traditional Chinese theater (also referred to as "Chinese opera"). We hope that you find the site not only useful, but we invite you to become a contributor, no matter whether you are a scholar, teacher, student, theater professional and theater fan, translator, or whether you are visiting our "Collaborative" in any other capacity.
OUR STRUCTURE
Our team is committed to introducing traditional Chinese drama and its modern afterlives to an international audience. We think of our efforts as a tripod with three legs. The first leg consists of How To Read Chinese Drama: A Guided Anthology (New York: Columbia University Press, 2022), an inviting introduction to key plays in the traditional Chinese theatrical repertoire written by an international group of drama experts for an undergraduate audience.

The second leg is comprised of How To Read Chinese Drama in Chinese: A Language Companion (New York: Columbia University Press, 2023), an annotated guide to select scenes from iconic plays geared towards advanced learners of the Chinese language. The third leg is the "Chinese Theater Collaborative" digital resource center. It is meant to connect the dots between the written theatrical corpus of the past and its modern adaptations on the stage, on the screen, and in other media.
WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK
We hope that you will share your feedback with us. We welcome corrections to existing content, recommendations on what other professional productions we should add, and submissions of amateur and student renditions in any format.

For all queries and suggestions, please contact us via email: ChineseTheaterCollaborative@osu.edu.
IMAGES ON LANDING PAGE: CLICK TO EXPAND

In order of their appearance, the images featured in the landing page animation are:
1. Cigarette card titled: “Western Wing Act 2: Renting an Adjacent Room.” From left to right: Hongniang, Abbot, Student Zhang. Source: George Arents Collection, The New York Public Library. "Woman spies on men talking inside house." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed July 31, 2023. Credit: High resolution scan provided by the New York Public Library.
2. Vase with scenes from Romance of the Western Chamber, late 17th c. Porcelain painted in cobalt blue under transparent glaze, 38.7 x 29 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Public Domain Online Collection Purchase by subscription, 1879, 79.2.412.
3. Yingying reads Student Zhang’s letter. Source: Wang Shuhui 王叔暉 (illustration), Hong Cengling 洪曾玲 (textual adaptation). 西廂記 (The Western Wing). Beijing: People’s Fine Arts Publishing House, 1980 [1958]. Credit: Screenshot of user My Little Person Books' 我的小人书 Youtube video of the comic by CTC Project Team.
4. Divine Judge and Little Demon in Top Graduate Zhang Xie (2017). Source: 2017 Top Graduate Zhang Xie Yongjia Kunju Troupe production found on Bilibili. Credit: Screenshot by CTC Project Team.
5. Image from the 2011 stage production of The Western Wing featured as promotional material on the 2019 Chinese Opera Festival website. (from left to right): Student Zhang (Qian Huili 钱惠丽) and Cui Yingying (Fang Yafen 方亚芬).
  Source: Chinese Opera Festival Zhongguo Xiqu jie 中国戏曲节 2019.
6. Yingying looks back at Student Zhang. Source: The 1927 film, The Romance of the Western Chamber, as found on Youtube. Credit: Screenshot by CTC Project Team.
7. Madam Cui in the 1999 film Hongniang is so moved, she could cry. Source: Hongniang on Youtube. Credit: Screenshot by CTC Project Team.
8. The famous mural commemorating a zaju performance that an actress from the entertainment quarters gave at the Water God Temple (1324) (see <em>HTRCD</em>, “Introduction”). This image is sourced from the China Culture Foundation, 中國文化基金會 (Macau).
9. Detail of Gu Hongzhang 顧閎中, The Night Revels of Han Xizai 韩熙载夜宴图, handscroll, ink and colors on silk, 28.7 x 335.5 cm. Original by Gu Hongzhong (10th century), 12th century remake from the Song Dynasty. Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing. Credit: Zhongguo lidai huihua: Gugong bowuyuan canghua ji, vol. 1 (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1978), 8. Public domain, published online by the University of Washington.
10. Panel 23 of the 1986 Peony Pavilion lianhuanhua, Du Liniang eyes the reader. Source: Liu Changhua 刘昌华 (illustrator) and Liang Chen 良辰 (text adaptation). 牡丹亭 Mudanting (Peony Pavilion). Jiangsu Fine Arts Press, 1986. Credit: Scan by CTC Project Team.
11. Scholar Zhang speaks to Yingying through a lattice in the wall. Source: Wang Shuhui 王叔暉 (illustration), Hong Cengling 洪曾玲 (textual adaptation). 西廂記 (The Western Wing). Beijing: People’s Fine Arts Publishing House, 1980 [1958]. Credit: Credit: Screenshot of user My Little Person Books' 我的小人书Youtube video of the comic by CTC Project Team.
12. Rong Lan (left) dressed as Liu Mengmei to give Jade (right) a birthday surprise in the film The Peony Pavilion (2001). Screenshot by Hui Yao.
13. A poster of the 1965 huangmeidiao opera version of The West Chamber. Source: This image is sourced from Baidu.
14. Panel four, "Composing a Poem in Reply” heshi 和诗 of Wang Shuhui’s color Western Wing. Source: Wang Shuhui 王叔暉 (illustration), Guo Fengming 郭烽明 & Liu Yumin 劉毓敏 (textual adaptation). 西廂記 (The Western Wing). Beijing: People’s Fine Arts Publishing House, 1957.
  Credit: Scan sourced from China Art & Calligraphy 中国字画网.
15. An illustration of Zhao Wuniang, the young female lead, Cai Bojie, the young male lead, and Ms. Niu, the supporting young female Source: Lianhuan huitu Qi caizi Pipa ji 連環繪圖七才子琵琶記 (The Sequentially Illustrated Seventh Book of Genius, The Lute). Shanghai: Jinzhang shuju, n.d. [1905?].
16. Cigarette card titled: “Western Wing Act 1: A Startling Beauty.” From left to right: Yingying, her maid Hongniang, the monk Facong, Student Zhang. Source: George Arents Collection, The New York Public Library. "Outdoor scene, conversation." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed July 30, 2023. Credit: High resolution scan provided by the New York Public Library.
17. Panel 8 of the 1986 The Lute. Cai Yong ignores his new bride. Source: Zheng Mukang 郑慕康 (illustrator), Zhou Chujiang 周楚江 (illustrator), and Zhi Guo 治国 (text adaptation). 年画连环画《琵琶记》 (Serial New Year’s Print of The Lute). Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Fine Publishing House, [1958] 2010. Credit: Scan by CTC Project Team.
18. Lin Meimei (left, as Zhang Xie) and Wang Chenghu (right, as Wang Deyong) in a stage production of Top Graduate Zhang Xie (2017). Source: This image is sourced from an article on Sohu.
About the Organization and Types of Analysis
The site is organized around the thirty or so plays that are discussed in and How To Read Chinese Drama in Chinese: A Language Companion and their afterlives in theatrical, filmic, and other media. Each play is discussed briefly on an introductory page and then different productions are given their own separate section. Typically, we provide text, images, and some video clips.

Given the dynamic and malleable nature of dramatic texts in China, virtually all later renditions of these plays take the form of adaptations. The exact nature of the changes made depend on many factors--the producers, the audience, and the historical circumstances among others. At the same time, the respective media--live traditional theater, film, and modern spoken theater among others--also decisively shape the aesthetic form and the social significance of individual versions.

For each of the plays analyzed, we provide selective topical analysis across all its adaptations. For the six plays features in How To Read Chinese Drama in Chinese, these topics partially correlate to the exercises attached to the annotated excerpts. Currently, individual chapters offer the following focal points for the commentary of the associated productions:

Chapter 1: The Orphan of Zhao (How To Convey Dramatic Tension Through Props)
Chapter 2: The Story of the Western Wing (How To Create a Character Through Voice Effects and Gestures)
Chapter 3: Top Graduate Zhang Xie (How To Create Different Kinds of Humor)
Chapter 4: The Lute (How To Express Emotion Through Singing Techniques)
Chapter 5: The Female Mulan Takes the Place of Her Father (How To Mark Gender in Performance)
Chapter 6: The Peony Pavilion (How To Use Instrumental Music for Dramatic Effect)

For more broadly focused analysis of individual productions, we refer the user to "Further Readings" where available.
Chinese Theatre Collaborative Contributors 17 plain 2022-07-15T16:19:36+00:00
PROJECT DIRECTOR
The project was spearheaded by Prof. Patricia Sieber (DEALL), the lead editor of How To Read Chinese Drama: A Guided Anthology (Columbia University, 2022) and co-editor of How To Read Chinese Drama in Chinese: A Language Companion (Columbia University Press, forthcoming 2023).
PROJECT TEAM
In its current prototype phase, this project is a collaboration between four units at The Ohio State University, namely, the Department of East Asian Languages (DEALL), the Department of Design, the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) and the University Libraries.

For content generation, the project lead is Prof. Patricia Sieber (DEALL) with the assistance of Prof. Marjorie Chan (DEALL), Dr. Gillian Zhang (OSU Art History, PhD 2022), and Li Zhao (PhD student, DEALL).

For the DH aspect of the project, the project benefits from the expertise of Prof. Leigh Bonds (University Libraries).

For design development, the project lead is Prof. Maria Palazzi with the assistance of Taylor Olsen (Department of Design), Gabrielle Miniello (MFA student, Department of Design), and Emma Peters (BS student, Department of Design).
EDITORIAL BOARD
FOUNDING EDITOR
Patricia Sieber (The Ohio State University, USA)
MEMBERS (in alphabetical order):
- Marjorie Chan (The Ohio State University, USA)
- Joseph S.C. Lam (University of Michigan, USA)
- Shiamin Kwa (Bryn Mawr College, USA)
- Regina Llamas (IE University, Spain)
- Josh Stenberg (University of Sydney, Australia)
- Gillian Zhang (Cleveland Museum of Art, USA)
FUNDING SUPPORT
We gratefully acknowledge funding support from an OSU Arts and Humanities Collaborative Grant (PI, Patricia Sieber, co-PIs Maria Palazzi, Leigh Bonds, and Marjorie Chan, spring 2021) that allowed us to get the project started. We also are grateful for additional support from a Global Arts and Humanities Award (PI, Maria Palazzi and Leigh Bonds).