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• 1 media/CTC_GuanBG.png 2024-11-15T05:45:05+00:00 The Crimson Palm
  血手印 (1964) 30 plain 2025-01-31T15:01:24+00:00

  Huangmei Opera Film
  Director: Chan Yau-San 陳又新

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  LINKS TO THE FILM

  • The film with traditional Chinese and English subtitles on YouTube: part 1 and part 2.
  • The film with traditional Chinese subtitles on YouTube.
  • The film with traditional Chinese subtitles on the Chinese streaming site bilibili.

  INFORMATION

  • Title: The Crimson Palm 血手印
  • Year: 1964
  • Genre: Huangmei Opera Film
  • Director: Chan Yau-San 陳又新
  • Cast: Ivy Ling-Po 凌波 (as Lin Zhaode 林肇德), Ping Chin 秦苹 (as Wang Qianjin 王千金), Li Ching 李菁 (as Xuechun 雪春), Kuang-chao Yiu 尤光照 (as Chun Wang 王春)
  • Producer: Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Ltd. / 邵氏兄弟（香港）有限公司
  • Screenplay: Chan Yau-San 陳又新
  • Language: Chinese Mandarin
  • Duration: 81 minutes

  INTRODUCTION

  Amongst the large corpus of Huangmei opera films produced by the Shaw Brothers in the late 1950s and 1960s, the 1964 film The Crimson Palm (Xie Shouyin 血手印) may not have been the most popular or acclaimed, yet, it is widely remembered nowadays for producing the breakout hit song “Path on the Outskirts” (“Jiaodao” 郊道). The film was conceived as a star vehicle for actress Ivy Ling Po 凌波 (1939-). Having started out in Fujianese dialect film, Ling had become a household name in Hong Kong and developed a cult following there, in Taiwan and elsewhere in South East Asia in the wake of her performance as male scholar Liang Shanbo 梁山伯 in the Mandarin-language Huangmei opera film The Love Eterne (Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai 梁山伯與祝英台, 1963). In The Crimson Palm, she is cast once more in a male part, this time as the persecuted scholar Lin Zhaode 林肇德.
  
  The film draws its script from the Yue opera 越剧 The Crimson Palm (Xie Shouyin 血手印), which was also known under the title Wang’s Daughter Pays Homage to Her Husband (Wang Qianjin ji fu 王千金祭夫). In the story, poverty forces the young scholar Lin Zhaode 林钊得 to work as a water vendor. He is wrongly accused as the murderer of the maid of a local beauty, Miss Wang. When the case goes to court, the most iconic judge-cum-detective, the legendary Judge Bao (Bao Zheng 包拯), eventually solves the case. In 1917, the troupe of Wei Meiduo 卫梅朵 (1890-1931) and Ma Ashun 马阿顺 (1890-1930), men from Shengxian County 嵊县, who had traveled to Shanghai to explore new performance opportunities, first adapted Guan Hanqing’s Governor Qian Cleverly Interprets a Dream about Red Clothes  (Qian Dayin zhikan Feiyimeng 錢大尹智勘緋衣夢) for Yue opera. Their adaptation shifted the focus of the story from the detective plot towards romance.
  
  Once Yue opera became a predominantly female theatrical form, such a plot shift was amplified. In 1912, the newly established Republic government (1911-1949) lifted the Qing dynasty ban against women’s public performance, enabling women to return to professional stages. By the 1930s, female Yue opera troupes gradually replaced their male predecessors in the Shanghai show business. Women’s Yue opera scripts often presented nuanced negotiations of romance in different familial, social, and political scenarios. In 1956, the playwright Fu Jun 傅骏 (1931- 2006) readapted the play for a women’s troupe. The intricate art of “expressing sentimentality” (yanqing 言情) featured prominently in this version. Despite being inspired by the 1956 Yue opera, the 1964 Huangmei opera film significantly downplayed romance, while cinematically amplifying the story’s crime elements. In terms of its visual language, the film was heavily indebted to the genre of film noir, that is, stylized Hollywood crime dramas of the 1940s and 1950s.
  
  The song “Path on the Outskirts” is not only memorable as a standalone hit, but it also illustrates The Crimson Palm’s mixing of the Chinese genres of “scholar-beauty” (caizi jiaren 才子佳人) romance and courtroom drama with the Hollywood film noir. Musically, the song’s melody makes use of the masculine tune of Peking opera and incorporates it into the otherwise feminine singing tradition of Huangmei opera. The song’s vigorous tune showcased Ling Po’s singing abilities, while underscoring her masculinized screen image. Not only did this tune become one of her signature songs, but it also inspired countless covers by generations of aspiring singers such as pop icon Teresa Teng 鄧麗君 (1953 – 1995). Cinematically, the mise-en-scène, camera angles and lighting of this musical scene enhance the sense of disorientation expressed by the lyrics and felt by the singing character.
  
  
  This module focuses on how this Huangmei opera film blended operatic traditions with the conventions of film noir. The film employs noir-ish elements but also deviates from classic noir’s narrative structure. Through such flexible adaptative choices, the film negotiates its attitude towards Hong Kong’s legal system. Ceded to the United Kingdom after the Opium War (1839-42), Hong Kong remained a British crown colony after World War II (it became a “British dependent territory” in 1983). To build its post-war economy, British Hong Kong welcomed business from both US-sponsored Taiwan and communist China. The colonial government kept a “neutral” political stance, balancing demands from both camps. This oftentimes involved turning a blind eye to “minor” skirmishes and lax applications of laws as long as the public order remained undisturbed. Crucially, the colonial government also abused this rhetoric of neutrality to sideline critiques of genuine social problems of the Hong Kong society. Without explicitly referring to Cold War politics, The Crimson Palm holds an ambivalent attitude towards the colonial government’s neutrality, while offering cinematic entertainment.

  PLOT SUMMARY

  The Lins and Wangs, two well-off families, arrange a marriage between Lin Zhaode, the Lin family son, and Qianjin 王千金, the Wang family daughter (Qianjin literally means “thousand gold”; proverbially it refers to a cherished daughter). Years pass, and a fire ravages the Lin household, leaving the family impoverished. Wang Chun 王春, the patriarch of the Wang family, is contemptuous of the poor and decides to annul the engagement. Lin Zhaode is summoned to the Wang house and forcibly has his fingerprint pressed onto an annulment document. Helpless, Lin returns home and laments that he is no longer legally engaged to the girl with whom he grew up and for whom he had developed feelings. Just as Lin’s mother starts to wonder if Qianjin shares her father’s contempt, Qianjin’s maid Xuechun 雪春 comes to visit Zhaode and informs him that Qianjin has torn the annulment document to shreds. She delivers a few pieces of clothing, a pair of new shoes, and some money to him on behalf of her mistress as a gesture of Qianjin’s care and goodwill.
  
  Moved by Qianjin’s sincerity, Zhaode reciprocates her devotion by studying hard in preparation for the civil service examinations. One day before his departure for the city where he will take the exam, he decides to say farewell to his former fiancée, knowing it will be a long trip. Given Father Wang’s unrelenting attitude, Zhaode has to climb over the wall of Lin’s backyard. Qianjin thus encounters Lin while she is taking a walk in her garden. They converse, and she learns about his examination ambitions. Qianjin asks Zhaode to visit again at night. Her maid Xuechun will open the backdoor and give him one hundred taels of gold. This will free him from his financial burdens so that he can focus on his studies. She gives Zhaode her gold hairpin to prove his identify to the maid lest Xuechun mistake someone else as Zhaode in the dark.
  
  At night, Zhaode arrives at Lin’s backdoor as agreed, only to trip over the dead body of a woman who turns out to be the maid Xuechun. His robe tainted by blood, Zhaode rushes home in panic, leaving the imprint of two bloody palms on the door of his house as he knocks and asks his mother to let him in. The Wang family discovers Xuechun’s death soon after. Court personnel arrest Zhaode on the grounds of murder. Zhaode explains the plans for the clandestine meeting with his fiancé and attempts to present the gold hairpin as proof to the judge adjudicating his case. He cannot find it, because a greedy court clerk stole it while conducting a search at the Lin house. To that clerk’s surprise, another clerk to the judge presents a different hairpin he discovered while investigating the crime scene. The hairpin is gold-plated, and Zhaode points out that the hairpin Qianjin gave him was solid gold. The judge considers such details irrelevant. As long as a gold hairpin is produced, it supports Zhaode’s statement and proves his innocence.
  
  However, Father Wang father bribes the judge to pin the crime on Zhaode, who eventually admits to the charges under torture. On the day of Zhaode’s execution, Qianjin cries at the public execution ground and condemns the corrupt judge. Fortunately, the renowned justice Bao Zheng 包拯, arrives at the scene in the nick of time. The corrupt judge refuses to admit that a miscarriage of justice occurred, and therefore challenges Judge Bao to find the actual murderer. After a series of inquiries, Judge Bao finds out about the greedy clerk and confirms that someone had stolen a hairpin from a maid of the Wang family so as to disguise themselves as Zhaode. Judge Bao believes that the actual murderer is the Wang family’s stableman, Zhang Peizan 張培贊, who was the first to report Xuechun’s death.
  
  In order to obtain Zhang’s confession, Judge Bao asks Qianjin to pretend to be Xuechen’s ghost and extract information from Zhang. Haunted by “Xuechun’s ghost,” Zhang is too scared to feign innocence and reveals the places where he hid the hundred taels of gold and the knife he used to kill Xuechun. Judge Bao removes the corrupt local judge from office and banishes him to the borderlands. He fires the greedy clerk and exonerates Father Wang under the condition that Wang mends the damaged bond between the two families. The film ends with the couple's wedding after Zhaode obtains top honors in the civil service examination.

  THEME: FROM LOVE STORY TO FILM NOIR

  Film noir, French for “black film” (literal translation) or “dark film” (closer meaning), emerged in post-war Hollywood and reflected the social mood of America in the 1940s and 50s. In the shadow of the recent WW II, characters in film noirs are often morally ambivalent, irredeemable despite momentary absolution offered by love and justice. Film noir features nihilistic narratives and downbeat endings, refusing to provide a sense of closure through a morally uplifting conclusion. In other words, film noir demonstrates a cynical world view and a waning faith in humanity after the war.
  
  Hollywood films asserted a strong cultural influence through their global circulation since the beginnings of cinema, but their dominance was especially strong after World War II disrupted film production in many other countries. The term “film noir” itself was coined by French film critics who watched the many Hollywood films imported in the postwar period when French cinema was just recovering. It is therefore no surprise that Hong Kong cinema, an industry also impacted by the war, adopted many popular Hollywood genres and conventions, including those of film noir.
  
  Furthermore, the cynical social mood that produced noir was also present in Hong Kong, although with a local twist. The growing capitalist economy in post-war Hong Kong demanded negotiations of the social justice system of the colony. The British colonial government in the 1960s asserted “neutral” and authoritative presence to oversee economic growth while maintaining its colonial rule, often instrumentalizing “neutrality” for economic ends. Hong Kong’s labor unrests in the 1950s, for example, were framed as an ideological struggle between leftists and rightists, therefore suppressed by the colonial state committed to “neutrality,” itself a veneer of a much more complex social reality.
  
  The Crimson Palm therefore, intentionally or not, responded to local concerns about its morally ambivalent colonial government. In bringing the courtroom drama to the screen, the film incorporated the typical elements of a film noir, including opening the film with a murder, using high contrast lighting, the figure of the femme fatale, an omnipresent narrator, and a final scene of denouement. In addition, the film balances its pedagogic message of legal justice with entertainment by flirting with the fantastical, feudal trope of ghostly reincarnation. Rather than highlighting romance (as the Yue opera had done), this noirish adaptation enhances the original play’s thematic engagement with the idea of legality and governmentality, while offering an intriguing cinematic experience. The film’s use of Judge Bao, a stock character in Chinese courtroom drama, further amplifies the film’s dialogue with the Chinese theater tradition to both challenge and reaffirm Hong Kong’s colonial rule.

  Opening Scene

  
  Film noir often opens with a scene that implies murder. The Crimson Palm begins with Lin Zhaode fleeing in panic on a forest path that leads to his home. Even though the film is shot in color, this scene is almost entirely cast in black and white. Chiaroscuro lighting (stark light/dark contrast, another feature of film noir) highlights the winding path, Lin’s silhouette, and his shadow as he moves along the path. The music is suspenseful and turns to a dramatic drum roll that rhythmically imitates Lin’s frantic slapping on the door. Lin leaves an imprint of his blood-tainted palms on the door, and the camera gradually closes in on the handprints. An animation of a pair of red handprints appears and overlays Lin’s actual handprints. It then morphs into three bleeding Chinese characters: “The Crimson Palm” 血手印 (Fig. 1). By flaunting a piece of potential forensic evidence in its opening sequence and using that very evidence to create its title card, the film establishes itself as a crime story.
  
  

  Path On the Outskirts

  The film’s mixing of the crime film genre with melodramatic romance is evident in the stylistically interesting and technically difficult song, “Path on the Outskirts.” Not only does the song meld the masculine tune of the Peking opera with the more feminine Huangmei opera, but its gendered nuance must also serve the intricate plot, conveying a mixed ambience of yearning and fear.
  
  Lin (i.e., Ivy Ling Bo) sings the song on his way at night to fetch the gold from Xuechun. He sings of the dim moonlight and the eerie sound of chilling winds, as well as how much he looks forward to the affectionate gift from the lady, until the path leads him to the backdoor of Wang’s residence.
  
  Click to Expand/Collapse Translation Notes

  Chinese Captions	CTC Translation
  [Lin Zhaode walks on forest path. It is dark.]
  林肇德 [唱]: 夜沉沉，聲悄悄，月色昏暗。	Lin Zhaode (singing): The night is dark, all is still, and the moonlight is dim.
  林肇德 [唱]: 風淒淒，影搖搖， 隕星曳空怪聲長鳴。	Lin Zhaode (singing): The wind is chilly, the shadows are swaying; a meteorite traces the sky and makes a strange sound.
  林肇德 [唱]: 一路行來無人煙，嚇得我膽戰心寒。	Lin Zhaode (singing): Not even a hint of another person as I walk alone, which scares me out of my wits.
  林肇德 [唱]: 佳人贈金情意重，使我又愧又喜歡。	Lin Zhaode (singing): The gift of money from a beautiful lady is so affectionate, it makes me feel both ashamed of myself and fond of her.
  林肇德 [唱]: 眼見園門正半掩，想必是雪春在裡面。	Lin Zhaode (singing): I see that the garden gate is ajar. Xuechun must be inside.
  [Lin Zhaode arrives at the garden gate and is about to walk inside, but he notices that no one is there.]
  林肇德: 雪春...	Lin Zhaode: Xuechun… (looks around)

  
  Set in the woods on a meandering path and composed of shots that alternate between high and eye levels, this scene conveys a sense of visual disorientation. Musically, the song features multiple prolonged notes without breath breaks. The word 心寒 (xinhan), for instance, could either express that one is “cold-hearted” due to a heartbreak, or is deeply scared that even one’s heart shivers in chill. The protracted note for 寒 (han) conveys a sense of being unfinished. It not only adds to the scene an air of suspense, but most importantly, it externalizes Lin’s psychological struggle with that suspense: his attribution of this apprehension to his indebtedness to Qianjin. Naturally, then, follows his next line: “The gift of money from a beautiful lady is so affectionate, it makes me feel both ashamed of myself and fond of her.” Chiaroscuro lighting adds a moody atmosphere to Lin’s dramatic monologue.
  
  When he arrives at the residence, Lin expects that his lady’s maid would have open the door, which would have allowed the romantic sentiment in the previous line to be fulfilled through the gift she is about to give him. But the door is already open, and there is no maid to pass on a romantic gift to the young suitor, something is up! The eerie sentiments evoked in the beginning of the song, when Lin was in the forest, are not dissipated by romance, but rather, recalled by the suspense of the gaping door. In this way, the song expresses both romantic excitement and noir-ish dread that anticipates the murder that takes place as Lin makes his way to the meeting in the garden. 

  Qianjin as Femme Fatale

  In the original opera, the actress who plays the role of Qianjin sings in the style of the Qi school 戚派 of Yue opera, except when she impersonates Xuechun and takes up the style of the Yin School 尹派 instead. This means that Qianjian’s impersonation does not just passively follow an order from Judge Bao. She thoughtfully reincarnates the voice of another women, Xuechun. By effectively voicing the indignation of the dead, Qianjian demonstrates her autonomy in facilitating justice.
  
  By contrast, the Huangmei opera film does not distinguish between different singing styles. Instead, it portrays Qianjin as a femme fatale, another stock character of film noir. The term “femme fatale” refers to an independent, mysterious, and beautiful woman, who uses her charm to ensnare men into committing a crime or disclosing critical information. Although Qianjin is not portrayed as a seductive character, she does cunningly collaborate with Judge Bao to trick Zhang into confessing his crime. Here, a classic film noir character works hand in hand with a stock character of Chinese courtroom drama. The film instrumentalizes Qianjin’s performance to highlight Bao as the maverick justice never short of clever devices to solve a case.
  
  
  Click to Expand/Collapse Translation Notes

  Chinese Captions	CTC Translation
  [A female ghost appears and corners Zhang Peizan.]
  女鬼: 張培贊，你還認識我嗎？	The female ghost: Zhang Peizan, do you recognize me?
  張培贊: 你是誰？	Zhang Peizan: Who are you?
  女鬼: 我？我是雪春。	The female ghost: Me? I am Xuechun.
  張培贊: 雪春。雪春饒命。	Zhang Peizan: Xuechun. (Qianjin shows her face, which is powdered in white makeup and appears ghostly. She seems to be Xuechun. Zhang recoils with fear.) Xuechun, please spare my life.
  女鬼 [唱]: 賊子你把良心喪，害我在你刀下亡。殺人就該把命償，隨我一起上公堂。	The female ghost (singing): Thief, you have no conscience and killed me with your sword. If you killed someone, you should pay with your life. Come to court with me.
  [The door shuts as Zhang tries to escape.]
  張培贊 [唱]: 我急忙雙膝跪地上。大姐千萬莫聲張。你要什麼對我講，還你黃金也無妨。	Zhang Peizan (singing): (kneels) I hurriedly kneel on the ground. Sister, please don’t tell anyone. Tell me what you want of me, I can even give you the gold.
  女鬼 [唱]: 百两黃金放何處？	The female ghost (singing): Where did you put the one hundred taels of gold?
  張培贊 [唱]: 馬棚後麵樹心藏。	Zhang Peizan (singing): It’s hidden inside a tree behind the stable.
  女鬼 [唱]: 兇刀一把何處放？	The female ghost (singing): Where did you put the murderous knife?
  女鬼: 快説。兇刀在什麼地方？説。	The female ghost: (chases Zhang in circles) Speak quickly. Where is the murder weapon? Speak!
  張培贊 [唱]: 藏在馬棚橫梁上。	Zhang Peizan (singing): It's hidden on the beam of the stable.
  [Judge Bao appears from the sunroof and laughs. The female ghost reveals herself to be Qianjin. Zhang Peizan faints.]

  The Scene of Denouement 
  
  

  True to the plot formula of film noir, near its end, the film depicts a scene of denouement that explains how the real murderer Zhang committed his crime. The denouement is revealed through Zhang’s flashback, shot again in high contrast lighting, and narrated by an omnipresent narrator (in this case, the chorus of the opera). The omnipresence of the narrator provides an all-knowing perspective, cultivating an investigative, forensic sensibility. In addition, the camera is positioned as an onlooker of the murder scene rather than identifying with the point of view of either the victim or the murderer (Fig. 2). In this way, the camera resembles an observant, world-weary private eye–the eye of the detective, Judge Bao.
  
  
  Click to Expand/Collapse Translation Notes

  Chinese Captions	CTC Translation
  [The murderer Zhang Peizan starts to state his crime in court.]
  張培贊: 是，小人那天遛馬回來剛走到花園，就聽見小姐跟姑爺在説話。	Zhang Peizan: Yes, I came back from walking the horses that day (turns to look at Qianjin). Just when I walked to the garden, I heard the young lady and her fiancé talking.
  張培贊: 約姑爺半夜到花園來取黃金，是小人一時貪心。	Zhang Peizan: She asked him to come to the garden in the middle of the night to get gold. Feelings of greed stirred in my heart at that moment.
  [The film cuts back to the scene of murder.]
  和聲 [唱]: 他説道爲貪黃金去偷釵，在園外悄悄等候雪春來，	Chorus (singing): He said that he stole a hairpin because he was greedy for gold (Zhang steals a hairpin, leaves the room and waits outside the garden while Xuechen descends from the stairs and enters the garden), and quietly waited outside the garden for Xuechun.
  拍掌三聲門兒開，交釵換銀無阻礙。	(Zhang claps his hands three times and appears above the wall. Xuechun notices him and goes to open the gate). He clapped his hands three times so that the gate would open (Zhang and Xuechun enter the garden one after another, Xuechun closes the gate), and he could exchange the hairpin for money without any hindrance (Xuechun walks over to Zhang, who hides his face behind his long sleeve).
  雪春: 林姑爺，你千萬別辜負了小姐一番好意。时候不早了，请回吧。	Xuechun: (takes the hairpin from Zhang) Mr. Lin, you must not let my lady’s kindness go to waste (gives Zhang the bag of gold). It's getting late, please go back (Xuechun opens the gate for Zhang).
  和聲 [唱]: 心慌意亂腳顫抖，摔到地上把事敗。	Chorus (singing): (Zhang trips over the threshold) Flustered, legs trembling, he fell to the ground and ruined his plan.
  雪春: 林姑爺?	Xuechun: Mr. Lin? (Zhang accidentally reveals his face to Xuechun)
  和聲: 雪春識破大聲叫。	Chorus: Xuechun recognized who it was and shouted loudly.
  雪春: 啊，是你!	Xuechun: Ah, it’s you!
  張培贊: 不許嚷，你要嚷我就要你的命。	Zhang Peizan: (holds Xuechun’s right arm and threatens her with a knife) Don't shout. If you shout, I will kill you (Xuechun pushes Zhang away and runs).
  和聲 [唱]: 一失手害她芳魂赴陰台。	Chorus (singing): One mistake of his caused her soul to travel to the underworld (Zhang catches up with Xuechun and stabs her with his knife).
  雪春: 救命啊!	Xuechun: Help!
  [The flashback ends and the film cuts back to the court.]
  張培贊: 我剛藏好兇刀和金子，就看見姑爺來了，就做了我的替死鬼了。	Zhang Peizan: I saw Lin coming over just when I managed to hide the knife and the gold. So, he became my scapegoat!

  CONCLUSION

  Post-war Hong Kong cinema was full of ghost stories that used phantoms to explore historical wrongs and traumas. In Guan Hanqing’s original Yuan play, karmic imagery in the governor’s dream reveals a clue that allows him to find the true murderer. By contrast, The Crimson Palm upholds the modern idea of legal justice, but also resorts to ghostly impersonation to solve the crime. The film also neutralizes the moral ambiguity of the colonial government. While The Crimson Palm makes it clear that the corrupt judge is a political ally of the Empress—a potential allusion to the British regent Queen Elizabeth II—Judge Bao’s appearance restores one’s belief in the colonial legal system. At best, the film reappropriates a heroic figure in Chinese culture to circumvent any radical questionings of colonial justice. The happy ending of the film diverges from the nihilistic moral lesson of the classical film noir and the uncanny realm of the ghost story, but it coheres with how the Colonial Hong Kong government legitimated itself in the late 1960s.

  WORKS CONSULTED CLICK TO EXPAND/COLLAPSE

  Lu, Shijun 卢时俊 and Gao Yilong 高义龙. Shanghai Yueju zhi上海越剧志 (An Account of Shanghai Yue Opera). Beijing, China: China Drama Publishing House, 1997.

  Tsang, Raymond. “What Can a Neoi Gwei Teach Us?: Adaptation as Reincarnation in Hong Kong Horror of the 1950s.” In Hong Kong Horror Cinema, 19-33. United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press, 2018.

  Weng, Sizai 翁思再. “Ermuyixin Xueshouyin – Guan Jin Jing, Ding Xiaowa zhuyan yueju Xueshouyin suigan” 耳目一新《血手印》——观金静、丁小蛙主演越剧《血手印》随感” (A refreshing Crimson Palm – Impressions on watching The Crimson Palm yueju opera starring Jin Jing and Ding Xiaowa). Shanghai xiju 上海戏剧 (Shanghai Theater) 12 (2006): 7-9.

  Yau, Esther C. M., and Tony Williams. “Introduction: Hong Kong Neo-Noir.” In Hong Kong Neo-Noir, edited by Esther C. M. Yau and Tony Williams, 1–10. United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g051jk.6/.

  AUTHOR

  Kaixuan Yao