Modern Chinese theatre once entailed a variety of forms, but now it primarily refers to spoken drama, or huaju. Backstaging Modern Chinese Theatre looks beyond scripts to examine  visuality, acoustics, and performance between the two World Wars, the period when huaju gained canonical status. The backstage in this study expands from being a physical place offstage to a culturally and historically constructed social network that encompasses theatre networks, academies, and government institutions—as well as the collective work of dramatists, amateurs, and cultural entrepreneurs. Early huaju was not a mere imitation of Western realist theatre, as it is commonly understood, but a creative synthesis of Chinese and Western aesthetics. Charting huaju’s evolution from American colleges to China’s coastal cities and then to its rural hinterland, Man He demonstrates how the formation of modern Chinese theatre challenges dominant understandings of modernism and brings China to the center of discussions on transnational modernities and world theatres.

Peng Xu’s The Courtesan’s Memory, Voice, and Late Ming Drama argues that courtesans of the era played an active role in the theater and their impact manifested in Chinese literary history, albeit concealed or erased. In the late Ming dynasty (1368–1644), theater was dominated by male performers with professional actresses largely absent from the stage, unlike in the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), where women performed without restriction in theater troupes. Despite the prevailing assumption that women played no part in the theatrical movement, The Courtesan’s Memory, Voice, and Late Ming Drama illuminates how courtesans, as serious theater artists and playwrights, left a significant mark on the male-dominated dramatic and literary landscapes.

This study profoundly remaps the textbook narratives of gender bias, challenges modern prejudices prevalent in the literary history of Chinese drama, and reveals how theatrical conditions and writing styles shifted to accommodate courtesan performances. Utilizing a wide range of sources such as scripts, city guides, biographies, diaries, letters, wood-block illustrations, and paintings, this study distinguishes itself from earlier studies of Chinese courtesans by not thematizing courtesans for their allegorical values, but rather pinpointing their agency in shaping the features of Chinese theater and recognizing courtesans as a source of creativity and development in the medium. Xu’s focus on courtesan performance culture allows for fresh readings of canonical Chinese plays, opening up new ways of understanding the history of Chinese drama written by women, thus deviating from standard historiography based solely on the writings of men.

 

These volumes feature works from across Lai’s career, providing an exceptional selection of a diverse range of performances.
 
Volume One contains:
Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land
Look Who's Crosstalking Tonight
The Island and the Other Shore
I Me She Him
Ménage à 13

These volumes feature works from across Lai’s career, providing an exceptional selection of a diverse range of performances.
 
Volume Two contains:
Millennium Teahouse
Sand on a Distant Star
Like Shadows
The Village
Writing in Water

These volumes feature works from across Lai’s career, providing an exceptional selection of a diverse range of performances.
 
Volume Three contains:
A Dream Like a Dream
Ago