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The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama is a 2010 book edited and introduced by Xiaomei Chen (simplified Chinese: 陈小眉; traditional Chinese: 陳小眉; pinyin: Chén Xiǎoméi) and published by the Columbia University Press.
Contents
There are 22 plays, including huaju and comedies. The time span of the plays ranges from 1919 to 2000. About half of the plays were published before the 1980s, including five plays from the Maoist era and seven from the 1920s. One of the Maoist plays is a Cultural Revolution-era model opera drama. In terms of the political era, 11 are from the Republican Era and the remainder are from after the start of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Of the remainder, eight are from Mainland China, two are from British Hong Kong prior to the 1997 handover, and one is from Taiwan. Four of the plays had previously been published in the 1983 anthology Twentieth-century Chinese Drama: An Anthology by Edward Gunn.
Translators of the plays include Amy Dooling, Edward Gunn, Nick Kaldis, Jonathan S. Noble, John Weinstein, and Shiao-ling Yu. Taiwanese author Stan Lai and Hong Kong author Joanne Chan had written and provided the English translations of their respective works. Some translations had originated in earlier works and were modified. Mary Mazzilli of The China Quarterly wrote that "This adds a contemporary flavour to the texts without detracting from the meaning and style from the originals."
Content
The introduction, an overview of the genre, places the plays in chronological order and describes the role of huaju in politics and culture. This introduction includes citations and endnotes. Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. of Loyola Marymount University stated that even though using an individual introduction to each work would have allowed the inclusion of production histories and biographical information of the playwrights, "that is the tradeoff for the bigger picture presented by the comprehensive introduction aimed at general readers and students."
Plays included in the anthology:
This book includes the first-ever English versions of A Wasp, Che Guevara, and Geologists.
Reception
Wetmore referred to Chen's statement in the introduction, her desire that the book "will inspire other scholars, students, and general readers to explore the richness of Chinese theatre", and stated himself that he "hopes it will, too, and believes it can." Wetmore added that the English translations "read well and also perform well" and that "speaking as both a teacher and director of Asian theatre these translations are eminently playable in English." Wetmore was unable to read or speak Mandarin or Cantonese, so therefore he chose not to comment on any accuracy of the translations.
Wetmore advocated for the release of a softcover version that may be more economical for individual students.