The year is 1616. William Shakespeare has just died and the world of the London theatres is mourning his loss. 1616 also saw the death of the famous Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu. Four hundred years on and Shakespeare is now an important meeting place for Anglo-Chinese cultural dialogue in the field of drama studies. In June 2014 (the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth), SOAS, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the National Chung Cheng University of Taiwan gathered 20 scholars together to reflect on the theatrical practice of four hundred years ago and to ask: what does such an exploration mean culturally for us today? This ground-breaking study offers fresh insights into the respective theatrical worlds of Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu and asks how the brave new theatres of 1616 may have a vital role to play in the intercultural dialogue of our own time.
Reviews
The sets of essays invite the reader to make connections on a common theme, including the relationship between the state and the theatre, the restaging of history in the playwrights work, and audiences contemporaneous reception of the plays. The dialogue created between the essays illuminates both Shakespeares and Tangs plays and their cultural contexts and offers a unique methodology that others might follow. 1616 contributes to the limited English-language scholarship on Tang and Ming Dynasty drama and approaches Shakespeare by looking at one particular turning point. * TDR: The Drama Review *
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A ground-breaking, intercultural exchange about theatre in Shakespeares England and Tang Xianzus China around the year 1616 and a cultural critique of what makes such explorations relevant and rewarding today.
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viii | |
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ix | |
| Acknowledgements |
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xviii | |
| Foreword |
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xix | |
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| Introduction |
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1 | (4) |
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1 Setting the scene: playwrights and localities |
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5 | (30) |
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1.1 The backdrop of regional theatre to Tang Xianzu's drama |
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7 | (13) |
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1.2 Stratford-upon-Avon: 1616 |
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20 | (15) |
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2 Classics, tastes and popularity |
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35 | (28) |
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2.1 The `popular turn' in the elite theatre of the Ming after Tang Xianzu: Love, dream and deaths in The Tale of the West Loft |
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36 | (13) |
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2.2 Blockbusters and popular stories |
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49 | (14) |
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63 | (32) |
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3.1 Shishiju as public forum: The Crying Phoenix and the dramatization of contemporary political affairs in late Ming China |
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64 | (12) |
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3.2 Dramatizing the Tudors |
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76 | (19) |
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4 The state and the theatre |
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95 | (26) |
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4.1 Sixty plays from the Ming Palace, 1615--18 |
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96 | (12) |
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4.2 Licensing the King's Men: From court revels to public performance |
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108 | (13) |
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5 The circulation of dramatic texts and printing |
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121 | (28) |
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5.1 Tired, sick, and looking for money: Zang Maoxun in 1616 |
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123 | (12) |
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5.2 Status anxiety: Arguing about plays and print in early modern London |
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135 | (14) |
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6 Dramatic authorship and collaboration |
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149 | (30) |
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6.1 Is there a playwright in this text? The 1610s and the consolidation of dramatic authorship in late Ming print culture |
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150 | (13) |
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6.2 `May I subscribe a name?': Terms of collaboration in 1616 |
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163 | (16) |
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7 Audiences, critics and reception |
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179 | (30) |
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7.1 Revising Peony Pavilion: Audience reception in presenting Tang Xianzu's text |
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180 | (14) |
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7.2 `No epilogue, I pray you': Audience reception in Shakespearean theatre |
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194 | (15) |
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209 | (26) |
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8.1 Seeking the relics of music and performance: An investigation of Chinese theatrical scenes published in the early seventeenth century (1606--16) |
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210 | (12) |
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8.2 Music in the English theatre of 1616 |
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222 | (13) |
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9 Theatre in theory and practice |
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235 | (28) |
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9.1 Xu Wei's A Record of Southern Drama: The idea of a theatre at the turn of seventeenth-century China |
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236 | (13) |
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9.2 Taking cover: 1616 and the move indoors |
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249 | (14) |
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10 Theatre across genres and cultures |
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263 | (32) |
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10.1 Elite drama readership staged in vernacular fiction: The Western Wing and The Retrieved History of Hailing |
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264 | (13) |
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10.2 `There be salmons in both': Models of connection for seventeenth-century English and Chinese drama |
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277 | (18) |
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| Afterword |
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295 | (4) |
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| Works cited |
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299 | (20) |
| Index |
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319 | |
Tian Yuan Tan is Reader in Chinese Studies at SOAS, University of London, UK, and the Secretary-General of the European Association for Chinese Studies. Paul Edmondson is Head of Research at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Honorary Fellow of The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK. Shih-pe Wang is Associate Professor of Chinese Literature at National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan.
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