Choice 评论
This treatment of theater in China from the late 1970s to the '90s has an extensive introduction by the editor (Univ. of Colorado at Boulder) and translations of five plays: three spoken dramas (Bus Stop, WM, and Sangshuping Chronicles), a Sichuan operatic drama (Pan Jinlian: The History of a Fallen Woman), and a movie script (Old Well). Yan selected these works from "the hundreds of plays and film scripts written and produced each year in China since 1979." In his introduction, he explains the social, economic, and political background of the works and introduces the plays in detail. Copious footnotes follow the introduction. The translator of each play provides information about the playwright and the background of the play. Wherever necessary, footnotes explain allusions, historical events, etc. The plays in this volume can be used as texts to be studied in class, or as plays to be staged. Recommended to undergraduate, scholarly, and general readers, this book joins the similar but more extensive An Oxford Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama, ed. by Martha P.Y. Cheung and Jane C.C. Lai (CH, Oct'98), which includes plays from mainland China (selections are different from those in the present volume), Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Y. L. Walls; Simon Fraser University