Sinophone Adaptations of Shakespeare

Reviews / Votes

"Shakespeare, the playwright Ben Jonson intoned, "was not of an age, but for all time." It turns out he was for all places too. This innovative volume personifies the vast impact that Shakespeare has had on East Asian culture and letters even as it exemplifies how Sinophone dramatists speak back to the great English bard, offering both new readings and translations from Chinese. It is relevant to all who are interested in gauging the impact of Shakespeare in East Asia and the world in general. Equally, it will be of use to those who wish to teach Shakespeare in a global context. Offering translations of an array of Shakespeare's Chinese-language interpreters, this book is the first of its kind and sui generis in Shakespeare studies." (Christopher Lupke, recipient of the MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for translation and Professor, East Asian Studies Department, University of Alberta, Canada)
"This new English-language anthology of contemporary adaptations of Shakespearean tragedies testifies to the long history of intercultural circulation of Shakespeare across a variety of literary modes and performance styles within the Sinophone region. Seven historic yet hitherto hardly accessible texts are introduced and translated by Joubin and a team of top scholars, and finally made available to a wide readership. Meticulously researched and annotated, yet highly readable, the plays and related media (accessible through the MIT Global Shakespeares archive) will provide essential research and teaching resources for years to come. Unique in its genre, this important collection confirms Joubin's status as a leading voice on Global Shakespeares." (Rossella Ferrari, Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Vienna, Austria)
"This first-of-its-kind anthology of translated classics of Sinophone Shakespeare addresses the lack of primary research material available on Asian Shakespeares and makes productions previously availableonly as video clips, often without subtitles, accessible to English-speaking students and scholars. It is an indispensable tool for researching Sinophone Shakespeares that supplements performance reviews and other textual penumbra and reinforces the extent to which these productions, once dismissed as exotic spectacles, are worthy of serious scholarly attention. By adopting a thematic and (intra)regional methodology, the collection also successfully moves the discipline beyond narrowly-defined national perspectives and deconstructs the hegemonic idea of the West as method. The complex and dynamic range of productions rendered into English, including feminist xiqu drama, Confucian meditations and political theatre from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, challenges not only what constitutes Asian Shakespeare but also what we tend to think of as Chinese itself. What emerges from this collection is a pluralistic picture of the Sinophone world, its cultural heritage and theatre practices,which world English speakers are granted access to through both Shakespeare and the leading Asian experts behind this invaluable anthology." (Adele Lee, Associate Professor, Emerson College, Boston, USA, and author of The English Renaissance and the Far East (2017))
"This anthology is an important publication that introduces English speakers to the richness and variety of theatrical styles and experimentations used in the adaptations of Shakespeare by Sinophone theatre-makers. The selected period between 1987 and 2007 is in itself poignant as these years saw important political, cultural and artistic changes in Asia. This anthology, comprising of significant examples of cross-cultural encounters in theatre, is meticulous in framing and contextualizing the different translations, which are as rigorous as they are accessible. The comparative and intersectional methodology of pairing two adaptations of the same play with a focus on Hamlet , Macbeth and King Lear encourages a comparative approach, which will be a useful tool for teaching and will inspire scholarly debate. Most importantly, responding to a lack of primary sources of Sinophone plays in English, this anthology aims to deconstruct the ideas of Asia and the Sinophone as subaltern others and succeeds in depicting a cultural and artistic global landscape which is truly sans frontiers." (Mary Mazzilli, Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex, UK)