Theater for the People in the Yangzhou Region: Jiao Xun's Peasant Chats on Popular Local Theater (Huabu nongtan, 1819)

Abstract

The chapter explains the role of popular local theatre in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It does this through introducing, explaining, translating and annotating a unique piece of local literature from Yangzhou. The piece is entitled "Peasant Chats on Popular Local Theatre" and written by the scholar Jiao Xun who, unusual among his class, took the local theatre seriously. The chapter also explains in depth the historical background of the drama plots that are discussed in the "Peasant Chats". The aim is to show how the "Peasant Chats" contribute, in an unusual and valuable way, to our knowledge of the society and culture of Yangzhou at the time.