William Dolby

With translation and an introduction by William Dolby the first edition was self-published in 2003 although the actual translations were completed by Bill decades earlier. This work represents the 11th of 33 of the Chinese Culture Series.

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Peking Opera, sometimes called Beijing Opera, is the major surviving form of Chinese drama and viewed by many East and West as representative of the best features of Chinese theatre performance through the ages. For many, too, it is characterised by its visual aspects, acting techniques, music and singing: the melismatic singing, the skirling, exciting, fiddle music, the rousing clang of gongs, the breath-taking acrobatics and weapon-handling, the elaborately significant gestures, the symbolic props and stage décor, the brilliant-coloured and intriguingly diverse painted face-patterns, and the riotously gorgeous costumes and head-dresses. But no drama is a fine one without fine words, and the huge repertoire of Peking Opera has culled from a huge range of vivid and striking Chinese literature, and traditions. This book includes some of the most famous and long-loved Peking Opera’s, hoping to hint that it has been primarily the mighty themes and contents of the genre that have constituted its appeal.

1. Kuan Han-Ch'ing: China's first Playwright
2. Bring on the Wine and other Poems by Li Pai
3. Chinese Poetry Through The Ages: an Anthology
4. Chinese Short Stories - Spanning 2000 Years
5. History of early Chinese Ch'ü-aria Poetry
6. Sayings of Confucius and his Students
7. Ma Chih-yüan's Complete San-ch'ü-aria Poems
8. Wang Shi-Fu, Author of China's Most Famous Play
9. West Wing Chantefable by Tung Chieh-yüan
10. Sir Old, the Chinese Classic of Taoism
11. Peking Opera
12. Yüan Dynasty Variety Plays
13. Mr Ma and son in London
14. Songs Classic: China’s earliest poetry anthology
15. Classical Chinese textbook
16. Three Hundred T'ang Dynasty Poems
17. Yüan Dynasty Variety Play dramas: 100 stories
18. Chinese Folk-tales
19. Chinese Humour: an Anthology
20. Gold-producing Mansion
21. Chinese Riddles
22. Chinese Elliptical Idioms (hsieh-hou-yu)
23. West Wing, China's most famous drama
24. Washing Silk, a drama by Liang Ch'en-yi (1520-ca.1580)
25. Chinee Drama Poems
26. Chinese Prose: Biographies, Prefaces, Anecdotes ...
27. Chinese Myths
28. Chinese Prose: Biographies, Prefaces, Anecdotes ...
29. Lasting-life Palace-hall by Hung Sheng (1654-1704)
30. Chinese non-drama aria-poems, an anthology (VOLUME ONE)
31. Chinese Poetry Through the Ages
32. Dictionary of Chinese Idioms, Proverbs and Sayings
33. Anthology of Chinese non-drama aria-poems (VOLUME TWO)