Index to the Total Catalog of Modern Chinese Drama

Author: Dong Jian, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-12-01
Features: At the turn of the century, reflecting on the century-long journey of modernization in Chinese theater, I once wrote an article calling for the need to "catch up" in modern drama research. First, we need to catch up on the "modern consciousness" course, second, the scientific "dramaology" course, and third, the "drama historical materials" course ("New China Literature" Issue 4, 2001). The excavation, identification, verification, compilation, and publication of drama historical materials all involve substantial work waiting to be done. The compilation of this Comprehensive Catalogue of Modern Chinese Drama (hereinafter referred to as Catalogue) is part of this effort. When compiling this Catalogue, we aimed to achieve the following three points:
First, strive for completeness. All modern drama scripts published or performed between 1899 and 1949 that can be found are included, without any selection based on political or artistic standards. Some scripts that may appear crude artistically or even reactionary in content today are not excluded. This approach is not only to maintain the comprehensiveness and authenticity of the materials but also to respect the "dialectics of history"—good and bad, progressive and reactionary exist in comparison. The year 1899 was chosen as the starting point because that year saw the emergence of early signs of modern Chinese theater in Shanghai, with some performances of the nascent new drama seen at John College. The scripts included in the Catalogue were witnessed by the early playwright Wang Zhongxian (Youyou), though the titles are somewhat ambiguous (see Wang Youyou's My Life).
Second, strive for authenticity and objectivity. For each entry, we attempted to write the synopsis based on the original version, with additional notes for significant revisions afterward. The plot summaries aim to remain faithful to the original works, without commentary, objectively presenting the information. We sought to preserve the "natural state" of historical materials. Such naturalistic historical materials hold scientific research value.
Third, strive for accuracy and conciseness; the language style is as consistent as possible with the original works, with appropriately quoted passages that are particularly brilliant. However, it should be noted that the plot summaries of some early works were directly excerpted from relevant publications, and their style differs from the rest of the book.
This book includes 4,492 entries. These works belong to the modern Chinese drama (primarily plays, but also including poetic dramas, silent dramas, operas, and ballets) created or adapted (including translations) between the inception of "civilized new drama" in the late 19th century and the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.