The special article column section of the 38th issue, titled “Performing Stories: The Evolution and Transformation of the Narration of Chinese Opera” will be coordinated by Hou Yun-shu, Associate Professor, Department of Chinese Literature, National Chengchi University. Research on Chinese Opera has always occupied a special place in the field of Chinese literary research. Play scripts can only be fully understood when organically combined with music, literature, even movements, expressions, sound effects of the stage (“kejie”), research on Chinese opera has the same requirement. Since the Ming dynasty, the competition between Tang Xianzu and Shen Jing initiated the formation of the two major camps: School of Play Scripts and School of Music. Closet dramas (or desktop plays) also emerged for the purpose of literary appreciation from late Ming to the Qing dynasty. The rise of Peking opera promoted stage performance as the consummate way of propagation. Today innovative play scripts are even more diverse in forms, in addition to traditional music and lyrics, supplementary elements are employed to enhance the flow and penetration of the relationship between actors and audience. Research on Chinese operas, in turn, has also evolved to follow a composite approach to accommodate all the factors discussed above. However, “narration” remains the core of play scripts and stage performance, this feature distinguishes Chinese opera from western operas not oriented toward narration, since “narration” necessitates certain implied conditions for Chinese opera. “Performing Stories: The Evolution and Transformation of the Narration of Chinese Opera” is proposed as the topic of this special article column of the Bulletin, to welcome a wide range of submissions related with research from play scripts to stage performance, various discussions on methodology of narrative strategies and actual practice in performances; or fusion and reinterpretation of classical material, eastern and western texts, and elaboration of ideas of dramatic narration by the playwriters, etc., by domestic and overseas scholars, to broaden and deepen the research on “Narration of Chinese Opera” together. Submission for this special article column section ends by the beginning of September 2022.
The Bulletin of the Department of Chinese Literature,
National Chengchi University Editors
