Lexington Books
Pages: 230
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-4985-2058-4 • Hardback • April 2016 • $115.00 • (£88.00)
978-1-4985-2060-7 • eBook • April 2016 • $109.00 • (£84.00)
Leo Shingchi Yip is associate professor of Japanese studies at Gettysburg College.
Introduction - Locating China in Noh: The Evolving Dynamics of the Other and the Self
Chapter 1 - The “Auspicious Other”: Celebrating with Chinese Deities in Seiōbo, Tōbōsaku, and Tsurukame
Chapter 2 - The “Sympathized Other” and the “Distanced Self”: Recasting Legendary Chinese Beauties in Shōkun and Yōkihi
Chapter 3 - The “Exotic Other”: The Spectacular China in Shakkyō andRyōko
Chapter 4 - The “Destructive Other”: Threats from China in Haku Rakuten and Zegai
Chapter 5 - The “Harmonious Other” and the “United Self”: The Socially and Religiously Unified Chinese in Sanshō and Tōsen
Conclusion - Reinterpreting China, Reinventing China
This book is an excellent introduction to premodern Chinese and Japanese cultural exchanges and communication. Comparative readings of the Noh plays present the unique trajectory by which each Chinese character arrives at the Japanese Noh stage. The translation of the Noh play Yōkihi provides a good example of a Chinese play. For scholars, teachers and students who are interested in Sino-Japanese cultural transmission, as well as the development of Noh theater in the medieval period, this book will be a good reference.
— Japanese Studies
By looking closely at eleven noh plays that feature Chinese stories and characters, Professor Yip has written a carefully-documented book about the multiple ways in which Japanese playwrights portrayed China, Japan’s primary Muromachi Period 'other'—these 'others' are divided into 'sympathized other,' 'distanced other,' 'exotic other,' 'destructive other,' and 'harmonious other,' representing the ambivalence that educated Japanese felt toward China in the late medieval period of Japan’s history.
— Mae Smethurst, Professor Emerita, University of Pittsburgh
China Reinterpreted is the first comprehensive scholarship on how Japanese nō theatre responded, incorporated, used, re-interpreted, and represented Chinese themes and characters during the late medieval Muromachi period. . . . China Reinterpretedis carefully reasoned and extensively researched. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the study of medieval Japanese nō theatre, and especially Chinese plays in crosscultural contexts. Furthermore, the potential applications of Yip’s theoretical framework are far-reaching, and as such may greatly contribute to a broader range of scholarship from transnational and intra-Asia studies, to art history, music, theatre and dance.
— Asian Theatre Journal
This is an extremely well-informed and scholarly work, full of valuable information about important plays that in many cases have not been considered in depth in English hitherto. China Reinterpreted is a welcome and valuable contribution to contemporary scholarship about Nō.
— Comparative Literature Studies
By looking closely at eleven noh plays that feature Chinese stories and characters, Professor Yip has written a carefully-documented book about the multiple ways in which Japanese playwrights portrayed China, Japan’s primary Muromachi Period 'other'—these 'others' are divided into 'sympathized other,' 'distanced other,' 'exotic other,' 'destructive other,' and 'harmonious other,' representing the ambivalence that educated Japanese felt toward China in the late medieval period of Japan’s history.
— Mae Smethurst, Professor Emerita, University of Pittsburgh
In China Reinterpreted: Staging the Other in Muromachi Noh Theater, the author does a wonderful job in analyzing the images of China manifested in the Chinese plays of noh using various theories of Self and Other. This is a very informative scholarly book not only for the study of noh theater but also of Asian theater and culture in general.
— Noriko Reider, Miami University